I actually really like the change to have the final week being just divisional games. Week 18 this year was one of the best final weeks in a long time! Namely the Raiders and Chargers game.
Also, it was a good week for me, being a Lions fan, haha.....always nice to see them beat the Packers, ya know, even though it was pretty much a meaningless game for Green Bay, and it actually ended up meaning the Lions will have the #2 pick in the draft instead of #1. Still tho, nice to go out a high note I guess lol
@@jmed412 Actually, it was the Texans, not the Steelers who were out. That would have been the Texans first-ever playoff berth if the Bengals won that game.
@@Eli-ss9gj depends upon the rivalry. If it's Ivy League, then yes, even though you will never see an Ivy League football team in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs, but when it is a team like Villanova University and the University of Delaware and a playoff berth is on the line, you may be surprised if Lincoln Financial Field (in South Philly) or Subaru Park (in nearby Chester, Pennsylvania where MLS' Philadelphia Union play their home games) could be pressed into service to accommodate the anticipated larger crowds.
You can also thank Jamarcus Russell. His Raiders won at Denver the same day as the Jets/Falcons game. If DEN won that game, IIRC the Jets lose tiebreakers with DEN. That game also contributed to the Jets controlling their destiny.
You can also thank, the Lord and Savior Jeebus, through which all things are possible. If not for Jeebus, there's no humans, no football etc... and definitely, no giant vascular dongs attached to giant sweaty men hidden only from eager, begging eyes by a 1/32" piece of fabric.... I think we ALL need to thank the lord, for creating those beautiful, giant lap rockets that keep everyone tuning into the NFL, hoping for some player, ANY players pants to burst so his pork steeple can uncoil and swing freely for ALL to see!! Its not like people care about watching the game, its ALL about the barely hidden dongs.... I know, Im SUPER religious, but whatever, I cant pretend to not have this spiritual enthusiasm.... I just LOVE dongs.
I've been a long time fan of your work and research on r/nfl. Glad to see you're moving to long form content on youtube. Hope it pans out well for you, and best of luck!
The dumbest scheduling by the NFL is having divisional games on the first two weeks of the season! Everybody is already excited for the start of the season! So, even if it matched up a division winner from last year vs the team with the worst record last year, nobody would care! It would still be the start or the 2nd week of the season.
The week 17 matchup is eerily similar to the Browns-Steelers just last year. Steelers rested their starters while the Browns had to play theirs. Still crazy that the Browns won both games.
And this is why the premise of the video (and some of his others) don't make sense. Division games doesn't suddenly mean no one is rested. It's still just as likely to happen. Flex scheduling does more to fix this than scheduling division games only. Whether players are rested depends more on the coach than the opponent. Some think it helps and others don't.
The Packers were the first team to benefit from this. In the final week of the 2010 season, with the postseason on the line and playing against the Bears, who had already locked up the NFC North and a first round bye, the Packers not only won to get into the playoffs, they ended up bringing home the Lombardi Trophy that year.
The Packers didn’t really benefit tho. The Bears played their starters in that game in an effort to knock us out of the playoffs, which is exactly what the NFL wanted to happen. If anything it made our path harder, and showed the NFL that it was a good change.
@@swirly3643 good comeback. No response. Just proves people on the internet just be talking out the side of their necks most of the time. They have no idea what they're talking about.
@@ThePrufessa Dude, my comment was meant to correct him, not take shots at him. He has no obligation to reply to me if he doesn’t want to. It ain’t that serious lmao.
Some teams that are locked into playoff spots will still rest their main guys, so this scheduling protocol doesn't totally prevent it. If your seed won't be impacted, why risk it?
If your looking at a potential 16-0 like the colts were it has a lot to do with it. Purely for morale and keeping the "myth of invincibility". If you feel like you can't lose and your opponent isn't sure they can win you've already won 75% of the battle
Don't forget the 2007 Browns ... 9-6 entering the last week, tied with the 9-6 Titans. Because the Titans were playing an in-conference game and the Browns were not, the Browns' outcome literally did not matter. Even if they lost, the Browns did not hurt their chances.
That's correct; neither team had anything to play for with NE having home field advantage and NYG having the #5 seed. That said, both teams came out swinging and NE got the 16-0 regular season. They'd play in the Super Bowl, and...we know how that ended.
What's great about Week 17 be all divisional games would be simple....if one or both teams playing are out of playoff contention, then the key starters rested and the backups and third-stringers get to show the scouts and coaches what they can do in the event they are released from the team they're playing for. Much like the last game of pre-season, except this is an actual game that counts towards seeding in the NFL Draft.
Let it sink in that the Jets had to play the Bengals twice and the Colts twice in the final 5 games to go to the Super Bowl, and they almost did it. That Colts game was not an easy win for Indy, and the next year (2010), the Jets smacked the Colts around in the playoffs so badly that Reggie Wayne said he didn't know why he even bothered to suit up.
Eh, I wouldn't have called that 2010 playoff game a smacking, the Jets won on a last second field goal after the Colts had kicked a FG with like 50 seconds left to take the lead, the Colts special teams (giving up a kickoff return to midfield) and defense choked on the last drive.
@@sonicdoommario - I wasn't referring to the final score, but rather how that Jets defense held Manning and that high powered offense to one TD and three FGs. The only TD was a break away blown coverage by Antonio Cromartie, who didn't blow another assignment the rest of the game (before or after) other than that one play. I watched it a good buddy of mine who is a Jets fan, and it felt like the Sanchize was holding the Jets back from blowing that game wide open. So many inaccurate passes to open target and plays which would have resulted in TDs for New York. Manning had nowhere to go and the run was shut down. Sanchez had lots of open target and lacked the ability to take advantage of it. That game could have easily been a 28-10 or worse beat down with a good Jets QB, as more Jets scores would have forced Indy to go for it of 4th downs and not settle for late FGs, and likely would have forced Manning to throw his classic clutch interceptions.
@@PaulGaither Ah, ok, I'm a big Peyton fan so obviously that loss was disappointing for me, but it was hard to be mad at the Jets since they went into Foxboro the weekend after and knocked out the #1 seeded Patriots, after the Patriots had obliterated them 45-3 in that building a month prior.
Adding a 7th team to each conference was a good move also. It makes the races at the top matter much more for the 1 bye week, meaning teams won't rest as much because only 1 gets a bye. It also makes the races for the last wildcard spots include at least 3 or 4 more teams/cities/and fans for the final weeks, making games more interesting and meaningful.
My actual reaction to the intro: "I wonder what team would be stupid enough to get the rules changed because of a playoff ber--of flipping course it's the Jets."
But does it really matter? In week 18 of the 21-22 season, the cowboys played their starters while the Eagles rested theirs. Neither team had anything to play for. They were both locked in as good as it was gonna be. I still belive that the team that rests their starters in meaningless games tend to not play so good in following games. Not saying they always lose but they tend to not play as efficiently as they were before they rested them.
I wish we went back to this. In 2000 we lost to the Rams for our final game of the season then beat them in February for our first SB. in 2007 we played a nail biter with the Giants to go 16-0 and then lost a heartbreaker to go 18-1. The possible SB match up final season game is always intense.
I loved Sanchez as a kid due to him being at USC but I want the Titans of New York and now being a Chargers and Giants I now look back it and can’t believe I got that jersey
This was a good change. Wish they had done this back in the 1980's or even '90s Btw, your voice sounds better here than some of your newer videos. You should go back to this tempo and sound.
Actually the Patriots did rest their starters on week 17 of 2009. Tom Brady came out at halftime with the Pats up 27-14. The Texans rallied against the Pats many 2nd team defensive players, and the rookie backup QB Brian Hoyer. The Pats had to do this, cause, 2009 was a rare season that the Pats didn’t finish 1st or 2nd in the Conference! The Welker injury was a freak case of bad luck! They played him on the 1st possession, ( they were going to remove him afterwards ). Welker tore his ACL while making a cut, a non-contact injury!
I moved to Indiana about 3 months after they lost that super bowl to the saints. People hated him then and they still hate him now for throwing in the towel on a perfect season. Caldwell should be thankful they made the super bowl cuz if they would've lost before then they would've rioted in the streets
They also have aligned the games so it is less likely that an early game result will affect a late game result or vice versa. They try to schedule everything so teams do not gain an advantage with the time or opponent. It really makes sense. I'm so old and fossilized, I remember when there was not even home field advantage by record. Once you won your division, there was nothing to play for. But that was 14 game seasons so you could usually not rest too long.
Scheduling divisional games doesn't do anything though.. unless the teams still have something to play for. If I'm 13-2 I would always rest starters in the last game
We also can thank the start of the Houston Texans for the fact that teams only play in their own division in the last week of the regular season. Why? Houston's re-addition brought the league to 32 teams, with each division having 4 teams. The re-addition of Houston ended the conferences having three divisions each (East-Central-West), and thus gave each conference of the NFL 4 divisions (East-North-South-West). Simply put, the re-addition of Houston made it mathematically possible to have all teams playing in the last week, and within their own division.
4:13 --isnt this the game when the Colts sat 18 down and within a down or two he was chewing out the offensive line because they suddenly turned into revolving doors for the pass rush?
I think they should do the final two weeks all divisional games. Also get the all the inter-conference games done with before week 10 so that you’re only playing conference games the second half of the season because those always matter more for WC tiebreakers.
The schedule makers got this one right several years ago Divisional Games on the last day of the regular season with playoff berth and division titles on the line.
That was a great game! The Cowboys rested Zeke and a few other starters, but played most of them. The teams battled back and forth and the game came down to a great "one knee = two feet" catch by Cole Beasley.
This might be the only thing Roger Goodell got right, but it's a shame it had to come to this. The Colts were the worst for this; I remember a Sunday night game at the end of 2007 where Tony Dungy sat his players against the Titans and basically let them in and bumped the 10-6 Browns out. It was a division game by chance, but still, frustrating. I miss the old days where a single Week 17 game had playoff implications for both conferences, but this change was necessary. I'm a Browns fan, you can tell: a Jets-Packers game at the end of 2002 had about a dozen different implications for a half-dozen teams. The Jets winning got the Browns into the playoffs (and gave the eventual Super Bowl champ Buccaneers a coveted first-round bye). Wildcard round teams were routinely getting to and/or winning the Super Bowl in the years between the '97 Broncos and '12 Ravens, and simply writing off the importance of a 5 or 6 seed for a team was foolish. And as JG9 alluded to, out of 8 divisions, the chances that first and second place are playing for the title in one of them seem good, and this game gets the Sunday night slot on TV. It's almost like an extra playoff game, and it happens about every year. Wordy post, I know, but I grew to like this even though at first I didn't.
IDK, IF I was coaching my team, having already locked-up the #1 seed in the conference heading into the final week, I'd still rest my key players (and not expose them to injuries) for the regular season finale. And especially if my regular season finale is on the road. At that point, division rival or not, I gotta look at the bigger picture, and that's to get my team ready (and as healthy as possible) for the Super Bowl run. The only scenario that could change my mind is if a perfect/undefeated season is at stake.
You gave some good examples of the system working, but there still are plenty of examples of it not working. And I think it deprives is of some good matchups that the luck of the draw would give us. And look at how Philadelphia stopped playing and let Washington have a walkover into the playoffs last season on SNF. That was an embarrassment for the league on national TV.
If it is the Jets fault, then they have paid the price for this sin because they have had one of the longest playoff droughts in NFL history. 2010 and nowhere near good enough to sniff the playoffs.
It's funny because are the Jets are the reason why the Saints missed the playoffs in 2003. The Saints were 4-8 and everything was pretty much lost. But then the Saints went on an unlikely 4 game winning streak to end 8-8. Now the Rams had the tiebreaker over us (even though we had beaten them earlier in the season which was annoying), but the Rams were 7-8 going into their last game against... the Jets. Now the Jets were 10-5 going into this game. I'm not sure, but I think that the Jets' winning or losing would only determine a 5 or 6 seed for them, so they didn't have much to play for. And the game even went into overtime, but the Rams ended up winning. It was annoying because the Jets seemed so apathetic to the loss and their loss had just ended my team's season.
10:22 The Titans and Jaguars got robbed of a Sunday Night Game in 2017. That should have been a Sunday Night Game due to playoff implications, but because it was New Year's Eve of 2017, the NFL decided to cancel the SNF game for Week 17 of the 2017 season.
It's been possible to have nothing but division matchups since the 2002 realignment. I'm surprised it took until 2010 to make the final week exclusively within divisions.
Personally I believe in variety regarding scheduling. For example one year play all divisional games at the beginning of the season one year, the middle of the season the next, and finally towards the end of the season the next year and and mix it up the next year and rotate like that. I'm also in favor of a 20 game season with no preseason at all
After the division games are played the 4 intraconference and 4 interconference games are played the position games are home and home including a home and home against a cross rival opponent
Well the Packers rested their starters against the Lions in week 17 two years after they enacted this schedule, so it didn't really prevent that at all.
I think week 17 should always be against the other conference. I hate when there’s a rematch from week 17 to the first week of the playoffs and this would eliminate that. Also, surprisingly it It would create more interesting games across the board for week 17.
Goodell made a decision when a situation arose that affected the Jets? The Jets specifically? Unthinkable... I wonder which NFL team Goodell worked for again...
I think this is an unpopular opinion but I think this format has run its course. Especially because my team has played the same team in the same location something like 7 times in the 10 years of this format.
1988, the 49ers won the NFC West by virtue of action before their regular season finale against the Rams on Monday Night Football. Knowing they weren't going to finish higher than the #2 seed in the NFC, Bill Walsh rested his key players and let the Rams make the playoffs. Rumor had it that the 49ers lost on purpose.......to keep the Giants out of the playoffs.
I would like to see a change to the draft order. Winner if the Super Bowl would pick 32 on down to the other teams in the playoffs. The #1 pick would go to the last team out of the playoffs on up until you get to the first team in the playoffs.
Huh? You’re not making sense. The draft order is basically season order. It goes by record and then playoff teams goes which teams get knocked out by record since multiple teams will get knocked out a week until the SB.
@@blowc1612 I know what I was saying keep it exactly the same for the playoffs teams but give the #1 pick to the first team out of the playoffs rather then the worst team. It would keep the games meaningful even if both teams are out of playoff contention.
@@81pdmatt that’s one of the dumbest thing. How do you even determine the first team out of the playoffs? You’re not making sense. Even if you do determine that, that is dumb.
Each NFL team should play all six of it's in-division games in the last six weeks of the scare. In fact, now that the NFL has a 17-game regular season, each team should play all five of their inter-conference games in the first 5 games of the season. The next six games would be against teams outsider their division, but within their conference. Finally, the six in-division games would wrap up the regular season.
My idea for NFL scheduling (having your five non-conference games in the first five games of the season, games against teams outside your division but inside your conference in your sixth through eleventh games, and your six in-division games as the last six regular-season games) stems from college basketball. With few exceptions, college basketball teams start their seasons by playing all their non-conference games in November and early December, then holiday invitational tournaments around Christmas week, then after January 1st, start play against teams in your conference.
The title doesn't convey the video properly. The NFL doesn't "only play" divisional matchups in the final week. They play them every week of the season. It should say 'why the NFL *plays only* divisional matchups...' only plays indicates they don't play divisional matchups any other week but the final week. Plays only means the only games being played during that week are divisional matchups.
They still should have all playoff-implicating games play at the same time, and save the week 18 Sunday Night game be between the two worst teams with the WINNER getting the #1 pick.
Exactly how the Washington Football Team did when the Eagles laid down in that final game.Taking Hurts out, more Doug Pederson than anyone and for that alone his firing was justified.
Funny thing is that was a divisional game. They purposely tanked it to eleminate the Giants from the playoffs. Perhaps the Eagles and Giants should be playing each other the last game of the season.
@@ericthomas917 It seems like that yes. I wonder if it would have been the same had Dallas won the early game. No love between those teams either, despite colluding to deny the Giants that receiver. Almost like they fear the Giants getting better. What gets me is that the WFT is also a division rival. I honestly hope that the tank was what got Dougie P fired. It was a busy league move that embarrassed the Eagles organization.
@@ericthomas917 What if Hurts had gotten hurt during last part of game? We could be saying how dumb Doug was for not pulling Hurts in a meaningless game. And Giants, Evan Engram in particular, have themselves to blame to be put in that spot. Had Engram caught that pass against Eagles in Philly, it would have been win and in for Giants in week 17 instead of needing Eagles to win.
Colts coach Jim Caldwell made one of the worst decisions ever by taking his foot off the gas. He was roundly criticized for giving up an opportunity for an undefeated season. The Colts were thumped in the Super Bowl.
Deadgum it Bengals! You were scared to play the Texans. That's why they won the game and eliminated the Texans. Wow! Lost a little respect for the Bengals.
I think no matter what week 17 only matters for about 10 teams. Throwing divisional matchups week 17 makes lots of divisional matchups meaningless. Just my 2 cents.
Steelers played their backups against Browns in week 17 last week and got beat by them the next week Bills played to beat Dolphins in week 17 last year and got to AFCCG.
I have always hated when teams bench their starters in Week 17. This not only cheats their fans who pay to come to the game, it becomes an integrity issue. Rather than reward teams to play their starters, punish them if they don't. One way would be to force the team to refund the cost of tickets to those who attend (if it is the visiting team who benches their starters, they would pay a fine). If fans are upset for paying regular season prices for exhibition games, watching a bunch of backups in a regular season game amounts to the same thing. Also the league should take a firm stance against teams who are basically throwing a game which affects another team's playoff status.
I actually really like the change to have the final week being just divisional games. Week 18 this year was one of the best final weeks in a long time! Namely the Raiders and Chargers game.
Jaguars knocked colts out of the playoffs LOL
Also, it was a good week for me, being a Lions fan, haha.....always nice to see them beat the Packers, ya know, even though it was pretty much a meaningless game for Green Bay, and it actually ended up meaning the Lions will have the #2 pick in the draft instead of #1. Still tho, nice to go out a high note I guess lol
@@chrisjamesr77 I'm a Vikings fan so I feel you lol the Packers are the one team I always root against no matter who's playing them!
@@ericlegacy8834 laughs in hail mary
It's like a play in tournament in some games!
The 2009 Bengals: Let's lose to the crappy Jets so we can demolish them next week in the playoffs!
The 2009 Jets: You know you done f*cked up, right?
That loss also kept Pittsburgh out of the playoffs
Jets beat them 37-0 and the demoralized Bengals played like crap in a 24-14 playoff loss
@@kevingreen2400 moral had nothing to do with it
@@jmed412 Actually, it was the Texans, not the Steelers who were out. That would have been the Texans first-ever playoff berth if the Bengals won that game.
Up
I love week 17. It's essentially the pro version of college football rivalry week.
College football has better rivalries.
@@someperson3883 debatable.
@@Eli-ss9gj depends upon the rivalry. If it's Ivy League, then yes, even though you will never see an Ivy League football team in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs, but when it is a team like Villanova University and the University of Delaware and a playoff berth is on the line, you may be surprised if Lincoln Financial Field (in South Philly) or Subaru Park (in nearby Chester, Pennsylvania where MLS' Philadelphia Union play their home games) could be pressed into service to accommodate the anticipated larger crowds.
Me too
Hell yeah good analogy. I just learned this is relatively new. I thought it was always this way.
I remember Bengals fans saying how genius the Bengals were by losing to the Jets so they could have an easy Wild Card game.
Bengals fans that said that don’t know their team very well. I say this as a lifelong Bengals fan.
@@kylew7263 Yeah, that means we lost by less than with a worse matchup :P
Yeah this year to, I know they did not lose to the jets on purpose but now they get to play the raiders
Steelers fans basically said the same thing when my Brownies got into the playoffs in the 2020 season.
You can also thank Jamarcus Russell. His Raiders won at Denver the same day as the Jets/Falcons game. If DEN won that game, IIRC the Jets lose tiebreakers with DEN. That game also contributed to the Jets controlling their destiny.
You can also thank, the Lord and Savior Jeebus, through which all things are possible. If not for Jeebus, there's no humans, no football etc... and definitely, no giant vascular dongs attached to giant sweaty men hidden only from eager, begging eyes by a 1/32" piece of fabric.... I think we ALL need to thank the lord, for creating those beautiful, giant lap rockets that keep everyone tuning into the NFL, hoping for some player, ANY players pants to burst so his pork steeple can uncoil and swing freely for ALL to see!! Its not like people care about watching the game, its ALL about the barely hidden dongs.... I know, Im SUPER religious, but whatever, I cant pretend to not have this spiritual enthusiasm.... I just LOVE dongs.
@@ZDiddy7777 Jeebus? Abbah is the lord of this world Along with his trusty prophet MaHomoed.
I've been a long time fan of your work and research on r/nfl. Glad to see you're moving to long form content on youtube. Hope it pans out well for you, and best of luck!
The dumbest scheduling by the NFL is having divisional games on the first two weeks of the season! Everybody is already excited for the start of the season! So, even if it matched up a division winner from last year vs the team with the worst record last year, nobody would care! It would still be the start or the 2nd week of the season.
The week 17 matchup is eerily similar to the Browns-Steelers just last year. Steelers rested their starters while the Browns had to play theirs. Still crazy that the Browns won both games.
And this is why the premise of the video (and some of his others) don't make sense. Division games doesn't suddenly mean no one is rested. It's still just as likely to happen. Flex scheduling does more to fix this than scheduling division games only. Whether players are rested depends more on the coach than the opponent. Some think it helps and others don't.
The Packers were the first team to benefit from this. In the final week of the 2010 season, with the postseason on the line and playing against the Bears, who had already locked up the NFC North and a first round bye, the Packers not only won to get into the playoffs, they ended up bringing home the Lombardi Trophy that year.
The Packers didn’t really benefit tho. The Bears played their starters in that game in an effort to knock us out of the playoffs, which is exactly what the NFL wanted to happen. If anything it made our path harder, and showed the NFL that it was a good change.
@@swirly3643 good comeback. No response. Just proves people on the internet just be talking out the side of their necks most of the time. They have no idea what they're talking about.
He asked you a question. How did the Packers benefit from this? Now I'm asking you another question. Why haven't you responded to his response?
@@ThePrufessa Dude, my comment was meant to correct him, not take shots at him. He has no obligation to reply to me if he doesn’t want to. It ain’t that serious lmao.
@@swirly3643 when did I say anything about you taking shots at him?
Some teams that are locked into playoff spots will still rest their main guys, so this scheduling protocol doesn't totally prevent it. If your seed won't be impacted, why risk it?
If your looking at a potential 16-0 like the colts were it has a lot to do with it. Purely for morale and keeping the "myth of invincibility". If you feel like you can't lose and your opponent isn't sure they can win you've already won 75% of the battle
Thanks for some positive Falcons coverage here. I know it was hard to find.
Great video! First NFL season I watched, but this video made me realized how badly this was a thing back in the day.
Don't forget the 2007 Browns ... 9-6 entering the last week, tied with the 9-6 Titans. Because the Titans were playing an in-conference game and the Browns were not, the Browns' outcome literally did not matter. Even if they lost, the Browns did not hurt their chances.
You can thank the 2007 season too. Because we basically saw the Super Bowl twice. I believe the Giants played the Patriots in week 17.
That's correct; neither team had anything to play for with NE having home field advantage and NYG having the #5 seed. That said, both teams came out swinging and NE got the 16-0 regular season. They'd play in the Super Bowl, and...we know how that ended.
*The 2020 Philadelphia Eagles have entered the chat*
9:11
Shoutout to the Lions at the bottom making their presence felt.
Fun fact: Niners fans' favorite nickname for J.T. O'Sullivan?
_J.T. O'Sucksagain_
It used to be divisional games the last 2 weeks of the season. Divisional games on week 17 hasn't kept teams from resting their starters.
Sometimes the last two weeks you play divisional games. This year the Cowboys will play 4 of their 5 games last games against divisional teams.
I think 3 of the 4 NFC East teams are back loaded with divisional games
I think Goodell made a good decision having division games only in the last week.
What's great about Week 17 be all divisional games would be simple....if one or both teams playing are out of playoff contention, then the key starters rested and the backups and third-stringers get to show the scouts and coaches what they can do in the event they are released from the team they're playing for. Much like the last game of pre-season, except this is an actual game that counts towards seeding in the NFL Draft.
I would also favor doing divisional only games on week 1, and the opponent would be the same played on the last week.
Let it sink in that the Jets had to play the Bengals twice and the Colts twice in the final 5 games to go to the Super Bowl, and they almost did it.
That Colts game was not an easy win for Indy, and the next year (2010), the Jets smacked the Colts around in the playoffs so badly that Reggie Wayne said he didn't know why he even bothered to suit up.
Eh, I wouldn't have called that 2010 playoff game a smacking, the Jets won on a last second field goal after the Colts had kicked a FG with like 50 seconds left to take the lead, the Colts special teams (giving up a kickoff return to midfield) and defense choked on the last drive.
@@sonicdoommario - I wasn't referring to the final score, but rather how that Jets defense held Manning and that high powered offense to one TD and three FGs. The only TD was a break away blown coverage by Antonio Cromartie, who didn't blow another assignment the rest of the game (before or after) other than that one play.
I watched it a good buddy of mine who is a Jets fan, and it felt like the Sanchize was holding the Jets back from blowing that game wide open. So many inaccurate passes to open target and plays which would have resulted in TDs for New York.
Manning had nowhere to go and the run was shut down. Sanchez had lots of open target and lacked the ability to take advantage of it. That game could have easily been a 28-10 or worse beat down with a good Jets QB, as more Jets scores would have forced Indy to go for it of 4th downs and not settle for late FGs, and likely would have forced Manning to throw his classic clutch interceptions.
@@PaulGaither Ah, ok, I'm a big Peyton fan so obviously that loss was disappointing for me, but it was hard to be mad at the Jets since they went into Foxboro the weekend after and knocked out the #1 seeded Patriots, after the Patriots had obliterated them 45-3 in that building a month prior.
Adding a 7th team to each conference was a good move also. It makes the races at the top matter much more for the 1 bye week, meaning teams won't rest as much because only 1 gets a bye. It also makes the races for the last wildcard spots include at least 3 or 4 more teams/cities/and fans for the final weeks, making games more interesting and meaningful.
My actual reaction to the intro: "I wonder what team would be stupid enough to get the rules changed because of a playoff ber--of flipping course it's the Jets."
But does it really matter? In week 18 of the 21-22 season, the cowboys played their starters while the Eagles rested theirs. Neither team had anything to play for. They were both locked in as good as it was gonna be. I still belive that the team that rests their starters in meaningless games tend to not play so good in following games. Not saying they always lose but they tend to not play as efficiently as they were before they rested them.
The Saints testers their started in
week 17 in 2009, when they have home field advantage. Unsurprisingly the same thing happened 9 years later.
3:56 "God damnit Donald!" Brown.
I wish we went back to this. In 2000 we lost to the Rams for our final game of the season then beat them in February for our first SB. in 2007 we played a nail biter with the Giants to go 16-0 and then lost a heartbreaker to go 18-1. The possible SB match up final season game is always intense.
The Patriots played the Rams in mid season of 2001, not the final game of 2000. My Ravens won it all at the end of the 2000 season.
Very cool topic. Thanks for the good work you do.
I loved Sanchez as a kid due to him being at USC but I want the Titans of New York and now being a Chargers and Giants I now look back it and can’t believe I got that jersey
This was a good change. Wish they had done this back in the 1980's or even '90s
Btw, your voice sounds better here than some of your newer videos.
You should go back to this tempo and sound.
It wouldn't have been possible because 4 of the 6 divisions had an odd number of teams in those days.
"The Jets got into the playoffs. Let's ensure that something like that never happens again."
-Gandhi probably
Actually the Patriots did rest their starters on week 17 of 2009. Tom Brady came out at halftime with the Pats up 27-14. The Texans rallied against the Pats many 2nd team defensive players, and the rookie backup QB Brian Hoyer. The Pats had to do this, cause, 2009 was a rare season that the Pats didn’t finish 1st or 2nd in the Conference! The Welker injury was a freak case of bad luck! They played him on the 1st possession, ( they were going to remove him afterwards ). Welker tore his ACL while making a cut, a non-contact injury!
If Jets had beaten Colts in 2009 AFCCG, I would have fired Caldwell (for letting Jets in Playoffs) if I was Colts.
I moved to Indiana about 3 months after they lost that super bowl to the saints. People hated him then and they still hate him now for throwing in the towel on a perfect season. Caldwell should be thankful they made the super bowl cuz if they would've lost before then they would've rioted in the streets
They also have aligned the games so it is less likely that an early game result will affect a late game result or vice versa. They try to schedule everything so teams do not gain an advantage with the time or opponent. It really makes sense. I'm so old and fossilized, I remember when there was not even home field advantage by record. Once you won your division, there was nothing to play for. But that was 14 game seasons so you could usually not rest too long.
Scheduling divisional games doesn't do anything though.. unless the teams still have something to play for. If I'm 13-2 I would always rest starters in the last game
We also can thank the start of the Houston Texans for the fact that teams only play in their own division in the last week of the regular season. Why? Houston's re-addition brought the league to 32 teams, with each division having 4 teams. The re-addition of Houston ended the conferences having three divisions each (East-Central-West), and thus gave each conference of the NFL 4 divisions (East-North-South-West). Simply put, the re-addition of Houston made it mathematically possible to have all teams playing in the last week, and within their own division.
4:13 --isnt this the game when the Colts sat 18 down and within a down or two he was chewing out the offensive line because they suddenly turned into revolving doors for the pass rush?
I think they should do the final two weeks all divisional games.
Also get the all the inter-conference games done with before week 10 so that you’re only playing conference games the second half of the season because those always matter more for WC tiebreakers.
Now that I agree with. Kinda like college. Play non conference games the first 4 weeks then nothing but conference games.
The schedule makers got this one right several years ago Divisional Games on the last day of the regular season with playoff berth and division titles on the line.
Back in 2018, Giants were out, Cowboys were in, yet they put on a great week 17 game. 36-35 cowboys win (yay!)
That was a great game! The Cowboys rested Zeke and a few other starters, but played most of them. The teams battled back and forth and the game came down to a great "one knee = two feet" catch by Cole Beasley.
This might be the only thing Roger Goodell got right, but it's a shame it had to come to this. The Colts were the worst for this; I remember a Sunday night game at the end of 2007 where Tony Dungy sat his players against the Titans and basically let them in and bumped the 10-6 Browns out. It was a division game by chance, but still, frustrating. I miss the old days where a single Week 17 game had playoff implications for both conferences, but this change was necessary. I'm a Browns fan, you can tell: a Jets-Packers game at the end of 2002 had about a dozen different implications for a half-dozen teams. The Jets winning got the Browns into the playoffs (and gave the eventual Super Bowl champ Buccaneers a coveted first-round bye). Wildcard round teams were routinely getting to and/or winning the Super Bowl in the years between the '97 Broncos and '12 Ravens, and simply writing off the importance of a 5 or 6 seed for a team was foolish. And as JG9 alluded to, out of 8 divisions, the chances that first and second place are playing for the title in one of them seem good, and this game gets the Sunday night slot on TV. It's almost like an extra playoff game, and it happens about every year. Wordy post, I know, but I grew to like this even though at first I didn't.
IDK, IF I was coaching my team, having already locked-up the #1 seed in the conference heading into the final week, I'd still rest my key players (and not expose them to injuries) for the regular season finale. And especially if my regular season finale is on the road. At that point, division rival or not, I gotta look at the bigger picture, and that's to get my team ready (and as healthy as possible) for the Super Bowl run. The only scenario that could change my mind is if a perfect/undefeated season is at stake.
Your mike quality sounded so much better back then.
You gave some good examples of the system working, but there still are plenty of examples of it not working. And I think it deprives is of some good matchups that the luck of the draw would give us. And look at how Philadelphia stopped playing and let Washington have a walkover into the playoffs last season on SNF. That was an embarrassment for the league on national TV.
Somehow it's always the Jets' fault.
If it is the Jets fault, then they have paid the price for this sin because they have had one of the longest playoff droughts in NFL history. 2010 and nowhere near good enough to sniff the playoffs.
Week 18 now.
Well, now it's gonna be "week 18" games!!
That's gonna be interesting. 😅
It's funny because are the Jets are the reason why the Saints missed the playoffs in 2003. The Saints were 4-8 and everything was pretty much lost. But then the Saints went on an unlikely 4 game winning streak to end 8-8. Now the Rams had the tiebreaker over us (even though we had beaten them earlier in the season which was annoying), but the Rams were 7-8 going into their last game against... the Jets. Now the Jets were 10-5 going into this game. I'm not sure, but I think that the Jets' winning or losing would only determine a 5 or 6 seed for them, so they didn't have much to play for. And the game even went into overtime, but the Rams ended up winning. It was annoying because the Jets seemed so apathetic to the loss and their loss had just ended my team's season.
3:15 Peyton got #85 killed with that throw.
10:22 The Titans and Jaguars got robbed of a Sunday Night Game in 2017. That should have been a Sunday Night Game due to playoff implications, but because it was New Year's Eve of 2017, the NFL decided to cancel the SNF game for Week 17 of the 2017 season.
It's been possible to have nothing but division matchups since the 2002 realignment. I'm surprised it took until 2010 to make the final week exclusively within divisions.
Personally I believe in variety regarding scheduling. For example one year play all divisional games at the beginning of the season one year, the middle of the season the next, and finally towards the end of the season the next year and and mix it up the next year and rotate like that. I'm also in favor of a 20 game season with no preseason at all
How would a twenty game season work very well I think.
After the division games are played the 4 intraconference and 4 interconference games are played the position games are home and home including a home and home against a cross rival opponent
Well the Packers rested their starters against the Lions in week 17 two years after they enacted this schedule, so it didn't really prevent that at all.
That Marvin Lewis dig is harsh. I get it but that year Chris Henry died and he was their speed threat.
I disagree I don't like division game week 17 o believe there is better way nfl could do week 17
We’ll make that week 18 now
I think week 17 should always be against the other conference. I hate when there’s a rematch from week 17 to the first week of the playoffs and this would eliminate that. Also, surprisingly it It would create more interesting games across the board for week 17.
Well now that would be week 18.
Goodell made a decision when a situation arose that affected the Jets? The Jets specifically? Unthinkable... I wonder which NFL team Goodell worked for again...
What a stretch.
Yeah I was just a kid and I still remember losing to the jets two times in a row, wasn't fun.
Nice to see the Jets actually mean something important.
I think this is an unpopular opinion but I think this format has run its course. Especially because my team has played the same team in the same location something like 7 times in the 10 years of this format.
I love watching the Colts lose to the Jaguars during the last week of every season.
I think they should go a step further and make the last 3 weeks of the season a division round robin.
1988, the 49ers won the NFC West by virtue of action before their regular season finale against the Rams on Monday Night Football. Knowing they weren't going to finish higher than the #2 seed in the NFC, Bill Walsh rested his key players and let the Rams make the playoffs. Rumor had it that the 49ers lost on purpose.......to keep the Giants out of the playoffs.
I would like to see a change to the draft order. Winner if the Super Bowl would pick 32 on down to the other teams in the playoffs. The #1 pick would go to the last team out of the playoffs on up until you get to the first team in the playoffs.
Huh? You’re not making sense. The draft order is basically season order. It goes by record and then playoff teams goes which teams get knocked out by record since multiple teams will get knocked out a week until the SB.
@@blowc1612 I know what I was saying keep it exactly the same for the playoffs teams but give the #1 pick to the first team out of the playoffs rather then the worst team. It would keep the games meaningful even if both teams are out of playoff contention.
@@81pdmatt that’s one of the dumbest thing. How do you even determine the first team out of the playoffs? You’re not making sense. Even if you do determine that, that is dumb.
In my opinion, weeks 12-17 should be divisional games and these should be home and home games. All byes should be completed by the end of week 11.
I hope next commissioner changes it back idc about starters resting
Ironically, in the 2010 season, only one team rested their starters in week 17, and it was the Jets.
you’re welcome for week 17 :)
There was a 4th guarantee and any Jets fan (especially if they remember Super Bowl III) could tell you what that was...
The NFL said “the Jets made the playoffs!! Oh hell no!! Let’s make sure that never happens again!!”
Each NFL team should play all six of it's in-division games in the last six weeks of the scare.
In fact, now that the NFL has a 17-game regular season, each team should play all five of their inter-conference games in the first 5 games of the season. The next six games would be against teams outsider their division, but within their conference. Finally, the six in-division games would wrap up the regular season.
I’d make the first three weeks and the last three weeks divisional games.
My idea for NFL scheduling (having your five non-conference games in the first five games of the season, games against teams outside your division but inside your conference in your sixth through eleventh games, and your six in-division games as the last six regular-season games) stems from college basketball.
With few exceptions, college basketball teams start their seasons by playing all their non-conference games in November and early December, then holiday invitational tournaments around Christmas week, then after January 1st, start play against teams in your conference.
Wow. Goodell did something good? Amazing!
The title doesn't convey the video properly. The NFL doesn't "only play" divisional matchups in the final week. They play them every week of the season. It should say 'why the NFL *plays only* divisional matchups...' only plays indicates they don't play divisional matchups any other week but the final week. Plays only means the only games being played during that week are divisional matchups.
Wait wait Curtis Painter didnt have a game worst than spiking the ball every play?
They still should have all playoff-implicating games play at the same time, and save the week 18 Sunday Night game be between the two worst teams with the WINNER getting the #1 pick.
Please do.one about the great comeback of the 2009 Titans!
Exactly how the Washington Football Team did when the Eagles laid down in that final game.Taking Hurts out, more Doug Pederson than anyone and for that alone his firing was justified.
Funny thing is that was a divisional game. They purposely tanked it to eleminate the Giants from the playoffs. Perhaps the Eagles and Giants should be playing each other the last game of the season.
@@ericthomas917 It seems like that yes. I wonder if it would have been the same had Dallas won the early game. No love between those teams either, despite colluding to deny the Giants that receiver. Almost like they fear the Giants getting better.
What gets me is that the WFT is also a division rival. I honestly hope that the tank was what got Dougie P fired. It was a busy league move that embarrassed the Eagles organization.
@@ericthomas917 What if Hurts had gotten hurt during last part of game? We could be saying how dumb Doug was for not pulling Hurts in a meaningless game.
And Giants, Evan Engram in particular, have themselves to blame to be put in that spot. Had Engram caught that pass against Eagles in Philly, it would have been win and in for Giants in week 17 instead of needing Eagles to win.
I would love to see the AFC play a home and home with the NFC
Colts coach Jim Caldwell made one of the worst decisions ever by taking his foot off the gas. He was roundly criticized for giving up an opportunity for an undefeated season. The Colts were thumped in the Super Bowl.
Deadgum it Bengals! You were scared to play the Texans. That's why they won the game and eliminated the Texans. Wow! Lost a little respect for the Bengals.
They got beat two straight weeks by the jets what they deserved for choosing who they wanted as their opponent which bit them
I think no matter what week 17 only matters for about 10 teams. Throwing divisional matchups week 17 makes lots of divisional matchups meaningless. Just my 2 cents.
Divisional rivalry games are never meaningless
Steelers played their backups against Browns in week 17 last week and got beat by them the next week Bills played to beat Dolphins in week 17 last year and got to AFCCG.
Now it’s week 18
" . . . with a passer rating of 11.2." Um--did we miss something here?
0:16 Since the 2010 season of the NFL
Just a couple of years earlier, the Colts cost the Browns a playoff spot by resting their players, allowing Tennessee to make the playoffs.
I miss the afc central
And yet we had Philly and WFT last year.
Now week 18
Didn’t they beat the Patriots that season?
Somehow they did and they have only beaten us ONCE since then (week 16,2015)
And week 18 now
2020 Bills solved the problem by having their backups drop 50 on the Dolphins
Coming back to this vid after the Jaguars kicked the Colts out lol
I have always hated when teams bench their starters in Week 17. This not only cheats their fans who pay to come to the game, it becomes an integrity issue. Rather than reward teams to play their starters, punish them if they don't. One way would be to force the team to refund the cost of tickets to those who attend (if it is the visiting team who benches their starters, they would pay a fine). If fans are upset for paying regular season prices for exhibition games, watching a bunch of backups in a regular season game amounts to the same thing. Also the league should take a firm stance against teams who are basically throwing a game which affects another team's playoff status.
No, I don't blame the Jets, I blame the Bungles for this.
Back when jets were good 😞
Meanwhile the 2020 Browns...
Average new format fan
or
Average old format enjoyer
Payden Manning 😂😂😂