Know who to pull for: week 12 (1 Viewer)

st dude

The dotless one
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Know who to pull for is not that meaningful when you are headed to win your division, basically you pull to have a better record than other division leading teams so you can have home field advantage. When you are in a wild card fight, however, it makes a lot of other games meaningful. While the saints are tied for their division lead, their recent play makes them winning the division a possible but questionable proposition. Here is how the playoff race shapes up now:

Bears 9-1
Dallas 7-4
Giants 6-4
Saints 6-4
Seattle 6-4
Panthers 6-4
Falcons 5-5
Philly 5-5
SF 5-5

Now get this. The saints have 6 games left and 5 of them are against playoff
hunting teams(atlanta, panthers, cowboys, giants and niners). Every game is huge now and the first big game for the saints starts this week at atlanta.

Here are the big games this week:

6-4 Carolina at 3-7 Washington - No NFL game is a gimme and the skins are a talented group. If the skins win and the saints lose then we have a three way tie in the west at a disappointing 6-5, just several weeks after we wee bragging how tough the NFC south is. No question on this game, we want the skins to win.

5-5 San Francisco at 4-6 St. Louis - SF was in the game last week that was a bit hard to call. My first reaction was to pull for SF to beat Seattle so we would win home field advantage. Then I realized a SF win would put them a game behind the saints if we lost. If we and SF play even the whole way out and SF beats us at home, we could lose a 9-7 tiebrak scenario to SF. I am not in the "if we cant beat SF we dont deserve to go" crowd, and never understood that thinking. We definitely want SF to lose this game. There are (essentially)8 teams fighting for 6 spots and we want SF to drop out and make it 7 teams fighting for 6, even thopug a rams win keeps their slim hopes alive.

6-4 N.Y. Giants at 3-7 Tennessee - I wish Tennessee was still in the hunt so they would have a fired up crowd for this one. Peyton is the Man (ning) in tennessee, Eli is not, and we want the Titans to get after Eli. Eli was the prize in the Manning/Rivers/Rothlisberger qb rich draft several years ago, or so people thought. Could he be third best? He is struggling and with Dallas coming on we could be in a wild card fight with the giants, so this game is big. We have to travel to NY and our game there could be the game that determines our fate.

4-6 green bay at 6-4 seattle - Things change so quickly. With Hassleback and Alexander coming back, many writers are crowning Seattle as division winner. But if the Craig Stadler lookalike Holmgern cant beat green bay and then the surging niners win, the west is tied and we could find ourselves in a wildcard fight with seattle. lets keep our options open here and pull for the packers.

5-5 Philadelphia at 9-1 Indy - Not much to say about this one. If we have to back into the playoffs with Philly dropping down that great too. The odds are getting short for Philly and with McNabb hurt a win in Indy for them would be a huge upset.

6-4 New Orleans at 5-5 Atlanta - This is a really big game for us and a pretty much must game for the falcons. With big jim Mora fueling the fire with his "vick the coach killer" take, a falcons loss could have that team imploding. The saints would dramatically improve their chances of winning the division or getting a wild card spot with a win in Atlanta. 7-4 puts the saints in the drivers seat to get to the playoffs. 6-5 puts them in a huge jumble.
 
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The Saints have to take care of their own business. They're getting no help from anyone else.
I'll bet it will get more and more difficult to do these surveys because unless you're the Bears, it's uncertain whether to hope for a wild card or a first place in the NFCSouth. At least we're still talking playoffs, something very few of us expected.
 
Great analysis as always dotless one... I don't know the spread, but I'd put my money on Tennessee to beat NYG. The Giants have serious injury problems on defense, and Eli's confidence is shaken. Throw in Tiki and Shockey's feelings, and you have a team that's about ready to implode.

plus... the Titan's defense is playing good ball and flying under the radar... nobody mentions they held the Colts to 14 points in Indy.

I think the Giants are done.
 
In looking at overall record, consider Tennessee's last six games:

at Indianapolis L 13-14
at Washington W 25-22
Houston W 28-22
at Jacksonville L 7-37
Baltimore L 26-27
at Philadelphia W 31-13

3-3, with one point losses to the Colts and Ravens, two road wins, and one ? game against the schizo Jags. This looks like a team on a rapid rebuild that could beat the Giants outright. The Giants had a nice five game win streak, but in their last three they scraped by the Texans and then got just thumped by the Bears and Jags. They're still beat up, and you wonder if that five-gamer was the real Giants or just a nice hot streak. Their next four are Dallas, at Carolina, Philly and us.

With the sudden emergence of the Cowboys as perhaps the best team in the NFC, a bye is looking very tough unless we take the next three, and I'd be happy just starting with the next one and seeing where we were. I still focus on what gets me a first-round bye, since IMO the division, and the playoffs, are still within our own control. Really, the WTPF agenda is pretty clear this week.
 
In looking at overall record, consider Tennessee's last six games:

at Indianapolis L 13-14
at Washington W 25-22
Houston W 28-22
at Jacksonville L 7-37
Baltimore L 26-27
at Philadelphia W 31-13

3-3, with one point losses to the Colts and Ravens, two road wins, and one ? game against the schizo Jags. This looks like a team on a rapid rebuild that could beat the Giants outright. The Giants had a nice five game win streak, but in their last three they scraped by the Texans and then got just thumped by the Bears and Jags. They're still beat up, and you wonder if that five-gamer was the real Giants or just a nice hot streak. Their next four are Dallas, at Carolina, Philly and us.
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Well, a certain event took place just before that Colts game that turned the Titans around. :)

It's real easy for us from here on out. The more playoff hopefuls we beat, the better our chances.
 
Well, a certain event took place just before that Colts game that turned the Titans around. :)

It's real easy for us from here on out. The more playoff hopefuls we beat, the better our chances.
Correct. All we have to do is win. 3 more wins and we should be in.
 
3 more has a very good chance to get us in but 6 more still gives us the bye. I aint given up yet on that happening.

Win out, baby.
 
A generally good analysis. Frankly, since we play 5 of these teams, it really comes down to us getting it done. We must beat them, starting by kicking Atlanta out of the hunt. If we can make 4-2 over these 6 games, we're in, possibly as the division winner depending on which games are the losses. It is awfully cool to control our own destiny this far instead of trying to figure out who has to lose for us to sneak in like we've had to start figuring from about week 3 forward for the last few years...
 
This was one incredible week to boost our playoff chances. Its like everything went right.


Most importantly, the saints won.

Second most important is the panthers lost.

Third would be the falcons losing.

Next would be the incredible upset of the giants.

Then comes SF losing.

Although I did not even include the game, the bears now have two losses and are no lock for home field.

If Indy beats Philly(probable) and GB beats seattle(you never know) this would be just about a perfect week for improving the saints playoff chances.


Wow.
 
This was one incredible week to boost our playoff chances. Its like everything went right.


Most importantly, the saints won.

Second most important is the panthers lost.

Third would be the falcons losing.

Next would be the incredible upset of the giants.

Then comes SF losing.

Although I did not even include the game, the bears now have two losses and are no lock for home field.

If Indy beats Philly(probable) and GB beats seattle(you never know) this would be just about a perfect week for improving the saints playoff chances.


Wow.

About perfect indeed. :ezbill: The only negative game (and it wasn't on your list) was the Vikings beating Arizone and the Cardinals had a chance to win that one.


Good call on the Titans win over the Giants, LC. :worthy:
 

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