In the AFC South, the Jacksonville Jaguars look to nip at the Colts’ heels for most of the season, but in the end, the Colts with an improved defense must be given the go-ahead to win the division. Colt HC Tony Dungy had to do something with their defense given the fact that they ranked 28th overall in the NFL last season and allowed a whopping 237 yards per game through the air, which ranked them 26th in pass defense, Dungy got there in a big way by selecting five defensive players within his first six picks and three of those picks were used at defensive backs.
The first pick in this year’s Colts draft was used on CB Marlin Jackson from Michigan, with their second pick they selected CB Kelvin Hayden from Illinois, Jackson should be an instant starter while Hayden will likely be used in nickel packs, with Their fifth pick, the Colts took S Matt Giordano out of California for depth and help on special teams.
When you had the best passing offense in the NFL in 2004 and overall averaged 404.4 yards per game on offense, it’s no wonder the Colts didn’t play much on this side of the ball, however the Colts were really lucky to finish the 2004 campaign with a straight record of 13-5 overall when considering how bad his defense was at allowing an average of 366.1 total yards per game, which of course is why Colt’s contests topped the total published in 12 of 18 outlets last year.
Jacksonville was the opposite of Indianapolis in not allowing many points, but they also didn’t score many points, in fact 12 of the Jags’ 16 starts in 2004 fell BELOW the published total and according to the ole Jags history book now they have failed to score 30 points or more in their last 50 straight contests, with QB Byron Leftwich back at center and a year of experience under his belt. However, he would look for the Jags to score more points this season. Keep in mind that HC Jack Del Rio is and always will be a defensive first coach who likes to play conservatively on offense.
Jacksonville, Indianapolis and Houston have the distinction of being in a three-way tie for having the 13th toughest schedule in the NFL for the 2005 season based on their opponents’ final win/loss records in 2004, this is not a good bodes well for Jacksonville and Houston, who are trying to unseat the Colts for the top spot.
Houston has improved its seasonal win/loss total in each of the last three years since its NFL debut in 2002 and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this Texan team win 8 or 9 games in 2005 and possibly rank second in the league. divisional standings when its all said and done. What seems to hold these young Texans back in 2005 is the fact that they are in the same division as the Colts and Jaguars.
Texan quarterback David Carr has shown he can hang in there and keep ticking considering he was sacked 49 times last season, this same offensive line was responsible for most of the injuries the Texan running back absorbed in 2004 and this weakness It probably turned out to be Houston’s undoing yet again in 2005, as they haven’t taken steps to correct this flaw.
If these young Texans can stay healthy this season and improve their offensive line game they will certainly surprise some people, however expect these Texans to tire down the stretch as they will be taking an early season break during the third calendar week and must play three of its last five games on the road and in this same stretch will play much better teams in Arizona and Jacksonville at home.
The Titans finished last year’s campaign with a 5-11 record and ATS, which was by far the worst finish under HC Jeff Fisher during his tenure. The good news for the Titans is they had a pretty good draft which should give them a much needed injection of youth on their roster the bad news is they are still in salary cap hell for next season which is why they were so quiet in free agent wars.
That said, Titan HC Jeff Fisher is still one of the best coaches in the league and always seems to get the most out of his troops. Although I see Tennessee once again finishing in the basement, I think there will be plenty of opportunities to win some bets this season with these Titans, however, these opportunities probably won’t present themselves until after the first four weeks of the new season.
Tennessee opens its season against four playoff teams since 2004 when they face the likes of Pittsburgh, Baltimore, St. Louis and Indianapolis in their first four starts, all four games in all likelihood going to be marked in the “Value” loss column that will create. when they play their next five games against non-playoff teams before taking their bye during week 10 of the 2005 season.