2018 NFL Regular Season!!!!

Sommerswerd said:
Why not scrap the playoffs entirely and just give the team with the best record outright the championship? If there is a tie in record at the top, then just use tiebreaker formulas to decide who is the champion. Would you prefer that? If the answer is "No, we don't do that because it's not as fun/entertaining/profitable"... well... there you have it.
Click to expand...

If the answer is 'Yes', start following one of the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1, etc.
 
In all sports, I'd rather have:

1) A European soccer-style where points are awarded for wins and the team with the most wins at the end gets the trophy
2) A gauntlet-style playoff bracket

Playoffs in general are, I think, dumb, but playoffs in which the only reward for the teams who were the best over the longest amount of time is nothing more than getting out of playing one extra game and playing with the benefit of homefield advantage is especially dumb.

Late season table runs, in the case of European soccer, or pennant chases, in the case of baseball, are infinitely more interesting and exciting to me than end-of-season playoffs.
 
So, as we are discussing the virtues of playoffs in the regular season thread, I opt to change the subject with this piece of awesome analysis I picked up yesterday. But first, the awesome in itself summary before we get into the possibly tl;dr details. With two weeks left in the season the formerly saddest of sacks, the Cleveland Browns, are still in the playoff hunt.

Admittedly, they are comparable to Ahab hunting the great white whale while floating in a lifejacket and armed with a badly chewed toothpick, but they are in fact in there. Here is what has to happen for them to make it:

First off, they obviously beat the Bengalss this week. With a current record of 6-7-1 losing is just not an option. They also, of course, have to beat the Ravens next week.
They also need the Chargers to beat the Ravens for them this week to keep the Ravens in range.
Plus they need the Giants to beat the Colts, and Washington to beat the Titans to keep them both in range also.
They need either the Jags this week or the Bills next week to knock off the Dolphins for them.
With all that the Colts and the Titans will be in range, but either of them winning in week seventeen will stay ahead of the Browns, and they play each other. So the final piece of this puzzle is them going into week seventeen with both teams playing for the final playoff spot...and playing to a tie.

Hey, it could happen.
 
Haha! Other than the tie and both Colts/Titans losing to awful teams the rest is plausible. Chargers won't let up with a division title + bye on the table, and it's not like the Dolphins are a good team.

Philly could still get in if they win out after that upset. In fact they just need the Vikings to lose, hopefully Chicago's game vs them matters for playoff seeding so they try in week 17.
 
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caketastydelish said:
The Seahawks beating the Chiefs in Seattle is far from impossible. If that happens while the Chargers win out (also possible), the Chargers would get home field advantage throughout the playoffs and a first round bye.

Edit: and despite “Chargers have no home field advantage” statistically they very much do

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...fl-2017-toughest-easiest-teams-play-road-more
Click to expand...

No matter how little support they get from the home crowd, not having to travel is always an advantage. Particularly for west coast teams.
 
Timsup2nothin said:
So, as we are discussing the virtues of playoffs in the regular season thread, I opt to change the subject with this piece of awesome analysis I picked up yesterday. But first, the awesome in itself summary before we get into the possibly tl;dr details. With two weeks left in the season the formerly saddest of sacks, the Cleveland Browns, are still in the playoff hunt.
Click to expand...
Not only that...
Owen Glyndwr said:
Cincinnati @ Cleveland, Cleveland by 9
Click to expand...
Just... Wow:eek: I could almost cry for them. Good for the Browns and Browns fans... Go Browns Go!:clap:
 
Yeah, it's been a Long Long time since we've seen that.
 
Saw on the ESPN crawler that the Raiders were talking to the SF Giants about playing in their park next year and
that the Giants were receptive to the notion. Interesting if true.
 
Seattle looked great tonight...Their running game has been impressive, especially over the last few games...Russell Wilson is always great to watch...They're going to be really dangerous in the playoffs. KC's defense might be their downfall, their CB's got torched all night long. Andy Reid's clock management doesn't help much, either...
 
Serutan said:
Got a chuckle out of this comment in an article at Football Outsiders discussing Saints/Steelers :



Full article: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/audibles/2018/audibles-line-week-16
Click to expand...

Yeah people here do not like the idea of the Saints using their facilities and locker rooms for 2 weeks

I can relate because I had the same feeling of dread in 2012 when the Falcons were up 17-0 in the NFC Championship game in 2012 (when the Super Bowl was in New Orleans) before they gagged it away.

Still we gotta win two games that are not going to be easy, even at home, before we can think about that.

Man I just remembered that was the power outage year and can you imagine the conspiracy theories that would go down if that had happened to the Falcons in the Super Dome, I wouldn't even blame them for being suspicious
 
The NFL shifted game times so that the contenders wouldn't have their game made meaningless by an earlier result and had to play hard...now the league just needs to figure out how to make deadbeat teams play hard.
 
You're never going to get a satisfactory answer to that. When a team has nothing to play for, it's just human nature to not be very motivated.
 
I think its worth noting that the conventional wisdom all season has been that the NFC East was a trainwreck and the NFC wildcards would either both be coming from the NFC south or the NFC North or one from each. Who would've guessed that they would be from the East and West? I mean I predicted 49ers, but I always do that :p. I just think its a cool surprise that expectations have been subverted in so many ways. This has been a fun season.
 
At the start of the season conventional wisdom was that anybody but the Bears would win the NFC north. ;) Yes, a fun season.
 
In fairness, before the season started I was one of those who predicted the Bears would be strong.
 
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