AFC East, more competitive than we thought? | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

AFC East, more competitive than we thought?

V

volk

Seasoned Veteran
Joined
Feb 25, 2004
Messages
5,658
Reaction score
4,021
While we know the AFC East is always a tough division, analysts have written it off as a weaker division the last two years. Many have thought the Jets and Bills would be bottom feeders this year, with the Dolphins and Pats having a large margin of wins over them while going head to head for the division.

After week 1 (one week that isn't worth a lot overall), I am wondering if any opinions on this have changed? The Bills actually gave the Pats all they could handle this weekend. The Jets, while playing the lowly Titans, actually did much better than I thought they could.

While the proof of a good team is how they progress over the entire season, it does look like our division teams are tougher than I thought they would be at the start of the season, and sometimes a couple of early losses can really haunt you late. Should be good competition in the division this year with some real tests for the team. Buffalo looked physical, the Jets got more from Pennington than I thought, and the Pats as always, found a way to make it go their way in the end.

Should be an interesting year.....
 
It may be more competitive than I thought IF the Bills can play competitve every week - which I am still not convinced they will.

I expected the Jets to be better than most were willing to give them credit for....and I expected them to handle the Titans (who are truly rebuilding and were foolish to field K.Collins).....that game was actually closer than I expected. Not saying the Jets will compete for the division......but around .500 seems reasonable.
 
I don't think so.....

I think it may actually even be the opposite. All of the teams in our division looked very average this week in my opinion. New England especially looked weak, and almost got bitten by the Bills as a result. Right now, none of the teams in our division look like contenders....

PHINZ RULE!!!
 
I think that the division will pan out in a couple of weeks, the Jet's played a terrible team, and we almost gave it to them because of our kicker and our defense collapsing. We will finish below 500, but i think that Penny is getting more confidence with that game he put up. The Pat's and Fin's will still be fighting for the top spot in the division, but i think that the Bill's will be the suprise team. Overall, i think that it will be a great year!!
 
I can't decide if the Fins running game is that bad or if the Steelers DL is that good. Likewise, is the Pats running game that good or is the Bills run D that bad.

This week should answer both of those questions....
 
The bills will always be a bottom feeder until they can fix 2 things:
1. Run defense
2. Halftime offensive adjustments. They continue their trend of losing leads after half-time by not being able to score points.

Jets:
Possibly better than advertised. They were playing the titans so i would like to hold off judgement till later in the season. Pennyarm looked good however. I do still have reservations about their running game. If they can't run they are done. It's impossible to put the game on the QB who has a limited pitch count...

NE got a little scare from the bills but rebounded nicely. We will have to play hard to beat them...
 
I think its worse.

New England has lost a lot. No kicker. Dillion looks like he has nothing left. Their best WR about to be traded.

Miami's defense looks god awful on all levels.

NY Jets have nothing, they only one because they were playing maybe the one worst team than them

Buffalo couldnt even hold onto a big lead late in the game not to mention JP Lossman holds onto the football like its made of gold and he doesn't want to part with it.

The NFC North is the worst in the NFL. Then the NFC West. But after that the AFC East is the next worst division in football.
 
FinfanInBuffalo said:
I can't decide if the Fins running game is that bad or if the Steelers DL is that good. Likewise, is the Pats running game that good or is the Bills run D that bad.

This week should answer both of those questions....
Click to expand...

You can say the same for Tampa Bay. Cadillac did nothing against Baltimore. So does Cadillac stink or is Baltimore's run defense good?

Time will tell.
But our running game does not stink
 
SpurzN703 said:
You can say the same for Tampa Bay. Cadillac did nothing against Baltimore. So does Cadillac stink or is Baltimore's run defense good?

Time will tell.
But our running game does not stink
Click to expand...

how about tampa had both starting Guards OUT
 
I think it is WAY too early in the season to make ANY judgements about ANY team. I tend to think the AFC East is weaker, not stronger, as the Pats showed they are not playing as well as I would have thought they should against the lowly Bills.
 
Take away the refs from Kraft's pocket and the AFCE will be more competitive within the division.
 
Yeah I pretty much agree. I don't think Miami's 28-17 loss in Pittsburgh shows much of anything we didn't already know but the way the Pats had to just barely scrape by the Bills is pretty damning for the Pats IMO, and the Jets showed a lot of good things against arguably the worst team in the league but also showed a lot of bad things by letting the Titans catch up to them and then nearly allowing the last-second tying TD.

The suggestion is that maybe the gap between the Pats/Phins and Jets/Bills is not as big as previously thought...but that does not necessarily mean it is because the Bills and Jets are better than expected, could be the Pats and Phins are worse.

Next week will tell us a LOT more. If the Pats struggle against the Jets, and if the Phins struggle against the Bills, then everything could be turned on its head.
 
MikeO said:
I think its worse.

New England has lost a lot. No kicker. Dillion looks like he has nothing left. Their best WR about to be traded.
Click to expand...

agree on all points - however, does it really matter if Dillon has nothing left because Laurence Maroney is the real deal. You could see right from is first pre-season game right up through yesterday that the kid has IT. I hope they stick with Dillon, becasue I don't want to face Maroney.

MikeO said:
Miami's defense looks god awful on all levels.
Click to expand...

on all levels?? So holding Parker (who averaged 4.7 last season) to just under 4 yards per carry is god awful?? 3 sacks and consistant pressure on Batch was god awful?? :shakeno:

MikeO said:
NY Jets have nothing, they only one because they were playing maybe the one worst team than them
Click to expand...

There will be several worse teams than the Jets by the end of the year......including the Titans....I see a 7-8 win team. They already got one win.....they always seem like a lock for at least one against us....I could see 2 against Buffalo.....and they play the NFC North....could get another 2 against your worst division in the NFL. Still get to play Houston, Oakland and Cleveland.

MikeO said:
Buffalo couldnt even hold onto a big lead late in the game not to mention JP Lossman holds onto the football like its made of gold and he doesn't want to part with it.
Click to expand...

agreed.

MikeO said:
The NFC North is the worst in the NFL. Then the NFC West. But after that the AFC East is the next worst division in football.
Click to expand...

agreed.......which is what 'experts' were saying from the beginning.....so how is the AFC East worse than previously thought??
 
Buffalo is a different team when Takeo is on the field, he left we a tweaked hamstring, and the game changed.

(he's the guy that crushed Brady in the 1st qtr).


New England will always be good with Tom Brady at the helm, and I really don't care who they lost on Defense, they had 45 different starters last year.

New York Jets, I didn't watch the game but Chad had 300 passing yards, they certainly look better than they did last year.

The Bills played hard yesterday, and we need to be prepared and have our A game, if anything, the obviously have some run stopping issues, if we can't run on the Bills, I will be very concerned.
 
I think Buffalo will surprise some people this year. What they need is an offensive line and a halfway decent QB. If Losman can develop into something halfway decent (like Holcomb, and I think he will), then they are always a threat because they have Lee Evans to stretch the field and McGahee to run it up the gut.
Two years ago, a lot of analysts figured the Jets to make a deep playoff run. Then came the injury to Pennington and Martin and it sidetracked everything. I don't think the Jets will sniff the playoffs, but again, if Pennington can play decent, then they are a legit threat.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom