Well This Really Really Sucks

[UNHWildCats]

xbawlingx

[UNHWildCats]

No, Brett Farve sucks.
no kidding

[brownbear]

Awesome!!!

GO STEELERS!

[yorkcountyUNHfan]

one more reason for all you Pats fans to hate the Jets

[UNHWildCats]

Congrats to the Patriots for what they accomplished this season with a QB who hadn't started a game since he was like 17 or 18 years old.

It was a great season that saw the offense score over 400 points again.

Congrats to the Dolphins, but boy am I gonna have things to say about the Jets and I will celebrate tomorrow morning when Mangoose is fired.

[siuham]

bwaaaaaaaaahahhaahahahahahhahaha.

Sorry what?

Dallas and New England out of the playoffs? Love it.

[UNHWildCats]

bwaaaaaaaaahahhaahahahahahhahaha.

Sorry what?

Dallas and New England out of the playoffs? Love it.
laugh at Dallas fine, but New England didnt exactly play llike crap this season 11-5 is very damn respectable.

[mtgrizfan4life]

Dallas is out, that is all I care about. As for the PATS, it sucks that either Denver or SanDiego get in over them. Then again that is football.

As an Eagle fan, Thank you to the Raiders and Texans too. Way to ruin the Cowboys season!!!!!!!!!

[BlueHen86]

laugh at Dallas fine, but New England didnt exactly play llike crap this season 11-5 is very damn respectable.
The Patriots got woofed.xlolx

[YaleFootballFan]

Congrats to the Patriots for what they accomplished this season with a QB who hadn't started a game since he was like 17 or 18 years old.

It was a great season that saw the offense score over 400 points again.

Exactly. Not making the playoffs still doesn't take away the fact that NE had a great season. 11-5 without Brady? Who would have thought!

This is just a bump in the road (missing the playoffs). The Pats will be back in the Super Bowl next year and everything will be right with the world. xnodx

[siuham]

Patriots need to go play in the NFC West. They'd be 2 games up now? Sheesssh

[UNHWildCats]

Dallas is out, that is all I care about. As for the PATS, it sucks that either Denver or SanDiego get in over them. Then again that is football.

As an Eagle fan, Thank you to the Raiders and Texans too. Way to ruin the Cowboys season!!!!!!!!!

My objections isnt so much with them getting in cause they won their division which is what they had to do.

I hate teams competing for the same playoff spot and having diff schedules... this is a bigger concern in a short season like the NFL as opposed to like baseball.

If the NFL adds two more teams in the future (Likely they will) then they should do 2 17 team conferences, no divisions and every team plays each conference opponent once for 16 games Everyone competing for the same playoff spot has the same schedule.

[UNHWildCats]

Patriots need to go play in the NFC West. They'd be 2 games up now? Sheesssh
hmm 2 games well lets see they went 4-2 in the AFC east, they woulda went 6-0 in the NFC west so thats one less win for Ariz in div and two more for NE so its more like a 5 game lead :p

[Ivytalk]

"Cheater" Belichick gets his penance. xwhistlex

Too bad, but the Pats will be back...with their Sinner of a coach.xpeacex

[YaleFootballFan]

I have friends on Long Island that are both Mets and Jets fans. They've seen both their teams collapse down the stretch in the VERY SAME YEAR.

Could it get any worse for them? As much as I dislike the NYJ, I actually feel bad for them.

[FCS Preview]

they should do 2 17 team conferences, no divisions and every team plays each conference opponent once for 16 games Everyone competing for the same playoff spot has the same schedule.

will never happen. Teams want to play their traditional rivals every year at home...giants-cowboys; redskins-cowboys; bears-packers...etc

plus you'd never again get a game like last year's giants-patriots in week 17 since they're in opposite conferences...

[wkuhillhound]

If the Patriots would have taken care of business in their own conference then they would be in the playoffs. Just a thought. xlolx xreadx

Fanning the fires.......fanning the fires. xlolx xlolx xlolx

[UMass922]

will never happen. Teams want to play their traditional rivals every year at home...giants-cowboys; redskins-cowboys; bears-packers...etc

plus you'd never again get a game like last year's giants-patriots in week 17 since they're in opposite conferences...

Agreed; the NFL is not going to break up those traditional rivalries. Divisional play should be retained, but if anything, I would like to see the conferences done away with. I've never liked how possible Super Bowl matchups are precluded before the season begins, which is exactly what having conferences does. Why shouldn't the Colts and the Patriots be able to meet in the Super Bowl, or the Giants and the Packers? It's one thing in baseball, where there's too much tradition behind the AL-NL World Series matchup, but in football, I don't think having two conferences really serves much of a purpose. No one cares anymore that certain teams used to be in the AFL and others in the NFL. It would be one thing if you could actually play every team in your conference in a season, but you can't--so it ends up being nothing more than an arbitrary separation. Just seed the whole league 1-12, re-seed each round (as is already done) and let it play out however it plays out. Schedules will of course still be unbalanced, but when you play a 16-game schedule in a 32-team league, there's not really anything you can do about that, no matter how you set it up.

[UNHWildCats]

Agreed; the NFL is not going to break up those traditional rivalries. Divisional play should be retained, but if anything, I would like to see the conferences done away with. I've never liked how possible Super Bowl matchups are precluded before the season begins, which is exactly what having conferences does. Why shouldn't the Colts and the Patriots be able to meet in the Super Bowl, or the Giants and the Packers? It's one thing in baseball, where there's too much tradition behind the AL-NL World Series matchup, but in football, I don't think having two conferences really serves much of a purpose. No one cares anymore that certain teams used to be in the AFL and others in the NFL. It would be one thing if you could actually play every team in your conference in a season, but you can't--so it ends up being nothing more than an arbitrary separation. Just seed the whole league 1-12, re-seed each round (as is already done) and let it play out however it plays out. Schedules will of course still be unbalanced, but when you play a 16-game schedule in a 32-team league, there's not really anything you can do about that, no matter how you set it up.
Or Red Sox/Yankees in the World Series? :p

[UMass922]

If the Patriots would have taken care of business in their own conference then they would be in the playoffs. Just a thought. xlolx xreadx

Indeed. If we'd just beaten the Jets on that Thursday night in November, we wouldn't have had to worry about rooting for them to beat the Dolphins this week . . .

Or we could've beaten the Dolphins in Week 3, and won the division outright . . .

[UMass922]

Or Red Sox/Yankees in the World Series? :p

Oh, I'm sure everyone would LOVE that. xlolx

[gmoney55]

I have friends on Long Island that are both Mets and Jets fans. They've seen both their teams collapse down the stretch in the VERY SAME YEAR.

Could it get any worse for them? As much as I dislike the NYJ, I actually feel bad for them.

Being a Mets/Bills fan isn't much better (5-1 start to 7-9 finish), but yea that's really bad, especially with the Mets doing it two years in a row.

[whitey]

FIVE



FIVE.....LOSSES



FIVE....LOSSES.......NOOOOOPLAAAAYYYYOOOOOFFFFS

[whitey]

I'm a Mets & Jets fan. This sucks but I'm pretty immune to this by now. How could I not be?

At least the Pats didn't make the playoffs and maybe Matt Cassel will be our QB next year (though the Pats would be smart to just Franchise him due to Brady's knee).

I was completely against the Favre trade from the beginning. At best I thought Favre would be a one win improvement over Pennington, but at worst I thought he would be responsible for 2 to 3 more losses. I didn't think it was worth the gamble. Unfortunately I was right.

I can't blame it all on Favre though. The Jets coaches deserve a lot of heat on this one too. Look at the teams the Jets lost to this year: Patriots, Dolphins, Chargers, Broncos, 49ers, Seahawks, Raiders. It's one thing to lose to the Pats/Fins/Chargers but it's another thing to lose to the lowly Seahawks and Raiders. I pin those two games on the coaches. The Jets inexplicably also abandoned the run the last 6 weeks. And I'm still trying to figure out why.

I'm thinking Mangini survives one more season. But Brian Schottenheimer is as good as gone as OC. Sutton I'm guessing will get demoted back to Linebackers Coach were he belongs and I wouldn't be surprised to see Mangini bring in his good friend Crennel to be his DC.

[UNHWildCats]

I'm a Mets & Jets fan. This sucks but I'm pretty immune to this by now. How could I not be?

At least the Pats didn't make the playoffs and maybe Matt Cassel will be our QB next year (though the Pats would be smart to just Franchise him due to Brady's knee).

I was completely against the Favre trade from the beginning. At best I thought Favre would be a one win improvement over Pennington, but at worst I thought he would be responsible for 2 to 3 more losses. I didn't think it was worth the gamble. Unfortunately I was right.

I can't blame it all on Favre though. The Jets coaches deserve a lot of heat on this one too. Look at the teams the Jets lost to this year: Patriots, Dolphins, Chargers, Broncos, 49ers, Seahawks, Raiders. It's one thing to lose to the Pats/Fins/Chargers but it's another thing to lose to the lowly Seahawks and Raiders. I pin those two games on the coaches. The Jets inexplicably also abandoned the run the last 6 weeks. And I'm still trying to figure out why.

I'm thinking Mangini survives one more season. But Brian Schottenheimer is as good as gone as OC. Sutton I'm guessing will get demoted back to Linebackers Coach were he belongs and I wouldn't be surprised to see Mangini bring in his good friend Crennel to be his DC.
well theres reports that Brady may not be ready for the start of the season in 2009 so the Pats may have no choice but to franchise him... Thoguh I think they hope they can work something out with Cassel basically tell him... we gave you a chance when you never started a single college game. We kept you this year even though you were out performed in pre season not only by the 3rd string guy, but by the 4th string guy. Your going to get a payday now, but give us one more year at say $5 million and then you can walk away without a franchise tag.

If they are forced to franchise him, including bonuses due Brady they Pats would have close to $30 million locked up between Brady and Cassel in 2009, that will be tough to navigate/

[Cobblestone]

I think it says a lot for the AFC East if a team goes 11-5 and does NOT make the playoffs.

[whitey]

If they are forced to franchise him, including bonuses due Brady they Pats would have close to $30 million locked up between Brady and Cassel in 2009, that will be tough to navigate/

Of course they would be very smart to try to negotiate with Cassel and hope that he has a sense of loyalty to the team. He doesn't have to though. He is very very tradeable so I can see them just franchising him and then trading him so that he doesn't just land in the Meadowlands as a UFA.

[UNHWildCats]

Of course they would be very smart to try to negotiate with Cassel and hope that he has a sense of loyalty to the team. He doesn't have to though. He is very very tradeable so I can see them just franchising him and then trading him so that he doesn't just land in the Meadowlands as a UFA.
Obviously hes not going to sign a long term backup deal with them, but I think they have a great shot to lock him up for 1 season with a promise of no franchise tag after 2009.

[jcf5445]

Do a little number crunching and you'll see why the AFC East did so well this year. The Patriots played the 23rd toughest schedule, the Jets 26th, the Dolphins 27th, and the Bills 31st. I understand that you have to play the schedule you're dealt, but of all 4 teams, only the Jets had a non-division win they could hang their hat on when they beat the Titans. Miami and Buffalo had zero wins against non-division teams with winning records while the Patriots and Jets (other than the win over Tennessee) only managed wins at home over 9-7 Arizona.

I know it's sort of unfair because these teams didn't exactly get the opportunity to play good teams. 8 of their games were against the AFC and NFC West divisions, of which only Arizona had a winning record. 6 of their games were against each other, leaving only 2 games against other AFC opponents. That where the division stunk it up. In those games, Buffalo beat Jacksonville and lost to Cleveland, Miami lost to Houston and Baltimore, New England lost to Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, while the Jets beat Cincinnati and Tennessee.

In total, the AFC East went 3-5 against non-division opponents with winning records. Good grief, out of all 4 teams, they only played 8 games against teams with winning records, 4 of them being against Arizona. San Diego played 8 non-division games against teams with winning records all by themselves.

I like the NFL's scheduling procedure, but this was just a funny year that resulted in some polarized schedules. The NFC South, like the AFC East, feasted on some very weak schedules. The Saints played the toughest schedule in that division and it's ranked 19th. Then there's the AFC North which was like running through a gauntlet. Cleveland played the league's toughest schedule with Cincinnati 3rd, Pittsburgh 7th (toughest of any team going to the playoffs), and Baltimore 8th.

[gmoney55]

Do a little number crunching and you'll see why the AFC East did so well this year. The Patriots played the 23rd toughest schedule, the Jets 26th, the Dolphins 27th, and the Bills 31st. I understand that you have to play the schedule you're dealt, but of all 4 teams, only the Jets had a non-division win they could hang their hat on when they beat the Titans. Miami and Buffalo had zero wins against non-division teams with winning records while the Patriots and Jets (other than the win over Tennessee) only managed wins at home over 9-7 Arizona.

I know it's sort of unfair because these teams didn't exactly get the opportunity to play good teams. 8 of their games were against the AFC and NFC West divisions, of which only Arizona had a winning record. 6 of their games were against each other, leaving only 2 games against other AFC opponents. That where the division stunk it up. In those games, Buffalo beat Jacksonville and lost to Cleveland, Miami lost to Houston and Baltimore, New England lost to Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, while the Jets beat Cincinnati and Tennessee.

In total, the AFC East went 3-5 against non-division opponents with winning records. Good grief, out of all 4 teams, they only played 8 games against teams with winning records, 4 of them being against Arizona. San Diego played 8 non-division games against teams with winning records all by themselves.

I like the NFL's scheduling procedure, but this was just a funny year that resulted in some polarized schedules. The NFC South, like the AFC East, feasted on some very weak schedules. The Saints played the toughest schedule in that division and it's ranked 19th. Then there's the AFC North which was like running through a gauntlet. Cleveland played the league's toughest schedule with Cincinnati 3rd, Pittsburgh 7th (toughest of any team going to the playoffs), and Baltimore 8th.

Good post...that's why I felt all year that the Pats could still get to 11-5, and the Jets and Bills are both very disappointing with their records.