A losing team somehow made the playoffs.
This is the first time that a losing team has made the playoffs in a 16-game season. The only other time that this has happened was in 1982, when a players’ strike interrupted the season. Sixteen teams made the playoffs that year, including two teams that were 4-5.
The 7-9 Seattle Seahawks made the NFC playoffs by winning their division, the NFC West. According to NFL rules, the fourth seeded Seahawks will host the 5th seeded New Orleans Saints, a wildcard team. The Saints’s record is 11-5, and they are the defending Super Bowl Champions. The Saints are favored to win the game by ten and a half points.
In the teams’ only meeting this year, the Saints won a resounding 34-19 victory in New Orleans. Now, they will travel to play in Seattle, a team that is not even .500. This poses the question, “Why are losing teams are allowed in the playoffs?” Is it merely because every other team in their division was even worse?
Despite this, the Seahawks were able to pull off a 41-36 win. The home crowd played a large factor in the game, forcing three false starts. The crowd noise also caused Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees to call two timeouts. If the game had been in New Orleans, the outcome probably would have been different.
Seattle took a playoff spot from the New York Giants, who were 10-6 overall. The NFL needs to take the top six teams from each conference and place them in the playoffs. This would be fairer to teams who do not make the playoffs because a losing team happened to be a division winner.
Also, most of this year’s wildcard teams are traveling to play a team with a worse record than them. The only exception is the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers, who have identical 10-6 records. In week one, the wildcard Packers won the head-to-head meeting, 27-20 in Philadelphia. The Packers won in the playoffs too, 21-16.
The Baltimore Ravens (12-4) had to travel to play the Kansas City Chiefs (10-6) because they didn’t win their division. The Ravens destroyed the Chiefs, 30-7. Too much emphasis is being placed on winning the division, rather than a team’s overall record. Teams like the Ravens and Saints are wildcard teams just because another team in their division was a little bit better.
If the playoffs were organized by the teams’ record instead of basing it mainly on division victories, the NFL playoffs would be more enjoyable for teams and fans. It is unfair for better teams to travel to another stadium to play in the playoffs. It isn’t called a home field advantage for nothing.
Even if division winners still made the playoffs, the seeding should be organized by record. Hopefully, a new Collective Bargaining Agreement will include changes to the seeding for the playoffs.