NFL - Are You Ready For Some Football?!! - PLAYOFFS

[Tuberski]

That is splitting hairs a 1.000 winning percentage is a 1.000 winning percentage, they can only tie the record. They also play against far inferior teams than the '72 Dolphins.

Because of rule changes and whatnot, if the Pats played the Dolphins in '72, they'd get beaten, if the 72' Dolphins came forward to 2007, the Pats would win easily.

ACK!

[Lorizael]

But but but Bill Parcells said the Patriots would beat the '72 Dolphins on Sunday when they ran out of programming!

Edit: Well that's interesting. I made my post before you made your edit. It's like a DanSing in my favor...

[Tuberski]

Your post appeared after my edit.

That %&*$^ with Parcells is extremely stupid, it's one of the main reasons I'm gonna laugh when the Pats lose.

F'ing homers.

It's why I avoid ESPNIS like the plague.

ACK!

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Tuberski
They also play against far inferior teams than the '72 Dolphins.

Heh.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I have to disagree as well. The '72 Dolphins played only TWO teams all regular season that finished with winning records. That's piss poor. Now, yeah, they had to get through a tough Pittsburgh team to get to the Superbowl and beat a very strong Redskins team in the big game, but aside from that...

[Dis]

I'm glad the game is on tv. I'll watch it.

You guys already know how I feel about the NFL. I've always hated how they regulated how the superbowl was watched in my city. I never understood how you can regulated something broadcast over free airwaves.

[snoopy369]

I do have to give the Pats credit for beating nearly every good team this year. Of teams that won their division and aren't pure crap:
Pittsburgh
Indianapolis
San Diego
Green Bay
Dallas
Seattle

They beat four of these teams fairly convincingly, as well as several other decent teams. True, six of their games were in the gimme AFC East, but the other ten games were a quite tough schedule... compare this to the standard College Football question (Out of Conference SOS), they get a very high ranking in that area.

[Ben Kenobi]

Actually, their SOS is only about .480

Colts and Chargers have a far harder schedule at .530

It helps to go undefeated when 6 games are gimmies plus the interconference division is the AFC North which isn't anyone's idea of world beaters. That's 9 games right there if you don't count the Steelers.

The Colts have a very hard schedule, Jacksonville twice, Tennessee twice, Chargers, and then the Patriots. They are the most prepared for the playoffs.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Actually, their SOS is only about .480

Colts and Chargers have a far harder schedule at .530

It helps to go undefeated when 6 games are gimmies plus the interconference division is the AFC North which isn't anyone's idea of world beaters. That's 9 games right there if you don't count the Steelers.

The Colts have a very hard schedule, Jacksonville twice, Tennessee twice, Chargers, and then the Patriots. They are the most prepared for the playoffs.

I'm sure you read the rest of my post, right, the part where I referred to the college "Out of Conference" SOS (or in their case, out of division). Take away the Dolphins, Bills, and Jets, and their SOS gets a lot better.

Further, they played most of the top teams. Dallas, Indy, Pittsburgh, and San Diego... only Green Bay is missing to have played every team with a reasonable shot at the superbowl. Of playoff-likely teams, the only teams they haven't beaten are the Packers, the Titans (if they make it), the Vikings, the Bucs (ha, ha), Seattle, and the soon to be played NY Giants... 6 or 7 playoff teams on their schedule isn't half bad (if the Browns make it... they played early, didn't they?). Add to that Cincy, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, three teams with the ability to win any game even if they don't actually win that many, and that's a pretty tough OOD schedule.

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Originally posted by Tuberski
That is splitting hairs a 1.000 winning percentage is a 1.000 winning percentage, they can only tie the record.

That's pretty good spin. Would the Dolphins had stayed at 1.000 in the longer season? Since it didn't happen like that and you can't prove that it would have, this would be a first in history, and not just "splitting hairs", unless you want to challenge the definition of "first time in history".

This could be the first time in history an NFL team goes 16-0 regular season and 19-0 through post. History is history any way you slice it.

Its also not going to be the only record the Pats break tomorrow.

[Ben Kenobi]

I'm sure you read the rest of my post, right, the part where I referred to the college "Out of Conference" SOS (or in their case, out of division). Take away the Dolphins, Bills, and Jets, and their SOS gets a lot better.

Yes Baltimore, Cincinnati and Cleveland are the elite. That's 9 games out of 16 against bottomfeeders. Cincy has played terrible all year, the Browns are the cinderella team, and the Ravens managed to lose every game in the AFC.

All the games count, not just the ones they play against the NFC, which are irrelevant in the case of the playoffs. Yes they beat the Chargers and they beat Indy and the Steelers. They have not played the Jaguars though, and from the looks of it, their first AFC playoff game will be the Jags.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
It helps to go undefeated when 6 games are gimmies plus the interconference division is the AFC North which isn't anyone's idea of world beaters. That's 9 games right there if you don't count the Steelers.

I'm not sure I'd call the Bills games gimmies...yeah, they're 7-8, but they're 7-8 against the toughest schedule in the league (DVOA) and with an injured starting QB for a good chunk of the year. Then again, part of being a good team is actually winning the games you're supposed to win *cough*Pittsburgh*cough*.

Regardless, the comparison was to the '72 Dolphins who had a historic season when handed a historically easy schedule. That certainly isn't the case with the Pats. Whether you think Indy or SD had tougher schedules or not, New England's was far from the easiest of the season, much less the history of the league.

[Donegeal]

Little notes about the Pats schedule:

@ NYJ- Mangini. They hate him.
SD- #3 seed in AFC
Buf- Div opponnet. Can't fault NE for this.
@ Cin- In contention for most of the year.
Cle- Still has shot at playoffs
@ Dal- #1 Seed in NFC
@ Mia- See Buf.
Was- Playoff team (had #4 def when Pats 'ran up the score')
@ Ind- #2 Seed in AFC and consensus #2 team in NFL.
@ Buf- See other Buf entry.
Phi- Dissapointing season. Should have been a NFC SB contender.
@ Bal- People forget, this team WAS 13-3 last year.
Pit- Playoff team. #4 seed, could still make #3 I think.
NYJ- See previous entry.
Mia- See Buf.
NYG- Playoff team.

That's 6 playoff teams and 2 that were close to making it. Plus, they beat the #2, #3 and #4 seeds in the AFC already. Now throw in the #1 seed from the NFC and you have them playing 4 of the top 5 teams in the NFL (aside from themselves).

Easy schedule? Not a chance.

[SlowwHand]

Are you on drugs? When I saw the Philly synopsis, I thought well, hell. Yeah, Philly is no pushover, but NFC rep? Come on, man!

[Ben Kenobi]

Actually I was wrong.

Their strength of schedule after playing Miami is now 0.486.

It's not a weak schedule, but nor is it particularly strong. It's stronger then Seattle, Cleveland, Tampa and the Steelers, but weaker then the remaining playoff contenders.

As for Buffalo, it's not that difficult a schedule. They are at 0.510, which is about average, even with two games against an undefeated team.

The teams with difficult schedules are the Colts, Chargers, Jags and last but not least the Redskins. The Redskins are very underrated, and they proved it last game. The only two teams with harder schedules then the Redskins are the Eagles, and the Bears.