11-05-2015, 12:18 PM
(11-05-2015, 10:00 AM)Luvnit2 Wrote: Here is a great article from ESPN with factual info backing up what many of us stated, injuries to our WR's and TE's in 2014 were a big reason our offense struggled and was inconsistent in 2014. Looking at this, we were very fortunate to even get to the playoffs in my opinion in 2014. This also explains AD's QBR going down a little.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/14056163/why-andy-dalton-playing-top-tier-qb-nfl
People forget, AJ missed a lot of time and only played around 60% of the snaps.
It also discusses our weakness currently for 2015. I though it was a great factual article.
Thoughts?
I wouldn't say a miracle. However anyone who does understand football and isn't an internet tough guy poser would have seen that last year's team was hurt and limping. Guys who were supporters of Dalton in '11, '12, and '13 had to endure that the team was winning despite Andy Dalton as our QB. That if not for our Defense we wouldn't have made the playoffs, only to blame Dalton for the loss. If not for Green, Dalton wouldn't be able to win.
You would have thought that '14 would have helped get more people to realize that Dalton was a good QB since all of the factors that were attributed to his success was missing or hurting.
We didn't have a dominant D, with multiple players missing, our stud TE was hurt and gone for the year, our second WR never played a snap. Our veteran TE had back issues, not only that be also inconsistent when he did play and Green also missed significant time.
That dynamic RB that we drafted - Giovani - was also injured and we under utilized our power back until halfway through the season.
A lot of people were given credit to Hill for our success last year, but one only has to look at this year's performance to see that Hill wasn't the only reason for the success.
One thing that did help contribute to our playoff appearance was our schedule. We played the AFC and NFC south last year and we all know that those 2 divisions don't have the best teams in the league.
Bottom line: Dalton, to me at least, actually had a good year last year with all things considered. I understood where the criticism was coming from, I just didn't agree with it. Unlike some people, I did know that Dalton was going to have a much better year this year if everyone stayed healthy. So far so good.
