[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

I think this is all the downside of parity. Parity is a HUGE part of what makes the NFL so great, compelling games week-in, week-out. But parity also means that even shitty teams are pretty damn good.

For as bad as we had it last year with a Jeckyl Hyde defense and a meltdown in the playoffs, imagine being a Packer fan, they are a blessed franchise, a model franchise, but one arm going up to Aaron Rodger's collarbone and they're INSTANTLY a middle of the road ho-hum team playing out the string, they had to know right away.

Same with us, after the 2011 string of ACLs, we breathe a sigh of relief. That was a fluke, that'll never happen again. Then we see what even minor irritations for Hali and Houston mean for us this past year.

The key these days is keeping healthy and having quality depth.

I've said it before and I'll say it again here, an NFL team is like a naturally aspirated, carburetor fueled engine. One thing gets out of whack and the entire feedback loop is disrupted and the whole machine runs like dog shit. We have a lot of quality players who, if the MACHINE is running clean can rape faces, on O and on D. But you slow down the pass rush 1 millisecond and now you're relying on your FS to keep it all together and his dog shit rises to the surface and the entire swamp looks like a pile of dog shit. Alex can led a well oiled offense, but let Bowe have a few drops, or some of our less savvy WRs run bullshit routes and we're running the O with a Yugo power plant.

GREAT post.