09-09-2015, 11:08 PM
(09-09-2015, 04:07 PM)Nately120 Wrote: As for my worthless view, I'd feel a lot more confident about our 4-year playoff run if we won the division more than once in that span. Wild Card berths are nice but they are like flaky friends and you shouldn't rely upon them if you can avoid it. Bottom line, if the Bengals can't FINALLY break .500 in the division I don't see how they can continue to make the playoffs. Ya gotta handle ya' bidness!
(09-09-2015, 04:09 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There are many reason why teams repeat and teams can't repeat.
On the factual side, the question becomes what changed for team A to be better or for team B to be worse?
In the Bengals case, their roster is arguably better right now simply due to the better health of a few starters who did not play in 2014 at all ) or 1 series.
Who did we lose? Burfict maybe, but he has a shot at playing more games in 2015 than he did in 2014. Geathers? Newman? Gresham? Newhouse? Still?
Who did we add?
Eifert (injured most of 2014
Marvin Jones (missed all)
Green (missed parts of 6 games)
Michael Johnson
Hawk
Sims
A rookie class
A see a stronger roster in 2015 than the one by week 2 of 2014.
The schedule is tougher, but the Steelers and Ravens schedules are equally tough and some would argue Steelers schedule is tougher
People can predict all of the want, but in my mind their logic is not picking us based on the history of how hard for a team to make the playoffs versus looking team's additions. subtractions and schedules to determine we are out in 2015
Although I do think this team is good enough to win 10+ games regardless of schedule, a tougher non-division schedule could make the division games even more important than normal. If only 2 teams make it from the north (I can't envision only 1), then we'd better bring it against the Steelers and Ravens both in particular.
The training, nutrition, medicine, fitness, playbooks and rules evolve. The athlete does not.
