It’s rare that the 12th week of an NFL season could prove so insignificant, but the NFL playoffs were completely unchanged in the NFC after a wild weekend of games. Talk about a top-heavy conference.
Want to hear something odd? 12 weeks into the NFL season, when everything is coming to its zenith of excitement, Sunday’s games (and Monday’s too) didn’t matter at all for the NFL playoffs picture in the NFC. This almost seems unfathomable.
How can a full set of games this late in the season not make a difference in an entire conference’s playoff race? But go through it, and tell us where we’re wrong. Week 12 was inconsequential and the NFL Playoffs remain unchanged across the NFC. Can anyone make the leap?
Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the NFL Playoffs in today’s NFL Sports Debate.
Todd Salem:
Tampa Bay defeated Atlanta. Neither team is competing for the playoffs. The Bears took down the Giants, but neither one is going to make the playoffs. New Orleans knocked out Carolina late. Though this was a game between first and second place, the Saints were going to win the NFC South regardless. Even if the outcome switched, New Orleans would hold a two-game lead with five to play and Carolina would need to sweep the season series to hold the tiebreaker.
Seattle beat Philadelphia. This would have had major implications, except it didn’t. The Seahawks have a multiple game lead on everyone else in the NFC for wildcard positioning, even if Minnesota ends up passing them for the first wildcard. As for the Eagles, this would have been a huge loss if Dallas hadn’t also lost. Instead, Week 12 is a wash. Philly and Dallas are competing with each other and no one else for the playoffs.
Washington beat Detroit; I assume no one attended and no one cared. And finally for the Sunday slate, Green Bay was dismantled by San Francisco. This should have major implications for the postseason, except it really doesn’t. Both teams are making the playoffs even after this outcome and even if the outcome had been swapped.
If you want to talk about a first-round bye being the only thing that swung with Week 12’s entire list of Sunday NFC outcomes, well okay then. I’ll grant you that. It is a remarkable statement then that that is the only thing we come away with.
It would be misleading to say nothing was on the line in these games before they took place. With Philadelphia and Dallas, Week 12 could have pushed either team in opposite directions. It just so happens that dueling losses makes the week moot, and we roll our interest over another week.
There is no point in veering toward hyperbole with wondering when the last time a late-season week was so inconsequential. This is not a stat that can be researched. Let’s just say I am baffled to see, after the fact, how irrelevant the games ended up being to the playoff landscape. It’s Week 12 after all. This is the home stretch! Maybe this was just a random act of chance, especially when you consider how impactful many AFC outcomes were on the same weekend.
Dan Salem:
The outcomes of NFL Week 12 made abundantly clear what has been known all season in the NFC. This is a conference of haves and have-nots. It’s top-heavy and bottom rich. Unlike the AFC which is chock full of competitive teams in the middle, the NFC is slim at its waist. An inconsequential slate of Sunday games simply slammed the door on what we wrote a month ago. The NFL playoffs are locked up in the NFC.
San Francisco, Seattle, Green Bay, Minnesota, New Orleans and the winner of the NFC Least. Those are the NFC playoff teams. Consider the Los Angeles Rams on the outside looking in. Perhaps they can steal a spot from Seattle or Minnesota/Green Bay. Maybe the Eagles leap the Cowboys, but that doesn’t matter. We have five weeks left to play in the regular season with next to nothing left to play for.
There are five NFC teams with three or fewer wins and a whopping nine with losing records. Compare this to the AFC where only three teams have three or fewer wins and seven have losing records. Two teams might not seem like a lot, but it’s enormous for the playoff race or lack thereof.
The gap between our NFC Wild Card teams and everyone else is so wide that the season is basically over in the NFC. In the AFC there are five teams competing for the second wildcard, and three more who are realistically within striking distance. It will come down to the final week, yet NFL Week 12 was inconsequential in the NFC.
Does this make the conference infinitely more dominant? Are they likely to win the Super Bowl? Short answer is no, but the top dogs aren’t dominating.