Evil Ash
Henchman Supreme
http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3270176
NFC doesn't have much going for it now
Paul Attner
Posted: 2 hours ago
So I phone my contact in the NFL office. I ask him, "Can't we cancel the NFC playoffs?"
He sounds stunned. "But we can't. It's part of the schedule."
"But," I reply, "schedules can be altered. That's what my wife tells me every day. What's the sense of having a playoff in that conference? Now even the Eagles aren't as dominant with Terrell Owens injured. And the rest of those clubs, I mean, be serious."
He pauses for the longest time. I think maybe I am making some progress. But it turns out he's been distracted by something on NFL Network. "Sorry, we can't change things just because the teams involved don't meet your standards."
"My standards? You want to risk a losing team in your playoffs? I know hockey's on strike and you may feel sorry for them but this isn't the NHL. Your playoffs are supposed to be for legitimate contenders, not also-rans and wannabes. My goodness, have you looked at how bad some of these teams really are?"
He cleared his voice. "We don't pass judgments on our teams. We have a method of qualifying for the postseason and if they meet those qualifications, they get in. Clean and simple. Don't you root for underdogs? That's what makes sports so great."
I laugh. "Underdogs? You're talking a whole conference of underdogs here. Even the Eagles. If they get to the Super Bowl, you think they'll be favored against any AFC team? The NFC is giving parity a bad name."
For the first time, I sense some displeasure on the other end of the phone. "Parity is one of the great features of the NFL," he says, a coldness in his words. "You have fans all over the country still excited about the playoffs. Nothing wrong with that."
I want to explain to him the difference between parity and mediocrity. But I realize this conversation is going nowhere, much like the NFC itself. "Thanks for listening," I tell him. "But don't call me complaining when the Cardinals go to the Super Bowl."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I ask Rich McKay how this has happened. McKay is a smart man, co-chair of the prestigious competition committee and the brains behind the Falcons' off-season restructuring. And he has a law degree, which automatically puts him in rare atmosphere among football types. I ask him how the NFC could be so inferior to the AFC this season; how 5-9 Arizona could still win the NFC West; how six other 5-9 squads still could think seriously about the postseason; how two teams with losing records could make the playoffs; how only San Francisco among the 16 franchises has been officially eliminated; how the Giants, with a seven-game losing streak, still could be in contention; how the conference could play 58 games against the AFC so far and lose 39, including 12 by 21 or more points?
"I should have an answer," McKay says. "But I can't come up with one. It is football's equivalent of El Nino. I kept hearing about that on the news too but I have no idea what it is."
Oh great. So now I am supposed to explain El Nino too. But maybe that is good. I think I have a better chance of figuring out something weather-related than this nonsense that has diluted the NFC this season. Its lack of brilliance has left football folks puzzled and perplexed. "We can't get like baseball and basketball and like they used to be in hockey," says FOX analyst Terry Bradshaw. "Enough is enough already. I hate average football and we have too many average teams. Yes, it is good for the fans but I think bad for the league. Some Sundays the games are so bad I'm half asleep watching. I'm putting on weight watching. I've gained 20 pounds out of frustration."
Heavy on frustration, light on quality. That's the NFC for you. "I made a mandate about the NFC playoffs," says Brian Baldinger, FOX and SN analyst. "I am not talking about any team's possibilities if they are .500 or less. To do so makes a mockery of what the playoffs should be all about. It is a great argument that this wild-card thing is a joke."
Problem is, as long as the NFL stubbornly insists on holding NFC playoffs, we've got to watch these teams. "It's definitely not parity, it is mediocrity," says Randy Mueller, former Saints general manager. "Have you watched some of these games? Even when they are competitive, it is not good football. Teams that can avoid tripping themselves up are going to wind up in the playoffs because more teams than ever are losing rather than winning games." Tampa's Ronde Barber just as easily could have been talking about the whole conference when he says of the Bucs: "we're finding ways to kick our own butt."
Here are the sad facts about the NFC. Warning — they may cause depression:
Prior to last Sunday, the Eagles were the conference's one hope for Super Bowl redemption. Now that Owens almost certainly won't play again this season, Philadelphia must deal with the same limited offensive firepower that has plagued it the previous three years, all of which ended with losses in the NFC title game. The conference's one elite team no longer is quite so shining.
Cardinals coach Dennis Green seemingly tossed away his playoff chances by initiating a mind-numbing shuffle with his quarterbacks earlier this season. Yet, if Arizona can win at Seattle this Sunday and beat the Bucs at home Jan. 2, they could capture the West at 7-9. The Rams, at 6-8, should lose to both the Eagles and the Jets and if the 7-7 Seahawks fall to both the Cardinals and Falcons, which is conceivable, they lose the head-to-head tiebreaker to Green's bunch, which will have defeated them twice. The Rams and Seahawks are a combined 3-7 the last five weeks in what jokingly is their run to the playoffs.
A Superman leap for a touchdown by Michael Vick last Saturday ultimately cost Carolina a win over the Falcons. Now the Panthers are tied at 6-8 with the Rams and the Saints, who were compared to a high school team by owner Tom Benson earlier in the season. The Saints and Panthers play on Jan. 2 but each very well could lose this week, which would mean a 7-9 finish for one of them, which also could mean a playoff berth. Scary note: Other than the Falcons and Eagles, the Saints, riding a mere two-game winning streak, are playing the conference's best football.
But, of course, some of those current 5-9 teams also could end at 7-9. Thank goodness the NFL is the one tasked with sorting out all the various 7-9 scenarios. The league, of course, is hoping for at least two 8-8 non-division winners to occupy the wild-card spots. If the Panthers should make it, they would be the first team in NFL history to enter the playoffs after a 1-7 start. In the AFC this year, they'd be an also-ran.
The Bills should petition for a one-year NFC membership. They are tied for the eighth-best record in the AFC. But against the NFC West, they are 3-0 with a 113-40 margin in points. And they play the 49ers Sunday. The Steelers are 4-0 against the NFC East, the Colts 4-0 against the NFC North. But then, the AFC has nine teams with winning records, the NFC four.
For sure, what has happened to the NFC this season will serve as exhibit No. 1 for those who believe each conference should seed its playoff teams and not automatically reward division winners with at least one home game. "I'm not sure there is a great push for that," says McKay, "but it certainly is something that bears analysis."
And if the NFC were to have a playoff team or two with a losing record? "Obviously, you want all teams to be at least .500," says Panthers General Manager Marty Hurney. "I mean, you aren't going to turn it down if you have a losing record. But no one in football wants it that way." McKay says having a playoff team with a losing record "doesn't feel right. I am bothered by that. We as a league take pride in that only 12 teams can make the playoffs and it is very hard and I don't like the appearance that someone under .500 can get in."
Here's a solution: unless you finish .500 or better, you aren't eligible for the postseason. That'll clean up the neighborhood.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's what makes this NFC mess so difficult to comprehend. It's not as if you can identify a few specific reasons as culprits in creating all these average clubs. This is a conference with one Hall of Fame coach (Joe Gibbs), another lock (Bill Parcells), two other Super Bowl winners (Mike Holmgren, John Gruden), Super Bowl finalists (Mike Martz, John Fox) and respected winners (Steve Mariucci, Tom Coughlin, Dennis Green, Mike Sherman) along with Andy Reid, the best of the bunch the last four seasons. Certainly more AFC quarterbacks are having stellar seasons but any conference with Donavan McNabb, Brett Favre, Michael Vick, Daunte Culpepper, Marc Bulger and Jake Delhomme is not exactly devoid of talent.
Yet it is obvious when watching the two conferences that more AFC teams play tougher and more fundamentally sound football, that more of the best NFC squads have glaring weaknesses that leave them incredibly vulnerable every week. "Something is missing," says Mueller. "When you see two NFC teams playing, it is almost like touch football. The physicality of it is missing; it's finesse. There are not enough tough teams who can sit in there and hit with you. That's not the case in the AFC."
You can hear the disgust in Baldinger's voice as he calls off potential second-level NFC playoff teams. "Green Bay's defense has huge holes. Does Minnesota's defense sit in the same room together during the week? They play as if they don't know each other. Seattle has no toughness. St. Louis is strictly an exhibition team; they shouldn't even be playing games. At least Carolina will line up and hit you in the teeth." The Falcons have the conference's second-best record but even McKay conceded "statistically, we aren't an overpowering team. We have a lot to prove and we know it." Only the Eagles, with their sparkling 11-0 record against other NFC teams, shine brightly.
But Hurney isn't writing a conference concession speech, at least not yet. "It would be a mistake to discount any team once it gets into the playoffs," he says. "I'm just not going to agree that we can't compete with the AFC. The league is too close in talent. And once the playoffs begin, interesting stuff happens." For those with short-term memories, recall this: Hurney's Panthers were viewed as easy fodder for the Patriots in Super Bowl 38, yet it took a last-minute field goal for New England to secure a 32-29 victory.
Entering this season, we expected better of the NFC. Parcells and the Cowboys were coming off a playoff year but their defense has underachieved and using a 41-year old at quarterback was a mistake. We felt Gibbs certainly would revitalize the Redskins quickly. Instead, he stuck with quarterback Mark Brunell for too long despite embarrassing performances. Defense betrayed the Rams, Vikings and Packers; the Bucs proved to be too old, the Panthers have 14 guys on injured reserve, the Seahawks implode without warning. Thank goodness for overachieving Atlanta and the predictable Eagles, who are every bit as good as anticipated. Without both teams, things could have been even more ugly.
At times, Carolina and Green Bay have teased us. Maybe, we thought, they'll give us at least a third decent NFC contender, particularly when they occasionally exhibited the toughness missing from so many of their conference brethren. "The Panthers will run the ball between the tackles and control the clock a little bit, which you don't see a lot in the NFC," says Mueller. But with all their injuries, the Panthers just don't have enough playmakers. And the Packers? Despite what should be a threatening offense, they were trampled by the Eagles, 47-17, Dec. 5 and lost to the AFC's Jaguars, 28-25, in temperatures that should have rendered the southern visitors inoperable.
But because this is the NFC, the Packers still qualified for the playoffs. And the Vikes, who beat the Lions Sunday only after Detroit botched an extra point in the final seconds to send the game into overtime, likely will gain entrance too even though they have lost five of their last eight. Better would be the 5-9 Bears, who haven't been eliminated despite being on the verge of setting all types of club records for offensive ineptness.
So only the Falcons truly stand between the Eagles and a Super Bowl appearance. Atlanta is the league's No. 1 rushing team; its style is more akin to a NFC East squad than a NFC South rep, so bad conditions in January shouldn't be a problem. And its offensive strength is perfect to attack Philly's defensive vulnerability. Besides, has any team ever entered the playoffs with more pressure and expectations than these Eagles, who will be favored even without Owens? They know full well the incredible embarrassment that will accompany four straight championship game losses. Falcons and Eagles. We can only hope.
As for the rest of the NFC mess, well, I think I will call the league office again. Somebody has to listen to reason, don't they?
NFC doesn't have much going for it now
Paul Attner
Posted: 2 hours ago
So I phone my contact in the NFL office. I ask him, "Can't we cancel the NFC playoffs?"
He sounds stunned. "But we can't. It's part of the schedule."
"But," I reply, "schedules can be altered. That's what my wife tells me every day. What's the sense of having a playoff in that conference? Now even the Eagles aren't as dominant with Terrell Owens injured. And the rest of those clubs, I mean, be serious."
He pauses for the longest time. I think maybe I am making some progress. But it turns out he's been distracted by something on NFL Network. "Sorry, we can't change things just because the teams involved don't meet your standards."
"My standards? You want to risk a losing team in your playoffs? I know hockey's on strike and you may feel sorry for them but this isn't the NHL. Your playoffs are supposed to be for legitimate contenders, not also-rans and wannabes. My goodness, have you looked at how bad some of these teams really are?"
He cleared his voice. "We don't pass judgments on our teams. We have a method of qualifying for the postseason and if they meet those qualifications, they get in. Clean and simple. Don't you root for underdogs? That's what makes sports so great."
I laugh. "Underdogs? You're talking a whole conference of underdogs here. Even the Eagles. If they get to the Super Bowl, you think they'll be favored against any AFC team? The NFC is giving parity a bad name."
For the first time, I sense some displeasure on the other end of the phone. "Parity is one of the great features of the NFL," he says, a coldness in his words. "You have fans all over the country still excited about the playoffs. Nothing wrong with that."
I want to explain to him the difference between parity and mediocrity. But I realize this conversation is going nowhere, much like the NFC itself. "Thanks for listening," I tell him. "But don't call me complaining when the Cardinals go to the Super Bowl."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I ask Rich McKay how this has happened. McKay is a smart man, co-chair of the prestigious competition committee and the brains behind the Falcons' off-season restructuring. And he has a law degree, which automatically puts him in rare atmosphere among football types. I ask him how the NFC could be so inferior to the AFC this season; how 5-9 Arizona could still win the NFC West; how six other 5-9 squads still could think seriously about the postseason; how two teams with losing records could make the playoffs; how only San Francisco among the 16 franchises has been officially eliminated; how the Giants, with a seven-game losing streak, still could be in contention; how the conference could play 58 games against the AFC so far and lose 39, including 12 by 21 or more points?
"I should have an answer," McKay says. "But I can't come up with one. It is football's equivalent of El Nino. I kept hearing about that on the news too but I have no idea what it is."
Oh great. So now I am supposed to explain El Nino too. But maybe that is good. I think I have a better chance of figuring out something weather-related than this nonsense that has diluted the NFC this season. Its lack of brilliance has left football folks puzzled and perplexed. "We can't get like baseball and basketball and like they used to be in hockey," says FOX analyst Terry Bradshaw. "Enough is enough already. I hate average football and we have too many average teams. Yes, it is good for the fans but I think bad for the league. Some Sundays the games are so bad I'm half asleep watching. I'm putting on weight watching. I've gained 20 pounds out of frustration."
Heavy on frustration, light on quality. That's the NFC for you. "I made a mandate about the NFC playoffs," says Brian Baldinger, FOX and SN analyst. "I am not talking about any team's possibilities if they are .500 or less. To do so makes a mockery of what the playoffs should be all about. It is a great argument that this wild-card thing is a joke."
Problem is, as long as the NFL stubbornly insists on holding NFC playoffs, we've got to watch these teams. "It's definitely not parity, it is mediocrity," says Randy Mueller, former Saints general manager. "Have you watched some of these games? Even when they are competitive, it is not good football. Teams that can avoid tripping themselves up are going to wind up in the playoffs because more teams than ever are losing rather than winning games." Tampa's Ronde Barber just as easily could have been talking about the whole conference when he says of the Bucs: "we're finding ways to kick our own butt."
Here are the sad facts about the NFC. Warning — they may cause depression:
Prior to last Sunday, the Eagles were the conference's one hope for Super Bowl redemption. Now that Owens almost certainly won't play again this season, Philadelphia must deal with the same limited offensive firepower that has plagued it the previous three years, all of which ended with losses in the NFC title game. The conference's one elite team no longer is quite so shining.
Cardinals coach Dennis Green seemingly tossed away his playoff chances by initiating a mind-numbing shuffle with his quarterbacks earlier this season. Yet, if Arizona can win at Seattle this Sunday and beat the Bucs at home Jan. 2, they could capture the West at 7-9. The Rams, at 6-8, should lose to both the Eagles and the Jets and if the 7-7 Seahawks fall to both the Cardinals and Falcons, which is conceivable, they lose the head-to-head tiebreaker to Green's bunch, which will have defeated them twice. The Rams and Seahawks are a combined 3-7 the last five weeks in what jokingly is their run to the playoffs.
A Superman leap for a touchdown by Michael Vick last Saturday ultimately cost Carolina a win over the Falcons. Now the Panthers are tied at 6-8 with the Rams and the Saints, who were compared to a high school team by owner Tom Benson earlier in the season. The Saints and Panthers play on Jan. 2 but each very well could lose this week, which would mean a 7-9 finish for one of them, which also could mean a playoff berth. Scary note: Other than the Falcons and Eagles, the Saints, riding a mere two-game winning streak, are playing the conference's best football.
But, of course, some of those current 5-9 teams also could end at 7-9. Thank goodness the NFL is the one tasked with sorting out all the various 7-9 scenarios. The league, of course, is hoping for at least two 8-8 non-division winners to occupy the wild-card spots. If the Panthers should make it, they would be the first team in NFL history to enter the playoffs after a 1-7 start. In the AFC this year, they'd be an also-ran.
The Bills should petition for a one-year NFC membership. They are tied for the eighth-best record in the AFC. But against the NFC West, they are 3-0 with a 113-40 margin in points. And they play the 49ers Sunday. The Steelers are 4-0 against the NFC East, the Colts 4-0 against the NFC North. But then, the AFC has nine teams with winning records, the NFC four.
For sure, what has happened to the NFC this season will serve as exhibit No. 1 for those who believe each conference should seed its playoff teams and not automatically reward division winners with at least one home game. "I'm not sure there is a great push for that," says McKay, "but it certainly is something that bears analysis."
And if the NFC were to have a playoff team or two with a losing record? "Obviously, you want all teams to be at least .500," says Panthers General Manager Marty Hurney. "I mean, you aren't going to turn it down if you have a losing record. But no one in football wants it that way." McKay says having a playoff team with a losing record "doesn't feel right. I am bothered by that. We as a league take pride in that only 12 teams can make the playoffs and it is very hard and I don't like the appearance that someone under .500 can get in."
Here's a solution: unless you finish .500 or better, you aren't eligible for the postseason. That'll clean up the neighborhood.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's what makes this NFC mess so difficult to comprehend. It's not as if you can identify a few specific reasons as culprits in creating all these average clubs. This is a conference with one Hall of Fame coach (Joe Gibbs), another lock (Bill Parcells), two other Super Bowl winners (Mike Holmgren, John Gruden), Super Bowl finalists (Mike Martz, John Fox) and respected winners (Steve Mariucci, Tom Coughlin, Dennis Green, Mike Sherman) along with Andy Reid, the best of the bunch the last four seasons. Certainly more AFC quarterbacks are having stellar seasons but any conference with Donavan McNabb, Brett Favre, Michael Vick, Daunte Culpepper, Marc Bulger and Jake Delhomme is not exactly devoid of talent.
Yet it is obvious when watching the two conferences that more AFC teams play tougher and more fundamentally sound football, that more of the best NFC squads have glaring weaknesses that leave them incredibly vulnerable every week. "Something is missing," says Mueller. "When you see two NFC teams playing, it is almost like touch football. The physicality of it is missing; it's finesse. There are not enough tough teams who can sit in there and hit with you. That's not the case in the AFC."
You can hear the disgust in Baldinger's voice as he calls off potential second-level NFC playoff teams. "Green Bay's defense has huge holes. Does Minnesota's defense sit in the same room together during the week? They play as if they don't know each other. Seattle has no toughness. St. Louis is strictly an exhibition team; they shouldn't even be playing games. At least Carolina will line up and hit you in the teeth." The Falcons have the conference's second-best record but even McKay conceded "statistically, we aren't an overpowering team. We have a lot to prove and we know it." Only the Eagles, with their sparkling 11-0 record against other NFC teams, shine brightly.
But Hurney isn't writing a conference concession speech, at least not yet. "It would be a mistake to discount any team once it gets into the playoffs," he says. "I'm just not going to agree that we can't compete with the AFC. The league is too close in talent. And once the playoffs begin, interesting stuff happens." For those with short-term memories, recall this: Hurney's Panthers were viewed as easy fodder for the Patriots in Super Bowl 38, yet it took a last-minute field goal for New England to secure a 32-29 victory.
Entering this season, we expected better of the NFC. Parcells and the Cowboys were coming off a playoff year but their defense has underachieved and using a 41-year old at quarterback was a mistake. We felt Gibbs certainly would revitalize the Redskins quickly. Instead, he stuck with quarterback Mark Brunell for too long despite embarrassing performances. Defense betrayed the Rams, Vikings and Packers; the Bucs proved to be too old, the Panthers have 14 guys on injured reserve, the Seahawks implode without warning. Thank goodness for overachieving Atlanta and the predictable Eagles, who are every bit as good as anticipated. Without both teams, things could have been even more ugly.
At times, Carolina and Green Bay have teased us. Maybe, we thought, they'll give us at least a third decent NFC contender, particularly when they occasionally exhibited the toughness missing from so many of their conference brethren. "The Panthers will run the ball between the tackles and control the clock a little bit, which you don't see a lot in the NFC," says Mueller. But with all their injuries, the Panthers just don't have enough playmakers. And the Packers? Despite what should be a threatening offense, they were trampled by the Eagles, 47-17, Dec. 5 and lost to the AFC's Jaguars, 28-25, in temperatures that should have rendered the southern visitors inoperable.
But because this is the NFC, the Packers still qualified for the playoffs. And the Vikes, who beat the Lions Sunday only after Detroit botched an extra point in the final seconds to send the game into overtime, likely will gain entrance too even though they have lost five of their last eight. Better would be the 5-9 Bears, who haven't been eliminated despite being on the verge of setting all types of club records for offensive ineptness.
So only the Falcons truly stand between the Eagles and a Super Bowl appearance. Atlanta is the league's No. 1 rushing team; its style is more akin to a NFC East squad than a NFC South rep, so bad conditions in January shouldn't be a problem. And its offensive strength is perfect to attack Philly's defensive vulnerability. Besides, has any team ever entered the playoffs with more pressure and expectations than these Eagles, who will be favored even without Owens? They know full well the incredible embarrassment that will accompany four straight championship game losses. Falcons and Eagles. We can only hope.
As for the rest of the NFC mess, well, I think I will call the league office again. Somebody has to listen to reason, don't they?
