2013/14 NFL Season

[Spargo]

Saints kick a field goal as time expires to win it.
Imagine the shit that will fly in the city of Brotherly Love.

[MatteeG]

Saints kick a field goal as time expires to win it.
Imagine the shit that will fly in the city of Brotherly Love.

Never in doubt! Go Saints.

Much tougher gig next week, hopefully make a better fist of it than our last visit there.

[Jim05]

Sucked in Filthy Philly
Go you Saints

[Brodlach]

Still shattered after the Chiefs collapse today. I should have expected it though

[Spargo]

Major upset brewing in Cinci - Chargers lead 20-10 early in the last.

[Wedgie]

Bengals choke yet again in the playoffs. Season wasted!

[The Sleeping Giant]

Ya Bengals.

[Spargo]

Same ol' bungles.

[Spargo]

Absolute farce that the 49ers have to play at Green Bay. San Francisco won 4 more games yet get penalised a road game (to play at the shit hole to end all shit holes) because they played in a stronger division (Seattle won 13).
Arizona play in the same div and won 10 games (2 more than the Packers) yet miss out on a playoff spot!
Green Bay get rewarded for playing in a mediocre div and only winning 50% of their games with a home playoff game.
The NFL really need to look at this.
Winning your division shouldn't give you automatic playoff entry.

[Spargo]

.

[woodublieve12]

Absolute farce that the 49ers have to play at Green Bay. San Francisco won 4 more games yet get penalised a road game (to play at the shit hole to end all shit holes) because they played in a stronger division (Seattle won 13).
Arizona play in the same div and won 10 games (2 more than the Packers) yet miss out on a playoff spot!
Green Bay get rewarded for playing in a mediocre div and only winning 50% of their games with a home playoff game.
The NFL really need to look at this.
Winning your division shouldn't give you automatic playoff entry.

then what's the point of having divisions??? i have to disagree with you bout this. you win your division, you go to playoffs.

[Spargo]

Absolute farce that the 49ers have to play at Green Bay. San Francisco won 4 more games yet get penalised a road game (to play at the shit hole to end all shit holes) because they played in a stronger division (Seattle won 13).
Arizona play in the same div and won 10 games (2 more than the Packers) yet miss out on a playoff spot!
Green Bay get rewarded for playing in a mediocre div and only winning 50% of their games with a home playoff game.
The NFL really need to look at this.
Winning your division shouldn't give you automatic playoff entry.

then what's the point of having divisions??? i have to disagree with you bout this. you win your division, you go to playoffs.

Then scrap the divs and just have the AFC & NFC.
Teams have made the playoffs with a sub .500 record in the past for simply winning their crappy div whilst good and deserving teams that win 10,11,12 games against quality teams miss out.
If I was a Cards' fan I'd be f#cking spewing.

[FlyingHigh]

But it will always be a circular argument while there are divisions. Sure, it seems SF and Arizona are stiff when, in addition to their records, the bottom -placed Rams had a better record than North bottom-placed Vikings and equal with third Detroit. But then look at the NFC South - did the Saints deserve to get a wildcard when they had two teams worse than Vikings and Rams? Or are the records of NFC West enhanced by drawing the seemingly weak AFC South this year?

Agree scrapping the division could be considered and then they could all place each other once, and maybe 3 games against the other conference (know there would be arguments about an 18 game season).

[Grahaml]

There's talk of home ground going to the team with the better record, regardless of which side wins a division. There's also talk of more wildcards. I think both should happen. There's no way the seppos will move away from a division based formula, but winning it should be a ticket to a playoff spot and nothing more. Have 2 more sides per conference in, abolish first round byes and seed by record.

[Jim05]

Just take the good with bad, some years your div will be weak and you make playoffs other years its the opposite. Across all the 4 major US sports its very rare that a particular div is too weak or strong for very long

[whufc]

What is with their fascination for divisions I HATE IT!

[pels]

Great win for the 49ers today, Kaepernick was clutch at the end.
The winning field goal went thru the defenders arms http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_asset ... gbarms.gif
Luckily he would of been called offside if blocked
Now on to Carolina which will be a tough game
Really enjoyed the Wildcard games, hope the Divisional games are just as good.

[Jim05]

What is with their fascination for divisions I HATE IT!

Its to do with their 3 differant time zones and travel factor.
In the NFL it isnt a big issue but in the NHL, NBA and MLB where multiple games are played during the week it would be a major pain constantly crossing the time zones.

[FOURTH ESTATE]

One of the major reasons why the SF49ers went to the playoffs every year during their great run was that the NFC West was so bad with Atlanta, New Orleans & the LA Rams always having sub -par .500 season 6 easy wins guarnteed straight away. Then throw in games against weaker opponents from other division and a 10-11 win season is assured and a most likely first round bye and possible homefield throughout the playoffs. The NFC West was known as the NFC Worst as most years those three teams usually finished no better then 5-11. Unlike the AFC West which was known as the hardest divison in the NFL as all teams in the that division were original teams from the AFL West. NFC Central was known as the Black & Blue division.

This problem has only really occured with since moving from 3 divisions per conference to 4. One more division winner with a possible weak record.

Previously it was 3 division winner and 3 wild cards

Now 4 division winners and only 2 wild cards.

The new alignments which beagn in 2002 have caused some problems.

Previous alignments

AFC West

Oakland
Denver
San Diego
Kansas City
Seattle (First placed in NFC West in 1976 then AFC West the following year 1977-2001 )

AFC Central

Pittsburgh
Cleveland (1970 - 1995 then reappeared again in 1999)
Cleveland / Baltimore (Since 1996)
Houston / Tennessee
Cincinatti
Jacksonville Jaguars (1995-2001)

AFC East

Miami
New York Jets
New England
Baltimore / Indianapolis (1970 - 2001 moved to Indianapolis in 1984)
Buffalo

NFC West

San Francisco
Atlanta (1970 - 2001)
New Orleans (1970 - 2001)
LA Rams / St Louis
Carolina (1995- 2001)

NFC Central

GreenBay
Chicago
Detroit
Minneapolis
Tampa Bay ( 1977 - 2001 In the AFC West in 1976)

NFC East

Dallas
Philadelphia
Washington
New York Giants
St Louis / Arizona (1970 - 2001)

The reshuffle was done for equal divisions and a more geograpical based competition as well as keeping long time rivalies intact.

Prior to the alignment and merger in 1970 the NFC had several diffent make ups and divisions while the AFL kept thiers the same for the whole ten years of their existence. But that it is another story

Remember the AFL. The little league that could and "The Foolish Mans Club"

[Zelezny Chucks]

Absolute farce that the 49ers have to play at Green Bay. San Francisco won 4 more games yet get penalised a road game (to play at the shit hole to end all shit holes) because they played in a stronger division (Seattle won 13).
Arizona play in the same div and won 10 games (2 more than the Packers) yet miss out on a playoff spot!
Green Bay get rewarded for playing in a mediocre div and only winning 50% of their games with a home playoff game.
The NFL really need to look at this.
Winning your division shouldn't give you automatic playoff entry.

then what's the point of having divisions??? i have to disagree with you bout this. you win your division, you go to playoffs.

Then scrap the divs and just have the AFC & NFC.
Teams have made the playoffs with a sub .500 record in the past for simply winning their crappy div whilst good and deserving teams that win 10,11,12 games against quality teams miss out.
If I was a Cards' fan I'd be f#cking spewing.

Cards fans would be very wary of mentioning anything about this, they went within a bees dick of winning the Superbowl in 09 after finishing 9-7 in a division that proved harder to lose a game than win one.