Gary Sheffield, Jr
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Regardless of how Week 17 shakes out, someone is going to make the playoffs from an abysmal NFC East. It will be the first time a team that started 2-7 will clinch a playoff birth. There have been 258 different teams that have started off that poorly and failed to reach the playoffs.
The NFL really shouldn’t allow this.
A spot in the playoffs – and hosting a wild card game – are on the line in Week 17.
— Sunday Night Football (@SNFonNBC) December 29, 2020
Here’s what the Washington Football Team, Dallas Cowboys, and New York Giants need to do to win the NFC East. @ProFootballTalk pic.twitter.com/uuAMv6Udy9
No fans, no real interest, and now we’ll have one less reason to watch the first round of the NFL playoffs. Who wants to watch Taylor Heinicke (if Alex Smith can’t play Sunday), Andy Dalton, or Colt McCoy? If it’s not 2008 and we aren’t sarcastically rooting on Colt McCoy for MVP, then having one of these teams make the postseason is objectively bad for the sport.
(quick disclaimer)
Every fan of NFL football who can’t stand the Cowboys loves watching the Cowboys try and fail, even if they don’t admit it.
That said, Dallas making the playoffs when their fans don’t even want to make it isn’t satisfying. We like watching false hope and expectation come to a screeching halt, not this.
If commissioner Roger Goodell does anything this offseason, he needs to find a way for shoddy football teams to be on the outside looking in from playoff football.
I love the idea of a 9-win minimum for the postseason. If your division sucks and you are 8-8, guess what: you are replaced with the best available team in your conference.
I don’t. If all schedules were relatively similar, yes. This year the NFC East had been horrendous but this is the exception to the rule. How many teams have won less than 9 games and won a division in the past 40 years? Maybe 5? Maybe 10 at most?
Plus if Dallas or the Redskins beat Tampa that would be better than the Beast-Quake.
First of all, this won’t be the first time a team has won the division with a losing record. Just because the team that wins the division started 2-7 makes ZERO difference. Way to be a prisoner of the moment with that take. Will the team who wins go on and win their first round home game in the playoffs….most likely not, but we just saw the Jets beat 2 possible playoff teams the past 2 weeks, so it’s not impossible……..and let’s not forget, the Seahawks were 7-9 when they won the NFC West in 2010 and went on to win their first round home game against the Saints….the game that became the birth of Beast Mode.
Agree. This is why the SEC/Oklahoma/OSU/Clemson gets so much love. You win your conference with 1 loss you are better than an undefeated Cincy or Coastal. I realize different but the point is win what’s in front of you.
Win your conference/division and you get rewarded.
I am for 8 team divisions that will eliminate the weak this way.
What’s the one thing that has kept both Washington and Dallas from success? Ownership.
As long as that doesn’t change neither will the success of either franchise.