Think it was Hitch, might have been Ruff, who said at the end of the day (season) your record almost always is reflective of who you are as a team.
And for perspective, none of the experts said Nill's additions were going to take us to the top of the conference, most had us as fighting for somewhere from 3-8 spots in the West, and of course, who knew Vegas would leapfrog everyone. So they are what everyone expected, a team that would be in a battle with a dozen others in the west for playoff position, and could miss if they blinked first. They blinked and lost.