OK.
1) The sport has already defined BEST. It has defined best as playing a regular season to establish participation and seeding for the post-season, where the best team is determined by who does not lose in a win or go home atmosphere.
2) Your argument is that things should be different because who you thought was best didn't turn out to be best. There is no need to change the system because you were wrong
3) Your argument is that the best team doesn't win, because you can create an excuse for a team losing a playoff game because 'they forgot how to play' 'they played like crap' and other excuses for not getting the job done. Your mini-playoff series isn't going to change that. If you cannot accept that the better team is the one that wins the game that determines who advances and who goes home, you are simply added an unnecessary step, essentially changing the rules of seeding, which do not need to be changed to begin with.
4) You didn't even respond to the ridiculous Patriots were the 2nd best defense in the regular season debacle, so I will assume you have learned the error of that analysis.
Ok Andy, I can see you perhaps are misunderstanding what I said and continue to claim I am wrong. Wrong about what, exactly? I didn't make any claims of who I thought would be
the best and turned out wrong. Maybe you can show me where I did that, and you might have an argument but I don't believe that I did.
And I just want to say I have responded to defense argument and presented evidence numerous times since I began posting in this forum. If you are referring to that then I'm pretty sure the Patriots holding the Broncos to 10 points and then the defense showing their strength against the Ravens prove it right, not wrong. But anyway, look throughout my post history and you will find threads and post where I presented varied quality defensive statistics and explanations which proved to be very solid measurements throughout the playoffs. And it's such a complicated topic that there's simply no point to re-opening it in this thread. There's plenty of others that understand it and have presented similar statements or numbers as well.
As far as your other 3 points, it's not about me or what I think. It's about
finding out. Your argument is they are the best because this playoff systems says so. Well ok. You want it to end there and let it be that. I understand that. But you should know sports do change playoff formats, conversations like this do take place, and they are valid topics. They were initially created by people and committees, not the sport. And the fans, and their input, frankly were not involved. Nor will mine be. So don't worry. If you're ok with leaving everything up to them and just simply accepting what they put out, that's cool. Got no choice anyway. But it doesn't mean I can't ask the question.
My premise in the OP initially was to openly question the system and bring in the argument that it is flawed in the first place. You believe it to be adequate and the final word. I don't. So if you continue to use the argument they're clearly the best, because that's what the system we have says they are, what is there left for us to debate?
That's your opinion, plenty of people agree with it, like I originally stated, I understand I may be in the minority there, and there's nothing for me to argue there. The entire point was that it questioned the adequacy of the format itself and it has little to do with me not liking the current outcome due to some fear or being wrong.
Are you kidding me?
This couldn't have been more favorable for me as Patriots fan. This isn't about making my personal opinion of who the best is come true. Because frankly, my personal opinion of who the best team really is remains the same:
I don't know. And neither do you. You just choose to more easily accept what an inadequate playoff system spits out and I don't.
PS: Unless your telling me I'm wrong for questioning it, which is what honestly sounds like you're saying.
