You know who the best teams are in the National Football Conference this year. That’s not a question, that’s a statement. If you don’t agree that the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles are the three best teams in the NFC you simply are not paying attention.
It doesn’t mean any of them are going to win the Super Bowl necessarily, but if you can find someone to give you even money with those three teams versus the field, take it.
If any or all of them get tripped up in the NFC playoffs who are the likely candidates to cash the upset?
Still looking.
Well, I don’t see any team that is going to clear the hurdle of tripping up by one of those top three NFC teams, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be giving it their all to get into the six team postseason tournament. This week, a couple hopefuls meet at Lambeau Field when the Green Bay Packers host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Neither team has a winning record, and the Packers only path to the postseason is likely via the Wild Card route. It appears catching the Detroit Lions in the NFC North Division seems unlikely, although their victory in Detroit on Thanksgiving did breathe life into that prospect.
The Packers chances would have been a lot better, and they would have a winning record, if they could have defeated the New York Giants on Monday night at MetLife Stadium. They didn’t, allowing New York to travel the length of the field to kick the winning field goal on the game’s last play.
The Buccaneers used the last minute of their must win game on Sunday to score the winning touchdown against the Falcons in Atlanta. Their victory, coupled with the New Orleans Saints win over the Carolina Panthers, leaves the NFC South Division in a three way tie for first place. There are so many combinations of tiebreakers that favor the Bucs, Saints or Falcons, that it is best left unsaid until the results send one of these three teams that currently have a losing record into the fourth seed of the playoffs.
That’s right, the winner of the NFC South with be the fourth seed and have a home playoff game, while the team that wins the highly competitive battle between the Cowboys and Eagles will have the first or second seed and the team that fails to win the NFC East will drop to the fifth seed. That means an excellent team with a winning record will open the playoffs on the road in the Wild Card round.
Now, somebody is going to complain that teams as good as the Eagles and Cowboys, with both teams owning winning records much better than the division winner in the NFC South, should be granted home field over the lesser team.
No they shouldn’t.
Read the rules, division winners are seeded one through four and the two Wild Card teams, squads with the best records that didn’t win their division, are five and six.
Change the rules because it looks bad this year and you will create monster problems in the future. Whenever the league looks to correct, they usually make a mistake. Just look at the ability to challenge pass interference and the mess that caused in the wake of bad officiating sending the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl instead of what should have been the New Orleans Saints if the pass interference call wouldn’t have been blown.
But, don’t get me off on the officiating in the NFL, so much there I will lose focus on what I’m here to say. That is, the Buccaneers proved last week they are capable of winning even on the road against a team with a better record. The Packers proved this is not their year … and probably not their week this coming Sunday either.
Qoxhi Picks: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+3½) over Green Bay Packers