To continue on that last optimistic post what are our division rivals doing next week?
The Colts go to Chicago so they're going to win that one I think. Hard to imagine the Bears pulling out a win. The Titans go to Jacksonville and either way that game makes me happy. Either the Titans lose and fall farther down (which is nice) or the Jags lose and come down closer to us. No lose scenario for us.
The week after that gets better. The Colts (who are clearly the cream of the AFC South) are going to pound Harrington and the Lions into kitty litter while the Jags get to go play the Vikings. We get the Titans at home. If that Sunday goes well then we might find ourselves back to second place.
Come week 13 the Jags get to entertain the Steelers. Ouch. We go see the Jets who may be starting Quincy Carter (I said "may"), and the Titans get to go see how much fun the RCA dome can be. Again "Ouch".
On the week we get to try and pay the Colts back Jacksonville has Chicago while Tennessee gets to host Kansas City on MNF. We may lose to the Colts a second time but if that happens we'll at least get to enjoy a Monday night of watching Vermin's (sp?) boys hang 30-40 points on Fishers bunch.
Come week 15 we go to Soldier Field (wish we could have played that one here) while Tennessee gets to play Oakland. No big deal, the Raiders aren't exactly scary this year. Jacksonville gets to go play in Green Bay though (so if possible they may just be colder than we are that weekend) while Indianapolis brings in Baltimore. Mr Manning, meet Mr Lewis. Go ahead and keep throwing late with a big lead on them and see where it gets you.
Week 16 has us in Jacksonville and if both teams have thawed out by then it might just be a good game. San Diego gets to play Indy (Maybe Brees and Manning can get in one of those shootouts where the last team with the ball wins) and Tennessee gets the Broncos. Who knows who wins any of those games. Jacksonville will probably beat us, Indy could get upset but probably wins that one, and I think Denver goes in and beats the Titans.
Final week of the season we get the Browns at home. Tennessee hosts Detroit so I'll be rooting for Joey that day. Indy closes at Denver so I'll be a Bronco fan for one more week, and Jacksonville beats Oakland to drive one more nail into the Raider Nation.
The point of all this is that the other teams in our division have some games coming up that they're going to lose. No doubt about it they've got some real challenges ahead of them. I'm convinced that the AFC South is only sending one team to the postseason (barring a monster collapse from someone) so in all likelyhood that team's probably going to be the Colts. I'm not hung up with going to the playoffs this year. It's not in the cards most likely and from what we've seen recently the Texans still have a lot of work to do before they're ready to make postseason noise. I don't want them going and getting the snot beat out of them. I want to see them go when they're legit and I think they'll be legit at the earliest next season. In the meantime I think we still have the makings of another, better season here. We're going to finish ahead of Tennessee if we take care of business. We have a chance to finish ahead of the Jags if we take care of business.
Good year 2004. We're getting better. Find us a running game and we're borderline playoff material. Hopefully we do whatever we need to do to get that in the offseason and we can beat some people up next year.