The NFC South Plays Poker
Every year, one whole division largely under achieves. The division winner ends up 8-8 or 9-7 and everyone starts having the same tired discussion. “How can we let these teams in the playoffs? We are leaving out much more deserving teams! We had to watch the 10-6 Cardinals miss the playoffs while the 8-7-1 Packers got in! Outrageous! Fix the Playoff system! It doesn’t reward who is the most deserving!”
The playoffs are fine. The current system is fine. In 2010 the Seahawks won at 7-9 and everyone lost it, only to laugh when they went on to beat the Saints. Now the NFC West is largely one of the strongest divisions. In 2007 the NFC East sent 3 teams (Skins, Giants, Cowboys) to the playoffs, and the Eagles were 8-8. But the past couple of seasons the NFC East was a joke. Things change in the NFL pretty quick, it’s one of the reasons the sport is so engaging. Unless of course you are the AFC East.
If you win your division, you deserve a playoff spot, plain and simple. I don’t care how bad everyone else is, a division is only 6 games out of 16. Winning a division is an accomplishment. It gives teams a reason to fight, even in dismal crap divisions. If you cannot win your division, then you need to win enough to be worthy. I think that system is fine. The Cardinals last season were probably a better team than the Packers or Eagles, but they didn’t beat their division rivals enough to warrant inclusion over the 49ers or Hawks. I think it’s fine that way. If you can’t get past 3rd in your division, when you play all but 2 of the exact same teams everyone else in the division plays, why do you deserve a playoff spot? It’s not the NFL’s fault you got unlucky and ended up in the division that was good that season. Bad luck happens. All teams want a trip to the dance to prove their worth, but they need to prove their worth to reach there too. If we get a bad team in the playoffs once in a while, so what. Either they prove they deserved a chance (the 2011 Giants, the 2010 Seahawks) or they get knocked aside by a better team immediately. I might be okay if they seeded the playoffs purely based on record, so no home field advantages for crappy division winners, but even then, why does a team that couldn’t win the division deserve a home playoff spot more than a team that did? I don’t think the point has a clear answer, so I’m happy keeping things the way they are. I do not want teams missing the playoffs even after winning a division because that feels unfair, it feels like how the BCS system would avoid teams in lesser conferences even if they were undefeated. Give those teams a chance to fight for it. If they lose then they lose, but they still accomplished something, and that should give them a chance at the dance.
Also, I’m rooting for the Saints to win the division at 7-9, host the reigning champion Seahawks in the Superdome, and beat them on a Mark Ingram Pinball run, completely deflating all the irritating bandwagoners. Of course it sounds absurd, but didn’t the 2010 Seahawks beating the reigning champion Saints on a Marshawn Lynch pinball run, deflating all the bandwagoners seem absurd at the time? Yeah. It would be the world’s most perfect justice.
I’m still heartbroken that the possibility of a 6-10 division champion died this week.
The dream is not dead! All we need is Carolina to win at least one more game, and it’s still possible.
It didn’t die. If everyone loses out then the winner of ATL/NO in Week 16 will be 6-10.
not quite. that’s still in play. the 5-11 possibility died.
That could still happen, surely? Nobody in the NFC South has more than 5 wins…
If the Bucs win out! But yeah, it’s still mathematically possible for the NFC South to send a 6-10 division champion to the playoffs
For some reason I thought the Saints and Falcons had 6 wins already, and since they play in week 16, at least one would go 7-9. Huzzah though, lets see 6-10 happen!
The jokers are the only wild cards any of that bunch are getting.
I’m here all week, try the salmon.
not quite. 6-10 is still in play, if only barely. 5-11 is no longer possible.
I think the playoff format should stay the same with a simple change. If a team at 7-9 or worse wins a division, they lose the automatic playoff spot and it becomes an extra wild card spot.
That way winning the division is still a high priority for teams, but we are avoiding the losing teams getting in over a more deserving team.
As a Saints fan, i would love to see you prediction come true. Ingram stiff arming Sherman would be the cherry on top. I belive when Lynch threw down Porter on his Beast Mode run, all football talent left Tracy Porters body.
But honestly, I’m rooting for the Falcons to win the Divison, so they get embarrased in the Playoffs instead of the Saints. Even though that means the Saints getting swept by Falcons.
I think the best idea I’ve heard regarding this is that a sub .500 division winner still gets in but they don’t get an automatic home game.
That being said if the Saints host the Seahawks and win I won’t stop laughing for a week.
This X1000
Haha wow this is amazing
Ryan obviously wins. That holographic Charizard is the trump card.
haha Props on putting the Eli beach shot in the picture frame.
Thanks for stealing my “Mark Ingram goes beastmode” idea Dave…
Impressive sexy rexy placement, Dave
2011 NY Giants. Literally the worst team to win the super bowl ever (9-7)!
Uh…wait, that my name….
How the hell…I…
oh fuck this…
*that’s
the correction made it worse
After their loss to the Saints, it will come out that the Legion of Boom was being bribed to make big hits all this time..
And then we can get suspended Pete Carroll comics! YAY!
glenoon got dis face lookin like a child molestor lol BJ DONT TRUST IT