NFL Football Discussion Thread ~ Final Week of Regular Season

NFL ^

[CounterCounterCulture]

*** USELESS VANITY THREAD ***

And thus begins the official end to the season of 20 NFL teams as the 12 survivors jockey for their post-season slots this weekend.

AFC East  
  Team           W  L T 
  Miami          9  6 0 
  N.Y. Jets      8  7 0 
  New England    8  7 0  
  Buffalo        7  8 0 
 
AFC North  
  Team           W  L T 
y-Pittsburgh     9  5 1 
  Cleveland      8  7 0 
  Baltimore      7  8 0 
  Cincinnati     2 13 0  
 
AFC South  
  Team           W  L T 
y-Tennessee     10  5 0 
  Indianapolis   9  6 0 
  Jacksonville   6  9 0 
  Houston        4 11 0 
 
AFC West  
  Team           W  L T 
y-Oakland       10  5 0 
  Denver         8  7 0 
  Kansas City    8  7 0 
  San Diego      8  7 0 
 
NFC East  
  Team           W  L T 
yz-Philadelphia 12  3 0  
  N.Y. Giants    9  6 0 
  Washington     6  9 0 
  Dallas         5 10 0  
 
NFC North  
  Team           W  L T 
y-Green Bay     12  3 0
  Minnesota      5 10 0 
  Chicago        4 11 0 
  Detroit        3 12 0 
 
NFC South  
  Team           W  L T 
y-Tampa Bay     11  4 0  
  Atlanta        9  5 1 
  New Orleans    9  6 0  
  Carolina       6  9 0 
 
NFC West  
  Team           W  L T 
y-San Francisco 10  5 0 
  Seattle        6  9 0 
  St. Louis      6  9 0 
  Arizona        5 10 0  
x-clinched playoff berth
y-clinched division title
z-clinched first-round bye
*-clinched homefield advantage 

Official playoff scenarios

The following are the official playoff scenarios in each conference and division as determined by the NFL. Strength of victory is the season-ending winning percentage of all the opponents a team has defeated. Strength of victory can change after final week.

AFC EAST

Miami Dolphins: Can clinch AFC East division with win or tie.
To clinch home-field advantage: 1) Win AND Oakland loss AND Tennessee loss AND Pittsburgh loss AND Miami wins strength of victory tiebreaker over Oakland and Tennessee.
To clinch a first-round bye: 1) Win AND Pittsburgh loss or tie AND Oakland loss; 2) Win AND Pittsburgh loss or tie AND Tennessee loss; 3) Win AND Tennessee loss AND Oakland loss AND Miami wins strength of victory tiebreaker over Oakland and Tennessee.
To clinch a playoff spot: 1) N.Y. Jets loss or tie AND Denver win; 2) N.Y. Jets loss or tie AND Kansas City loss or tie.

New England Patriots: Can clinch AFC East division: 1) Win AND N.Y. Jets loss or tie.
To clinch a playoff spot: 1) Win AND Cleveland loss or tie AND Denver loss or tie AND Kansas City win; 2) Win AND Cleveland loss or tie AND Denver loss or tie AND San Diego loss or tie; 3) Tie AND N.Y. Jets loss AND Cleveland loss AND Denver loss AND San Diego loss AND Kansas City loss or tie.

New York Jets: Can clinch AFC East division: 1) Win AND Miami loss.
Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win AND Cleveland loss or tie AND Denver win; 2) Win AND Cleveland loss or tie AND Kansas City loss or tie; 3) Tie AND New England loss or tie AND Cleveland loss AND Denver loss or tie AND Kansas City loss AND San Diego loss or tie.

AFC NORTH

Pittsburgh Steelers: Have clinched the AFC North title.
Can clinch home-field advantage: 1) Win AND Tennessee loss AND Oakland loss.
Can clinch a first-round bye: 1) Win AND Tennessee loss; 2) Win AND Oakland loss.

Cleveland Browns: Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win AND Denver win AND N.Y. Jets win; 2) Win AND Kansas City loss or tie AND N.Y. Jets win; 3) Win AND Denver win AND Miami win or tie; 4) Win AND Kansas City loss or tie AND Miami win or tie; 5) Tie AND N.Y. Jets loss or tie AND New England loss or tie AND Denver loss or tie AND San Diego loss or tie AND Kansas City loss; 6) New England loss AND N.Y. Jets loss AND Baltimore loss or tie AND Denver loss AND San Diego loss AND Kansas City loss.

Baltimore Ravens: Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win AND New England loss AND N.Y. Jets loss AND Cleveland loss AND Denver loss AND San Diego loss AND Kansas City loss.

AFC SOUTH

Tennessee Titans: Have clinched AFC South title.
Can clinch home-field advantage: 1) Win AND Oakland loss or tie; 2) Tie AND Oakland loss; 3) Pittsburgh loss or tie AND Miami win AND Oakland loss AND Tennessee wins on strength of victory tiebreaker over Miami and Oakland.
Can clinch a first-round bye: 1) Win or tie; 2) Miami loss AND Pittsburgh loss or tie; 3) Oakland loss AND Miami win AND Tennessee wins strength of victory tiebreaker over Oakland and Miami.

Indianapolis Colts: Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win or tie; 2) New England loss or tie; 3) N.Y. Jets win; 4) Cleveland loss or tie AND Kansas City loss or tie; 5) Cleveland loss or tie AND Denver win.

AFC WEST

OAKLAND Raiders: Have clinched AFC West title.
Can clinch home-field advantage: 1) Win; 2) Tie AND Tennessee loss or tie; 3) Pittsburgh loss or tie AND Tennessee loss AND Miami loss; 4) Pittsburgh loss or tie AND Tennessee loss AND Oakland wins strength of victory tiebreaker over Tennessee and Miami.
Can clinch first-round bye: 1) Tie; 2) Miami loss or tie AND Pittsburgh loss or tie; 3) Miami loss or tie AND Tennessee loss; 4) Tennessee loss AND Oakland wins strength of victory tiebreaker over Tennessee and Miami.

Denver Broncos: Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win AND Cleveland loss or tie AND New England loss or tie AND N.Y. Jets loss or tie; 2) Win AND Cleveland loss or tie AND Miami loss AND N.Y. Jets win; 3) Tie AND New England loss or tie AND N.Y. Jets loss AND Cleveland loss AND Kansas City loss or tie AND San Diego loss or tie.

Kansas City Chiefs: Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win AND Denver loss or tie AND New England loss or tie; 2) Win AND Denver loss or tie AND Indianapolis win or tie AND N.Y. Jets loss or tie; 3) Win AND Denver loss or tie AND Indianapolis loss AND N.Y. Jets win AND Cleveland win; 4) Tie AND New England loss AND N.Y. Jets loss or tie AND Cleveland loss or tie AND Denver loss AND San Diego loss or tie.

San Diego Chargers: Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win AND Denver loss or tie AND Kansas City loss or tie AND New England loss or tie AND N.Y. Jets loss or tie AND Cleveland loss or tie; 2) Win AND Denver loss or tie AND Kansas City loss or tie AND Miami loss AND N.Y. Jets win AND Cleveland loss or tie; 3) Tie AND Denver loss AND Kansas City loss AND New England loss AND N.Y. Jets loss AND Cleveland loss.

NFC EAST

Philadelphia Eagles: Have clinched NFC East title and a first-round bye.
Can clinch home-field advantage: 1) Win; 2) Tie AND Green Bay loss or tie; 3) Green Bay loss.

New York Giants: Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win; 2) Tie AND New Orleans loss or tie; 3) New Orleans loss.

NFC NORTH

Green Bay Packers: Have clinched NFC North title.
Can clinch home-field advantage: 1) Win AND Philadelphia loss or tie; 2) Tie AND Philadelphia loss; Can clinch first-round bye: 1) Win or tie; 2) Tampa Bay loss or tie.

NFC SOUTH

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Have clinched NFC South title.
Can clinch first-round bye: 1) Win AND Green Bay loss.

Atlanta Falcons: Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win or tie; 2) N.Y. Giants loss or tie; 3) New Orlean loss or tie.

New Orleans Saints: Can clinch playoff spot: 1) Win AND N.Y. Giants loss or tie; 2) Win AND Atlanta loss; 3) Tie AND N.Y. Giants loss.

NFC WEST

49ers: Have clinched NFC West title.

Source

The following teams have been officially eliminated from playoff contention:

Arizona, Buffalo, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Minnesota, St. Louis, Seattle and Washington

WEEK 17 SCHEDULE

(all times Eastern Standard Time)

Saturday, Dec. 28 
Philadelphia at N.Y. Giants, 1:30 pm
Kansas City at Oakland, 5:00 pm 
Sunday, Dec. 29 
Atlanta at Cleveland, 1:00 pm
Baltimore at Pittsburgh, 1:00 pm 
Carolina at New Orleans, 1:00 pm
Cincinnati at Buffalo, 1:00 pm 
Dallas at Washington, 1:00 pm
Miami at New England, 1:00 pm 
Minnesota at Detroit, 1:00 pm
Tennessee at Houston, 1:00 pm 
Jacksonville at Indianapolis, 4:05 pm
Arizona at Denver, 4:15 pm 
Green Bay at N.Y. Jets, 4:15 pm
Seattle at San Diego, 4:15 pm 
Tampa Bay at Chicago, 8:30 pm  
Monday, Dec. 30 
San Francisco at St. Louis, 9:00 pm  

POSTSEASON

Wild-Card Weekend 
Saturday, Jan. 4
AFC or NFC game, 4:30 pm on ABC
AFC or NFC game, 8:00 pm on ABC 
Sunday, Jan. 5
AFC game, 1:00 pm on CBS
NFC game, 4:30 pm on FOX 
Divisional Playoffs 
Saturday, Jan. 11
AFC game, 4:30 pm on CBS
NFC game, 8:00 pm on FOX
Sunday, Jan. 12
NFC game, 1:00 pm on FOX
AFC game, 4:30 pm on CBS 
Conference Championships 
Sunday, Jan. 19
NFC Championship Game, 3:00 pm on FOX
AFC Championship Game, 6:30 pm on CBS 
Super Bowl XXXVII 
Sunday, Jan. 26
Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, Calif.
6:00 pm on ABC 

[NeoCaveman]

Damn. Holcomb just threw a gift interception....(grumble)

[Vigilantcitizen]

"Damn. Holcomb just threw a gift interception....(grumble)"

Right after a great completion with Brady Smith all in his grill.

Just in...Couch will not return.

[NeoCaveman]

Just in...Couch will not return.

Some Browns fans won't mind. But with three 4th quarter comeback victories, I'm not happy about that.

[CounterCounterCulture]

22 - Miami at New England - 10 (Halftime)

Lemme try that again...
21 - Miami at New England - 10 (Halftime)

[bootless]

Of course, I'm reading all this the day after - we were having too much fun watching the game! BTW, was that Deion Sanders in that brown plaiud suit last week? YIKES! He looked like something out of Threepenny Opera (if that's where Mack the Knife came from)! But he has the confidence to carry brown plaid off.

Thought the Chargers grabbing him and placing him on Retired Reserve was an underhanded move.

Was very, very relieved to see the Gints win - they would have had to wrap Tiki Barber in bubblewrap after the game.

[bootless]

P.S. I do have a witness that when the Iggles missed the FG, I noted that Jimmy Hoffa did it before the game pronouncers did! (GRIN) Either they heard me, or I've watched too much sports on TV, and know all the cliches, including Meadowlands lore... :-)

[foreverfree]

B! U! M! P! BUMP! BUMP! BUMP! (that the Jets may help the Eagles)

foreverfree

[CounterCounterCulture]

Thought the Chargers grabbing him and placing him on Retired Reserve was an underhanded move.

May have been a blessing in disguise for the Raiders. Who knows? :-)

[rs79bm]

B. Smith sack, Lavar Arrington recovers in endzone for touchdown. 14,7 skins, 3rd.

[babaloo999]

You lucky dog. It's all I can do to keep from snoozing when I'm watching the Texans. It's so bad that I curse the NFL blackout rules because the fox station can't show the Cowboys when they're playing at the same time as the Texans. That's bad. LOL

[Republic of Texas]

What? No one's watching the Cowboys-Redskins? LOL. I just switched to the Dolphins-Pats, I can handle the Cowboys sucking, they are my team from birth, but when they BOTH suck, I'm out. The Dolphins look good, but can they take Oakland? Oakland has a better D than the Pats (which is pretty good).

[babaloo999]

Tampa Bay has absolutely no chance unless they have home field advantage thru the playoffs.

[CounterCounterCulture]

What? No one's watching the Cowboys-Redskins?

Apparently not. The featured game on FOX is Atlanta at Cleveland for most of the country as both are fighting for playoff spots.

[NeoCaveman]

The Dolphins look good, but can they take Oakland?

Miami beat Oakland a few weeks ago. So they might be able to do it again.

[Chi-townChief]

We're giving the Falcons way too many gifts - need to put a stop to that right now!

[NeoCaveman]

Another Holcomb INT! Sheesh!

Is time for Josh Booty to QB?

[CounterCounterCulture]

The Dolphins look good, but can they take Oakland?

I say NO. Of course the Fins beat the Raiders two weeks ago and convincingly so. This time will be different as was the case with the Raiders/Chiefs. :-)

[WarSlut]

Don't think that Spurrier came to DC to lose.

Spurrier came to DC to work with Danny Snyder.

Losing is just a natural by-product.

[Chi-townChief]

Here we go - 4th quarter! Think there's one more big finish left?

[WarSlut]

Don't forget... we'll be getting this guy back.

In the meantime... J-E-T-S, JETS JETS JETS!