NFP analyzes the NFC South

[Mr. Scot]

National Football Post: Heading South

Basic point of the article? All the teams in the division are underachievers...

Except us :D

[Cold Cat]

Nice.

[Kyle82]

I think this is gonna be the start of a great ride for the Panthers and their fans! :cool:

[Mr. Scot]

Hope so :D

We may not be "little brother" much longer.

[philp]

Good read. I enjoys.

[Mr. Scot]

Excerpts for the lazy...

Success in the National Football League can come in many different forms. For the 15-1 Green Bay Packers, anything short of a second-consecutive Super Bowl appearance would be deemed a disappointment. For a team that went 2-14 during the 2010 regular season like the Carolina Panthers, a 6-10 campaign in 2011 coupled with the stellar play of rookie quarterback Cam Newton will be considered a step in the right direction, with expectations likely to be raised for the organization entering next season.

But what about the rest of the NFC South?

The New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers each entered the 2011 season with lofty expectations of their own. These three teams combined for 34 wins in 2010, which is more victories than the four teams in the AFC North, AFC South, AFC West, NFC East, NFC North and NFC West totaled during the same time span.

It appeared to many that the division featuring Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and upstart signal-caller Josh Freeman was on the brink of becoming the league’s next powerhouse

Then it all went south.

Saints

After watching the New York Giants upset the Pack at Lambeau Field on Sunday, the Saints have to be kicking themselves knowing that a win in San Francisco would have put the organization in position to host the NFC Championship against a team they throttled 49-24 back on November 28.

New Orleans is still loaded with talent and will be right back in the hunt in 2012, but at 33-years-old, you have to wonder how much magic Brees has left before the well runs dry and the Saints find themselves in the unenviable position of having to replace their franchise quarterback.

Falcons

But at least New Orleans came away with a postseason victory this year, which is more than we can say about the Atlanta Falcons, who once again laid an egg when it mattered most. The Falcons have gone 43-21 (.671) since Mike Smith took over as head coach and Matt Ryan was drafted as the team’s franchise quarterback, but the organization is 0-3 in the postseason during that same time span and hasn’t notched a playoff win since 2005.

The Ravens’ John Harbaugh and Joe Flacco came into their current positions at the same time Smith and Ryan took charge in Atlanta. But the big difference between the two teams is that Baltimore is 5-3 in the postseason over the last four years and will be making an appearance in the AFC Championship game this Sunday for the second time in three years.

The honeymoon phase for Smith and Ryan has long since passed. If these two fail to bring a postseason win to the city of Atlanta next season, the clock is going to start ticking…if it hasn’t already.

Bucs

And then there’s the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, whose ten-win season a year ago is a distant memory, having been replaced by a ten-game losing streak to close out the 2011 campaign that cost head coach Raheem Morris his job. It wasn’t all that long ago that Morris and quarterback Josh Freeman were being touted as two of the brightest up-and-coming stars in the business.

Morris is now the defensive backs coach in Washington while Freeman finds himself on the hot seat after throwing 22 interceptions in 15 games and taking a big step back from where he was a year ago. Tampa is young, undisciplined and in transition. It could be a while before this team makes another run at the postseason.

[Wither]

I actually feel a little bad for the Bucs.

[DickolausJ]

Dock? Your still alive?

[Hotsauce]

I didnt read the link, so I dont know if you are being sarcastic or not, but we definitely underachieved this year. This roster should have had a winning record, or 8-8 at least.

I chalk it up to the slow start and short offseason though. Going anything less than 10-6 next year will be underachieving again if we have a decent draft and offseason.

I disagree. I had, and I know alot of fans and experts had us at 4-12. We did start out with the hardest schedule of the season. So the expectation begging of the year was 4-12, however, we played very good at times (specifically on offense), and we were in a few games that could have been easily won with a FG.