I don't think I could possibly add much to The Dude's astute observations and natural eloquence regarding yesterday's shitshow (see previous post) but, as the dust settles, I'm beginning to appreciate this truly awesome season bit by bit. Fact is, that is one dirty nasty team that is easily one of the top 5 playoff teams remaining in the tournament. Ed Reed (just as I feared) was damn near all over the place. No surprise there. We just don't have Ravens-level talent yet on either side of the ball. Congrats to them on that. Aside from maybe the runningback position, they're more talented and skilled than us at damn near every position. It was truly sobering to watch and by the 3rd Quarter you just knew it was over - even before Ted Ginn went all 2007-Texans-game on us. I think a lot of Jets fans are having a good laugh at us today over the situation with Pennington. I think he's easily the MVP of this team and maybe should be for the league this year, but he really lost us that game. I sat there quietly wondering if we should have given Henne some playoff garbage time, even though he's only had a single drive of professional football. I wondered if maybe the competition next year should be slightly more open than it might have been. I don't know. I like MVPennington a lot as well but I don't know if we'll have the same sort of success with him next year that we did this year. That's the thing about the NFL and why this loss stings so much. You can talk all you want about great progress this year and all that but that's what Cleveland Browns and Jacksonville Jaguars fans were saying around this time last year. When you're in the playoffs, you really have to make the most of it because you don't know when you'll be back again.
Anyway, enough with all the downers. A truly remarkable season and easily the most enjoyable I can remember in a long, long time. We impacted the NFL with the Wildcat. We beat the shit out of the Pats in their house. We won - what was it - 8 of our last 9 games?? Tits! We kept the Jets and Pats out of the playoffs. We tasted sweet, sweet revenge this year. I love this damn team and I look forward to seeing what Tuna's got in store for next season since he's apparently sticking around. Should be a hell of a ride, anyway.
Thanks again to our awesome readers for hanging there with us through it all. You guys are the fuckin' best.
Stay tuned for increased dickjokery volumes in the next few months of nothingness. As in the past, we'll have analysis during the free agency and draft periods to boot.
