We ought to be lower than 20 after that embarrassment.

Niners just out-and-out dominated my Steelers last night. There's some leeway for the injuries but the defense wasn't doing enough, and opening the first two drives with picks really didn't help. Neither did all the stupid penalties, though the one on the field goal was horse shiat.

Hindsight has me question if it was worth having Ben play last night.

Their defense was effective and opportunistic in a win over the Titans, and Donald Brown provided the necessary offense. (Kuharsky) They're not stupid enough to win another game, are they? (Quasar)

FTFA: The Jets are more lucky than good.

Then, why, praytell, four-letter network, do you still rank them in the top fifteen? Your wives' toes deep in Rexie's "bank?"

/Saints need to win Monday night

Sheesh, finally they no longer have an excuse to:

A. Have a token AFC team at #2
B. Have the Saints above the mostly lucky 49ers

Saints vs. Green Bay is your Super Bowl this year.

In advance of The Great Tiebreaker Spreadsheet, here are incomplete NFC playoff scenarios. AFC ones when I finish figuring out/typing them. Complete NFC scenarios will wait until I get home.

NFC Playoff Scenarios (without ties)

Green Bay has clinched North, bye
#1, homefield with (a) win, (b) SF loss
#2 with two losses and two SF wins

San Francisco has clinched West
#1, homefield with two wins and two GB losses
#2 with (a) two wins and GB win, (b) win and NO loss, (c) two NO losses
#3 with (a) two losses and NO win, (b) loss and two NO wins
Bye with with (a) two wins, (b) win and NO loss, (c) two NO losses

New Orleans has clinched playoffs
#2, bye with (a) two wins and SF loss, (b) win and two SF losses
#3 with (a) two losses and ATL loss, (b) loss and SF win and ATL loss, (c) two SF wins and ATL loss
South with (a) win, (b) ATL loss
#5 with two losses and two ATL wins

Dallas
#4, East with win and NYG loss

NY Giants
#4, East with (a) two wins, (b) two DAL losses and PHI loss

Philadelphia
#4, East with two wins and two DAL losses and NYG loss

Figuring out the wild card order at 9-7 will take a bit of time, so for now...

Atlanta
#3, South with two wins and two NO losses
In with (a) win, (b) other events to be figured out

Detroit
In with (a) win, (b) other events to be figured out

Arizona, Chicago, Seattle
Out with (a) loss, (b) ATL win and DET win, (c) other events to be figured out

downstairs: Saints vs. Green Bay is your Super Bowl this year.

Harbaugh v Harbaugh

Gecko Gingrich: Harbaugh v Harbaugh

Coaching in the Pro Bowl, perhaps.

downstairs: Saints vs. Green Bay is your Super Bowl this year.

I assume you mean the NFC Championship will be better than the Super Bowl.

Sanduskyed In The Shower: downstairs: Sheesh, finally they no longer have an excuse to:

A. Have a token AFC team at #2
B. Have the Saints above the mostly lucky 49ers

Saints vs. Green Bay is your Super Bowl this year.

know how I know you don't know what you're talking about?

I'm referring to who I think will be in the NFC championship, and either of those teams will kill whoever comes out of the AFC.

Quasar: downstairs: Saints vs. Green Bay is your Super Bowl this year.

I assume you mean the NFC Championship will be better than the Super Bowl.

Well, yeah... the conference championship games are almost always better.

But, again, I'm saying everyone in the playoffs are there to lose to the Pack or Saints.

downstairs: I'm referring to who I think will be in the NFC championship, and either of those teams will kill whoever comes out of the AFC.

If it's the Patriots, then christ the game will be like 96-40. If it's the Ravens or a healthier Steelers, then who knows.

I hear a lot about the saints, but you put Drew Brees outside of a dome (think soggy San Francisco grass) and he plays like shiat. On top of that, the niners have (arguably) the best defense in the NFL. Look for SF to take the #2 seed, first round bye, and beat the Saints in SF to go to the NFC championship

Because People in power are Stupid: [cdn.everyjoe.com image 450x404]

Beautiful

Well on the bright side, I gather the Steelers played in a manner that means I'll likely be watching them while in the USA...

/live in Holland, never manage to see any evening games
//flying to the USA tomorrow, around until the first playoff round, looking forward to football!

Actually, fark that, the AFC picture at the top is pretty ugly. I won't go seed-by-seed, but level-by-level.

Homefield
New England with (a) two wins, (b) win and BAL loss and HOU loss and PIT loss, (c) two BAL losses and two HOU losses and two PIT losses, (d) win and HOU loss and PIT loss and SOV tiebreaker over BAL, (e) win and HOU loss and two BAL wins and SOV tiebreaker over BAL, (f) two HOU losses and two PIT losses and BAL loss and SOV tiebreaker over BAL, (g) two HOU losses and PIT loss and BAL goes 1-1 and SOV tiebreaker over BAL
Baltimore with (a) two wins and two NE losses, (b) two wins and NE loss and HOU loss and SOV tiebreaker over NE, (c) win and PIT loss and two NE losses and two HOU losses
Houston with (a) two wins and NE loss and BAL loss, (b) win and two NE losses and BAL loss and PIT loss, (c) two wins and NE goes 1-1
Pittsburgh with (a) two wins and BAL loss and NE loss and HOU loss, (b) win and two BAL losses and two NE losses and two HOU losses

Any bye
New England with (a) two wins, (b) win and HOU loss, (c) win and BAL loss and PIT loss, (d) win and PIT loss and SOV tiebreaker over BAL
Baltimore with (a) two wins and HOU loss, (b) two wins and two NE losses, (c) two wins and two NE wins, (d) two wins and SOV tiebreaker over NE, (e) win and PIT loss and HOU loss and NE win, (f) win and PIT loss and two HOU losses, (g) win and PIT loss and HOU loss and SOV tiebreaker over NE, (h) two HOU losses and two PIT losses and DEN loss
Houston with (a) two wins and NE loss, (b) two wins and BAL loss, (c) win and BAL loss and PIT loss and two NE losses, (d) win and two BAL losses and PIT loss, (e) two BAL losses and two PIT losses and two DEN wins and SOV tiebreaker over DEN
Pittsburgh with (a) two wins and BAL loss and HOU loss, (b) two wins and BAL loss and NE loss, (c) win and two BAL losses and two NE losses, (d) win and two BAL losses and two HOU losses
Denver with two wins and two BAL losses and two HOU losses and two PIT losses and SOV tiebreaker over HOU

AFC North
Baltimore with (a) two wins, (b) win and PIT loss, (c) two PIT losses
Pittsburgh with (a) two wins and BAL loss, (b) win and two BAL losses

AFC West
Denver with (a) win over KC, (b) win over BUF and OAK loss, (c) KC loss and OAK loss and SD loss
Oakland with (a) two wins and DEN loss to KC
San Diego with two wins and two DEN losses
Kansas City with two wins and two DEN losses and SD loss

Nickdude: I hear a lot about the saints, but you put Drew Brees outside of a dome (think soggy San Francisco grass) and he plays like shiat. On top of that, the niners have (arguably) the best defense in the NFL. Look for SF to take the #2 seed, first round bye, and beat the Saints in SF to go to the NFC championship

More than a bit of hyperbole.

robsul82: Nickdude: I hear a lot about the saints, but you put Drew Brees outside of a dome (think soggy San Francisco grass) and he plays like shiat. On top of that, the niners have (arguably) the best defense in the NFL. Look for SF to take the #2 seed, first round bye, and beat the Saints in SF to go to the NFC championship

More than a bit of hyperbole.

Exaggeration is the best thing ever

Did anyone else get tremendous pleasure watching Ben pump-faking uselessly as the 49ers hounded him? I could just hear him saying "BUT-but-but PUMP FAKES! LOOK I'M PUMP FAKING! STOP TACKLING ME!"

Di Atribe: robsul82: Nickdude: I hear a lot about the saints, but you put Drew Brees outside of a dome (think soggy San Francisco grass) and he plays like shiat. On top of that, the niners have (arguably) the best defense in the NFL. Look for SF to take the #2 seed, first round bye, and beat the Saints in SF to go to the NFC championship

More than a bit of hyperbole.

Exaggeration is the best thing ever

Exaggeration is the most important thing ever invented.

This thread is super green.

Giants: 7-7
Cardinals: 7-7

Giants: Lost five of six
Cardinals: Won six of seven

Clearly the Giants deserve to be higher

So now that we have the basics of the tiebreaker situation down, here are the spreadsheets. AFC first. The AFC West is wide-the-hell-open with two to go. One thing we do know is that KC/Oakland is loser-goes-home.



Now the Big Chart. Note that because Baltimore dropped a conference game, they no longer control their destiny, even should New England drop one more game. Baltimore beats Houston in a two-team tie, but if New England is level with the two of them, the Texans would earn homefield on the basis of conference record. Also, as noted above, Denver (!) can still potentially earn the #2 spot and a bye should a lot of results go their way. In the NFC, it looks like we have our two wild cards, but should either of them stumble, there are three teams at 7-7 ready to pounce (The Giants are physically incapable of pouncing, with an inferior conference record and no relevant head-to-head wins). Minnesota is two losses away from the #2 pick, and the Colts almost surely need only one more loss to secure the chance to get Lucky.



But the Giants do still control their destiny in the NFC East. There's a significant chance that Al and Cris will get to see both halves of their home-and-away with the Cowboys, as that game is likely going to decide the division. New Orleans can seal the South with a win or tie on Monday night, but should they lose, they'd probably have to beat Carolina or the Superdome will be Super-empty in the playoffs.

RminusQ: Figuring out the wild card order at 9-7 will take a bit of time, so for now...

Does the Seahawks having beaten Arizona, New York, Philadelphia, AND Chicago help them at all?

Treygreen13: This thread is super green.

It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen

RminusQ: New Orleans can seal the South with a win or tie on Monday night, but should they lose, they'd probably have to beat Carolina or the Superdome will be Super-empty in the playoffs.

Breesus needs, what, like 350 yards to break Marino's record? Doing it against the farking Falcons, getting a win in the process, would be incredibly refreshing.

Epic battle between Cam Newton and Chase Daniel last day of the season.

And, FWIW, the BCS championship is in NOLA, so there'll be playoff football.....sorta.

I note that Baltimore is the only non-awful team with a SOV ≥ .500, but their SOS is less than that, indicating that (as I seem to recall was the case last year), they're choking in games against lesser teams. In fact their defeated opponents are 71-69, while their betterers are 25-31 (the only one that's actually below .500 is Jacksonville).

mikaloyd: The first graphs are in. Can the other graphs and Jake be far behind?

This has got to be a tough week for the Jake. Five QBs in contention.

Nabb1: Five QBs in contention.

Ben won it outright last night.

Runner up is Candlestick.

Nabb1: mikaloyd: The first graphs are in. Can the other graphs and Jake be far behind?

This has got to be a tough week for the Jake. Five QBs in contention.

*crosses fingers*
Please be Eli. Please be Eli. Please be Eli.

BMoreBeowulf: Nope, Big Ben won it cleanly last night with a 66.7. Next closest was 50.0 from a couple QBs.

Does that mean Ben is the season's first double-Jake winner? And still the overall Jake leader?