All 4 AFC Teams deserve to be where they are

[RememberTheKoy]

Football Outsiders have the Eagles with the easiest schedule in the league. The Niners had the second easiest. I don't think we should split hairs - Both teams benefited from playing weak teams.

It's not splitting hairs, it's the reality of it. Eagles played more teams with winning records and played in by far the best division in the league while the 49ers played in one of the worst.


Eagles played 6 teams with winning records:

Cowboys 12-5 x2
Vikings 13-5
Giants 9-7-1 x2
Jaguars 9-8
Lions 9-8
Steelers 9-8

Eagles won all of those games except one of the games to Dallas when they had Minshew playing.


49ers played just 4 teams with a winning record.

Chiefs 14-3
Chargers 10-7
Seahawks 9-8 x3
Dolphins 9-8


The only above. 500 team they played that wasn't barely over. 500 was the Chiefs and the Chiefs blew them the fuck out.

 

[Clayton]

Oh.... you think the Chiefs will be penalized this weekend? The Jags aint getting any calls this weekend. Book it.

It a bit weird with the refs. Chiefs usually get the calls but they've also been on the wrong side of maybe two of the worst all season. Neither the Chiefs nor the Jags get penalized often so I suspect there might not be many flags. Im just suggesting that 0 is a hard goal to hit. I also dont think the Jags are stealing 4 possessions again.

The big point is that the last game they played would be hard to duplicate.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Meanwhile, 3 of the 4 teams in the NFC Final Four are from the Eagles division. Analytics are fucking hilarious. Just heard a drop on the radio that PFF has the Giants ranked as the NFL’s 29th best team…even after they end up in the NFC semifinals.

The second part of that is laughable, I will give you that. The first part is not up for debate. Those strength of schedule numbers re based off season final results and records. It is what it is. Does mean the Eagles are not a good team? No. Just simply saying they played the easiest schedule in the NFL. So if you want to dis on the 49ers for their 2nd easiest schedule in the league as being fools gold, you should look in the mirror.

 

[fightinfunbags]

The second part of that is laughable, I will give you that. The first part is not up for debate. Those strength of schedule numbers re based off season final results and records. It is what it is. Does mean the Eagles are not a good team? No. Just simply saying they played the easiest schedule in the NFL. So if you want to dis on the 49ers for their 2nd easiest schedule in the league as being fools gold, you should look in the mirror.

You have the wrong guy. I didn’t disparage the 49ers schedule. But I am the guy saying that strength of schedule model being cited is straight ass.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Tickets for the neutral field AFC Chamionship game between the Chiefs and Bills are already going for near SB value tickets. If you think the NFL will allow any other result than that, I would say you are crazy. However, the Jags and Bengals literally have to play so clean this week, because anything that could be deemed debatable will go against the Bengals and Jags, and help the Bills and Chiefs. It is what the league has been hyping since preseason.

I can't imagine a different outcome right now.

 

[Clayton]

Tickets for the neutral field AFC Chamionship game between the Chiefs and Bills are already going for near SB value tickets. If you think the NFL will allow any other result than that, I would say you are crazy. However, the Jags and Bengals literally have to play so clean this week, because anything that could be deemed debatable will go against the Bengals and Jags, and help the Bills and Chiefs. It is what the league has been hyping since preseason.

I can't imagine a different outcome right now.

Chiefs are 8.5 point favorites. If they win it probably wont be a conspiracy.

Bengals also got away with one of the worst OPIs in Super Bowl history last year

 

[fightinfunbags]

Chiefs are 8.5 point favorites. If they win it probably wont be a conspiracy.

I recognize what he’s doing. It’s what I used to do prior to the 2017 season. I would start preparing myself for the inevitable disappointment with all sorts of rationalizations.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Chiefs are 8.5 point favorites. If they win it probably wont be a conspiracy.

Bengals also got away with one of the worst OPIs in Super Bowl history last year

I didn't say you being favored is a conspiracy. The Chiefs I believe are the better team. I just said watch the games carefully, I bet you, more will go Chiefs / Bills way on stuff that can go either way much more often than it goes to the Bengals / Jags.

As a side note, I completely agree with you on the OPI in the SB. We did clearly get away with that. I wouldn't even argue that. However, that has nothing to do with the games this weekend. The NFL got what they wanted in the end with the Rams winning. Refs made up for that bad call on the Rams by penalizing Logan Wilson (very poor call also) near the end zone on the following drive that won it for the Rams.

 

[Clayton]

I didn't say you being favored is a conspiracy. The Chiefs I believe are the better team. I just said watch the games carefully, I bet you, more will go Chiefs / Bills way on stuff that can go either way much more often than it goes to the Bengals / Jags.

As a side note, I completely agree with you on the OPI in the SB. We did clearly get away with that. I wouldn't even argue that. However, that has nothing to do with the games this weekend. The NFL got what they wanted in the end with the Rams winning. Refs made up for that bad call on the Rams by penalizing Logan Wilson (very poor call also) near the end zone on the following drive that won it for the Rams.

I just realized that Cheffers is your ref crew. Chiefs fans hate him. The underdog routinely wins with his ref crew. You're probably fine.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

I recognize what he’s doing. It’s what I used to do prior to the 2017 season. I would start preparing myself for the inevitable disappointment with all sorts of rationalizations.

I think the Bengals can still beat the Bills. I am not sure about beating KC in Arrowhead with our oline issues and our secondary injury to Awuzie.

Obviously, as a Bengals fan, as scary as they are, I would rather see the Jags knock off the Chiefs so the AFC Championship game can be played in Cincinnati. Bengals are 3-0 against Mahomes, but they are the team that still scares the hell out of me more than anyone. They are the top dog and will continue to be the top dog as long as Mahomes is their QB.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

I just realized that Cheffers is your ref crew. Chiefs fans hate him. The underdog routinely wins with his ref crew. You're probably fine.

I think you underestimate the American darlings angle with a win it for Damar storyline.

 

[fightinfunbags]

I think you underestimate the American darlings angle with a win it for Damar storyline.

If the Bengals lose to the Bills it won’t be because of Damar or refs or narrative or Goodell or any of this nonsense. It will be because the Bills outplayed the Bengals on Sunday.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

If the Bengals lose to the Bills it won’t be because of Damar or refs or narrative or Goodell or any of this nonsense. It will be because the Bills outplayed the Bengals on Sunday.

I hope that is the case. I don't mind losing to a well fought game that is clean and called accurately.

 

[Clayton]

I think you underestimate the American darlings angle with a win it for Damar storyline.

That is a pretty unique situation. I think America will be rooting for the Bills but Im sure the NFL wants everyone to forget it ever happened

 

[CrashDavisSports]

That is a pretty unique situation. I think America will be rooting for the Bills but Im sure the NFL wants everyone to forget it ever happened

Perhaps. We will see. I just want it to be a fairly called game. I can see the Bengals easily losing to the Bills on the road with a beat up offensive line. I just hope the ref crew calls a fair game and is consistent. Don't let teams play for 3 1/2 quarters and then decide that "letting them play" the last 8 minutes is off limits. Just be consistent throughout the game. If you are going to call it in the beginning or end, do it on the opposite end as well for both teams.

 

[fightinfunbags]

That is a pretty unique situation. I think America will be rooting for the Bills but Im sure the NFL wants everyone to forget it ever happened

That’s a solid point. There’s no way the NFL wants that extra long Super Bowl Pre game show to have a 15 minute human interest story on Damar dying on a football field before being resuscitated. They aren’t going to want the filler by the announcing team as the camera shows Damar watching the game from the box, the stories about what he told his teammates at practice or before the games. If we are going to dabble in conspiracy theories the one that makes the most sense is to have the Bills fall before getting into the highest profile games.

 

[Clayton]

That’s a solid point. There’s no way the NFL wants that extra long Super Bowl Pre game show to have a 15 minute human interest story on Damar dying on a football field before being resuscitated. They aren’t going to want the filler by the announcing team as the camera shows Damar watching the game from the box, the stories about what he told his teammates at practice or before the games. If we are going to dabble in conspiracy theories the one that makes the most sense is to have the Bills fall before getting into the highest profile games.

Yeah, if there was a rig in play, it wouldve been against Miami

 

[CrashDavisSports]

That’s a solid point. There’s no way the NFL wants that extra long Super Bowl Pre game show to have a 15 minute human interest story on Damar dying on a football field before being resuscitated. They aren’t going to want the filler by the announcing team as the camera shows Damar watching the game from the box, the stories about what he told his teammates at practice or before the games. If we are going to dabble in conspiracy theories the one that makes the most sense is to have the Bills fall before getting into the highest profile games.

You are asking from the wrong perspective. The NFL may not want it, but the media wants nothing more for all that content and they are paying the mortgage. So...

 

[fightinfunbags]

You are asking from the wrong perspective. The NFL may not want it, but the media wants nothing more for all that content and they are paying the mortgage. So...

To be clear, I’m not going the conspiracy theorist route. That’s retarded (no offense). What I’m pointing out is that the conspiracy theory didn’t make a ton of sense when you put it under scrutiny. And then we get to my error. When someone is dabbling in conspiracy theories, there are no agreed upon rules. So whenever someone pushes back on the theory they can just move the goalposts and do whatever they want to make the conspiracy theory still work. For you it was “NFL could rig the games” and then it morphed into “the media could just make the NFL rig the games”.

But this is fun so I’ll just take another run at this. Why isn’t every Super Bowl played between the Giants and the Jets or the LA teams and the Bears? NY LA and Chicago are the biggest markets in the country. If the NFL is fixing games at the behest of the media then why don’t we see this happen every year?

 

[Wamu]

That is a pretty unique situation. I think America will be rooting for the Bills but Im sure the NFL wants everyone to forget it ever happened

I like Allen and the BiIls. But I can't root against Burrow. So I want the Bengals to take care of business.