PatsFans.com Article

Is there something to the recent rise in "surprise" championship teams?
By: John Morgan

From 1989 to 2000, there was a 12-year span where every single champion was either first or second in wins during the regular season. Only three of the last six NFL champions have ranked in the top ten in wins, and four of the last six champions have been...

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Get it shawtaay

Nice article.

The problem with a perceived "increase in surprise champions" is that it implies a 6th seeded team is worse than a 5th seed, and so on and so forth.

In reality, 10/12 playoff teams are more or less the same talent-wise. Teams are so close to one another today that the difference in a playoff game comes down to health, a few situational outcomes (red zone possession, the extra 1st down, etc.), a few coaching decisions, a few bounces, and whether or not one team makes a game-changing play (KR/PR for TD, TO). How does the regular season tell us anything about all that?

16 games don't tell you which way the ball would bounce in Feb. Game-turning D/ST plays are so infrequent, and playoff teams usually have similar differentials, so the regular season doesn't tell you who will make them either. Winning 13 games doesn't guarantee you health in the playoffs or something.

The interesting question to me is if you are a coach, how does this affect your outlook? To me, these games illustrate the importance of situational football - good tackling, 3 points vs. 7 points, etc. Bend but don't break just won a championship - the Pats need to be better/execute better in situations. It was their bread and butter (esp. on D) but recently they've been beat at their own game too often.

brdmaverick

Isn't that how it works? I understand the 'any given Sunday' mentality, but overall a 5th seed is supposed to be better than a 6th seed. More wins in regular season should translate to 'expected to better'.

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Joker

One easy way to solve all this...petition Goodell to sit on live TV, like NFLN , and take a polygraph administered by any number of former FBI agents. Let's have the question asked in front of the whole country. Give him immunity, if that placates all the violently intense NFL lovers who insist the NFL is the only entity in the entire United States of America that is impervious to such corruption.

Is the NFL in collusion with other corporate entities to predetermine matchups and outcomes of NFL postseason games and especially the Super Bowl?

Yes or no.....one simple question asked directly on live TV...if he answers truthfully, while having immunity" we will finally have our answer.

olschool

Not that Goodell would ever tell the truth, even to an FBI agent.

That being said, I firmly believe that the TV networks have far more influence than people believe. Ratings are directly related to billions of dollars in revenue, and I think there is collusion between the league and the networks to do whatever they can to pump up ratings.

When these executives meet on the golf course, do you really think that all they talk about is the weather ?

There are many examples, like a TV timeout that stalls a drive, schedule changes at the end of the season, tailored to pump up prime time ratings, the whole replay system that's reliant on network camera angles, referee teams that vary wildly in how they call a game from week to week, and on and on.

I don't think it was any coincidence that a "let 'em play" group of officials was assigned to a Superbowl between two of the most penalized teams in football.

Those guys pretty much guaranteed that the Lewis saga had a fairtytale ending.

I've come to view the NFL like reality TV. Fun to watch, with a lot of manufactured drama and surprise endings to capture the viewers.

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KontradictioN

If that were the case, I don't think they would have came up with Ravens vs. 49ers as the big game. It would have been Pats/Packers or something like that. By and large, most fans did not want to see a "HarBowl".

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CREDIT - Sicilian

Nikolai

Yeah, that's my problem with this conspiracy theory. And also, bolstering Ray Lewis? The man much of America thinks is a murderer? Why? I don't buy it.

The first question with conspiracy theories should be "qui bono?"

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“On a day when they could have had impact players David Terrell or Koren Robinson..they took Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who had 1 sacks last season in the pass-happy SEC and is too tall to play tackle at 6-6 and too slow to play defensive end. This genius move was followed by trading out of a spot where they could have gotten the last decent receiver in Robert Ferguson and settled for tackle Matt Light, who will not help any time soon.”

Get it shawtaay

Why would the conspirators give the Ravens the title, if SF has a far larger (and far more affluent, might I add) fan base? Or why would they let them beat us for that matter? Baltimore executed on the field and the scores reflects that.

olschool

Being Pats fans, we tend to over estimate the popularity of our team. I know that in this part of Florida, heavily populated with graybeards from the northeast, the general consensus was, "ANYONE but the Pats." Aside from hating the Pats, people are just tired of them.

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olschool

The networks and league don't particularly care who wins, all they want is drama and a human interest story.

Remember, Lewis was never convicted of anything, whether he bought his freedom or not, and like him or hate him, he is a controversial, cartoonish character that the camera loves. Plus, the Baltimore area is also the DC area, one of the most affluent areas in the country.

And brother against against brother is just about the most natural conflict you could play up for the audience. It's a classic story of sibling rivalry, and people eat that stuff up.

The league and networks just don't want the same teams every year.

Remember how boring it got with the Bills four years in a row ?

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