DeSi_PatzGal

Gwedd

Silver might seem brutal, but he's bang-on with this column.

PatsFanInVa

NFC wild-card unworthy of berth, 2007 - NY Giants.

Oh. Never mind.

PatsFanInVa

LOLOL... Gawd, we need to start Hoyer just based on this.

SpiderFox53

Getting a wild card at 10-6 is somewhat different than making it at 9-7 or even 8-8, don't you think?

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363839

I think I actually want Miami to beat these *********s.

Satchboogie3

The 2 worst "unworthy" wild card teams I can remember are the Cardinals and Chargers of '08. The Cardinals lost 4 of their last 6 games (outscored 198 to 138), including the 47-7 loss to the Pats where they completely quit on the game.

The Chargers slipped into the playoffs at 8-8 only because they had an incredibly weak schedule and won their last 4 games (vs Oak, KC, TB, and Den; combined 24-40). They didn't get a single win over a quality team. (Only a win over NE if you call it a "quality" team early on with Cassel).

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This is the year. We put our failures in the past, it's a new year, a new defense. It's time to prove to the league that the Patriots are back and aren't going anywhere and they will be the last ones standing in Feb.
Update: Well that didn't work out as I had planned. Next year baby, next year 19-0 we go. Next year.

convertedpatsfan

Pittsburgh really has nothing to cry about. If they didn't want to rely on others, they should have taken care of business against some really crappy teams.

But I think Silver is reaching a bit here. Records don't tell the whole story since there are so few games in a season. Sure, the NFC wild card teams will have one or two extra wins, but they also got to play some really crappy teams. 3 of the worst 4 teams are definitely in the NFC (St. Louis, Detroit, TB, and you can add in KC from the AFC).

Meanwhile, 2 of the top 3 teams are definitely in the AFC (Indy and San Diego, with the Saints being #3). San Diego struggled early, while New Orleans is struggling late, but all 3 are the elite teams this season that are almost a guaranteed loss.

A team like Green Bay definitely benefitted from 2 freebies against Detroit. Give two gift division wins like that to these AFC teams and it's a different story altogether. Imagine Pittsburgh or Baltimore getting two gimmes instead of facing each other and Cincinnati twice. Green Bay also got to play St. Louis as well as Tampa, though they lost to Tampa. They also avoided the 3 elite teams this season.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh and Baltimore both come from the AFC North, beat up on each other, and had to play San Diego as well, with Baltimore also having to play the Colts. I'd take either over half of the NFC playoff teams.

Houston and Jacksonville aren't very good, but neither was helped by having to play Indy twice this season. And unlike Green Bay, there were no gifts in this division that also included Tennessee.

The Jets and Dolphins both had to play the Colts and Saints. In division, they played each other, the Patriots twice, and even the Bills weren't an easy out. Denver didn't have much in the division, but they faced San Diego twice (beating them once), as well as the other 2 elite teams.

Which is all a very long way to say that I think the records don't tell the whole story. Every team has blemishes and games they could have/should have won. But some of these AFC teams that will miss the playoffs are still better than some of the NFC teams that clinched a while ago.

NovaScotiaPatsFan

I don't remember any Pats whining about this last year when we were 3 games better than Pittsburgh is now and needed help to get in.

Oh... Yeah, I remember why now: Because the Pats are men.

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Gwedd

Pretty much. It's why that other team is called the "squealers".
Nancy boys that can't even figure out how to put a decal on both sides of their frikkin' helmet, fer heaven's sake. I mean, what does it say about them that their "most feared" defender is doing shampoo commercials, eh?