Ken Whisenhunt inherited a bit of a mess when he took over the Tennessee Titans in 2014, so maybe a rough season was not a surprise. But QB injuries, subpar offensive line play and almost everything else went off the rails for Tennessee last season.
The result was a 2-14 record and the second pick in the draft.
So how does this team start picking up the pieces in an effort to again become relevant?
Jimmy Morris, editor in chief of the Music City Miracles blog, shares his thoughts on what went wrong and what needs to happen to spur a turnaround.
Zoneblitz: The Titans went from seven wins to two, albeit with a new coach. What’s your assessment of the 2014 season? (more…)
Tampa Bay started the 2014 season seen as a sleeper playoff team by some, including Tony on this site. But things unraveled quickly – and more brutally in Lovie Smith’s first season as head coach than even the most pessimistic could have expected.
So what went wrong? And what does it take to get the ship heading in the right direction again? Nick Houllis, a Bucs historian and editor of the fan blog BucStop.com, joined us to share some thoughts. Here’s what he had to say.
Zoneblitz: This is a team some saw as a sleeper playoff contender in 2014 – while those expectations may have been too high, what happened that led to a 2-14 season?
Houllis: You can wrap up everything in a nutshell with two words. JEFF TEDFORD. (more…)
Last week’s games present an interesting dilemma. The team I thought was the best in the league won, but not in convincing fashion. How does that shake things up? Here goes:
Well, it didn’t look exactly how we expected it to, but all four of us nailed the match-up: Seattle and New England.
It took an amazing comeback for the NFC result to come true. The AFC game was a mismatch – there’s been more drama with the weight of the footballs than there was during the game. Andrew Luck will have to wait at least another season to unseat Tom Brady as the King of the AFC.
Here are the standings for the post-season: (more…)
We’re winding down to the last week of the NFL season. I often find the Super Bowl a bit depressing because it means no more football for the next six months. But now we start the process of figuring out why things went the way they did in 2014 and what teams have to change heading into the next campaign.
With that, we’ll re-live some of the great moments of the current season with our first ever Zoneblitz NFL Awards. The winners are up here at the top. And our individual ballots (all three of them) are published with some explanations below. Enjoy – and tell us where you agree and where you think we’re nuts.
Most Valuable Player: JJ Watt, Texans
Offensive Player of the Year: DeMarco Murray, Cowboys
Defensive Player of the Year: JJ Watt, Texans
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Odell Beckham, Giants
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Aaron Donald, Rams
Comeback Player of the Year: Rolando McClain, Cowboys
Coach of the Year: Bruce Arians, Cardinals
Executive of the Year: (Tie) Stephen Jones, Cowboys and Steve Keim, Cardinals
Douchebag of the Year: (Tie) Roger Goodell, Commissioner and Ray Rice, unemployed
Offensive Douchebag of the Year: (Tie) Dominic Raiola, Lions and Johnny Manziel, Browns
Defensive Douchebag of the Year: (Tie) Ndamukong Suh, Lions and Vontaze Burfict, Bengals
Douchebag Coach of the Year: Jim Harbaugh, 49ers
Play of the Year: Odell Beckham’s catch
Wasted Draft Pick of the Year: Johnny Manziel, Browns
Steal of the Draft: Seantrel Henderson, Bills
Fantasy Player of the Year: DeMarco Murray, Cowboys Incompetent Survivor Pool Participant: Tony
Hottest Coaching Seat of 2015: Jay Gruden (more…)
So we’ve reached the final four, meaning there are four possible matchups for the big game. A couple are intriguing, and a couple are…less so. Here’s my take on the possible matchups–and yes, these might be a bit skewed by the fact that I live in Minnesota and cheer for the Vikings…so facing two weeks of non-stop Packer coverage has me dreading what we could be looking at over the next couple of weeks…
Best Option: Indianapolis Colts vs. Seattle Seahawks – Never would I have imagined that I would have thought the Seahawks back in the Super Bowl would be my preferred option, but when it comes to the choice of two weeks of obnoxiousness from Packer fans and non-stop coverage of the condition of Aaron Rodgers calf, I’ll take the smugness of Pete Carroll, antics of Richard Sherman, and overblown hype for Russell Wilson any day of the week. On the AFC side, this game avoids any mention of Tom Brady and Bill Belichek, which is never a bad thing, and puts the NFL’s next mega superstar, Andrew Luck, on the center stage. Let’s just hope he shaves the beard…and isn’t the next Dan Marino. Unfortunately, not sure I see this scenario happening.
Next Best: New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks – In terms of talent, this is probably actually the best possible matchup. As sick as we are of them, Tom Brady and the Patriots probably have the talent and creativity on offense to inflict some damage on the Seahawks stingy defense. Rob Gronkowski can create headaches for any defender, and who knows which running back Belichek would break out for the Super Bowl–he might have a practice squad guy just for the occasion.
Getting Ugly: Indianapolis Colts vs. Green Bay Packers – Probably the least likely scenario, this matchup does provide the platform for the young and budding superstar, but also puts Aaron Rodgers calf back in the spotlight, and means two weeks of non-stop cheese references. The matchup itself would actually probably be decent–both teams have potent offenses, and suspect defenses, meaning the NFL would probably get the high scoring aerial game it always desires. Of course, if this was Major League Baseball, there would be concern over two small market teams meeting for the title (a la Royals vs. Giants in the 2014 World Series). But this is the NFL, where somehow even a town of 100,000 people somehow supports a franchise–must be the revenue sharing.
Worst Case: New England Patriots vs. Green Bay Packers – Does anyone really want to see a rematch of Super Bowl XXXI? In Foxboro, they want to beat the best–not the Packers. And in Green Bay they’d like to have a shot to win, so they don’t have to pretend the season never happened, like they do in the Packer Hall of Fame for Super Bowl XXXII (seriously, it was like the 1997 season never happened the last time I was there). The general public? I would assume they would like to see a game that is actually somewhat in doubt in the second half. And the NFL just wants to make sure that the peak of the game isn’t hoping that Katy Perry suffers a Janet Jackson like wardrobe malfunction.
Who do you want to see in the Big Game? Let us know in the comments and/or by voting in our poll:
was not a surprise. But QB injuries, subpar offensive line play and almost everything else went off the rails for Tennessee last season.
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