The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

By virtue of Baltimore's loss, in addition to Miami and Denver's, the Jets controlled their own destiny:  Win your last two and you are in.  The Colts laid down last night.  Cincy will do the same this week.

I have a REAL issue with a team basically cake walking into the playoffs while others (Denver, Houston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh) are fighting their asses off to get in.

I believe the fans in Indy deserved better last night.  I believe the fans in every city fighting for a playoff spot deserved better.  It's one thing to lay down in a meaningless game - another when the game has playoff implications.  If Cincy doesn't go balls to the wall and TRY next week my head might explode.

What a bunch of crap.

If there was any team that I would have love to see go undefeated, it was the Colts but they sold out.

Honestly, if the Patriots go back to Indy, they will beat the Colts in the playoffs. The Bolts are going to the Super Bowl and they are playing as if they are on a mission

Indy should have played for the undefeated season.

I don't think Cinci will lay down.  Here's why...

Assuming the Patriots beat Houston, the Bengals need to win to maintain their #3 seed.  This way if the Bengals end up playing the Patriots in the championship game, it'll be in Cincinnati, not in New England, and we know that the Patriots are a different team on the road.

However, this game being flexed to Sunday night, should the Texans beat the Patriots, the Bengals very well could lay down.

I am sick of teams benching their players in "meaningless" games.  It doesn't seem fair that the Patriots and Dolphins got losses from the Colts, while the Jets and Bills get freebie wins.  Of course it doesn't matter for the Bills, but the Jets are in the playoff race, and this should not be allowed.

How can the commish prevent this?

Sour grapes.

If someone asked you at the start of the season who you'd rather have on your schedule in WK17: PIT or IND, who would you have picked?

^^ Indy, because Pitt was the defending super bowl champion and the best defense in the league.

A better question to ask is, how can the Dolphins prevent this?

Answer:  By winning their own games and taking care of business

Excellent post Maine. It's complete garbage.

And the NFL wants to add 2 more games so we can see nonsense like this? Uh, no thanks. I'll pass.  Pre-season is what 3rd stringers are for.

I think there's nothing you can do.  I believe the the Colts have "earned" the right to play however they want.  If their goal is to win the Super Bowl and not risk injury, I think that it's within their right.  If I were the coach, I would play for 16-0.

If Indy had had 1 loss going into that game, would there still be as much disappointment around the league.

Luck will, at some point, play into it.

I think dolphins4life is right.  If you want to get into the playoffs, win your games; don't depend on other teams to lose.

I think if you look at the playoff standings the Pats were listed ahead of the Bengals (as of yesterday anyway) due to strength of schedule. If the Pats win Sunday I do believe they will be the 3 seed. Since the Jags had a better record than KC I don't tink anything has changed.

But then again maybe I am wrong.

First:


How is this sour grapes?  The fact of the matter is that Indy laid down.  Plain and simple.  People didn't pay to see a god damned pre season game last night.  They paid to see the starters. 

Secondly, if a team gets two bullshit wins over cake walk / lay down teams and makes the playoffs over a team that busted it's ass all season but had a couple hard luck losses, how is that fair (or "sour grapes")? 



How the hell does any of this have to do with Miami?  They sealed their own fate with losses to the Bills,Titans and Texans.  I'm talking about integrity of the league and the game.  Could care less about how this relates to Miami because, frankly, it doesn't.

Just curious, bu exactly how many teams lost star players by not sitting them prior to the playofs, and therefore ruined the teams chances at SB glory??
If it is not many, then this whole "what if" scenario is bs.

Pats are currently locked into the #3. If they win and Cincy wins, the Pats keep the #3

Not according to NFL.com...

You mean like the Jets not giving it their all week 17 last year, because they would rather have the Fins win the AFCE than the Patriots. 

Because if it was MIA in that position, no one would be complaining.  When the schedule was released, people on this board were happy that we were playing PIT in WK17, because it was believed that the defending champs would have already sewn up their playoff spot and have nothing to play for.

Sadly not every NFL coach has the high standards of self integrity that Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin possess. 

Surely you jest... ::)

If they lose and Cincy wins, then Cincy is 3.

I'll be rooting for Houston, then, because then the Texans will make the playoffs and the Bengals will have to win so the Jets won't make it.

Root for the Texans to keep the Jets out of the playoffs!

don't matter if the jets get in, they will never contend. its wasted time for them. same for the fish. i wouldn't  want a team like the dolphins, who clearly will not contend and are not playoff worthy, to go to the playoffs and create false hope. my brain says yes, but in my heart , i know they still suck. why get exited over nothing. the playoff picture will right itself, and the true contenders will rise.   indy and saints.

Your wording isn't quite right. The Jets will make it because of one team laying down in two games. The Fins. Had they showed up and even played halfway decent football in the first halves vs. the Titans, and then again vs. the Texans, the Jets wouldn't be alive.

Considering we can't even make it above .500 I really can't get worked up about the Jets possibly backing into the playoffs "on the cheap". If it kept us out in the cold with a 10-6 or better record, I'd probably feel a lot differently.

^^^ Who asked you to bring a reasonable perspective to the boo-hoo pot luck? ;)

i don't think there's any way you can logically argue AGAINST teams doing this.

a coach has the perrogative to field WHOEVER he wants on his team, at any time.  that is all.  the minute we attempt to try and change this, there will be devastating consequences across all levels of all sports.

I agree. The only thing to do would be to make sure the games counted somehow.

You'd have to start paying financial bonuses for each win a team gets.  That's probably the only way.

Lots of baseball pitchers have bonuses based on stats (wins, innings pitched, etc), and position players do too (hits, walks, steals, etc). Some players have bonuses based on awards and where they end up in voting for them (gold gloves, placing in Cy Young Award voting, MVP award voting, etc). Why couldn't the same thing be done for players as well as Coaches in the the NFL? If a coach gets an incentive for number of wins, or seeding for the playoffs, (or going undefeated) its less likely he will pull his starters and "lay down".

I would be too expensive if the money was meaningful.  If the Colts wouldn't keep Peyton in for a shot at 19-0, they aren't gonna do it to avoid a $10,000 fine. 

One thing I have been advocating for years is that the last three weeks of the season be division only games.  While this would not complete fix the problem, it would greatly increase the number of late season meaningful games.  Almost every team going into week 14 would still control their own destiny for the division and numberous division battles would be decided week 17. 

Huh? Please try to make some sense when you post.

(I hate to sound like I'm attacking you personally, but a lot of your posts are hard to read)

And while we're at it, the kickoff times of late season games should be "flexed" so that games that are competitively relevant to each other are played at the same time

Not real hard.....

If every team owner recieved  ten thousand dollars for each win, the Colts would have still have benched the starters.

If every team owner recieved  ten million dollars for each win, the leauge could not afford that or teams like the 2007 Dolphins or 2008 Lions would go bancrupt.   

^^^ I never said anything about team owners receiving money. I mentioned incentive laden contracts for players and coaches.

Players wouldn't matter.  If the Colts at a bonus in Peyton's contract based on playing time then the Colts just saved themselves some cap space.

As for coaches you are going to have an NFL policy ordering teams to have the coaches contract have incentives for the number of wins. 

Its your post that makes no sense.  The NFL doesn't pay players or coaches.  The teams do.  Those teams are also the ones making the decision to rest players.

You may not agree with my post, and that's fine,  but I meant the grammar in your post made no sense. I was unable to comprehend what you were saying due to incomplete sentences. That's why I apologized if it sounded like a personal attack. I was merely trying to figure out the point you were trying to make.

Man, Cincy should be banned from the playoffs the way they are playing tonight.  It's one thing to get blown out, but this is fucking ridiculous.

just a smokescreen, tommy. i don't care how good the jets played, or what the stats say, when all is said and done they are still the jets. cincy will rebound at home and run it up, the way the jets did to them tonight. the jets are not as good as the stats show them to be. # 1 defense with a 9-7 record?  backing into the playoffs with luck? blowing out a cincy team in a basically meaningless game? i'm sure cincy did not want to go out like they did, but make no mistake, they should bring it next week at home. its going to be a different game next week with all of the starters in, and something to play for..

^^Either way, it's disgusting that a team made the playoffs due to two teams, Indy and Cincy, laying down for them in back to back weeks.  Meanwhile a much more deserving 9-7 team (Houston) is sitting home and outside looking in.

There is no such thing as a deserving 9-7 teams.  And 11-5 team looking in, absolutely.  A 10-6 looking in maybe.  But not a 9-7 team. 

Team A: Houston Texans = 9-7.  All nine wins hard fought and earned.

Team B: New York Jets = 9-7.  Two of nine victories came as a direct result of their opponent basically allowing them to win.

While I would agree with you under normal circumstances - this year the Jets have taken a playoff spot away from a more deserving franchise.  One that, frankly, had much more reason to think they would actually do some damage IF in. 

Expanding the season would help this problem.  It wouldn't congest teams at (7-9) - (9-7) and one team playing starters only one half wouldn't matter that much.  The way the schedule is currently, one gimme win in 16 games is too much.

the jets are going to make it to the AFC championship, which will end up being in giants stadium, which is the best home crowd in the league.  it will be insane, and they will make it to the superbowl.  :'(

Actually it could make it worse.  With 18 games it is possible that for even more teams to clinch a playoff spot 1 2 or 3 weeks before the end of the season.  We might even have situations were the entire set of week 18 games are meaningless. 

if you really believe this, you should be locked up for use of illegal narcotics. ;D

So you have the Jets beating Cinci, Chargers and Ravens and the Ravens beating NE and Colts?

i definately agree.



i see your point , and it is valid. however, i agree with hoodie on this. i don't care how hard fought the wins were, after all is said and done, 9-7 is still 9-7.  and with that record, you really shouldn't be in the mix at all. i hate the wild card. all it does is give mediocre teams a shot at winning by circumstance, luck, and from momentum at the right time. it cheats the teams that have legitimately dominated all year.  just like when the steelers won from a wildcard spot a few years ago.

Or on the OTHER side of the coin, it shows how a good team that was beaten out by another team in its division can wreak havoc in the playoffs. 

Case in point- Baltimore and Philly, two six seeds in the playoffs, ended up playing for their respective conference championships. 

^^^^   good point, but  IMO, i still think the only thing a 9-7 team in the playoffs is good for is shaking things up. playing spoiler. aside from a  few rare times, the right 2 teams always meet in the end. so really the whole argument is irrelevant anyway. but it makes for fun debate.

A 9-7 team was one defensive stand away from winning the title less than a year ago.

^^^^  i know. that's my point though. the wildcard puts teams that dont deserve to be there , in a position to win by luck or momentum at the right time. .( ex- 2009 jets backing in , the 2007 giants, the 2005 steelers). its not like the world series where the truly better team will prevail over the course of 7 games. in football , its one and done.