# NFL 2021: Super Wild Card Week Hey Nineteen **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** football-nfl\ **Created:** [January 15, 2022, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814 "2022-01-15T00:25:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/101 "2022-01-18T18:32:13Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > You’re right though. Having the #2 seed vs the #7 seed is kind of ridiculous. You’re setting up a blowout to air on national television. Lest we forget (as I did), last year there were also 14 teams in the playoffs. In the AFC, there were four 11-5 teams: Titans, Ravens, Browns, and Colts. Titans won their division, so the other 3 teams were wild card teams. The Colts were the #7 seed and lost to the #2 Bills 27-24. The Browns, #6, beat the #3 Steelers 48-37, and the Ravens, #5 beat the #4 Titans 20-13. In the NFC, the 8-8 Bears were the #7 seed and got beat by the #2 Saints 21-9. But the #6 Rams beat the #2 Seahawks 30-20, and the #5 Bucs beat the #4 WFT31-23. (Of course, WFT was just 7-9 in the unworthy NFC East.) So last year in the AFC having the extra wild-card team made for a damn good first weekend. The NFC, not so much, although two wild-card teams won their games. Lot different than this year. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/102 "2022-01-18T18:43:39Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > I think it’s dumb, and just increases the changes an “unworthy” team will win the championship, but oh well. To get to the Super Bowl, at this point, an “unworthy” team (which I’ll arbitrarily define as being one of the lower wild card teams, or a division winner whose record was only around .500) will have to win three games, at least two of which will be on the road, and which will primarily be against “worthier” teams. Yes, in any given game, the weaker team will sometimes win, but if a .500-ish team can get hot enough to run the table, on the road, in the playoffs, against what appear to be superior teams, maybe they aren’t truly “unworthy.” ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/103 "2022-01-18T18:46:25Z")
First define worth. If we want to value the regular season and winning the division, then they aren’t worthy. But if we value more randomness in results and willing to devalue regular season games, then, sure, they’re worthy. Either way has elements of subjectivity and both are valid ways of thinking but one should be chosen ahead of time. That’s at least consistent. Saying “well, let’s wait to see who wins” is just bandwagon thinking ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/104 "2022-01-18T19:28:47Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Yes, in any given game, the weaker team will sometimes win, but if a .500-ish team can get hot enough to run the table, on the road, in the playoffs, against what appear to be superior teams, maybe they aren’t truly “unworthy.” The 2012 NY Giants won their division with a 9-7 record. The two NFC wild-card teams that year, the Lions and Falcons, both had 10-6 records. The other 3 division winners that year were 15-1, 13-3, and 13-3. So the Giants had the sixth-best record in the NFC. Giants beat the Falcons at home 24-2, then the 15-1 Packers on the road 37-20, then the 13-3 Niners on the road 20-17. In the SB, the Giants beat the Pats 21-17. That was an impressive playoff run. I certainly wouldn’t consider the 2012 Giants unworthy. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/105 "2022-01-18T20:51:16Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > How? The league sets the schedule, not the owners, and there’s always a flurry of press releases and advertising for season tickets when the season schedule gets released each year. I was thinking that a team owner could use the scheduling quirk to over- or under-sell the economic impact of their team. Tell the city you’re trying to leave “the eight games last year only brought in $X revenue, so we can’t remain in this market”, then tell the city you want to move to “the nine games next year will generate $Y at local businesses, like bars and restaurants, so I deserve tax breaks to move my team.” Anybody who’s paying attention shouldn’t fall for it, but issus like this don’t always account for the details. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/106 "2022-01-18T20:55:24Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I was thinking that a team owner could use the scheduling quirk to over- or under-sell the economic impact of their team. As you note, they might _try_, but it’d be pretty quickly seen through. Any city which looks at only one year’s worth of numbers kind of deserves what they get. Also, FWIW, I think that the only NFL franchise at this moment which really has any potential for relocation in the foreseeable future is the Jaguars – small-market city, hemmed in by the fan bases of other southeastern teams, and they’ve been at the lead of the league’s flirtation with London for several years. (Buffalo might be next on the list after them.) ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/107 "2022-01-18T21:15:36Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > My guess is that it’s to prevent a coach from purposely slowing down a game by challenging some minor aspect of almost every play. Is it 2nd and 8, or 2nd and 8.2? Did the runner go out of bounds with 9:34 remaining in the first quarter, or was it 9:35? That sort of thing. You can’t really challenge minor things. It’s all stuff that changes the play. 1st down or not, reception or incompletion, etc. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/108 "2022-01-18T21:17:31Z")
There was a Browns game I watched where they challenged an obviously incorrect ball placement on what should’ve been a first down. They reviewed it, concluded that the ball was indeed placed incorrectly, moved it up about a foot, measured with the sticks… and it still wasn’t a first down. I think the Browns were still charged with a timeout because, even though the review did result in a changed position of the ball, it didn’t affect the nature of the outcome (no first down). So I think there are already rules to cover that “insufficiently consequential challenge” scenario. Or the Browns got jobbed, which is also fairly likely. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/109 "2022-01-18T21:23:46Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > That was an impressive playoff run. I certainly wouldn’t consider the 2012 Giants unworthy. If a team gets hot late then awesome. More power to them. You also have situations where a team has injury issues in the regular season but by the end of the year all of their key players are available, and they are stronger than their records indicate. Especially if the other top teams are missing folks through attrition in the offseason. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/110 "2022-01-18T23:54:54Z")
Go Niners! [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/EdGGxia.jpeg?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/2OItiB3) ---
**Author:** ![3AxisCtrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/ecd19e/32.png) [@3AxisCtrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3AxisCtrl)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/111 "2022-01-19T02:38:33Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > My guess is that it’s to prevent a coach from purposely slowing down a game by challenging some minor aspect of almost every play. I think challenges are valuable enough that it would be quite rare for a coach to feel that trivial ones are in his team’s best interest. Trying to dispute, say, the spot of the ball by a few inches runs way too much risk of being wrong. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/112 "2022-01-19T02:43:10Z")
> [@3AxisCtrl](#): > > I think challenges are valuable enough that it would be quite rare for a coach to feel that trivial ones are in his team’s best interest. I would also suspect that such a coach would soon find that he is no longer getting any benefit of the doubt in any judgment call from the officials (including the results of replay reviews). ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/113 "2022-01-19T04:21:20Z")
My wife pointed this out to me… > **[Golden age: Tom Brady is older than every remaining NFC opposing coach](https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/amp/golden_age_tom_brady_is_older_than_every_remaining_nfc_opposing_coach/s1_12680_37022429)** > > Brady and the Buccaneers face the Rams in the divisional round of the playoffs. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/114 "2022-01-19T06:02:10Z")
Brady is incredible. And I say that as a huge Joe Montana fan. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/115 "2022-01-19T21:56:52Z")
I always like to think about the what-if. ? Brady was a 6th round pick. If Drew Bledsoe hadn’t gotten hurt would Tom have ever had a chance Or What if the “Tuck Rule” had gone the other way. The Pats would have likely lost the game. You obviously have to replace Bledsoe going forward with “2001 Superbowl Winner Brady” . But could you replace him with “2001 good season, but Divisional Playoff Loser Brady” ? Bledsoe was one of the top 3 QBs in the league going into 2001. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2022, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/116 "2022-01-20T00:25:44Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > What if the “Tuck Rule” had gone the other way. Today is the 20th anniversary of that game. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2022, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814/117 "2022-01-22T00:51:26Z")
New thread: > [@NFL 2021: Divisional Round / Week Twenty Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-divisional-round-week-twenty-questions/958202): > > The Divisional Round is here, and the games should be a little more competitive. Or maybe we’ll get another three blowouts. Saturday (all times EST) 4:30 pm: 4 Cincinnati Bengals @ 1 Tennessee Titans (-3.5) 8:15 pm: 6 San Francisco 49ers @ 1 Green Bay Packers (-6) Sunday 3:00 pm: 4 Los Angeles Rams @ 2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-3) 6:30 pm: 3 Buffalo Bills @ 2 Kansas City Chiefs (-2) I went 6-0 with my picks last week, so I feel obligated to try again. Regression to the mean says you should d… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-2021-super-wild-card-week-hey-nineteen/957814.md?page=5)