2017 NFL Playoffs - Super Bowl LI Confirmed! Atlanta Falcons vs New England Patriots!

[Randombobman]

Ugh the hawks just started playing well and I'm already sick of it. Especially when they win three games (all nfc north) via walkoff interception, punt return, etc.

I don't think the problem is going away until something drastically changes.

{Disgruntled Lions fan}

[Bullwine85]

Ugh the hawks just started playing well and I'm already sick of it. Especially when they win three games (all nfc north) via walkoff interception, punt return, etc.

I don't think the problem is going away until something drastically changes.

{Disgruntled Lions fan}

We beat them in Week 2.

I'll be scared to play them in the playoffs. They're on a roll

[-Cynthia-]

Well I think the Seahawks would have beaten the Vikings regardless of supposed calls/fluky plays/whatever, they dominated them on both sides of the ball statistically. The Vikings had 125 yards total- Peterson only had 18.

Edited December 7, 2015 by -Cynthia-

[ClevelandSteve]

Well, with the Titans now having three wins, the Browns officially have sole ownership of the worst record in the NFL. We're the worst! Around! Everyone's always gonna keep us down!

Also, we're eliminated from the playoffs. Though, to be fair, I think we're already eliminated from the 3015 Playoffs, too.

To be honest, I'm not even remotely upset. I'd rather be THE worst than just "one of the worst", because hopefully that will be more of a wakeup call for the people in charge.

[Life]

Maybe, but I thought Hasselbeck was just scared after Super Bowl 40 lol. He WAS the quarterback for the Seahawks in that game! :P

Super Bowl XL? You mean the one where the refs stole a win from Seattle every time they started to get momentum?

At least it wasn't like pure physics was ignored just so you could create a legendary game with an alliterated title. And yes, I'm talking about the Tragedy.

EDIT: In other news, the Bills are not dead yet. Which is typical. We still need to win out the season and hope that either KC or Pittsburgh collapse. We will have a tiebreaker over Houston and Indy so that's always something. Eagles, Redskins, Cowboys and then Jets to close out the season.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Jim Moriarty

[chococoke]

Did he play against Oakland or something the week prior? I remember the first three games of that season were incredibly rough too

Gronk did play in that game. He played in every game last year, but early on his snaps were limited due to coming off an ACL tear.

Also, RIP Jacoby Jones era in Pittsburgh. Who could've seen that coming ........

Edited December 7, 2015 by chococoke

[Anacybele]

Oh. :P

Life/Moriarty, a ref admitted to blowing TWO calls in that game, near the end. By that point, the score was 21-10 and there wasn't much chance of the Seahawks coming back at all. At least that's what I remember reading on the matter. It DOES bother me that calls were blown, though, not denying that. But the Seahawks still lost, and I could understand if Hasselbeck was nervous about going against the team and QB that made that happen.

Also, regardless, the Seahawks have had a couple games handed to them by the refs in recent years as well. Fail Mary vs the Packers, anyone? And last week vs the Steelers, of course, Sherman should've been called for PI at least twice. Could've changed a lot if he had, even though the Steelers D is to blame for this loss as well.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Anacybele

[chococoke]

Why would he be nervous about facing them? Do they even have any defensive players from SB XL still on their roster? Didn't think so

[Anacybele]

He still faced them... And now he's 40. While Ben still has a lot of QB left in him. Besides, I was joking about the scared part. Nervousness though, is actually reasonable.

Edited December 7, 2015 by Anacybele

[Pete Rose: Baseball Legend]

After a day of being mad, I have finally made peace with myself and my terrible choice of a team.

My team sucks.

But at least they suck respectably.

And sometimes...

Sometimes...

That's all you can ask for.

[Lord Raven]

At least it wasn't like pure physics was ignored just so you could create a legendary game with an alliterated title. And yes, I'm talking about the Tragedy.

Life, people have analyzed this to hell and back and that was a lateral.

You gotta look at where the ball was released (in front of the line) and caught (behind the line). It's pretty clear. The refs didn't job you on that one.

Why are you mad over this one game decided by a Bills team that somehow couldn't stop an overall mediocre WR from getting a kick return TD on a lateral than the four Super Bowls that the Bills completely underperformed in?

[-Cynthia-]

Colts and Texans are probably reasonably out of wildcard contention at this point, if they don't win the division they can't be better than 9-7 anyway and the odds of one of those teams going 4-0 and the other going 3-1 seem pretty unlikely to me.

Chiefs out tiebreak everyone(Jets or a 3 team tie on conference record, Bills and Steelers H2H). Bills win the tiebreaker vs. the Jets on a sweep, Jets can out tiebreak Bills on divisional record if they beat the Bills and Patriots. If the Jets beat the Bills but lose to the Patriots, Bills win on common opponents. Note that in a 3 team tie, the Bills and Jets would be resolved before a tie with the Steelers/Chiefs.

Steelers/Jets- if both teams win out then Steelers win on common games. If each team loses one game, Jets win the tiebreaker if their loss is to the Cowboys. They lose the tiebreaker otherwise unless they beat the Patriots and the Steelers lose to the Browns, then it comes down to SoV.

Bills/Steelers(assuming the Bills win out and assuming the Steelers lose once) depends on the Steelers/Bengals game. If the Steelers beat the Bengals they win on common opponents, otherwise it comes down to Strength of Victory. If it's Bills/Steelers at 9-7, then the Bills win the tiebreaker on conference record if their loss was to the Eagles, Redskins, or Cowboys.

Edited December 7, 2015 by -Cynthia-

[Anacybele]

Man, I would hate for that loss to the Seahawks to come back to bite us in the ass. Although, we'd probably have a better record anyway if Ben hadn't been injured. He'd have certainly trashed the Ravens and Chiefs and probably beaten the Bengals too since he'd be 100% instead of like 60%. :( And that would've made us 10-2 and in the same tight battle for the AFC North that we were in last year with the Bengals.

But since the situation is what it is, the Steelers have to take the Bengals down this time. I don't think we can afford to lose right now.

Oh, on another note, the Big Ben highlights video for the game vs the Colts didn't have his 20 yard dash. That's so lame. >.>

Edited December 8, 2015 by Anacybele

[Zasplach]

The game tonight is a real barn burner -_-. Just proves how stupid division champions getting home field advantage can be.

[-Cynthia-]

The Cowboys are only one game out of the NFC East. Might be worse than last year's NFC South.

[ClevelandSteve]

Washington faces the Bears, the Bills, the Eagles, and the Cowboys

The Eagles face the Bills, the Cardinals, Washington, and the Giants

The Giants face the Dolphins, the Panthers, the Vikings, and the Eagles

And the Cowboys face the Packers, the Jets, the Bills, and Washington

I'd say that Washington has the weakest schedule of the bunch. The only decent team they have to face is the Bills, who the Eagles and Cowboys also have yet to face (this is good news for the Bills, I guess: three of their remaining four games are against the weakest division in the NFL). However, I don't think any of the NFC East teams are poised to win out (which Washington, the Eagles, or the Giants would have to do to finish the regular season above .500).

Of course, the Eagles are just coming off from a huge upset over the Patriots, so who knows how these remaining games are going to play out.

[-Cynthia-]

Picks for next week:

Vikings at Cardinals- Vikings have a lot of injuries on defense and haven't looked good against quality opponents this year, Cardinals keep on rolling.

Redskins at Bears- Not a good performance by either team last week, particularly on offense. Going to go with the home team here.

Niners at Browns- Blaine Gabbert is...not that bad? The Browns are pretty bad though.

Seahawks at Ravens- Seahawks are rolling, Ravens are an injury riddled mess pretty much. The one score differential might end here.

Falcons at Panthers- Panthers are still unbeaten, though they don't look unbeatable...Falcons can't seem to beat anyone though.

Bills at Eagles- Eagles win over the Patriots was somewhat fluky- their offense is still very questionable.

Steelers at Bengals- Both teams are playing well, especially on offense, but I'll take Daytime Dalton who's a strong pick outside of primetime.

Saints at Bucs- That Saints D is still really bad and they're on the road here.

Colts at Jaguars- Colts are on a consecutive road game after a bad loss, defense had issues and Hasselbeck looked ancient- but they seem to find a way to put it together against divisional opponents.

Chargers at Chiefs- Chargers can't seem to score more than 3 points against divisional opponents. Hard to win games that way.

Titans at Jets- Fitzpatrick is doing pretty well and while the Jets D isn't as strong as we may have thought, it should do enough to win here.

Lions at Rams- Rams are dreadful on offense and their defense is falling apart too.

Raiders at Broncos- Don't think the Raiders can go on the road and overcome the Broncos D- they still make too many mistakes.

Cowboys at Packers- Packers can't drop another home game...right? Cowboys are still limited offensively.

Patriots at Texans- Patriots are more limited offensively, especially if Gronk is still out- but it's worth noting that the Texans D also regressed pretty hard last week. I think the Patriots are the better team here.

Giants at Dolphins- Giants have defensive issues, but luckily the Dolphins aren't much of a passing threat. Picking an NFC East is getting hard to do at this point though.

[Lord Raven]

clinching/elimination

First-round bye

Carolina Panthers

- Carolina win

- Minnesota loss, Green Bay loss

Division titles

Clinching

New England Patriots

- Win, New York Jets loss

Cincinnati Bengals

- Win

Denver Broncos

- Win, Kansas City loss

Arizona Cardinals

- Arizona win, Seattle loss

Carolina Panthers are the NFCS division champions.

Elimination

New York Jets

- Loss, New England win

Pittsburgh Steelers

- Loss

Kansas City Chiefs

- Loss, Denver win

Seattle Seahawks

- Loss, Arizona win

Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins are eliminated from AFCE title contention

Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns are eliminated from AFCN title contention

San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders are eliminated from AFCW title contention

Detroit Lions are eliminated from NFCN title contention

St. Louis Rams and San Francisco 49ers are eliminated from NFCW title contention

Playoffs

Clinching

New England Patriots

- New York Jets loss

- Pittsburgh loss

Cincinnati Bengals

- Kansas City loss

- New York Jets loss

Denver Broncos

- Win, New York Jets loss

- Win, Pittsburgh loss

Arizona Cardinals

- Win

- Tampa Bay loss, Atlanta loss

- Tampa Bay loss, Green Bay win

Elimination

Miami Dolphins

- Loss, Kansas City win, New York Jets win

Jacksonville Jaguars

- Loss, New York Jets win

- Loss, Buffalo win

- Loss, Pittsburgh win

- Loss, Houston win

Baltimore Ravens

- Loss, Kansas City win

- Loss, Oakland win

- Loss, Pittsburgh win

San Diego Chargers

- Loss

- Oakland win

- Pittsburgh win

Tennessee Titans

- Loss

- Indianapolis win

- Houston win

St. Louis Rams

- Loss, Seattle win

Detroit Lions

- Loss, Seattle win

New Orleans Saints

- Loss

San Francisco 49ers

- Loss

- Minnesota and Seattle win

Cleveland Browns are eliminated from playoff contention.

Current Playoff Seeding

AFC

1. Cincinnati Bengals (10-2)

2. Denver Broncos (10-2)

3. New England Patriots (10-2)

4. Indianapolis Colts (6-6)

5. Kansas City Chiefs (7-5)

6. New York Jets

7. Pittsburgh Steelers

8. Buffalo (6-6)

9. Houston Texans

10. Oakland Raiders (5-7)

11. Miami Dolphins

12. Jacksonville Jaguars (4-8)

13. Baltimore Ravens

14. San Diego Chargers (3-9)

15. Tennessee Titans

NFC

1. Carolina Panthers (12-0)

2. Arizona Cardinals (10-2)

3. Green Bay Packers (8-4)

4. Washington (5-7)

5. Minnesota Vikings (8-4)

6. Seattle Seahawks (7-5)

7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-6)

8. Atlanta Falcons

9. Philadelphia Eagles (5-7)

10. New York Giants

11. Chicago Bears

12. St. Louis Rams (4-8)

13. Detroit Lions

14. New Orleans Saints

15. San Francisco 49ers

16. Dallas Cowboys

Only one team has been eliminated and we're headed to week 14. What a season. I'm pretty sure the following teams are about to clinch:

Bengals

Broncos

Patriots

Panthers

Cardinals

Following teams about to get their flairs faded on reddit:

Dolphins

Jaguars

Ravens

San Diego

Titans

Rams

Lions

Saints

49ers

Gonna be fucking hilarious if all of the 12-seed and down NFC teams lose, and Dallas is still not eliminated from the playoffs.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Lord Raven

[Life]

Life/Moriarty, a ref admitted to blowing TWO calls in that game, near the end. By that point, the score was 21-10 and there wasn't much chance of the Seahawks coming back at all. At least that's what I remember reading on the matter. It DOES bother me that calls were blown, though, not denying that. But the Seahawks still lost, and I could understand if Hasselbeck was nervous about going against the team and QB that made that happen.

That game made me feel dirty. I actually considered not watching the second half because something felt wrong.

You need to rewatch the game rather than look at the score. The Seahawks had at least 1 TD called back (on a terrible OPI call) and a lot of strange holding calls (including one that was actually called because the refs missed the Steelers offside on the play) that just happened to be at the most inopportune times for the Seahawks. It was not fun to watch because it made you think that the refs were actively rooting for the Steelers.

The only other time I remember reffing as blatantly bad as that was Bills/Pats last season where we got an "unsportsmanlike penalty" for celebrating a tackle on third down or some shit. Wasn't a taunt or anything, Jerry Hughes slapped a teammate on the back in a congratulatory manner and drew a 15 yard penalty on it.

Life, people have analyzed this to hell and back and that was a lateral.

You gotta look at where the ball was released (in front of the line) and caught (behind the line). It's pretty clear. The refs didn't job you on that one.

Why are you mad over this one game decided by a Bills team that somehow couldn't stop an overall mediocre WR from getting a kick return TD on a lateral than the four Super Bowls that the Bills completely underperformed in?

Because we haven't been to the playoffs since then. Of course I'm mad.

What gets me so riled up about it isn't even the play. I hated Ralph Wilson for months because he blackmailed his own head coach into starting Rob Johnson over Doug Flutie. Flutie had gotten us to the playoffs. You don't bench him because he doesn't look like a Superbowl winning QB and Rob Johnson does. Flutie won the Grey Cup something like 3 times. Johnson hadn't done anything in his career.

I still don't get it. With Flutie playing, we win that game. If anything, we almost won that game despite Johnson so that says a lot.

I have a lot of pent up anger over the end of the '99 season. As much as I hate to say it, we deserved to lose those Superbowls. But the '99 Wild Card game? Fucking Ralph Wilson.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Jim Moriarty

[Bullwine85]

Following teams about to get their flairs faded on reddit:

Dolphins

Jaguars

Ravens

San Diego

Titans

Rams

Lions

Saints

49ers

Gonna be fucking hilarious if all of the 12-seed and down NFC teams lose, and Dallas is still not eliminated from the playoffs.

Well, technically r/NFL doesn't fade the flairs until playoffs start, then again I'm not on r/NFL as much lately (mainly because any game thread involving the Packers quickly turns into a salt mine)

Edited December 8, 2015 by Bullwine85

[Lord Raven]

Yeah I don't understand why /r/nfl doesn't do it but oh well

FADE THE FLAIRS

It's also hilarious going into a thread about the Ravens injury woes in there, because there's always that one Patriots fan that talks about the players they've lost. And the response is like "ok... didn't know this thread was about the Patriots."

Also for whatever reason 75% of all Patriots fans don't know what rule actually changed after the playoffs with regards to formations.

[Life]

It's also hilarious going into a thread about the Ravens injury woes in there, because there's always that one Patriots fan that talks about the players they've lost. And the response is like "ok... didn't know this thread was about the Patriots."

Also for whatever reason 75% of all Patriots fans don't know what rule actually changed after the playoffs with regards to formations.

That's because Pats fans only recognize four teams in the NFL.

1) Patriots

2) Giants (AKA Patriots kryptonite in SBs)

3) Seahawks (the NFC's version of the Patriots)

4) Whatever team Peyton Manning plays for

[Lord Raven]

Also 5) "that weird team in the pin striped jerseys that seem to do stupid shit in every game we lose"

[chococoke]

I'll admit the vast majority of Patriots fans lack any semblance of awareness outside of their own favorite team. The Patriots Facebook group I'm in has been pretty hilarious since the loss to the Eagles. Everyone acted like that game was going to be a complete cakewalk

EDIT: one of my friends was at the game and posted a video on Facebook of one of the concourses after the game. There was a guy on the ground who had been stabbed. I fucking hate people so much

Edited December 8, 2015 by chococoke

[Anacybele]

I've seen a good number of Steelers fans that seem to be aware of teams outside their own, but at the same time, the ones on Facebook are still morons a lot. Main reason I don't post there much at all.

Btw, guys, what Antonio Brown did after returning that punt for a TD was PRICELESS.

LOL AB is the greatest. First his front flip vs the Browns, now this, hahaha.