Something else to consider: nearly every other team riding high in recent weeks has just as much reason to be reticent as we do (except perhaps teams like Baltimore who are riding high after thinking they were pretty much done). Look at the Rams, for goodness sakes. I suppose the Bears are an exception, but everyone can see what their limitations are. The Chargers are hitting their stride, BUT could just as easily have lost to Pitt and/or KC, and might lose games like that if they are in them again. Certainly KC is starting to think, oh no, here we go again. Houston is feeling solid, but once again ,theyve gone from ambivalent to confident (and even they did struggle against the jets).
Seattle was become many people's darling, and they lost to a bottom 3 or 4 team. Pitt did not look particularly good in breaking a 3 game losing streak, and they have a road game against NO. We saw what Dallas did yesterday, and they played their tails off to win a couple of recent games (NO and Philly) that would have changed the narrative considerably had they lost one or both.
I suppose NO is playing pretty well, BUT the loss to Dallas does let them know that their offense is not unstoppable, and they did let the Rams overcome a 21 point deficit at NO a few weeks ago (though NO went on to win). Even yesterday against TB was more of a struggle than would have been expected.
In short, all of the teams except maybe Chicago for which people had reason for high expectations a couple of weeks ago now have much room for dobt, just like pats fans do. The fanbases feeling best right now are those of some of the WC teams who have moved up during the course of the season (Indy, Baltimore, even though they are a long shot to get in, Cleveland, maybe Philly, who would have been flabbergasted at the beginning of the season if you told them theyd be where they are right now, but all of a sudden are feeling hopeful given the ways things are playing out). I'd put TN in the same group. BUT, the fact that these are all WC-area teams despite their optimism tells you they very much have some shortcomings that could be majorly exposed, even though they have done exceptionally well in minimizing them in recent weeks.
In short, while we can certainly see our significant flaws, I think we see them no more so than most of the other good teams. And because I wouldn't count any of them out, I won;t count us out, either. especially as expectations start to lower--and a LOT of what has doomed us recently, if cleaned up, could make a big difference in the play offs.
