The 2018 season has had many surprises, good and bad. We saw the Chiefs, Texans, and Chargers flourish throughout this portion of the year. But today we will focus on the bad surprises. Many teams have not lived up to expectations so far, and others have just done awful, but not unexpectedly. We look at some teams that had a lot of potential, but have been letdowns throughout most of the season.
San Fransisco 49ers
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Ending 2017 with five consecutive wins against squads such as the Jaguars and Rams, San Fransisco looked full of promise heading into 2018. However, a Week 3 game in Kansas City changed everything. In a loss to the Chiefs, Jimmy Garoppolo was injured late in the 4th quarter on a scramble. Garoppolo made his first start for the 49ers at the beginning of their five-game winning streak. The team put up a total of 144 points in those games, a total they were unable to amass across their first nine games. Without him, San Fransisco has lost five games in a row, worst of all an 18-15 loss to Arizona due to a botched snap in the final seconds. They now have a 25% chance to earn the top draft pick, despite having 20/1 odds to win the Super Bowl before the start of the season.
Jacksonville Jaguars
What a roller coaster the past two seasons have been for the Jags. After going 3-13, Jacksonville made it to the AFC Championship game, which many think they should have won. They upset 13-3 Pittsburgh on the road and hung tight with the Patriots, signaling their relevance as a playoff contender for years to come. However, this season is making that increasingly unlikely, now falling to 3-5 after a 24-18 loss to Philadelphia in London. They began the year 2-0 and full of promise with a big win over the vaunted Patriots. However, after a home loss to Tennessee and an easy W against the Jets, things began falling apart. They were picked apart by the cruising Chiefs before being demolished in Dallas. In a 40-7 loss, Jacksonville barely gained 200 yards of total offense in a game that saw their once mighty defense get beat up. In a return home to take on Houston, they once more lost, this time 20-7, before the loss to the Eagles. They lost a game to Pittsburgh that they easily should have won, being ahead 16-0 with 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Over the four losses, they had a turnover margin of -7. Ouch.
Philadelphia Eagles
The team that beat Jacksonville isn’t doing so hot either. The defending Super Bowl champions are stuck at 6-6 and facing a team that just beat the best team in the league. A loss here would likely eliminate them from the playoffs, as they would be two games behind division leading Dallas, and in second or third place in their division depending on whether the Redskins beat the Giants. The game when we knew they were in trouble was when they blew a 17 point lead heading into the 4th quarter to Carolina. They lost 21-17, and signaled that last year was a fluke.
Atlanta Falcons
It wasn’t a shock when Atlanta started off the year 1-4. They had started off similarly slow last year, and they turned out just fine. And matching the previous two years, they were 4-4 midway through the season. Normally this is when they start winning games. But this time, they lost four in a row to bring them down to where they are now. They started the streak with a bad loss to Cleveland, but lost the next week to Dallas on a last play field goal. A loss to New Orleans the next week put their season on life support, and losing to Baltimore put them at 4-8, a position that gives them no chance to make the playoffs. They have just about sealed their fate, and they will be spending January at home in this disappointing season.
