Bears road to the playoffs

by Adam T on Nov 28, 2006 8:31 AM CST in News Comment 5 comments

In what has to be the most non-dramatic finish, with the Packers loss to Seattle, the Bears can clinch the NFC North with a win next week versus Minnesota.

This is good news this year, especially with the mess that could be the rest of the NFC play off teams. If Dallas drops to the Giants next week, we might have to dig up rules for the third and fourth tie breakers to figure out some of these teams.

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NFC North

We knew going into the year that the NFC North wouldn't exactly be the most competitive division in the NFL. Personally, while winning the division is nice, I am looking at home field advantage throughout the playoffs. They have a two game lead with five to go. Here's hoping they can get it done.

first the Rush...now the Bears.

by mike on Nov 28, 2006 8:46 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

You can say we knew

it wouldn't be that hard to win, but if looked at the predictions more than a few picked Minnesota and even Detroit to come out on top.

by Adam T on Nov 28, 2006 8:57 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I remember seeing those

and IIRC we laughed at them and said they were just trying to be different so that they would get noticed. Realistically though, I don't think that there are many people out there who felt that the Bears would have a hard time within their division.

first the Rush...now the Bears.

by mike on Nov 28, 2006 10:27 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Tiebreaks

First time, long time...

First tiebreak is head-to-head, second (for divisional ties) is divisional record, third is conference record.

We have the head-to-head, of course, on the Seahawks and Giants. After seeing Dallas take the lead this weekend, however, I thought to take a look at there conference record...

The Cowboys have already lost 3 NFC games this season, the Bears have lost 0, and both have only NFC opponents remaining. Given a 2-game lead, to tie them in the standings the Bears would have to lose 2 more conference games than the Cowboys from here out. Tiebreak to Chicago by one game.

Who else?

Also 7–4, the Saints only have one NFC loss, again with only conference opponents remaining. A tie with New Orleans would again entail taking two more losses than them down the stretch, giving this tiebreak to the Saints (again, by one game).

The Panthers have 3 NFC losses, but at 6–5 it would take at least 3 NFC losses from the Bears to tie. If the Panthers win out and the Bears lose 3, the tiebreak moves on to records in common games, which I'll leave for someone else to figure out.

If the Bears lose 4, however, (in which case homefield is all but out the window anyways) and Carolina only loses to the Steelers (their only remaining AFC opponent), the tiebreak goes to the Panthers.

by Danimal on Nov 28, 2006 10:40 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Actually...

"...in which case homefield is all but out the window anyways..."

On second thought, I take this back. Given a 2 game lead, losing 4 out of 5 down the stretch (however depressing that would be, especially given our schedule) could still leave us a reasonable chance at home field all the way.

by Danimal on Nov 28, 2006 10:47 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs