Reflection on this past Year

The Jags game stings the most, especially since we beat Texans that last one. Did Houston give 100%, I'm sure they didn't roll over since that's not a good way to go into the playoffs. Just leaves everyone (players too I'm sure) with a "what if" feeling.

 

I'm not mad, just disappointed with the ending to the season.

The whole "well we were only expected to win 5 games back in August" reasoning doesn't really fly with me. Once you kick off on week 1 then all of that flies out the window. Now obviously, I'm very happy with a 9-7 record but we were so close to 10-6 with a division title. Worst of all is the Mariota injury, I hope he's 100% by the time next season starts. I would hate to make this kind of progress and then go back to a 6-10 season or worse.

I'm not the biggest Mularkey fan but I believe in Jon Robinson's team building process. We're seriously a couple better DBs, another offensive threat, and a bump in quality depth away from being a playoff team.

 

We better hope it's someone other than Marrone. He seems to have Mularkey's number. Mularkey must have accidentally left a copy of his play book at the Bills head coach's office.

 

6 of 9 wins were against teams with winning records, 5 are in the playoffs.

"The team’s strength of victory percentage is higher than 11 of the 12 teams in the playoffs (only KC is higher)."

Started 1-3 and won 8 of 12 down the stretch. Won 5 home games.
5 of the losses were 1 score game (7-8 ponts) (9points to the Vikes week 1)
The only game lost by more than 9 was the Jags debacle. (Which is amazing considering how poorly the secondary played all season)

Yes, we lost a couple of close games that there was a chance to win and couldn't quite get over the hump with the divisional opponents, but there was a lot of good things that happened.

Next season with a few more pieces in place and some pieces of crap gone (looking at you CBs!) It could be very interesting.

 

I'd loved to have made the playoffs obviously but dang it sure felt nice to enjoy 15 meaningful games. I thought the whole team played with a new passion. I felt like they bought into the team concept for the first time in a long time. They learned how to win and I felt like they went into each game expecting to win. OL was the brightest spot for me. Outside the first 3 games and the last 3 games I felt like Mariota took a step forward with his progression. He cut down on the turnovers, showed he could throw the ball downfield and into tight windows and threw the ball away when he had to instead of forcing things. I now have full faith that JR will improve the team through the draft, roster attrition, and free agency. We will be talked about quite a bit entering next season I believe.

 

I was just reading the Jags were the 6th ranked defense in the NFL. Texans were #1. I seem to recall the Jags got buried in key penalties the first time we played them, and Bortles was a bit off his game too. Not so this time. We all know the kid can play. It's our inability to move the football vs. the Colts that is most exasperating to me; they are only the 30th ranked defense, for cripes sake!

 

The colts games were certainly headscratching but what really got me in those games was our inability to get to Luck and the amount of trouble we had with their patchwork offensive line. Especially that first game where their only good OL was out we couldn't get within 2 yards of him the whole game.

 

Spotting 21 points is also a really bad strategy.

 

If we paid as much attention to teams in our division we would be talking about our playoff game with the Raiders. Experienced teams like the Packers don't give a damn if they lose to us as long as they make the playoffs, which they did. The loss to us didn't even matter.

 

Non conference games dont matter a whole lot, but a win is a win if if comes to tie breakers

they cared, even if it was a little