New England Patriots
Does anyone honestly think the New England Patriots will fail to make the playoffs for two consecutive seasons? No, I don’t either.
Despite an 11-5 record in 2008, somehow, some way, the Patriots found a way to miss the postseason for the first time since 2002. Let’s give them a break though; four of their five losses came to playoff teams, one being the Super Bowl champions in the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Who was the other team that made the Super Bowl this past season? Was it the Arizona Cardinals? Yes, the Patriots lit them up in a 47-7 win in week 15.
The New England Patriots were also missing Tom Brady, the NFL’s best quarterback, who suffered a knee injury in week one of the regular season. With Brady returning, who is going to stop the New England Patriots?
Wide receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker aren’t a defense’s best friend either. Since Moss has been in Foxboro he’s totaled over 2,500 yards and 34 touchdowns in just two seasons. Welker hasn’t been much different, as he’s tallied over 2,300 yards and 11 scores. Welker also has grabbed 223 balls in just two seasons in New England.
If the New England defense can keep teams under four touchdowns a game, there is no reason why you won’t see the “dynasty” back in the playoffs competing for their fourth title in the last nine seasons.
Yes! This is finally the year the Houston Texans make it out of the regular season. In 2008, the Texans put up their highest win total since entering the league in 2002. Six of the Texans' eight losses in 2008 came from playoff teams.
If the Texans want to make their first ever postseason appearance, the defense needs to improve—a lot! Even when Houston won, they still managed to give up three-plus plus touchdowns. Only on four different occasions did the Texans hold the opposing team below 21 points.
Young talent such as Mario Williams and DeMeco Ryans will continue to improve, but if the Texans do in fact want to make a run towards playoffs, the improvement needs to come in the secondary. The Texans intercepted just 12 passes all season, four of them coming from CB Jacques Reeves.
It’s clear that the Texans have no problem scoring, as they averaged nearly 23 points per game in 2008. The Texans also ranked third in the entire NFL in offensive yards per game with 382.1
It doesn’t matter who’s the quarterback for this team—just continue to throw the ball up to Andre Johnson, who posted over 1,500 yards receiving and 115 receptions. If that doesn’t work, hand the ball off to Steve Slaton, who bulleted for a Houston-best 1,659 total yards and 10 touchdowns.
See you in January, Houston.
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