Doyel: Most Colts injury update ever: Darius Leonard's ankle masked severity of back

[ChaosTheory]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


And/or playing in a division in which an 8-8 record will be good enough to win it.

The shittiest rolls of the dice since the implement of the 16-game schedule in 1978 were the 1985 Broncos and the 2008 Patriots, both of whom went 11-5 and didn't make the post-season.




https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r...Teams/1985-den


https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r.../Teams/2008-ne

o

Yep, brutal. I always think of the 2010 Saints. I don't feel bad because I hate them, but they went 11-5 and had to travel three time zones to Seattle because the Seahawks won the NFC West with a 7-9 record. Seattle ends up beating them because it's football.

Then there's lesser examples like the '08 Colts going 12-4 but the Titans decided to start the season 10-0 and took the division.

Etc., etc...

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Yep, brutal. I always think of the 2010 Saints. I don't feel bad because I hate them, but they went 11-5 and had to travel three time zones to Seattle because the Seahawks won the NFC West with a 7-9 record. Seattle ends up beating them because it's football.

Then there's lesser examples like the '08 Colts going 12-4 but the Titans decided to start the season 10-0 and took the division.

Etc., etc...

And the '08 Colts had the similar experience of traveling to the west coast to play the 8-8 Chargers and of course we lost (although we had plenty of chances win that one walking away).

The NFL really should change the playoff seeding since there's no reason a 7/8 win team should be seeded higher than a 10+ win team.

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

And the '08 Colts had the similar experience of traveling to the west coast to play the 8-8 Chargers and of course we lost (although we had plenty of chances win that one walking away).

The NFL really should change the playoff seeding since there's no reason a 7/8 win team should be seeded higher than a 10+ win team.

o


2008 was a personal heartbreaker for me, because we beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh, and were the hottest team in football that went from 3-4 to 12-4. I really believe that the Colts were the only team in the AFC that was capable of beating the Steelers in the post-season that year (as they had already done so in the regular season), and that the Steelers and their fans all breathed a sigh of relief when the Colts were KO'd by the Chargers in overtime.

o

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Yep, brutal. I always think of the 2010 Saints. I don't feel bad because I hate them, but they went 11-5 and had to travel three time zones to Seattle because the Seahawks won the NFC West with a 7-9 record. Seattle ends up beating them because it's football.

Then there's lesser examples like the '08 Colts going 12-4 but the Titans decided to start the season 10-0 and took the division.

Etc., etc...

o


For the Colts, they had 2 examples that were bad, and one was just horrific.

1) ) The 1967 Colts were undefeated going into the final game of the season ...... UNDEFEATED !!! They lost the final game of the regular season, and DID NOT make the post-season because Pete Rozelle's set-up was absurd. There were 16 teams in the NFL, and instead of dividing them into 2 divisions with 2 Wildcards, Rozelle had 4 divisions with no Wildcard. So the Colts ...... with a record of 11-1-2 ...... did not qualify for the playoffs because they were in the same division as the Rams (who also had a record of 11-1-2, but won the tiebreaker.) So the team that was tied for the best record in the entire NFL was sitting home for the post-season that year.


https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r...Teams/1967-bal



2) ) The 2008 Colts were also royally screwed. They had a record of 12-4 AND they also beat the Chargers on their homefield in San Diego ...... but because the 8-8 Chargers won their division, their playoff game was held in San Diego.

https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r...Teams/2008-ind



I believe that they ought to make a clause in regard to division winners getting to play on their homefield with a significantly worse record than their opponent. They should make it so that you have to be at least within 2 full games of the team that you are playing in order to maintain the homefield advantage ...... so a team that won their division with a record of 10-7 would still be able to host a playoff game against a Wildcard team that had a record of 12-5. BUT, if a team won their division with a record of 9-8 (or 9-7-1) was playing a Wildcard team that finished with a record of 12-5, then the Wildcard team would then host the playoff game.

o

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


For the Colts, they had 2 examples that were bad, and one was just horrific.

1) ) The 1967 Colts were undefeated going into the final game of the season ...... UNDEFEATED !!! They lost the final game of the regular season, and DID NOT make the post-season because Pete Rozelle's set-up was absurd. There were 16 teams in the NFL, and instead of dividing them into 2 divisions with 2 Wildcards, Rozelle had 4 divisions with no Wildcard. So the Colts ...... with a record of 11-1-2 ...... did not qualify for the playoffs because they were in the same division as the Rams (who also had a record of 11-1-2), but lost the tiebreaker. So the team that was tied for the best record in the entire NFL was sitting home for the post-season that year.


https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r...Teams/1967-bal



2) ) The 2008 Colts were also royally screwed. They had a record of 12-4 AND they also beat the Chargers on their homefield in San Diego ...... but because the 8-8 Chargers won their division, their playoff game was held in Sa Diego.

https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r...Teams/2008-ind



I believe that they ought to make a clause in regard to division winners getting to play on their homefield with a significantly worse record than their opponent. They should make it so that you have to be at least within 2 full games of the team that you are playing in order to maintain the homefield advantage ...... so a team that won their division with a record of 10-7 would still be able to host a playoff game against a Wildcard team that had a record of 12-5. BUT, if a team won their division with a record of 9-8 (or 9-7-1) was playing a Wildcard team that finished with a record of 12-5, then the Wildcard team would then host the playoff game.

o

As bad as it was for the Colts in '08 and Saint's in '10 that first case you describe was highway robbery!! Totally ridiculous.

I like your idea, but I'd like to see the league take it a step further and seed the playoffs by record w/ division winner being the 1st tie breaker (or better yet 2nd tie breaker after head to head).

[ChaosTheory]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

I believe that they ought to make a clause in regard to division winners getting to play on their homefield with a significantly worse record than their opponent. They should make it so that you have to be at least within 2 full games of the team that you are playing in order to maintain the homefield advantage ...... so a team that won their division with a record of 10-7 would still be able to host a playoff game against a Wildcard team that had a record of 12-5. BUT, if a team won their division with a record of 9-8 (or 9-7-1) was playing a Wildcard team that finished with a record of 12-5, then the Wildcard team would then host the playoff game.

I agree with the sentiment, but I'd rather keep the arbitrarity out of it. It gets messy. Like how overtime now gives both team a possession unless you score a TD. And people say, "Well, why don't they both get a possession regardless?" And next it'll be, "Well, why don't they both get two possessions?" and so on.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

I like your idea, but I'd like to see the league take it a step further and seed the playoffs by record w/ division winner being the 1st tie breaker (or better yet 2nd tie breaker after head to head).

Normally I'd say to leave the qualification seeding as they've always been (4 division champs + 3 WC)... and once you've got your field, simply seed them according to record. Keeps the division really meaningful. Division winner could also be part of the tie-breaker.

But yours is an interesting take. It doesn't make being a division winner meaningless due to tie-breakers... But I suppose the issue would be that theoretically a division winner could miss the playoffs outright. The '08 Chargers and the '10 Seahawks we mentioned both would've missed the playoffs even with under the current 7-team field. And maybe that's what they deserved.

It becomes a matter of meritocracy vs. marketing, and marketing would never omit an entire division's audience from the playoffs.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Normally I'd say to leave the qualification seeding as they've always been (4 division champs + 3 WC)... and once you've got your field, simply seed them according to record. Keeps the division really meaningful. Division winner could also be part of the tie-breaker.

But yours is an interesting take. It doesn't make being a division winner meaningless due to tie-breakers... But I suppose the issue would be that theoretically a division winner could miss the playoffs outright. The '08 Chargers and the '10 Seahawks we mentioned both would've missed the playoffs even with under the current 7-team field. And maybe that's what they deserved.

It becomes a matter of meritocracy vs. marketing, and marketing would never omit an entire division's audience from the playoffs.

I agree with you, and I didn't fully describe it well enough b/c I would keep each of the division winners making the playoffs along w/ the top 3 other teams then seed by record w/ division winner being the #1 or #2 tie breaker. So if a division winner has 10 wins and the 3 WC winners have 12, 11, and 10 wins then division winner would be seeded higher than the #3 WC but below the other 2 WC teams.

Ultimately the best and fairest product would be to have the teams with the top 7 records make the playoffs, but as you pointed out that will never happen.