Damn You Tampa!

Just when I was finally getting over the Cowboys loss yesterday (a loss that pretty much fucked our playoff chances), the damn Bucs let Carolina run all over them like a dirty whore tonight. Isn't this supposed to be a good defense??? That man above, DeAngelo Williams, ran for 186 yards and 2 TDs while his partner in crime, Jonathan Stewart, ran for 115 yards and 2 TDs. Total fuckin' domination!

Of course Tampa's loss makes it a hell of a lot tougher on Dallas to make the playoffs. I know what you're thinking, and yes Dallas did beat Tampa so conventional wisdom would suggest I'd want them to lose since we own the tiebreaker if we both finished with the same record. Not a bad thought, but it would've been a better one if we had won yesterday. We're 8-5 right now and Tampa is 9-4, we have NYG, BAL, and @PHI left on the schedule so we'll most likely lose AT LEAST one more game (that'll take us down to 10-6) while the Bucs just have @ATL, S.D., and OAK left. Now, there's a good chance the Bucs might lose to the Falcons and drop to 9-5, but what's the chances either the Chargers or Raiders beat them at home?? Exactly, so even if they lose @ATL, they'll still probably finish 11-5. That means we'd have to win all 3 of our games to tie them and get our playoff spot.

Our more realistic path to the playoffs would've been if the Panthers had lost tonight because that would've dropped them to 9-4 with DEN, @NYG, and @N.O still left on the schedule. There was a real chance they could've lost all 3 of those games and finished 9-7 or at least lost 2 and finished 10-6. Now, there's still a good chance they could lose all 3 and finish 10-6, but even so that still means Dallas will definitely HAVE to beat the Giants and the Eagles because of the conference record, which is the tie-breaker since we didn't play Carolina this year.

Remember, Tampa is in the NFC, so instead of Carolina's conference record dropping to 6-4, it rose to 7-3. Dallas is currently 6-4 in the conference themselves so now even if Carolina loses both of their 2 remaining conference games (@NYG, @N.O.) they'll only fall to 7-5. See why Dallas has to beat both NYG and PHI?? If we beat one and lose to one, then we tie Carolina at 7-5 (assuming by chance they lose both of their conference games) and then the tie-breaker goes from conference record to record in common games and Carolina is currently beating us in that category.

Follow me?? Well, long story short, we're fucked up right now and our playoff chances are starting to dim big time unless we can run the table.

See, if Tampa would've just beat Carolina tonight things would be A LOT more smooth for Dallas and instead of me rooting for Atlanta to lose, there would be foreseeable room in the playoffs for both of us. Now what I need this week is an Falcons loss and a Cowboys win. Yeah Tampa could've made this a lot smoother for us tonight, but then again none of this would even matter if we didn't pull that choke job yesterday in the 4th quarter.

Related:
NFL Tie-breaking Procedure