NFL Playoffs Thread

tallaghtoutlaws

Syferus wrote: »

Eh? That has nothing to do with this. The Broncos earned their place in this game, whether people like it or not.

Have to agree the Steelers were muck last week and the Broncos deserved their win for showing the Steelers up. They took advantage of everything the Steelers gave them and won the game. Where the game was played last week had nothing to do with the outcome of the game.

bruschi

padraig_f wrote: »

The Steelers are a better team, you should have the best teams playing at this stage. But because of a quirk in the divisional system, worse teams can get home advantage.

Steelers lost. If they were a better team they would have won. They showed a lot of flaws last week, and have a half fit QB. its the way it is, and has been. Seattle beat the Saints last year and the same kind of arguments were rolled out. But if you are a better team, you will win the games. The best teams win no matter where it is. If the Steelers had got through, the Patriots would be smashing them too this week.

DDC1990

Well no.

Bronco's won Home advantage.

Bronco's won the game, and were the better team by a longshot.

The Referees made a terrible call regarding the lateral pass by Big Ben, which if refereed properly would have gone for a TD, or possibly a FG, which would have killed the game even at that stage.

Steelers had their chance and couldn't beat the Broncos.
They would be slaughtered up against the Patriots tonight as well

tallaghtoutlaws

padraig_f wrote: »

The Steelers are a better team, you should have the best teams playing at this stage. But because of a quirk in the divisional system, worse teams can get home advantage.

But the Steelers had a chance to get home field advantage by getting the number 1 or 2 seed or winning their group and they failed to do so. Tough Sh1t really.

poldebruin

padraig_f wrote: »

The Steelers are a better team, you should have the best teams playing at this stage. But because of a quirk in the divisional system, worse teams can get home advantage.

at that rate, the main quirk in the divisional system is that an 8-8 division winning team can qualify for the playoffs ahead of other teams with better records in the conference, not that they get a home playoff game.


No, I think the NFL have it right. win your division as a 3rd or 4th seed and you enter the wild card with a home game. If other teams are better, let them prove it on the field.

Syferus

padraig_f wrote: »

The Steelers are a better team, you should have the best teams playing at this stage. But because of a quirk in the divisional system, worse teams can get home advantage.

The Steelers weren't the better team when they played, though. That game is the perfect example why the NFL is the best professional league in the world.

Division winners deserve home advantage because they've proven themselves to be the best of their grouping; the Steelers continually lost to the Ravens this season and didn't do similar.

The sword swings the other way - if you get a division where you have four very good teams and they all drag each other down, is it fair that a 'worse' team with a better record gets home advantage?

That sort of logic is a slippery slope.

padraig_f

tallaghtoutlaws wrote: »

Where the game was played last week had nothing to do with the outcome of the game.

That's a ridiculous statement.

Syferus

padraig_f wrote: »

That's a ridiculous statement.

It's not when Denver have played alot better overall on the road this year than at home, if anything that was as much burden on them as it was an advantage.

tallaghtoutlaws

padraig_f wrote: »

That's a ridiculous statement.

Did you watch the game? It 100% had nothing to do with the outcome of the game. The location didn't put the Steelers Cornerback 1v1 on the Broncos WR or make their Safeties commit too early to the run and then get burned by Tebow throwing bombs. The location also didn't make the Steelers go out there with a banged up QB struggling with injury. Had the Steelers played the same way at home they still would have lost.

Paully D

padraig_f wrote: »

The Steelers are a better team, you should have the best teams playing at this stage. But because of a quirk in the divisional system, worse teams can get home advantage.

If that's the case then why not just get Green Bay, New England, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and San Francisco/New York Giants to go into a hat and draw two of them out to play the Super Bowl and be done with it.

Seeing the teams that ''shouldn't be there'' in the later stages of competition is one of the things that makes any sport so good.

eagle eye

A lot of records going to fall tonight. Brady is currently 20/27 for 280 yds 10.4 ypa 6 tds 1 int 131.2 QB rating.

spiralism

This is the most embarassing thing i have ever seen and has completely undone any good out of this season

bruschi

Brady ties a playoff TD record with his 6th touchdown.

I hate making comparisons, especially as the QBs are in no way comparable, but Tebow has only completed 3 passes, and Brady has 6 TDs. Crazy stuff.

bruschi

spiralism wrote: »

This is the most embarassing thing i have ever seen and has completely undone any good out of this season

I wouldnt see it that way. a disappointing performance, but its the division round of the playoffs. youd have taken that in a heartbeat at the start of the year

eagle eye

spiralism wrote: »

This is the most embarassing thing i have ever seen and has completely undone any good out of this season

Ah come on, you had a great second half to the season. Some great comebacks and an excellent playoff win. You are playing Belichick and Brady in Gillette, these things happen there to teams. If you are going to take this performance only from the season, well its just sad imo.

Syferus

spiralism wrote: »

This is the most embarassing thing i have ever seen and has completely undone any good out of this season

Steady on, I don't think any team could cope with the way the Patriots are playing tonight. It's just the disappointment of how the game has run away from Denver that's colouring your opinion.

The Broncos are AFC West champions, they have a team full of young talent and their QB has shown more than enough potential to get the full organisation behind developing him and tailoring the team for him. The Broncos are in a very good place no matter what the scoreline is tonight.

Concannon7

As a Broncos fan this is a disappointing ending to a thremendous season for us.

spiralism

For all we did, tonight we are the laughing stock of the NFL. Not worth it for that. Being a broncos fan is now every bit as embarrassing as it was last year when we went 4-12

Syferus

spiralism wrote: »

For all we did, tonight we are the laughing stock of the NFL. Not worth it for that. Being a broncos fan is now every bit as embarrassing as it was last year when we went 4-12

Oh come off it man, step away from the window and put away the fistful of pills!

padraig_f

Sorry, didn't mean to derail the thread. Just think a seeding system should try to ensure the best teams play each other in the latter stages of a competition. The Steelers had a better regular season record than the Broncos, the bookies had them a better team, Football Outsiders ranked them better. By all measurements they were better, but the Broncos were given an advantage to beat them in the wildcard round.

Home advantage is a huge factor. The bookies value it around 3 points over a neutral field. This makes the difference between home and away 6 points, and in the playoffs it's probably more. So by getting home advantage, the Broncos were spotted about a touchdown for the game last week. That's huge, particularly for a game that went to overtime.

What it results in is teams reaching the latter stages, who aren't really good enough to be there, like the Broncos tonight. And you get mismatches when the competition is at its biggest stage.

spiralism

End of the day, the Patriots have probably had harder training sessions. If they showed up after 10 pints of Sam Adams each, they'd still be up 3 scores.

bruschi

spiralism wrote: »

For all we did, tonight we are the laughing stock of the NFL. Not worth it for that. Being a broncos fan is now every bit as embarrassing as it was last year when we went 4-12

you really are one of the most pessimistic fans I have ever seen. equating losing a divisional round game when AFC west champions to coming last in the same division a year previous. ridiculous. Patriots are on fire, everyone is in top form.

Paully D

spiralism wrote: »

For all we did, tonight we are the laughing stock of the NFL. Not worth it for that. Being a broncos fan is now every bit as embarrassing as it was last year when we went 4-12

ReacherCreature

God damn it Ridley, I want more TDs!

Concannon7

spiralism wrote: »

For all we did, tonight we are the laughing stock of the NFL. Not worth it for that. Being a broncos fan is now every bit as embarrassing as it was last year when we went 4-12

Making the playoffs was a tremendous result for us. When I looked at the fixture list last Ausgust I predicted 4-12 again or maybe even 3-13. The fact that we went 8-8 and won the AFC West title and made the playoffs meant this season was a huge success. Winning a first playoff game in six years was the iceing on the cake I suppose! We would have taken this without thinking twice last September.

ReacherCreature

Patriots D is ravaging Broncos.

poldebruin

we all know Denver are very much a work in progress. it's obvious to see tonight just how many holes the team needs to fill in the off season. They are an 8-8 team that won a playoff game, playing the conference no. 1 seed at home. Sure 42-7 puts a slight damper on things, but I don't think anyone expected Denver to progress further than this round anyway.

poldebruin

42-10 in superbowl xxii
55-10 in superbowl xxiv
that was an embarrassment.

Hopefully the Patriots take pity and call off the dogs for the rest of the game though!!

human 19

spiralism wrote: »

For all we did, tonight we are the laughing stock of the NFL. Not worth it for that. Being a broncos fan is now every bit as embarrassing as it was last year when we went 4-12

I have to say...it looks like you may have been buying into the TEBOW hype. Let's face it, you are an 8 and 8 team coming out of an easy season fixture-wise and coming up against a 13-3 team.. the first really top game of the season, without any similar competition before this . I would have been happy to get this far.

Syferus

human 19 wrote: »

I have to say...it looks like you may have been buying into the TEBOW hype. Let's face it, you are an 8 and 8 team coming out of an easy season fixture-wise and coming up against a 13-3 team.. the first really top game of the season, without any similar competition before this . I would have been happy to get this far.

The Steelers trashed the Patriots this season and are by any quantitative measure a more talented and complete team.

Narratives aren't as easy to write when reality keeps bumping its way into proceedings.