December Football

It's been awhile since I've had a chance to write something.  I suppose I could have made time over Thanksgiving but for whatever reason I don't feel compelled to blog on the weekends.

December is upon us and now is the time when the men really separate themselves from the boys in the NFL season.  The top teams have finally separated themselves: Atlanta, the Jets (maybe... I can't take them seriously), and New England.  New Orleans seems to have things on the right track, and San Diego is making their usual late season run.  The Bears are making a case to be taken seriously getting to 8-3 with an impressive win over Philadelphia.  The NFC & AFC West divisions both pretty much stink, however the NFC Wild Card race should be good with the Saints at 8-3, and the Packers, Eagles, Giants, and Buccaneers at 7-4.  3 of the 7-4 teams lost last week, and 2 of them are going to have to make a push here in the last month to gain a playoff spot.

The Packers-Falcons game lived up to the hype with a close finish with Atlanta coming out on top.  This clearly establishes the Falcons as the NFC's top team.  Green Bay came up short in a frighteningly similar fashion on the road once again.  They have lost 4 games this season, all 4 by 3 points, and those points have all come under 30 seconds in regulation or overtime.  One way or the other it seems that they can't come up big on offense, defense, or special teams when the game is on the line.  Even when Aaron Rodgers comes up big and leads the team on a 90 yard drive with 6 minutes to go and throws a game tying TD with 1 minute to go the special teams and defense makes it far to easy for Atlanta to kick a game winning FG.

Down the stretch the Packers play some winnable games (San Francisco this week and Detroit after that), with the last two being the key.  I have the game a New England penciled in as a loss, but home games to the Giants and Bears the last two weeks of the year will determine whether they are moving on to the playoffs or staying home in January.

As far as the rest of the NFC I don't take any team lightly, however I am expecting one of the NFC East teams to falter, and Tampa Bay is a young team that has had a good season and a 10-6 season is definitely possible, however games against Atlanta & New Orleans will be true tests of how good they really are.

There is a lot of buzz about how bad the NFC West is and the likelihood that an 8-8 or even 7-9 record will win the division.  Compared to the teams I previously mentioned who already have 7 wins and are fighting for their lives many people think something needs to be done to address the playoff format.  I think everyone for the most part agrees that if you win your division you should make the playoffs, however a common suggestion is that the team with a better record gets the home game, not just the division winner.  IE: Chicago wins NFC North with a 11-5 record.  Green Bay goes 10-6 and squeaks in to the playoffs.  Green Bay then goes on the road to play a 7-9 St Louis team in the first round.  This seems unfair to many.  I would be glad for the league to modify the playoff structure to accommodate this, however I've always said that you have no one to blame but yourselves for your record.  No one should ever blame anyone else but themselves for what hand they are dealt in professional sports.  You are paid to play 16 games, and what you do in those games determines your outcome for the season.  You cannot do anything about what other teams do, and if you take care of business you will have nothing to complain about once January comes along.

The more I watch sports and see the fine line between winning and losing at the highest level the more I understand that the only thing that matters is the professional athletes themselves "manning up" and making plays when necessary.  As Tom Hanks says in A League of Their Own:  "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great."