There was never any real chance for the Jacksonville Jaguars to be any good in 2012. When running back Maurice Jones-Drew went down for the count in Week 7, the season turned into an unmitigated disaster at 2-14. If nothing else, 2013 has to be a little better doesn’t it? That’s the question our NFL analysis will look at here.
It seems like the Tennessee Titans were a lot worse than 6-10 in the 2012 NFL season. This was a team that did very little well, save for running the ball. But when you have a team that falls behind constantly, a power running game can’t be utilized all that often. Is there any hope things can turn back upward for 2013?
There are worse problems that the Houston Texans could be facing besides the challenge of pushing past the second round of the AFC playoffs. It was as recently as this time two years ago that we were wondering if the franchise would ever make the postseason at a
Would it be a bad pun to say the Indianapolis Colts had a lot of Luck in the 2012 NFL season? Yeah, it most certainly would, but it would also be accurate.
The arrival of new head coach Greg Schiano for the 2012 season put some life back into a Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise that lived through a disgraceful laydown job by its players to conclude 2011. Now it’s a question of whether that renewed life can translate into wins, and ultimately a playoff berth, in a competitive NFC South.
The 2012 NFL season was a time of great expectations for the Carolina Panthers. It was expected that quarterback Cam Newton would continue to improve and that the Panthers would make the playoffs. Neither came anywhere close to happening. But while expectations are down, they’re not out, on Tobacco Road.
The New Orleans Saints long year of purgatory is finally over. After they were torn asunder in the 2012 NFL season over BountyGate and all the attendant suspensions, the Saints can start fresh for this year. They do so with a crying need to stop the number of big plays opponents are making.
The story of the Atlanta Falcons in the 2012 season is Exhibit A as to why constantly evaluating quarterbacks by their W-L record, at the expense of the team concept, is just stupidity. The Falcons are not a team that should have gotten to within a couple plays of the Super Bowl. But through the excellence of quarterback Matt Ryan, they nearly made it.
The AFC North shapes up as the best division on the conference, and the second-best in the entire NFL, with only the presence of the Cleveland Browns relegating the foursome behind the NFC West. It’s also going to be a little quieter, with Baltimore Ravens’ legend Ray Lewis now retired, off his team’s magical Super Bowl run to end the 2012 season.
The Cleveland Browns haven’t made the playoffs since 2002. They haven’t even contended seriously for postseason play since 2007. They have not advanced to even the second round of the playoffs since 1994. Maybe that’s why the recent ruckus over the comments of radio analyst and former quarterback Bernie Kosar weren’t such a bad thing—if nothing else, they reminded us a day when the Browns were relevant.
In the AFC North, the media oxygen is sucked up the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, but the Cincinnati Bengals have quietly lurked and snuck into the postseason for two straight years. Last year the Bengals beat out the Steelers for that final AFC playoff spot, winning a big head-to-head game in Week 16. Cincy hasn’t been able to move out of the first round. Has their time finally come in 2013?
The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered through their first non-winning season since 2006 in going 8-8 last season and seeing a late-season drive for the playoffs come up short in disappointing fashion. In spite of some high-profile free-agent departures, the Steelers have been priced as a slight favorite to win a competitive AFC North. TheSportsNotebook’s NFL analysis looks to see whether that’s justified.