Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Each NFL Playoff Year Is Different


                              


The same question always gets asked around playoff time in the NFL….which 12 teams will make it to the playoffs?

Many NFL analysts continue to state the obvious teams who were in the playoffs the previous year.  This is interesting to me because different teams make the playoffs each year with the exception of the New England Patriots.

If I were making a judgment on playoff teams, I would go with the hottest teams going into the playoffs.  Last year’s record or playoff success or non-success has nothing to do with the current time frame. 

If a team was bad last year at this time, but good this year are they out of the playoffs because of what happened last year?


If a team like the NY Giants turns on the switch late in the season to make a playoff run, will they win the Super Bowl again?

These are questions most NFL enthusiast love because most make their decisions based on history.  The United States of America is built on history.  Most businesses are built on a theme of “established in 1887” or “been around since 1952”.  We as Americans love history.  Actually, there is nothing wrong with loving history, but history is not always a guarantee to repeat itself. 

If that were the case, the New England Patriots would win the Super Bowl every year.  It turns out that the Pats have not won a Super Bowl since they beat the Eagles in February of 2005.  That is almost 8 years ago.  I love Tom Brady and what he and Bill Belichek bring to the table, but each year is different. 

If history repeated itself records could never be broken and new stars would never be created.  The point of history is to tell a new story so it can be placed into the history books.  Life in the NFL is all about history. 

QB, Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers came into the NFL in 2011 and shattered QB rookie records.  The following season rookie QB, Robert Griffin III (RG3) follows behind Cam and breaks the single season QB rushing record for a rookie, according to CBS Sports.com.

Each NFL playoff season is made up of teams, some old and some new, but each year is always different.  A 16 game season is broken into 4 quarters.  The teams who hit their stride for the second half of the season (after week 8) will make the playoffs.

These are the top 10 teams split between the AFC and the NFC with the best records over the last 5 weeks:

AFC Team
Overall Record
Last 5 Games
Houston Texans
12-2
4-1
Denver Broncos
11-3
5-0
New England Patriots
10-4
4-1
Cincinnati Bengals
8-6
4-1
Indianapolis Colts
9-5
3-2


NFC Team
Overall Record
Last 5 Games
Atlanta Falcons
12-2
4-1
San Francisco 49ers
10-3-1
4-1
Seattle Seahawks
9-5
4-1
Green Bay Packers
10-4
4-1
Washington Redskins
8-6
5-0


Also see snapshots from NFL .com as of 12/18/2012






I just want to make it clear, these teams are no guarantees to make the playoffs except for a few, but they do have the best chances since they are playing well at the right time.

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