And so the real season begins...

[bksteeler]

I don't know about you, but looking at the schedule from here on out, it's pretty brutal. We face the Panthers, Chargers, Patriots and Saints, who are a combined 26-7.

The only positive of all that is three of those games are at home.

We should beat the Jags, but despite their record, they'll be coming into the game with confidence knowing they whipped our butts the last two times they faced us. And that one's on the road. Then we play in Denver, which again, we should win, but any game in high altitude is tough. We finish the season against Cincinnati, which by that time, might be a battle for the top spot in the division.

The only "easy" game left is against Oakland. But I seem to have all these bad memories of losing to terrible Raider teams in the past.

In short, 9-6-1, or 8-7-1 is still very possible.

If we go 8-0 the rest of the way, we are true Super Bowl contenders.

Even if we go 7-1, I find it hard to believe we'll have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. We might make it to the AFC championship, but that's it.

Anything less, and we get knocked out in the divisional or wild-card round.

And that's assuming we're in the playoffs.

Tonight, we get an idea of where we're truly at.

[dbsfgyd1]

I don't know about you, but looking at the schedule from here on out, it's pretty brutal. We face the Panthers, Chargers, Patriots and Saints, who are a combined 26-7.

The only positive of all that is three of those games are at home.

We should beat the Jags, but despite their record, they'll be coming into the game with confidence knowing they whipped our butts the last two times they faced us. And that one's on the road. Then we play in Denver, which again, we should win, but any game in high altitude is tough. We finish the season against Cincinnati, which by that time, might be a battle for the top spot in the division.

The only "easy" game left is against Oakland. But I seem to have all these bad memories of losing to terrible Raider teams in the past.



In short, 9-6-1, or 8-7-1 is still very possible.

If we go 8-0 the rest of the way, we are true Super Bowl contenders.

Even if we go 7-1, I find it hard to believe we'll have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. We might make it to the AFC championship, but that's it.

Anything less, and we get knocked out in the divisional or wild-card round.

And that's assuming we're in the playoffs.

Tonight, we get an idea of where we're truly at.

Update:

As we sit, we have a better record that the Patriots, not that I expect that to hold, but just sayin’ you never know.