sheajets wrote:Brees to miss 6 weeks, Roethlisberger out for the year. Foles out for the year. Darnold out significant time. Add in Lucks retirement. 4 qb's already missing significant time and one more gone for good
This is the 50th anniversary of the Steelers last "catastrophe" season, which is a season in which a team wins less than 20 percent of their games. (The Broncos haven't had one since 1964 and the Ravens have never had one, so far.) We could be looking at another catastrophe season for the Steelers, where the team goes into a free fall without Roethlisberger and they wind up 3-13. The main thing working against this happening is that they have to play the Bengals twice, and I think Pittsburgh has too much talent on their roster for this to happen, but I've seen it happen before, like in Indianapolis in 2011 when they lost the emotional center of their team and the team didn't know how to function without their leader. I'm not saying it will happen, but I think there's probably a 25 percent chance of it happening in 2019. The Steelers are long overdue for a catastrophe season. If it happens, they'll clean house, starting with Mike Tomlin, if he doesn't quit first.
With Foles out for the year and the Colts without a star QB, the AFC South will come down to Houston and Tennessee, and it will be Houston who wins the division while Tennessee will make a strong run at a Wild Card and could sneak in. Houston has looked impressive in both games; the game against New Orleans has been the game of the year to this point.
If Cleveland loses to the Jets this evening, the AFC North race could be over with Baltimore at 2-0 and the three other teams at 0-2.
Even with Brees out six weeks, the Saints are still going to win the division provided Bridgewater doesn't go down also.
I believe the Dolphins -92 point differential (10-102 points scored-allowed ratio) is the worst for any team in the first two weeks ever; the previous worst I think was the 1989 Steelers, who went -82 (10-92) in Weeks 1-2.
The Patriots +73 in points scored/allowed differential (76-3) may be the highest of any team ever over the first two weeks of the season.
The most interesting division race this year might be the NFC West, especially if San Francisco plays the way they did against Cincinnati yesterday and Kyler Murray starts to turn the Cardinals around. I don't think the Cards have a shot at the division this year, but they could win as many as 5-6 games and pull a few division upsets, and a three-team division race among the others would mean they could be bunched at 10-6 or so.
After two weeks, the race for the first pick in the 2020 draft looks like Miami followed by Cincinnati. If there is a dark horse team in the race, it's Pittsburgh.
"Every time you lose, you die a little bit. You die inside. Not all your organs, maybe just your liver." - George Allen
(both in their first 2 weeks)
