Battlefield Turf: 2011 Year in Review : Crimson Monkey

Battlefield Turf: 2011 Year in Review

Saturday, February 11 2012 - Battlefield Turf - by: trentstorm

Battlefield Turf

2011 Season

2011 was quite a season. It was days away from almost never happening at all. But the lockout and disputes between players and owners ended in the nick of time and the moment that first kick-off took place, all was forgiven. And what a season we saw. Several teams had poor defenses, which led to explosive offensive schemes and 2011 became the year of the quarterback. For the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Drew Brees, that was an understatement. Brees even broke the nearly 30 year-old record set by Dan Marino in most yardage thrown in a single season. Young quarterbacks like John Skelton and Ryan Fitzpatrick showed signs of promise for the future. Rookie quarterbacks such as Cam Newton exploded onto the scene, racking up more yards than Peyton Manning in his rookie season. Andy Dalton and T.J. Yates were able to steer their teams into the postseason. And in one of the biggest stories of the year, Tim Tebow took over as starter for a poor Denver team and led them to the AFC West division title. Although the season was dominated by quarterbacks, the back field was still alive, as the leading rusher came from one of the absolute worst offenses with Maurice Jones-Drew of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Other backs shined, such as LeSean McCoy, Matt Forte and Ray Rice. And who could forget the stand out wide-receivers, as Wes Welker and Calvin Johnson dominated their conferences, while new stars emerged like Victor Cruz and A.J. Green. Tight ends were practically revolutionized with Rob Gronkowski breaking records, with Aaron Hernandez and Jimmy Graham right behind him.

But in the end, it was a 9-7 New York Giants team that had once hit a 4 game skid, inconsistency problems and suffered key injuries throughout the season that had beaten the odds. Eli Manning said before the start of the season that he believes he should be among the elite quarterbacks of the NFL. Now that Super Bowl XLVI is history, I believe he is.

2012 will have a lot of questions.

Will Matt Forte get the contract he's been after?

Will Fred Jackson, Adrian Peterson and DeMarco Murray come back better than before?

Will Calvin Johnson tear through defenses in a contract year?

Who will be going where in the NFL Draft?

And most of all, what will happen to Peyton Manning?

All these questions and more should be answered by the time August rolls around.

As for this article, just because football is over doesn't mean Battlefield Turf will stop completely. I will continue to report news and previews in the coming months. But Battlefield Turf will go on a small break as the NFL Free Agency period does not start until March, around the same time that the Indianapolis Colts have to make their decision on the fate of Peyton Manning. Until then, I'm glad to have spent the past 25 weeks writing about the sport I love.

See you in March!