Storyline: There’s no doubt that this season has been rough for some teams. These are just a few of the NFL teams struggling the most. Written by Jason M. Sanin, London.
The NFL season is nearly a quarter of the way through, and with the passage of the first month of the year has come a series of disappointing teams. For those teams, time is running out to get things turned around if they want any chance at qualifying for this year’s postseason. Here are the five most disappointing teams in the NFL through four weeks.
Courtesy: latino.foxnews.com
Houston Texans
With superstar JJ Watt anchoring the defense, one would expect the Texans to be solid on that end of the field. However, that has simply not been the case for them so far. Houston is allowing 27 points per game, good for 26th in the NFL, which is a far cry from that they were conceding last season. This may not be too big a problem if their offense was competent, but that hasn’t happened either, as Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett have taken turns being ineffective.
Kansas City Chiefs
NFL defenses certainly don’t fear Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith, and he’s given them good reason not to. Despite having tons of offensive weapons, the Chiefs are merely in the middle of the pack in passing yardage, which has hurt their ability to stretch the field and open things up for their running game.
Throw in that the Chiefs defense, a formidable one last year, that is giving up a league worst 31.3 points per game. With all these ingredients, you’ve got the makings of a disaster in Kansas City in a tough AFC West.
Detroit Lions
Last season, the Detroit Lions were one of the toughest teams to stop in the NFL, and had a great defense to match. This year, their defense has been just as strong, but the offense has fallen apart, leading Detroit to be the league’s only winless team through the first month.
Matthew Stafford has been a huge disappointment this year, as has a running game that brought in prized prospect Ameer Abdullah. Sitting in last place in the NFC North, the Lions have to jump over the Green Bay Packers or Minnesota Vikings to have a shot at the playoffs. That doesn’t look likely with a sputtering offense that is wasting years of Calvin Johnson’s career.
Philadelphia Eagles
Courtesy: bleacherreport.com
NFL analysts questioned Chip Kelly when he got rid of several top players on the Philadelphia Eagles to replace them with players he felt fit his system better. With his new players failing to perform up to their expectations in Philadelphia, those pundits were right to do so.
The Eagles brought in prized running back DeMarco Murray, who hasn’t yet rushed for 100 yards total in four games. New quarterback Sam Bradford has been average at best, and Chip Kelly’s fast paced offense has been so ineffective that it’s simply been making his team punt the ball back to their opposition faster.
Miami Dolphins
Statistical models predicted that the Miami Dolphins would reach the Super Bowl this season. NFL experts agreed with that evaluation. But the Miami Dolphins have not only failed to play up to that standard, they have failed to look like a professional football team.
Courtesy: foxsports.com
After bringing in star defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and paying him tons of money, Suh doesn’t seem interested in playing in Miami’s defensive scheme. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill has been so bad that practice squad players have been intercepting his passes, to which Tannehill has responded by yelling about his salary to them. Things have been so bad, in fact, that head coach Joe Philbin has been fired after just four weeks.
Now on a bye week, interim head coach Dan Campbell has been tasked with turning this mess around, something nobody may be equipped to do given just how many issues the Dolphins have.
*From the Bet Advisor Blog*
