There are lot of people complaining that the Seattle Seahawks don't belong in the playoffs at 7-9, especially not when the 10-6 Giants and ExpensiveCornPrices are sitting home. Those two teams both beat the Seahawks during the season, 41-7 and 38-15 respectively. I totally understand the fairness issue but I warn about making sweeping rule changes to fix a problem that comes along very seldom.
Let's look at what's wrong with the possible solutions:
1) Never allow a losing team into the playoffs. This one makes the most sense from the surface but I don't like something with this much inconsistency. Wouldn't it have been weird if last night's game could have put the Rams in if they won, but if the Seahawks won, the Giants would have gotten in? Makes no sense.
2) Throw out divisions, the 6 best records get in. I don't like this because you want to keep as many teams in contention for as long as possible and you want to keep division rivalries. It would be very unbalanced scheduling if you kept the division alignments but didn't reward division winners.
3) Award home-field playoff games to the team with the better record. This I could get behind. I see no reason why division winners need to be rewarded with a home playoff game.
Rex Grossman: Quarterback of the Future
Only a few months ago Donovan McNabb was coming to the Redskins with something to prove and Michael Vick was mired on the bench behind Kevin Kolb. Now Michael Vick is runner-up for MVP and Donovan McNabb has an uncertain future. There is no way in the world McNabb comes back to the Redskins next season, whenever that is. I think the Vikings are a good landing place for him. I think the Redskins will draft a quarterback but since it won't be Andrew Luck, it will be someone else who needs time to develop (Jake Locker?) I think they need to give Grossman the time to prove he's learned and grown through his NFL career.
The Giants Have No One to Blame But Themselves
A lot of Giants fans are crying right now (because Giants fans are big babies) about finishing 10-6 and missing out on the playoffs to a team with a worse record by 3 games, that they beat by 34 earlier this season. But after two straight debacles against the Eagles and Packers the Giants have to look no further than the man in the mirror. Eli Manning through [oops] 25 INTs, and the Giants lost 17 fumbles, you just can't make up for that even when you lead the league in takeaways. But there is good news for Giants fans. They have great young players at many offensive positions, they are great up front on defense, and by erasing a few mistakes they could easily have been 12-4 or 13-3.
If the Super Bowl Were Played Today
New England 31 Atlanta 14
I will go into breaking down this week's matchups and the entire postseason in separate posts this week but right now the Pats are playing above the rim. Some team would have to come out like a house of fire, injure Tom Brady, take the ball away 5 times to beat the Patriots in New England in the AFC playoffs. I could see the Falcons, Eagles and maybe Packers giving them a hard time in the Super Bowl, but I doubt it.
Giant fans are mad we missed the playoffs after being 8 minutes from the 2 seed and a bye. We're not mad the Seahawks made it instead of us. We're mad the Packers made it instead of us.
ReplyDeleteEver hear of proofreading. "Eli through 25 interceptions?" And had you not called us babies I would have logged in and quietly fixed this.