We were not missing 8 starters for the first 5 games when we were 2-3. The last two games, yes that can be excused but the first 5 games were not good and we were relatively healthy.........and the defense has only had a handful of injuries.
My point was that you can't win in the NFL with 70% of your payroll on the sidelines. And, we had the toughest schedule in the league the first few weeks and we all hoped to win 2 or 3 by week 5 or 6.
We lost to good teams when we were hurt and as always the margin between good and great or good and bad is razor thin.
Anyone who went into this season thinking we were winning 13 games was an optimistic idiot.
Anyone who thought maybe after the first 2 was probably pretty optimistic, as well.
Anyone with any sense assumed we'd be mediocre and that's what we likely will end up despite the hot start.
In hindsight, we were better than mediocre until we became a mash unit and once we heal up we'll probably end up being above average or better assuming DA gets whatever has happened to the D figured out.