[Paintrain]

I've stayed out of the Campbell/Colt/Cutler/Sanchez business for the most part since the draft but for any educated, rational fan it's obvious that we wouldn't be having these discussions if we had made the playoffs last season. A couple points to address that fact:

1. While we had the #4 defense (based on yardage allowed) that is probably the most hollow statistic in the entire NFL. It's been well documented how poor we were at getting pressure on the QB and getting turnovers. That's what makes defenses elite, not merely yardage against. Our #4 ranked defense gave up huge plays on game winning drives against St. Louis and SF and couldn't get off the field against Cincy and Dallas to give the offense additional chances to score in the 4th quarter of those games.

2. We were literally 4 plays away from being an 11 win team last year.
-Leigh Torrence gives up a huge play on 3rd and long to Donnie Avery putting the Rams in FG territory with less than 2:00 in the game. Josh Brown kicks the game winning FG.

-Santana Moss has a TD pass hit him in the hands at the 9 yard line in the 4th quarter vs. Dallas which would have given us the lead back. We convert 3 more first downs on that drive but turn it over on downs after a bad drop on 3rd and 4 by Thomas and a bad read by Campbell on 4th and 4. We give the ball back with 6:40 left and don't see the ball again.

-Mike Sellers gets stuffed on 2nd down and then fumbles on 3rd down from the half yard line at the 5:30 in the 3rd period against Cincy which would have tied the game. From that point forward we had 3 more possessions (in a quarter and a half!) and those possessions started at our 9 yard line, our 11 yard line and their 20 yard line (after a long KO return inside of 2:00 in the 4th).

-In a tie game with :28 left, Shaun Hill completes a 24 yard pass to the 20 yard line for the game winning FG.

While that wasn't a guaranteed win, if we were playing for something I'd like to think we'd make it happen in overtime.

If those 4 plays don't happen, I don't think most knowledgeable and rational fans would care that Campbell only threw 13 TD last year.