Carolyn's Corner| courtesy of bigbackground.com |
This is pretty hard to wrap your mind around: if the playoffs were held now with the records as they stand this week, the 4-4 New York Giants and the 3-5 Indianapolis Colts would make the playoffs in the post-season! And not only that, they would both host their respective wild card games!
How can that happen? It is because, unbelievably, the Giants are in first place in the NFC East, as are the Colts in the AFC South. Even thought their records are at or below .500, they would both be entitled to be in the playoffs as winners of their divisions.
While this is not the first time a sub-.500 team has made the playoffs, it may be so striking because the two teams involved this year, as of this point anyway, are not typical "cellar dwellers" or "bottom feeders" in terms of records. Both have been Super Bowl champions in this century. Moreover, their respective divisions, including the likes of the Eagles and Cowboys in the NFC East and the Texans and Titans in the AFC South, usually produce a respectably strong division winner with a winning record. It is definitely an atypical situation, which calls that much more attention to it.
Not only that, it looks like it might be a long-shot for either the Giants or the Colts to recover enough to pull out a winning season, given their remaining schedules and injury situations. Furthermore, the rest of their division members are in even worse shape, making it hard to see one of them suddenly overtaking either one. So, while it is true that anything can happen in the NFL, it is definitely not a stretch to see that this scenario could possibly be played out.
It strikingly points up the same unresolved controversy as in previous years: should a division winner, regardless of record, make the playoffs? Or should a sub-.500 team, even if it is the division winner, forfeit the right to be in the playoffs?
We will just have to wait and see... in the meantime, any thoughts?
0 comentarios :
Publicar un comentario