I prefer to think of it as “the Patriots NEVER go down without a fight.” (Just ask the Falcons)
Why have divisions at all in that case? There should be some reason, other than tradition.
That said, while I’m ok with reserving a playoff spot for division winners, I’d also support 7-9 or 8-8 division winners having to be the road team on wild card weekend (assuming the wild cards have better records).
I’d even consider setting the seeding for the wild card games by overall record regardless of division standing. The top 2 seeds wouldn’t be affected, though the top 2 division winners also usually have the top 2 records in each league anyway.
I see it having two reasons…
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It forces rivalries. Which sometimes works, and sometimes doesn’t. Which team in New England’s division has been their big rival this past decade or so?
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It makes division games “special” in the regular season. Just like Monday/Thursday/Sunday night football, the NFL likes it when games have more on the line to increase interest. Divisional games are another way to ensure that some games are more impactful.
I’m sure there are other reasons but those 2 seem the most logical, especially if you consider that the NFL is in the entertainment business and their decisions always have the end goal of getting more viewers/grabbing more attention.
For me it’s for geography (well, rather loosely) and to aid in scheduling.
I’d be willing to go with this but I’m still not real keen on teams with mediocre records making it into the playoffs only because they won their division.
If the 2010 Seahawks didn’t make the playoffs at 7-9, the Beast Quake would never have happened. So that alone is a strong argument for it.
Nice win by the 'h[COLOR=“Lime”]awks[/COLOR] tonight. The [COLOR=“White”]Vikings[/COLOR] were #1 in the league in rush “D” coming in, giving up fewer than 100 yards per game on average. Se[COLOR=“Lime”]attle[/COLOR] rushed for over 200 yards against them tonight. Woo hoo!
Yeah, I know. Obviously we were all jazzed by that and the win over the defending league champions. But I still have a general objection to teams with losing records making the playoffs. But I guess that’s just me.
I think after 3 strong games in a row it’s safe to say the Seahawks have a legitimately good defense. Huge turnaround from that group, and it all happened when Diggs joined the backfield.
And then after being nearly invisible or even a liability all year, suddenly Ziggy Ansah plays great in two games, getting to the backfield and making big plays.
And then he gets hurt. 
He had shoulder surgery which he took a long time to recover from, and to me it looked like he reinjured his shoulder after a collision. He left the field with his right arm dangling lifeless.
I think having Mike Solari as offensive line coach has made a HUGE difference, as well.
A thought just occurred to me… Who are the Vikings going to fire this time?
Zimmer. Please fire Zimmer.
Like the Bears firing Lovie Smith, it would warm the cockles of my heart beyond recognition.
Eh, it’s an issue with scheduling. Not everyone gets to play in the AFCE and be guaranteed 4-6 wins every year over perennial mediocrities (at best). Some teams get to play in divisions like the NFCW of recent years. Combine that with the rotational inter- and intra-conference games, and you can get a nightmare scenario where an entire division beats themselves up and gets to play the best of the best around the league as well. In 2010, the NFCW
Want a home playoff game? Win your division. Of a team’s 16 games, they share 14 of them with their division. Given that both sub-.500 division winners covered the home team spread en route to a wildcard round victory, I’d say it’s working pretty well.
Eh. They were playing against the Jets. As I recall when “Nawlins” won only one game in 1980 their one victim was the Jets. Aside from their famous victory in S.B. III the New York Jets really don’t have much to hang their hat on from over the years.
Well, it’s true that the N.F.L.'s uneven scheduling can have something to do with that but just because a team goes 3 - 3 or 4 - 2 in its division doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s because its division is full of strong teams. It could just be that the division is full of mediocre teams. That season that Seattle entered the playoffs with a 7 - 9 record only because they won their division wasn’t because all the other teams in the division were great, it’s because no team in that division that year was particularly good; as I recall people around the country called that division the “NFC Worst” that year and with good reason.
losing to Washington was so bad it got Ron Rivera fired
I’ll be honest, I thought Riverboat Ron would be gone last year. Instead they fired a couple of lower tier coaches in week 16. Makes sense to me.
The two teams (“Nawlins” and St. Louis) that lost to Tampa Bay at the end of the 1977 season after the Buccaneers started their existence 0 - 26 each fired their head coach (Hank Stram and Don Coryell, respectively).
I don’t think there’s any real shame in losing to a (now) 10 - 2 Seahawks team in prime time in Seattle. Now, had they lost to the “Natives,” the Dolphins, or the “Bungles,” on the other hand. . .
Good point. Last year on MNF they lost to an 8-5 Seahawks, getting crushed 21-7, and those 7 points were in garbage time. This year they were 17-10 at halftime and managed to crawl up from 34-17 to finish at 37-30. They made a real fight of it in a game against a team that is tied for the best record in the NFL. Much less shame this time.
Plus they are only a game behind the Packers and still have a real chance of winning the division. Even if they don’t catch the Packers, they’re very likely to be a wild card. Last year the MNF loss put them at 6-6-1 and their playoff chances were slim; and they were 2.5 games behind the Bears in the divisional race as well. So the situations aren’t that comparable.
Nobody. That’s the one thing that takes away, a little bit, from all the Patriots’ S.B. titles in my opinion - the fact that their division rivals haven’t provided much competition for them for almost all of the last couple of decades. How three teams from the same division can stay so mediocre (at best) to lousy for so long all at the same time is something that I cannot explain.