NFC Playoffs, Nets, Knicks, Jets, and Polls

What a wild weekend in football. I had a great time yesterday at the Giants game, though it should have never gotten to the point it did. As Mike Francesca said last night: if the Giants don't win the coin flip, I'm not sure they win the game. The defense has just become totally unimaginative and unable to adjust. Maybe St. Louis can trade us back Steve Spagnuolo. Let's look at the poll results from this past week and the updated playoff picture:

Which 4 Teams Will Make the Playoffs From the NFC?

Dallas Cowboys (6-3)	73%
Arizona Cardinals (6-3)	80%
Philadelphia Eagles (5-4)	53%
Atlanta Falcons (5-4)	33%
Green Bay Packers (5-4)	46%
New York Giants (5-4)	60%
San Francisco 49ers (4-5)	13%

Let's take a look at each of them now:

Dallas Cowboys (7-3) - 73%
73% of you picked the Cowboys to make the playoffs and they almost had a big setback this past week, barely eeking by the Washington Redskins. Their remaining home schedule is Oakland (on Thanksgiving), San Diego and Philadelphia and their road schedule features the Giants, Saints and Redskins. That's a tough schedule overall. Only one team (Oakland) is truly a pushover and they should beat the Redskins, but then they'll be fighting for their playoff lives with the other 4 games. It'll probably take 11 wins to get the division and 9-10 wins to get a Wild Card spot so the Cowboys are going to have to figure out a way to win some of those other games. If Romo is out for a game or two, the division is suddenly up for grabs.

Arizona Cardinals (7-3) - 80%
Well I think they should have that division wrapped up by now. The Cards are 3 games up on the 49ers and 4 games up on Seattle. They have road games at Tennessee, San Francisco, Detroit and home games against Minnesota, St. Louis and Green Bay. They should have 3 wins in there which should give them the division. 4 wins clinches it for the Cards and unless Warner is out for an extended period of time, I think they get there.

Philadelphia Eagles (6-4) - 53%
They gave Jay Cutler every chance in the world to beat them and yet he couldn't do it. I think this team is going to struggle going down the stretch if they have a banged up Brian Westbrook and secondary. Like the rest of the NFC East, Philly's schedule the rest of the year is tough. They play at Atlanta, New York, and Dallas and host the Redskins, 49ers and Broncos. They can get to 9 wins with that schedule if they can get healthy, but I don't know if they can get to 10 unless they really catch fire. The game in Giants Stadium December 13th may help determine which of these teams makes the playoffs.

Atlanta Falcons (5-5) - 33%
The NYaT readers had no faith in Atlanta and you guys were right. Atlanta is sitting at 5-5 and on the outside looking in. But the one big thing for the Falcons is their pushover schedule the rest of the way. They host the Bucs, Eagles, Saints and Bills and go on the road only to New York (for the Jets) and Tampa Bay. They should win 4 games in there which makes them a fringe playoff contender once again. If it's between them and the Giants, the OT win yesterday will prove to be huge.

Green Bay Packers (6-4) - 46%
I really don't know what to make of this Green Bay team, but I think we now need to acknowledge they are serious playoff contenders. They have 4 losses to the Vikings (twice), the Bengals and to Tampa Bay. If you take away the Tampa loss, this team would be fighting for the division. Even with the loss, they are holding on to the last playoff spot. They have a tough schedule ahead with only two home games. They host the Ravens and Seahawks and go on the road to Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Arizona. With that schedule, they should make the playoffs, but the only teams they've beat on the road so far this year are the Rams and the Browns. If Arizona has the division wrapped up by the final game of the season, that may benefit the Packers who could be fighting for their playoff lives.

New York Giants (6-4) - 60%
It took 42 days, but the Giants finally won a game. They can't rest now as they still are on the outside looking in for the playoffs. They also can't rest because they have a short week before they go play in Denver on Thanksgiving night. They also go on the road to face Washington and Minnesota and host the Cowboys, Eagles and Panthers. They are already short on defense with Kenny Phillips out and although Antonio Pierce has not been playing well, they miss his leadership out on the field. An important factor for the Giants is how quickly the Vikings wrap up a first-round bye. They play the Vikings the last game of the season, and if the games means nothing for Minnesota, they may try to rest Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson for much of the game. Also big for the Giants is that, like Atlanta, they're catching the Broncos this week in a tailspin. Denver started out 6-0 but have lost 4 straight including a 32-3 drubbing at the hands of the Chargers. If the Giants can shore up their defense quickly, I think they have a good shot of making the playoffs and maybe even winning the division (they've already beat the Cowboys once this season so a win at home against them would seal the tiebreaker). If not, it may be--as the Counting Crows sing--a long December.

San Francisco 49ers (4-6) - 13%
San Fran is among a group of 4-6 teams that also includes the Panthers and the Bears. I think their one shot of the playoffs was to get the division, but it's going to be hard now for any of those three teams to leapfrog over the Falcons, Giants, and Packers/Eagles into a playoff spot. The 49ers have the best chance out of any of them, though, with remaining home games against Jacksonville, Arizona and Detroit and road games against Seattle, Philadelphia and St. Louis. It's not unreasonable to think they could get to 9 wins...but I'm not sure that gets them a playoff spot.

I put those teams back up there to vote for this week. Let us know who you think is going to the playoffs from the NFC (besides the Saints and Vikings).

Here were the results of the other poll quesiton:

Which team will win 7 games first?

Knicks	12%
Nets	12%
Jets	37%
None of them	37%

It was a really good question and it's possible none of those teams will win 7 games this season. The Jets fell to 4-6 this week and unless they get to 7 wins in the next few weeks (they play Carolina at home, the Bills in Ontario and at Tampa Bay), they may not get there with remaining games against Atlanta, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. The Knicks and Nets faced off this past weekend so one team HAD to win and that team was the Knicks who improved (it's all relative) to 3-10. The Nets are sitting at 0-13 and I'd be surprised if they won 7 games all season with how pathetic they've looked.

Thanks to everyone for voting!  (picture from NY Mag)