Bucs Don’t Get A Break With NFL Owners
March 21st, 2011
Joe knows it absolutely galled Bucs fans to watch the putrid Seahawks host a home game in the opening round of the playoffs, against the Saints no less.
Seattle was horrible and its division, the NFC West, was worse. But because the NFL covets divisions and more so division winners, the Seahawks got to host a playoff game.
The Bucs slapped around the Seahawks rather easily just a few short weeks before the playoff game and, of course, a week later the Bucs handed the defending Super Bowl champion Saints a loss at the Superdome to end the regular season.
The Bucs lost a playoff tiebreaker to the Packers, which eventually won the Super Bowl.
Good guy Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times reports that the NFL is not about to expand the playoffs or see to it that a rotten team like the Seahawks host a playoff game.
Falcons president Rich McKay, chair of the league’s Competition Committee, said that there won’t be any discussion about changes to playoff seeding at [the] NFL meetings in New Orleans. A number of proposed rule changes are debated and voted on each year at the meetings, but the playoff reseeding issue never even made it onto the agenda based on feedback from individual clubs, McKay said.
“It was something we talked about, it was something we put in the survey,” he said. But he added, “It is something that we feel like (teams) did not have an appetite for right now. It is a topic that I am sure we will continue to discuss downstream, but not something there will be any proposal about this year.”
Joe can live with that a whole lot better than Richie McKay doing his best to change the fabric of the NFL. If people wanted to watch flag football, these high school seven-on-seven tournaments would play before thousands of fans, not just a scattering of parents, coaches and media types.
People want football. Physical football. Punishing football. Don’t kill the golden goose, Richie. People like kickoff returns. People like guys who aren’t paying attention to get leveled. This is football!
As for reseeding the playoffs, Joe’s on McKay’s side here. What’s the point of having divisions if you are not going to reward division winners? As for the Bucs missing out on a tiebreaker, maybe they should have beaten the Lions at home?
Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik has said as much.
March 21st, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Remember the seahwaks win came after hasselback went down after leading an easy scoring drive to put the hawks up 7-0. Whitehurst couldnt hit a receiver in warm ups so the game turned.
If the bucs beat the lions with this time a 3rd string qb, things are different. That is no fault of the playoff system.
March 21st, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Even though I am an optimist, I must agree with Thomas here. How often do teams like Seahawks make playoffs anyways? Once every 10 years?
March 21st, 2011 at 4:13 pm
I agree that the play offs do not need to change, but I refuse to agree with thomas’s back up QB crap. Our entire team was rookies, second year guys, back ups, and a few vets peppered in for good measure. Thomas is no fan of tampa bay, just a fan of stiring the pot on JBF.com.
March 21st, 2011 at 4:37 pm
ESPN reported that Bucs are leading candidate to be on Hard Knocks if there is training camp in July and August…
March 21st, 2011 at 5:29 pm
If the Bucs beat the Lions (as Thomas so conveniently points out), the Bucs make the playoffs and the Packers are out. This, however, has NOTHING to do with the Seahawks making the playoffs as a division winner. They’d STILL make the playoffs under the current system, and if they changed the system to not factor in “division winner”, then the Bucs WOULD have made the playoffs without beating the Lions. So, what the heck is Thomas trying to say? That the Bucs couldn’t beat the Lions with a backup QB? That the Seahawks would have beaten us if they’d had their starter in? How could that be so? Last year, after a 3-13 season the previous season, we were all told by you “non-sheep” that a loss is a loss, it doesn’t matter if it was a close loss, or if we looked dominating in the game and lost, or if we lost on a fluke play…. a loss is a loss.
Well, I’m here to tell you non-sheep. A win is a win. Doesn’t matter how we got the win, who the QB of the opposing team was, whether we lucked into recovering an onside kick late in the 4th quarter or intercepted a pass from a team that had the lead and didn’t need to throw. A win is still a win in the NFL.
If we want to talk about losses that kept us out of the playoffs…. how about 2008, when we really only had to win one of the last 4 games to make the playoffs and lost ALL 4, including at home against the pathetic Raiders. That loss against the JaMarcus Russell led Raiders where we gave up 177 yards on the ground to Michael Bush.
Or the 41-24 drubbing by the Chargers at the CITS. Not a group of young guys getting whooped here. No, that was Garcia, Dunn, Galloway, Bryant, Hilliard, Faine, Joseph, Sears, Penn, Trueblood, Hovan, Carter, Brooks, June, Barber, Phillips with the great Gruden and Kiffin leading the charge. A savvy group of veterans that should know how to win these important playoff type games.
And of course, prior to that, we had the two divisional road games where we gave up 187 yards to Williams, 115 to Stewart, and 152 to Turner in just two games. If only we had a good defense with veteran players that could stop the run and pressure the QB and a veteran offense that could put up big numbers and score loads of points.
Thomas…. a win is a win, a loss is a loss… and the loss to the Lions kept us out of the playoffs and got the Packers in. Has nothing to do with changing the format to prevent something like the 7-9 Seahawks from getting in.
March 21st, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Everyone agrees a win-is-win when it comes to determination about what your record is. A record can mislead in degree of improvement based on circumstances.
The bucs had an unprecedented number of 2nd, 3rd string, rookie and flat-out horrible qb’s to face in 2010, if you dont think that and the schedule influenced the win total then you are are just plain-ignorant.
The Browns with McCoy were improved over the Browns with Delhomme, same goes for Seahawks with Hasselback, Cards with anyone but Max Hall, 49ers with anyone but Troy Smith, Panthers with anyone but Jimmy Clausen, Bradford even improved later in the year.
You sheep used to argue that Freeman started so slow b/c he didnt get a training camp and prep etc. Yet when it comes to the Bucs playing Whitehurst instead of Hasselback or Batch instead of Big Ben, or Stanton instead of Stafford or Troy Smith instead of Alex Smith or Jimmy Clausen or all these guys who got no training, had short weeks of practice etc – it doesnt matter – “a win is a win.”
I heard you sheep arguing for days after the FAlcon-losses how they played good enough to win and they were on par with the FAlcons etc – except they went 0-2 against them.
THey lost to the Lions at home with the playoffs in the balance with the Lions third string qb playing who was also dinged-up. That loss was inexcusable amd most people would hold the HC responsible.
GRu and crew choked at the end of 2008 – I agreed with holding him responsible – even though the defensive collapse coincided with Monte’s announcement that he was joining his corrupt kid – which seemed to effect the D. Firing Gru was great – hiring no-experience kid – who had led so much as a Pop Warner team was not – it was done solely to save money. 13-19 and no playoffs has followed – so is a possible all-time low in fan interest! Blackouts for seasons to come. All hail RAh RAh.
March 21st, 2011 at 6:27 pm
BTW: According to PFT.com this is the reason why the Bucs may be on hard KNowcks:
“Doing the show would make sense for the Bucs. The team struggles to sell tickets and they have a very low profile nationally.”
I just hope they cut-out the BS at practice since the cameras will be rolling. Too much horsing around, lack of structure and urgency. I hope that the cameras cause them to tighten up – it would not hurt, especially the defense which plays like it lacks coordination principally in the Pass Rush and Run D areas.
March 21st, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Lion’s game? F%#@&*$!!! don’t get me started. Can’t we let the cheerleaders take over for the Refs? I’m sure they would do a better job. Rich McKay is a douche and the Falcons suck.
March 21st, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Thumbass,
How can you type so well?
Spell perfectly?
Use excellent grammar?
And not make a lick of sense?
You sir, are the most educated idiot in town.
I fear you are a school teacher.
I salute your dumb @$$.
March 21st, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Of course division winners should always go to the playoffs… unless this happens again relatively soon. By that I mean a division winner with a losing record beating out a wildcard contender with a winning record. Im willing to accept it as some super unlikely statistical anomaly unless it happens again in the next 10- 20 years or so. At that point things will have to change. Losing teams just cant be allowed into the playoffs unless its some kind of super unlikely anomaly that just happened to come true. without being a mathematician I happen to believe that’s exactly what happened… but if it happens again…
March 21st, 2011 at 8:32 pm
maybe the NFL should have a real mathematical genius determine the exact odds of a losing team making the playoffs and if the percentage chance is high enough they should change. Im actually pretty sure someone has already calculated those odds. Im curious as to what percentage chance a losing team has of making the playoffs in any given year. Am I wrong in thinking this past year was the first time it acutally happened? Its happened in basketball and hockey multiple times before hasn’t it? But those sports allow more team into the playoffs.
March 22nd, 2011 at 1:05 am
Thomas… I don’t know if you realize, but you do exactly what you criticize others for. I agree we lost the last for games and Gru should be held responsible…. even though (Ah… here comes the excuse for the losing) it coincided with Kiffin’s announcement….
How is that any different from the sheep saying I know we lost the Lions game even though (wait for it….) we got an apology from the NFL for the horrible offensive pass interference call near the end of the game. Even though we had McCoy, Price, Talib, Joseph, Faine, Grimm, and Black all on IR and Jackson suspended. Even though…. it’s the excuse that follows the “I understand”. Even though… it’s the but that follows. We lost but…. we won but…
Say all you want about beating Whitehurst, but we had numerous rookies starting that game on offense and defense, all the guys out for the Lions game were also out for Seattle. Talk all you want about the D-line getting no pressure, but to be honest, the team hasn’t had a D-lineman get double digit sacks since 2005 when Rice last had double digit sacks. That’s 3 years Gru/Kiffin/Allen with no QB pressure and 2 years Rah/Dom. It’s not like this hasn’t been a long time concern for this team. Looking at the 2008 collapse, it’s obvious stopping the run wasn’t a strong suit then and hasn’t gotten much better yet. The only 100 yard rusher allowed in those final 3 games was Morris for the Lions at 109.