Who Woulda thunk it? The 3 Biggest Disappointments of the 2005 NFL Season

The Houston Texans will be 10-6 and finally make the playoffs.  The Minnesota Vikings will be the champions of the NFC.  The Baltimore Ravens will finish 10-6 and make it to the AFC championship.  The Philadelphia Eagles will make it to their fifth consecutive NFC championship game.  The Detroit Lions will finally break out of their shell and make the playoffs.  The New York Jets finally put it all together and make it to the Super Bowl and bring some respect to the “other” New York team.  The Arizona Cardinals will win the NFC west with a 10-6 record and bring an end to the playoff drought.  These are just a few preseason projections that fans across the country saved in their `Told ya so’ rants for December and January.  But like every NFL season, there are the teams that make the ever-so-common `My predictions will be right on this season’ fan look like an English professor trying to teach French. It seems to be impossible to predict the week in and week out results during an NFL season.  Yet we all try to pull an Aristotle before Kickoff Weekend swear by them as if we did not know the chances of those very predictions being correct were slim to none.  More than a few teams that were looking to take a step forward this season, whom at the same time many of us hooked our `prediction egos’ on the line.  They miserably failed and had their fans chanting “REGGIE BUSH, REGGIE BUSH” at home games by the first week of December.

The Houston Texans entered the season with the mindset of making a playoff run, playing important games in December, being the second best team in the AFC South, whatever you want to call it.  After a 7-9 2004 season, the Texans finally started to bring together some elements of an explosive offense.  Domanick Davis averaged a strong four yards per carry with thirteen touchdowns; and oh yeah, 68 catches (2nd on team) for another 588 yards.  Andre Johnson continued to progress with a monster season (1142 receiving yards with 6 TD) and started to put his name among the top five WRs in the AFC conference.  The defense needed a tweak here and a tweak there, and the Texans decided to throw some draft picks away for veterans OLB Jason Babin and CB Phillip Buchanon.  However, the Texans persisting issue from day one of the franchise, the offensive line, was not paid too much attention.  Therefore, David Carr still has little time and every game, every hit, every sack…his pocket presence takes another step back.  Someone in the front office who makes the decisions forgot that the games are won and lost in the trenches.  Some fail to realize that the biggest difference between the Colts and Texans is (other than the almost complete opposite record) the fact that sacking Peyton Manning is a rarity and seeing Carr standing up at the end of a passing play.  That offense has the potential to be solid, something you can win with, but there are four, maybe even five spots on that offensive line that need to be altered.  The defense also has the makings of a solid future with CB Dunta Robinson and OLB Antwan Peek.  A few more playmaking LBs and a couple upgrades at DT and BAM! You have yourself a Texans team that you thought would exist at the start of the 2005 season.  Easier said then done though.

With new offensive coordinator Jeff Heimderdinger in from Tennessee, the Jets came into the season with the mindset of changing their boring, `play not to lose’ game plan to an `air it out’ approach to go along with a tough an already tough defense.  The most sacred two words in football-Super Bowl-seemed to be where the Jets were headed, finally.  The addition of CB Ty Law was the final piece of the puzzle to create one of, if not the top defenses in the league.  His shut down abilities have him the notoriety of being the best CB in the NFL until he was sidelined by a foot injury that ultimately finished his career with division rival New England.  His injury was behind him and his days a dominant player were within reach.  Combine that with you guns LB Jonathon Vilma, LB Eric Barton, DT Dewayne Robertson, and stud DE John Abraham and scoring points would not even matter.  However, the performance against the Kansas City Chiefs was inevitably a foreshadow of what this Super Bowl run would really be like.  Fumbles, interceptions, lack of fluidity, no running game, and most importantly, a loss.  The new offensive system that was worked so hard upon had to go down the tubes after an overtime loss against Jacksonville in which not only did Chad Pennington go down for the season, but Jay Fiedler also hurt his throwing shoulder, thus ending his season prematurely.  In came in an old friend, and I mean old, Vinny Testaverde who has struggled to stay healthy himself on a week-to-week basis.  As much positive karma he brought to the depleted organization, he has reached that age where he simply cannot be effective.  Enter in Brooks Bollinger, who has struggled to reach 100 yards a game on a consistent basis and combine that with a depleted offensive line and a running game that is non-existent, and you have yourself an offense on it’s knees begging for a third year running back out of USC.  The Jets have gone from Super Bowl dreams, to well, first over all pick of the 2006 NFL Draft dreams.  

The Lions have spent three consecutive first round picks on wide receivers that have combined for 68 catches, 905 yards, and 6 touchdowns thus far in the 2005 season.  There are five wide receivers around the NFL that have more catches, nine with more yards, and ten that have more touchdowns.  Does anyone other than myself feel that there is something wrong here?  Especially considering the fact that these picks were made by a man that just received a three-year extension in Matt Millen?  Jeff Garcia was brought in for two reasons, one being to push Joey Harrington to start playing like the franchise quarterback we has brought in to be.  Secondly, Garcia was acquired to be a starting quarterback should Harrington continue to prove his image as a bust.  So combining the three young wide receivers with tight end Marcus Pollard and promising running back Kevin Jones gives the horrid offense no excuses, because the talent is certainly there.  The defensive side of the ball is solid, certainly good enough to be a part of a winning team in a division where the perception of good offensive football is scoring seventeen points per game.  With Harrington faltering again, and Garcia not being the veteran presence he was thought to be, the offense has been a dismal and a low point for yet another year.  With the rare firing of a head coach during the season, this Lions franchise looks to be headed for another top 10 pick.  There is plenty of talk in Detroit that another franchise will be chosen in next April’s draft, which could send them into another rebuilding mode.  If only Barry Sanders could run the option.