Biggest surprises of the 2014 season?

[SteVo+ 3,702]

Can you guys believe it? Week 17 is three days away. The 2014 regular season is that close to being over. As we approach a new year and reflect over what we've seen this year, I thought it would be fun/interesting to see what surprised us most about this year. Include teams, players, and coaches that caught you off guard. I'll just throw a few out there:

 

• The Browns winning more than 3 games
• Dallas being so efficient offensively, and dominating in December
• LeSean McCoy sucking ass
• Odell fucking Beckham
• The Bears taking a big step backward

[RazorStar 4,025]

Dallas not going 8-8 was a big surprise to me. The defense was still the same, but I guess something clicked. Dunno if it was just regression to the mean, but Rolando McClain was a big factor, and having a healthy run game is the ticket to keeping a defense well rested. Solid coaching all around there.

 

The Lions doing so well. Normally when your offense takes a big step backwards and your defense has been suspect, a team does poorly. Credit Teryl Austin for getting the most out of his guys, and making Suh into the beast he was supposed to be.

 

Buffalo and Cleveland doing so well. They collapsed down the stretch and missed the playoffs, so at least something went to form, but I would have never guessed either team would have been competing for the playoffs up to week 15.

 

And now for the bad surprises:

 

San Francisco collapsing. You could see the fault lines coming, the rift between the ownership and coach, it was just sad to watch though, as teams constantly took the piss out of them. Kaepernick took steps back in his already slow progression and they're basically a retirement or injury away from the Mike Nolan halcyon days.

 

Denver's Offensive Line. Let's play pro bowl caliber players out of position and see what happens, DER DER DER.

Fucking hell.

 

JJ Watt. Why are you getting better? Stop that.

[Sarge+ 3,436]

Good surprises:

 

- Le'Veon Bell being as good as he is this year is definitely a surprise. Even the people who were most optimistic about him after last year (like me) had no idea he could play like this.

 

- The Texans really aren't that bad of a team. But I'm pretty sure most people logically believed that they would completely suck this year. The most shocking part was how well Ryan Fitzpatrick played at times.

 

- Odell Beckham. 'Nuff said.

 

- Dallas OL. I thought they would be good, but I didn't expect them to dominate almost every game they've played.

 

Bad Surprises

 

- I am personally surprised that the NFC South is so bad. I thought there would be at least 2 decent teams in that division this year, but there are none.

 

- Kaepernick... man, I didn't see him sucking this much this year.

 

- The amount of flags thrown this year. If you know me, you know I hate to complain about officiating. But the sheer volume of flags this year was unsettling to say the least. I can't blame anyone who is beginning to lose interest in the NFL. I know I am. But this isn't the only reason, which leads me to....

 

- The general lack of defense. Come on, man. Brian Hoyer and Mark Sanchez both had YPA over 7.5. They fucking suck. How does that even happen? Defense is dead. And because defense is dead, this also helped lead to...

 

- The sheer number of blowouts this year. Blame it on whatever you want... scheduling, the main culprit, certainly played a big part. I also think TNF is lame, but this horse has been beaten to death. Whatever the reasons may be, prime time football sucked this year. I have never lost interest in so many games so quickly as I have this year. Pretty sad when I would rather watch COPS or some cheesy 80's movies over prime time NFL.

[CampinWithaMissingPerson 2,025]

Bears flopping hard

Saints flopping hard

Le'Veon Bell taking yet another step forward and continuing to look nothing like he did in college

The Ravens running game not being hot trash

Miami looking as good as they did at times

Adrian Peterson's scandal and suspension

Dallas actually committing to the run with Scott Linehan as their play caller

Arizona's defense not missing a beat after those injuries and suspensions

[BwareDWare94 723]

Dallas not sucking.

 

Minnesota's defense.

 

Xavier Rhodes becoming the best corner in his division, and a top corner in the NFC.

 

Defenses making Aaron Rodgers look human, even if it's only a 2-4 game sample.

 

Peyton Manning's desire to play in 2015. Dude's shot and needs to hang it up.

 

The Steelers rebounding and qualifying for the playoffs. I knew they'd be better but significantly better? Credit to Tomlin and the rest of that staff.

 

The mere fact that analysts still slobber all over Russell Wilson even with his shortcomings on full display. He's a pretty good, situationally great player. That is it as of right now.

 

The Cardinals and their ability to win with a washed up quarterback and a quarterback who's never been viewed as more than an emergency starter.

 

I completely disagree about the disappearance of defense. I feel like passing games were defended better this year better than they have been in quite a few years. The resurgence of defense was a very pleasant surprise, to me. Yes, there are still statistical bombshell games every week. That just happens.

[Piggly Wiggly 960]

Patrick Chung actually being a decent player.

[ATL_Predator+ 1,196]

Derek Carr actually looking like a competent QB that could be the guy in Oakland

 

Lions in position to win the NFCN with 1 game left

 

Kelvin Benjamin actually being a decent WR

 

The disappearance of Stevie Johnson

 

Teddy Bridgewater being the best QB out of this year's rookie class

 

The disappearance of Carolina's defense

 

Percy Harvin being traded.

[BC 331]

I thought the Saints would be good and the Bucs would be decent. I thought the Saints would be the that third elite team in the NFC race not the Cowboys.

[BigBen07 285]

-Steelers offense going nuts, and also the team being a step away from winning the AFC North.

-Bills and Browns being in the hunt until recently.

-Arizona's defensive play.

-Dallas overcoming it's recent mediocrity.

-NFC South being so bad.

-Adrian Peterson story. Very surprising, and disappointing for Vikings' fans, and those who love to see him play.

-Detroit's season in general. They're making a lot of noise.

-Bears collapsing hard.

Edited December 27, 2014 by BigBen07

[DBR96A 87]

Ben Roethlisberger tying Drew Brees for the passing yards title! WOOOO!!!

[Bucman 891]

Bucs being this bad was pretty surprising.

[oochymp 2,393]

Ben Roethlisberger tying Drew Brees for the passing yards title! WOOOO!!!

I can't be the only one who finds a tie for the passing yards title to be incredibly bizarre

[Cherry 1,302]

Xavier Rhodes becoming the best corner in his division, and a top corner in the NFC.

Casey Hayward?

Edited December 29, 2014 by Chernobyl426

[Zack_of_Steel+ 3,014]

The Steelers rebounding and qualifying for the playoffs. I knew they'd be better but significantly better? Credit to Tomlin and the rest of that staff.

Completely off-base.

 

The Steelers played a cakewalk schedule. This schedule should've been a minimum of 10 wins. The Steelers have been marked by inconsistent and undisciplined play. They needed a pick-six from two rookie QBs (Bortles and Mettenberger) to avoid going 0-4 against the Titans, Jaguars, Jets, and Buccaneers. That's not a good job by the coach.

 

A good coach would've thrashed this schedule with the talent the Steelers have. A good coach makes this a 14-2 season. A good coach doesn't have his players literally throwing up on the field while getting buttblasted by the Ravens and Browns. The Steelers got blown out by the Saints, no matter the final score. They got blown out by three mediocre teams and barely managed to go 2-2 against four of the worst teams in the league.

 

Ben Roethlisberger (and to an extremely lesser extent, James Harrison) is the entire reason this team managed to hit 11-5 and grab the 3rd seed.

 

Obviously Munchak, Bell, Brown, and Haley get credit here, but Ben should be at least 2nd in MVP voting.

 

 

(This schedule is a jumbled mess to look at, but you get the point)

 

• 1 Sep 7 WIN Browns 27 Steelers 30

• 2 Sep 11 LOSS AT Steelers 6 Ravens 26

• 3 Sep 21 WIN AT Steelers 37 Panthers 19

• 4 Sep 28 LOSS Buccaneers 27 Steelers 24

• 5 Oct 5 WIN AT Steelers 17 Jaguars 9

• 6 Oct 12 LOSS AT Steelers 10 Browns 31

• 7 Oct 20 WIN Texans 23 Steelers 30

• 8 Oct 26 WIN Colts 34 Steelers 51

• 9 Nov 2 WIN Ravens 23 Steelers 43

• 10 Nov 9 LOSS AT Steelers 13 Jets 20

• 11 Nov 17 WIN AT Steelers 27 Titans 24

• 12 BYE

• 13 Nov 30 LOSS Saints 35 Steelers 32

• 14 Dec 7 WIN AT Steelers 42 Bengals 21

• 15 Dec 14 WIN AT Steelers 27 Falcons 20

• 16 Dec 21 WIN Chiefs 12 Steelers 20

• 17 Dec 28 WIN Bengals 17 Steelers 27

 

Edited December 29, 2014 by Zack_of_Steel

[Packers Dynasty 2010 116]

Casey Hayward?

 

Hayward is hard to analyze since he really only plays the slot and is in a rotation, but I know at one point he was leading the league in attempts per completion. I would say Shields is better though, outside of a horrific game against Julio Jones coming off a concussion, he played pretty well against the top receiving threats all season long.

[AL_Royalty 489]

Demarco Murray finishing nearly 500 yards better than the next best rusher.

 

Peyton Manning falling apart late in the season. He usually waits until the playoffs for that.

 

Justin Houston going off like a madman. 22 sacks?! That's pretty rare air there. I knew he was Damn good, but...

 

The Cardinals being SOOOOOOO much better than I've ever given them credit for being. It Sucks they had all that QB trouble.

 

The Giants being so awful. I know they had a lot of injuries, but wow.

 

The Browns finishing with a better record than the Saints. I would have given anyone 2-1 odds for however much money they wanted to bet on that. No way on earth I saw that coming. That's the craziest one to me.

 

One thing that DIDN'T surprise me was the collapse of the Bears that's got everyone scratching their heads. New coach, bad O-line, and what did I tell y'all about Cutler?

Edited January 4, 2015 by B-isforBowe

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Casey* (EDIT) was actually the least targeted CB in the NFL.. Fewer % of passes went his direction when he was on the field than any other corner in the NFL... Sherman, Revis, etc etc, all targeted more often. Opposing QBs are just afraid to go after him... My only complaint about Casey is that he needs to see the field more. Which he should next year with Davon House and Tramon Williams being FA...

Rhodes was good, but it wasn't good enough that he absolutely blew away the competition.

Edited January 4, 2015 by Favre4Ever

[BLUE 1,026]

The Giants being shit shouldn't really shock anyone. We were a 7-9/8-8 team at best before all the injuries hit after the season started, IMO . I know we had a nice FA last offseason or w/e, but we still draft poorly in the mid to late rounds compared to top teams with regard to providing depth when you get hate-fucked by injuries.

 

New playbook on offense that was surely gonna take a while to get acclimated to, with growing pains and such.

 

The only thing that really surprised me about the Giants was OBJ doing what he did with not a single full training camp practice or an appearance in a preseason game plus being out for the first month of the regular season.

Edited January 4, 2015 by BLUE

[Wattafan 28]

 

Can you guys believe it? Week 17 is three days away. The 2014 regular season is that close to being over. As we approach a new year and reflect over what we've seen this year, I thought it would be fun/interesting to see what surprised us most about this year. Include teams, players, and coaches that caught you off guard. I'll just throw a few out there:

 

• The Browns winning more than 3 games
• Dallas being so efficient offensively, and dominating in December
• LeSean McCoy sucking ass
• Odell fucking Beckham
• The Bears taking a big step backward

 

For me it was the meltdown in San Fran and the poor performance of the entire NFC South (although Panthers played well yesterday).