I've been depressed the past several days. I love the offseason. It's great for the site, great for the team that's looking to tweak its makeup. But the reality of no more actual games until next September has paralyzed me a bit recently.
To combat that, I took a gander at our 2008 schedule, you know, just to have something other than what offensive linemen might be the best available on the board when we draft in the 1st round this April.
What I saw was downright scary:
Home Opponents: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants
Away Opponents: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins.
That was not a typo. Road games against the #1, #7, and #4 seeds from this year's stacked AFC. And a road game at the NFCs #6 seed, plus an Eagles team that can always be dangerous. That's not even mentioning our road games against our divisional foes.
We are a fantastic team at home, but look at all those tests. The NFC's Super Bowl representative, the NFCs #1 regular season team, the AFCs #2 and 2006 SB Champs, and the freaking Chargers.
Friends, we could be a good football team and only win 8 games next year. It's going to be one hell of a ride. A whole new wave of Tomlin doubters is going to be born if we get out of the gates slowly. Were you disappointed by the results of this year? Just warning you now, that Divisional Crown we're wearing this year may look pretty good come January. I sure hope not, and it's still very possible we improve enough in the right areas to suddenly be a very complete squad capable of competing for a SB. We'll see.
There, I feel better.