Jetée

I originally posted this last month as a preseason "look-back" to last year, but I wanted to hear a few takes on the matter here. Seeing as how many people think that the Dolphins blew the game and moreover, their season, in week 2, here's my article that analyzes last season's greatest team collapses (regular season), in order of significance, expectations, player/coaching hype, overall win-loss record at their height, and (non-)impact on the playoff picture because of their "down-the-stretch" ineptitude.

The list is as follows (minimal bias):


1. The Redskins - Before being embarrassed by Pitt. on Monday Night, The 'Skins held an impressive 6-2 record, Clinton Portis was the league's leading rusher at the halfway mark, and some (ok, only Ron Jaworski) thought that Jason Campbell was in the MVP discussion; what had followed was that the team's O-line eventually collapsed under old bones, Clinton Portis got winded and run into the ground too soon, and JC started throwing INT and getting sacked unmercifully (you could also say they had no viable downfield threat other than S. Moss, 'cause the rookie WRs were no help at all) ... what became of this was an eventual final tally of an 8-8 record, and it opened the doorway to another NFC East wildcard incumbent (to be discussed later on the list more fully).

2. TB Buccaneers - While I wrote the above, wikipedia does a better job describing what ultimately happened to the Bucs in 2008: The Bucs got off to a great start in 2008, with a 9–3 record going into the final month of the season, tied for first place in the division, with a chance at the top seed in the conference. On December 2, it was announced that defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin would be leaving the team after the season's end, for the same job at the University of Tennessee, serving under his son Lane Kiffin, who had just been named the new head coach at the school. After the announcement, the Buccaneers would lose the final four games of the season to finish 9–7 for the second consecutive season. Unlike 2007, it was not enough to secure the division championship, nor a playoff appearance.

3. Dallas Cowboys - The Dallas Cowboys entered the 2008 NFL season with high expectations. With a lot of returning talent on both sides of the ball, many predicted the Cowboys would make a run to the Super Bowl. They started strong, they had such pro-bowl stars as Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, Jason Witten, & Marion Barber, yet they had mixed results of "streakiness" throughout the season - they won their first 3 games, then went on to lose the next 4 of 6 games entering their bye; some of this can be attributed to Romo's hurt hand, but after he came back, rallying yet another 3-win streak, the Cowboys lost their final 3 of 4 games, especially in a disheartening 44-6 loss within the final week of the regular season to Philadelphia, which would have ultimately resulted in the victor claiming a playoff wildcard berth. For "America's Team", Dallas has not had positive end-of-the-season success in the past five years.

4. Denver Broncos - In what was arguably 2008's weakest NFL division, it seemed as though the Denver Broncos were the one shining spot. They were high-flying, gun-slinging, points-racking, and were overall, one of the more highly-potent offenses in the entire league; the problem was, the Broncos had absolutely no semblance of what could be called a "defense", Champ Bailey was not himself, and the hurt RB-carousel of 5-8 different starting running backs did not aid their efforts at all. Yet, despite the surrounding problems, the Broncos held a four-game lead in the AFC West division entering the homestretch of the season. Even with this crutch, it could not save the ultimate fate of Denver, who ended up just shy of the playoffs yet again, due to a final season re-match against San Diego, and the overall results of their campaign was a mediocre 8-8 record.

5. New York Jets - Though they did improve upon their 4-12 record from the year before, 9-7 wasn’t the year the Jets envisioned upon bringing Favre into town. After a series of wins and losses to start the season, the Jets appeared to have turned the corner in week 8 as they began a five game winning streak that included a victory over their long time rival, the New England Patriots. Unfortunately, the Jets (and notably an elder Favre) then fell apart, losing four of five down the stretch and missing the playoffs. The hype for the team's showing after the Patriots smashing (it was a lucky win anyway) was so strong, fervent, and ridiculous for a period of two weeks afterwards, that there were National(!) headlines that deemed them the next successor to the SuperBowl, aptly entitling the "would-be" contest the "Subway" Super Bowl - yecgh.

6. Buffalo Bills - Buffalo Bills quarterback Trent Edwards has been somewhat of an enigma the past couple seasons. There have been times when he’s absolutely brilliant (who has seen this?) , and other times when he looked completely lost on the field. Part of the reason for this is because the Bills have typically only had two options on offense in that they could either run the ball or throw to wide receiver Lee Evans. Perhaps this is the reason that they ranked in the bottom quarter of the league in total yards gained per game (24th overall). The Buffalo Bills finished the season last year 7-9, which happened to be the exact same record they had in 2007. However, after notching a 5-1 start, the 7-9 record posted in 2008 can be seen as nothing other than a disappointment.

7. Green Bay - After going 13-3 and going to the NFC Title Game in 2007, the Packers looked to establish a new identity in 2008, as a changing of the guard occurred with Brett Favre giving way to Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers played very well his first year starting for the Packers, and in comparison, posted nearly identical statistics as the freshly traded Brett Favre had his final year with the Packers. The team as a whole, however, could not finish their contests and lost 7 games by 4 or less points; in what seemed to be a good showing starting 2-0, then 4-3 entering their bye, the Packers ended up winning only two more games, resulting in a 6–10 record overall. The reason for the team's poor record was attributed mostly to the numerous injuries on defense that regularly kept six or seven starters off the field at various times throughout the year, yet refused to mention Favre or Ryan Grant's struggles.


Honorable Mention:
The Patriots - The New England Patriots had high hopes heading into the 2008 season. They were coming off a 2007 season in which they completed the first ever 16-0 regular season in NFL history, but lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants. In the season opener, quarterback Tom Brady, the NFL's MVP in 2007, suffered a knee injury and missed the remainder of the season. Backup quarterback Matt Cassel replaced Brady. Cassel's start in Week 2 was his first start in a game since high school, and he led the Patriots to a win, which extended the Pats' regular season winning streak record to 21 games before an embarassing loss the next week ended the streak (v. Miami). Although Cassel had a steep learning curve to overcome, he finally hit his stride around mid-season, and at the end of it all, the unheralded backup led the team to an 11-5 record, and due to unfortunate tie-breaking circumstances/ranking, the team failed to reach the playoffs.



What do you guys think? Do you agree, would you switch a few of the rankings, or did I leave off any deserving (flailing) team?

Who's your premature team this season that has virtually no chance in your opinion to recover from a .500 start or an 0-2 record?

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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi