King on playoff seeding system

[SVN]

Peter King's Wild-Card Weekend predictions - Peter King - SI.com

In the NFL, what passes for major debate today is how the wrong teams are in the playoffs. We seem to either want New England to get some sort of hall pass because they're home for the holidays and San Diego is in, or we want to just eliminate the division structure altogether and get the six teams with the best records in each conference in the playoffs.

No, and no. But what the NFL should do is not automatically award division winners a home playoff game. I'll get to the reasons for that in a moment, and I'll pick this weekend's game, but first, let's put away the violins for the Patriots, and for the death of divisions.

The fact New England lost out this year is an unfortunate anomaly. The Patriots are certainly one of the best seven or eight teams in football today, and 12 make the playoffs. In the last three weeks of the season, they played in the driving rain (Oakland), blowing snow (Arizona) and 40-mph gale-force winds (Buffalo) and outscored foes 109-33. Good team. Very good team. But let's compare the Patriots and Chargers in a few relevant categories.

• Record: New England 11-5, San Diego 8-8. Huge advantage Pats.

• Head-to-head: San Diego 30, New England 10 on Oct. 12. Advantage Chargers.

• Division record: New England 4-2, San Diego 5-1. Advantage Chargers.

• Last month: New England 4-0, San Diego 4-0. Even.

• Last Half-Season: New England 5-3, San Diego 5-3. Even.

New England lost by 25 at home to Miami and by 23 at home to Pittsburgh, and allowed Brett Favre to convert a third-and-15 pass in overtime Nov. 13, leading to an overtime win by the Jets in Foxboro. So while there's little doubt they're one of the best teams ever to not make the playoffs, they're hardly the '85 Bears. Or even the '07 Patriots.

i guess our loss to SD and miami beating them made a huge diff

 

[Disco Volante]

Little did we know, our season was officially over after the Pittsburgh game.

 

[jmt57]

Not sure why he brings up division record, since they play in different divisions; it's not relevant - unless King also wants to compare the quality of the Broncos, Raiders and Chiefs to the Dolphins, Jets and Bills.

Regardless, I have no problem with the current system. Build your team to win the division first. If you don't win, then you have not one, but two more chances to get in to the playoffs. That's three chances to make the playoffs; if your team got left out then you need to look at your own shortcomings rather than point fingers at the system, or a team that won its own division.

 

[BionicPatriot]

All this crying over spilt milk. People need to suck that **** up and take it for what it is.

I say leave it at is, we don't complain about it until one season and we want to change it? I'm proud of the 11-5 mark, but a super bowl contending team should be able to beat a good team, something we did very little of.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

I have no problem either with the seeding system. The Pats knew the system. They worked hard to overcome the injuries with the players they had, but it all came together a game too late in the season.......

 

[italian pat patriot]

'infortunately anomaly' is true like it is true that the OT loss against Nyj and that play (3rd and 15) was 'the play' of the game and for our season too

i do not dislike anyway the actual NFL play-off system

 

[Delicate Genius]

Playoff format is fine... it's the draft I would like to see fixed so 1-20 are non-playoff teams and 21-32 are playoff teams.

The only thing I would change with the playoff system is the team with the better record should always get home field. I think it's a joke that 12-4 Indy has to play on the road against an 8-8 Chargers team.

 

[DarrylS]

It is what it is, everyone knows what to expect.. the Pats f..ed up and suffered the consequence.. it is not as though they changed the rules in Mid December.. Jets OT loss was critical.

 

[Sean Pa Patriot]

Im not pissed at missing out, more pissed teams like Dallas and NYJ did not step up, with that being said, we need to take care of our home turf, and we are playing this week..

 

[dhamz]

As usual, I disagree with King.

There is nothing wrong with the playoff format. SD deserves to be in and deserves a home game this weekend. If Indy wanted a home game, they should have beaten Tennessee the first time they played.

 

[fgssand]

It would be far worse to see teams with better records that happen to play in in a weak division or a divsion playing weak conferences get in over a division winner from a very tough division.

It sucks we're not going, but I wouldn't change a thing.

 

[upstater1]

Peter King's Wild-Card Weekend predictions - Peter King - SI.com

I guess our loss to SD and miami beating them made a huge diff

LO, let me describe to you what a hypocrite I am by saying divisions SHOULD count for the playoffs but NOT FOR seeding, and then let me also prove to you I am not a hypocrite by giving a few irrelevant stats such as division record.

What does division record have to do with this? Anyone?

Peter King is a joke.

I respect people more when they just say, you're out because of the divisions. PERIOD.

Making these excuses like King does is just lame. The Jets beat the Titans. So what? That doesn't make the Titans any less deserving than they are.

Pathetic.

 

[upstater1]

It would be far worse to see teams with better records that happen to play in in a weak division or a divsion playing weak conferences get in over a division winner from a very tough division.

It sucks we're not going, but I wouldn't change a thing.

I would. I would require winning records.

You say it would be far worse?

But, what if a 3-13 team got in over a 13-3 team?

Would it still be far worse?

We were very close this year to being 12-4 and out of the playoffs. A Walt Coleman reversal of the call in the Ravens-Steelers game, and a 3 yard TD by Matt Schaub with 3 seconds left against the Phins, would have kept New England out of the playoffs even with a 12-4 record!!!

I wonder what people would be saying right now if that had happened.

I would keep the divisional structure as well, but I'd either add a 7th team to the playoffs from each conference or else say that you have to at least have a winning record to be in the playoffs.

 

[upstater1]

All this crying over spilt milk. People need to suck that **** up and take it for what it is.

I say leave it at is, we don't complain about it until one season and we want to change it? I'm proud of the 11-5 mark, but a super bowl contending team should be able to beat a good team, something we did very little of.

Look back at 2001 and 2006. You will see the same thing. We beat very few good teams during the year, and somehow we were still Super Bowl contenders.

I do think the system needs to be changed, but not radically. It would be an easy fix as I explained above.

 

[upstater1]

Playoff format is fine... it's the draft I would like to see fixed so 1-20 are non-playoff teams and 21-32 are playoff teams.

The only thing I would change with the playoff system is the team with the better record should always get home field. I think it's a joke that 12-4 Indy has to play on the road against an 8-8 Chargers team.

I can't understand this thinkng.

If 8-8 is better than 11-5 because of the divisional situation, then it should also be god enough for a better seed.

You can't have it both ways.

Division winners get in because the thinking is that the NFL has unbalanced scheduling and that you can't compare records. You have to apply this logic across the board.

 

[RayClay]

The playoff system is the same, that's true. Nevertheless, the stuupid comparisons and sarcasm from triple whipped cream Mocha King were unnecessary and misleading.

11-5 is a lot better than 8-8. They were in a division where 8-8 wins!! They should have beat everyone because they all suck!!

Yes we lost some early games. Maybe it's because our QB hadn't had sustained playing time since high school?

Have another sugar cream coffee bomb lardass. Nobodies buying your irrelevant comparisons.

 

[RayClay]

I would. I would require winning records.

That's actually not a bad idea. Simple and built on a principle. Hard to argue philosophically that non-winners deserve placement over winners regardless of playoff structure.

 

[RayClay]

It would be far worse to see teams with better records that happen to play in in a weak division or a divsion playing weak conferences get in over a division winner from a very tough division.

It sucks we're not going, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Problem with that is, you have more non-conference games.

Mathematically difficult for a team to have a better record than everyone in their division, while losing to everyone in the "tough" division and also having 3 full game deficit to a team in an "easy" division.

An 8-8 team is usually (always) from a crap division while a 11-5 team is from the stronger one. the math is almost impossible otherwise.

 

[upstater1]

Problem with that is, you have more non-conference games.

Mathematically difficult for a team to have a better record than everyone in their division, while losing to everyone in the "tough" division and also having 3 full game deficit to a team in an "easy" division.

An 8-8 team is usually (always) from a crap division while a 11-5 team is from the stronger one. the math is almost impossible otherwise.

One other thing to add to this:

Last year the Patriots could have hosted a playoff game with a 6-10 record if we had only beaten the Bills, Jets and Dolphins in division.

If we had added wins against Cleveland and Cincy, then again, we would be like the Chargers, we would have hosted a playoff game with an 8-8 record.

My priority would be to keep the division structure, because I like it. But it needs limits. You can't have 6-10 teams getting in, and we were very close to a 7-9 team getting in one decade ago.

I also think a 7th team would be ideal because I don't like the idea of two byes from each conference.

 

[Chevy]

The NFL's season and playoff system is the best of all pro sports:

-16 games ... They ALL count. Lose 2 in a row and you're in trouble.

-Win and you're in. The goal is to win the Division.

-Winning the Division means something - it transcends the win/loss record

Look at other pro sports ... Baseball and it's 182 game season, multi-game playoff rounds ... The NBA, where everybody gets in and the post season is longer than the regular season ... NHL - where a tie gets you points to help you in the standings.

The NFL system is pure, and honest. Leave it alone.