ESPN Playoff Machine

Anyone else love this thing? http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/machine

Here's how I have the seeds playing out according to the machine...

AFC

1. New England
2. Denver
3. Indianapolis
4. Baltimore
5. Miami
6. Pittsburgh

NFC

1. Green Bay
2. Philadelphia
3. Seattle
4. New Orleans
5. Arizona
6. Detroit

Miami has a cushy upcoming schedule vs the Jets twice and home for the Vikings.

I have the 11-5 Cardinals on the road for the 7-9 Saints. The Cardinals remaining schedule is murder (@Atlanta, KC, @STL, Seattle, @SF).

Wait til next year goes to: San Francisco 10-6

SF,Seattle and the Cards will all be 10-6 and the Cards wont even get in the playoffs.

I use that thing all the time. Love it.

I didn't realize it was available again. I am just as addicted to it now as I was last year. Great for figuring out whether to be optimistic about playoffs or not. It seems like if we win 3 of 4 remaining games (must win against Cardinals), Cardinals lose 3 of 4 remaining games, and Cowboys lose 2 games and we're in. Cardinals have a rough stretch and could lose against any of their upcoming opponents (Chiefs, Rams, Seahawks, Niners) and its possible Cowboys lose to Colts and Eagles. I could see us winning against Raiders, Chargers, and Cardinals to get in.

wow....it seems like we are going to have to root for the Seahawks to beat the Cards...and just for them to win their games.

we can still get in if we lose to the Seahawks in two weeks...but we need the Seahawks to beat the Cards..and we need the Rams to beat the Cards at home.

of course we are going to need to beat the Chargers at home, who always play us tough....and beat the Cards at the end of the season.

in our case, it seems the Chiefs beating the Cards at home doesn't really matter...but the Cards losing to the Rams means more....

if we don't beat the Seahawks at home in two weeks, we obviously won't have the tie breaker over them...so if the Cards beat them, we can be f**ked.

if the Seahawks do well to end the season, it would also be beneficial for us..imo.


they could get the second seed, and they would have to play someone else before facing us...if we made it like last year and went on a run.

but if the two other NFC teams (Packers and Eagles) end up with a better record... it seems that if we did make it, even after losing to the Seahawks at their house... the week after beating the Cards to make the playoffs...we would have to go RIGHT back to Seattle for the Wildcard game...lol.

if we find a way to beat the Seahawks, like we almost did last year...until we f**ked ourselves, it would be very beneficial and would make things easier..

but more importantly we just need to make sure we beat the Chargers at home and the Cards at home.... and of course beating the Raiders.

I'm most worried about the Chargers game... they are a very disciplined team, and would capitalize on our mistakes.. they are a team that does funky s**t against other teams...but for some reason, it seems they play different when facing us... regular or preseason.

fake edit- ok just read that our game against the Chargers was flexed into primetime..... just great..lol.

so basically regardless of what seattle does, we need to win out to secure a spot. it all comes down to beating them @seattle.

Originally posted by DonnieDarko:
so basically regardless of what seattle does, we need to win out to secure a spot. it all comes down to beating them @seattle.

I wouldn't give up hope that Arizona loses out. Injuries are continuing to pile up, their best player (Peterson) got exposed, Stanton has turned back into Stanton, and they have a tough remaining schedule (Kansas City, Seattle, St. Louis, us)...

Originally posted by swayze:

Originally posted by DonnieDarko:
so basically regardless of what seattle does, we need to win out to secure a spot. it all comes down to beating them @seattle.

I wouldn't give up hope that Arizona loses out. Injuries are continuing to pile up, their best player (Peterson) got exposed, Stanton has turned back into Stanton, and they have a tough remaining schedule (Kansas City, Seattle, St. Louis, us)...

Arizona & Dallas losing every week helps us a lot actually

Originally posted by DonnieDarko:
so basically regardless of what seattle does, we need to win out to secure a spot. it all comes down to beating them @seattle.

Actually we can lose to seattle and still get in if Arizona keeps losing

It appears to me that both the NFL and ESPN have the current playoff standings incorrect. Dallas beat Seattle head to head and they both have the exact same record at this point. According to NFL rules the first tie-breaker for a wild-card spot is Head to Head matchup.

Now granted we all know that Dallas still has to play another game against Philly and Indy, but at the same time Seattle has to play against us (SF) and Arizona as well as Philly.

In both places based on their EXTREMELY biased reporting and wishful thinking, they have Seattle currently with the Wild Card spot over Dallas, even though Dallas won the head to head matchup.

Can anyone else see any reasoning why the head to head matchup takes less precedence in the tie breaker?

Originally posted by SFFanSince72:
It appears to me that both the NFL and ESPN have the current playoff standings incorrect. Dallas beat Seattle head to head and they both have the exact same record at this point. According to NFL rules the first tie-breaker for a wild-card spot is Head to Head matchup.

Now granted we all know that Dallas still has to play another game against Philly and Indy, but at the same time Seattle has to play against us (SF) and Arizona as well as Philly.

In both places based on their EXTREMELY biased reporting and wishful thinking, they have Seattle currently with the Wild Card spot over Dallas, even though Dallas won the head to head matchup.

Can anyone else see any reasoning why the head to head matchup takes less precedence in the tie breaker?

because Dallas lost to SF and Seattle beat them..up to this point

Originally posted by SFFanSince72:
It appears to me that both the NFL and ESPN have the current playoff standings incorrect. Dallas beat Seattle head to head and they both have the exact same record at this point. According to NFL rules the first tie-breaker for a wild-card spot is Head to Head matchup.

Now granted we all know that Dallas still has to play another game against Philly and Indy, but at the same time Seattle has to play against us (SF) and Arizona as well as Philly.

In both places based on their EXTREMELY biased reporting and wishful thinking, they have Seattle currently with the Wild Card spot over Dallas, even though Dallas won the head to head matchup.

Can anyone else see any reasoning why the head to head matchup takes less precedence in the tie breaker?

Three teams have a tie so they can't use head to head. I think they use conference records at that point. I'm not sure though.

The espn playoff machine is infallible. Click on tiebreakers to see their explanation for why Seattle is the #5 seed.

NE 13-3
DEN 13-3
PIT 11-5
IND 11-5
BAL 11-5
SD 10-6
CIN 9-6-1
MIA 9-7
KC 8-8

GB 13-3
PHI 11-5
SEA 11-5
NO 8-8
DET 11-5
ARI 10-6
DAL 10-6 OUT
SF 9-7

Originally posted by Janitor:

Originally posted by DonnieDarko:
so basically regardless of what seattle does, we need to win out to secure a spot. it all comes down to beating them @seattle.

Actually we can lose to seattle and still get in if Arizona keeps losing

yep you're right, az and dallas losing helps us a lot