A few years ago football had 5 10-win, top-25 finishes in the span of 6 seasons, and people similarly couldn't stomach the "down trend" of 8-9 win seasons.
Fast forward 3 short years later, and those "down year" 8-9 win seasons would feel pretty good today.
One day we may similarly long for a time we were winning 19-24 games and own state rivals in our "down years".