AFC Powers Struggling
Preseason power rankings all listed the Pats, Titans and Steelers among the top five teams in the league. NFL football odds and preseason power rankings were all wrong.
Granted, one or two losses hardly dooms a season. But the way that these three powers of the AFC looked in accumulating the losses surely could.
Start with the Pats. This is a team that everyone and their uncle had listed as the NFL football odds Super Bowl champ coming into the season. Brady was back, Moss and Welker would score a hundred TDs and Belichick would find a way to make his defense tick, just as he always does.
Wrong. Brady is back but the O-line is wretched. The ‘D’ is porous and this team is lucky it’s not 0-2 at this juncture.
The Titans are 0-2. After leading the NFL odds in wins last year they’ve yet to get on in 2009. Kerry Collins has played well and RB Chris Johnson has been stellar. It’s the defense, particularly the pass rush that stinks. The departure of Albert Haynesworth seems to have had bigger impact on this unit that anyone wants to admit.
The Steelers benefitted from the lack of pass rush getting a week 1 overtime win over the Titans. But they still got kicked around at Soldier Field by a banged up Bears team. Favorites in the football odds to win that game they beat themselves with poor kicking and lack of execution. They can’t run the ball either.
It’s too early to hit the panic button for these undeniably talented teams, but it just goes to show how hard it is to stay on top for very long in the highly competitive NFL football odds.
