Does 9-7 Get Us In?

I've been doing some studying on the playoff picture, and the following is what I've come up with...

We can get in at 9-7. Why, you might ask? Our conference record, I would answer.

If we win 4 out of the next 5 to go 9-7. our NFC record will be 9-3, thanks to losing all of our games to the AFC West.

Obviously it would be preferable to win out, but 9-7 can do it. Here's what needs to happen:

One of Dallas or the G-Men must go 2-3 the rest of the way, to end up at 9-7. Both of these COULD happen, as long as we beat the team who LOSES their matchup next week. Assume that the Cowboys lose, since it's at the Meadowlands. We then must beat the Cowboys at FedEx. Then, they would have to lose one more game of their remaining 3. Those games are vs. Kansas City, @Carolina, and vs. St. Louis. That, I believe, will happen. If we go 4-1 down the stretch and end up tying the Cowboys in this manner, we are the 2nd place team in the NFC East.

But what about the NFC South, you say? Here's what needs to go down. One of Carolina, Atlanta, and Tampa Bay must finish at 9-7. Carolina already has 8 wins, so I really doubt they end up 1-4 over the last 5. Thus, we'll have to concentrate on the Falcons and Bucs, both of whom would have to 2-3 or worse.

Here is the Falcons' schedule: @Carolina, vs. New Orleans, @Chicago, @Tampa Bay, vs. Carolina.

Here is the Bucs' schedule: @New Orleans, @Carolina, @New England, vs. Atlanta, New Orleans.

Either of those teams, in all honesty, could end up 9-7, or even worse. The only proviso is that if Tampa Bay is the 9-7 team, we also need Minnesota to be 9-7.

Why does it matter that teams get to 9-7? Because the number one tiebreaker (besides head-to-head) in wild card selection is conference record. And we will have the best conference record of any of these teams. As long as we aren't tied alone with Tampa Bay, we will win any tiebreaker.

To sum up...

ROOT FOR: Giants (against the Cowboys), Carolina (against ATL and TB), New Orleans (against everyone), Kansas City (against 'Boys and G-Men), Redskins (obviously), and Minnesota (to go 9-7).

ROOT AGAINST: Cowboys (also obviously), Tampa Bay, Atlanta.

yeah i agree, i posted this yesterday, i'll post it here too




if we win only 9 games and one of those being the cowboys we will still have a chance to make the playoffs, in other words if we only lose the giants. ONLY IF

1. Cowboys lose giants, us and carolina(very possible, also KC is in there)--they go 9-7 and we have tie breaker!!!!

2. Falcons 3 losses to @Bears @Tampa @Carolina or Carolina---they go 9-7 and we have a better conference record!!!!

3. Vikings lose 2 to @Lions, Rams, @Ravens, Steelers or Bears---they go 9-7 we win tie breaker

4. Eagles lose to us-- we win tie breaker at 9-7

5. Rams lose to us-- we win tie breaker at 9-7


If all those things happen we make playoffs at 9-7 if we only lose to the Giants. If we lose to the boyz boyz can win out exept for the skins game and giants have to lose to philly and washington and we win tiebreaker or they could lose to KC or @ Oakland

EXTREMELY UNPROBABLE, i say if we only lose to the gints we have a 20% shot
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With the way they've been playing, I don't see them winning more than 2 games for the rest of the way -- Arizona and Philly. And their likely to drop one of those.

There's no other way to put it. This team is in freefall.

With the way they've been playing, I don't see them winning more than 2 games for the rest of the way -- Arizona and Philly. And their likely to drop one of those.

There's no other way to put it. This team is in freefall.

I just don't understand why you keep saying that. The Chargers are one of the best teams in football. It's not embarrassing to lose to them, regardless of circumstance. The Rams are NOT GOOD, why would we lose to them? They had to make a miracle comeback against the Texans, who are generally regarded as one of the worst teams ever. An absolute miracle. They were outplayed by the odds-on favorites to win the Reggie Bush sweepstakes. Sorry, but we won't lose that one.

Then we will beat the Cards, I agree. And we'll beat the Eagles, who yielded 100+ yards to Samkon Gado and barely snuck one out against the decimated Packers in their own house.

That means, to go 9-7, we only have to win one of the Giants/Cowboys games at FedEx. I'm not saying we will or we won't, but there's certainly a chance we do that.

lets take care of business and let the chips fall(or crumble)where they may

We can get in at 9-7. Why, you might ask? Our conference record, I would answer.

If we win 4 out of the next 5 to go 9-7. our NFC record will be 9-3, thanks to losing all of our games to the AFC West.

Obviously it would be preferable to win out, but 9-7 can do it. Here's what needs to happen:

One of Dallas or the G-Men must go 2-3 the rest of the way, to end up at 9-7. Both of these COULD happen, as long as we beat the team who LOSES their matchup next week. Assume that the Cowboys lose, since it's at the Meadowlands. We then must beat the Cowboys at FedEx. Then, they would have to lose one more game of their remaining 3. Those games are vs. Kansas City, @Carolina, and vs. St. Louis. That, I believe, will happen. If we go 4-1 down the stretch and end up tying the Cowboys in this manner, we are the 2nd place team in the NFC East.

But what about the NFC South, you say? Here's what needs to go down. One of Carolina, Atlanta, and Tampa Bay must finish at 9-7. Carolina already has 8 wins, so I really doubt they end up 1-4 over the last 5. Thus, we'll have to concentrate on the Falcons and Bucs, both of whom would have to 2-3 or worse.

Here is the Falcons' schedule: @Carolina, vs. New Orleans, @Chicago, @Tampa Bay, vs. Carolina.

Here is the Bucs' schedule: @New Orleans, @Carolina, @New England, vs. Atlanta, New Orleans.

Either of those teams, in all honesty, could end up 9-7, or even worse. The only proviso is that if Tampa Bay is the 9-7 team, we also need Minnesota to be 9-7.

Why does it matter that teams get to 9-7? Because the number one tiebreaker (besides head-to-head) in wild card selection is conference record. And we will have the best conference record of any of these teams. As long as we aren't tied alone with Tampa Bay, we will win any tiebreaker.

To sum up...

ROOT FOR: Giants (against the Cowboys), Carolina (against ATL and TB), New Orleans (against everyone), Kansas City (against 'Boys and G-Men), Redskins (obviously), and Minnesota (to go 9-7).

ROOT AGAINST: Cowboys (also obviously), Tampa Bay, Atlanta.

These are good points. I was going over the playoff picture myself yesterday and pretty much came up with the same situations you listed. I am a little confused though about some of the things you said, like why we need Minnesota to get to 9-7 if Tampa ends up at 9-7. To try and clear things up, if we end up at 9-7, Tampa would have to be 8-8 since they beat us and therefore hold the tiebreaker. Since this is unlikely, they would get one of the wild card spots over us (assuming the panthers win the South). But even then, we can still get the final spot if the Falcons and either the giants or cowboys finish at 9-7, which, as you said, is not out of the question. Minnesota can finish 9-7 too and we would go over them but this is not necessary even if the Bucs go 9-7.

I love all the crazy scenarios this time of year, but I think our chances are paper thin at this point.

Unless this team turns on a dime, we'll be on the outside looking in once again.

for this to even get close to happening we can only afford to lose to the cardinals and the giants, we must win cowboys, eagles, and rams. if we lose one of those three our chances aren't over but a low chance made even lower

Dude, we'll beat the frickin Giants. Don't be too quick to write that one off as a gimmie. We'll definitely kick their ass!

(of course, they'll probably come back in the 4th quarter and beat us....)