Nervous Going into the Season

[CJD]

I'm mostly just nervous about living up to the expectations put on us. We were a pretty up and down team for the first half of the season (losing to Chicago, beating up the Steelers, almost losing to the Jags, almost beating the Packers, destroying the Ravens and then losing to the Jets before being blown out by the Browns). In the second half of the season, we caught fire pretty well, but we still had a let down game against San Francisco and a turnover laden loss against LAC. We also barely beat the Broncos and the Raiders game was much closer than the score would suggest.

I don't buy the "lucky run" narrative that a lot of media folks attributed our super bowl appearance to, but I am also nervous that we're being put up in the same category as the Bills and Chiefs when we had such an inconsistent season last year.

I am hoping those inconsistencies last year are removed now that we have a better Oline and Burrow is 1 more year removed from his surgery, but I just can't shake this feeling that we have a high likelihood of landing on the tails side of a few more of these toss up games this year. Especially with how loaded the AFC is this year, I'm very nervous we'll be on the outside looking in come playoff time. The dreaded "Super Bowl Hangover" looming over us also lends to my nervousness.