Is it me, or does it seem a little bit odd that there is a lot of talk on the official web page about Chris Simms?  We are in the middle of a playoff run and they devote time talking about the 3rd quarterback.  Are they setting up something for the future?  It is a nice story and good to hear how he has come back, but I would think that there are a lot of stories out there during a playoff run that are more relevant unless someone is already looking at changes for next year.  May be nothing, but with the questions about what is going to happen with KC and whether VY is really the future, just seemed an odd story and questions for the Friday practice report.

JMac1383 suggested I do the same thing for the NFC Playoff Race that I did yesterday for the AFC so here it goes.

When I started looking at the numbers I was a little bit suprised by what was there.  I have heard several of the Talking Heads on the various NFL shows say that the AFC is pretty even and anybody's guess while the NFC is pretty obvious.  Well the numbers below, I think, will show that the NFC picture is actually a lot murkier than the AFC picture.  5 out of the six teams are really within a win or loss from being pretty even in record and it comes down more to quality of win to pick who has the edge.

GIANTS:  They have played 7 games against 6 playoff teams for a record of 5-2.  They played the Steelers, Eagles, Ravens, Cardinals, Panthers and Vikings with their two losses being to the Eagles and Vikings with the latter coming in week 17 when the Vikings were playing for thier playoff lives and the Giants were resting some of their players.  Their winning percentage was .714 against playoff teams.

EAGLES:  They played 6 games against 5 playoff teams for a record of 4-2.  They played the Giants (twice,) Cardinals, Ravens, Falcons, and Steelers.  Their two loses came against the Giants and the Ravens.  Notably they had quality wins over the Giants and Steelers. They finished with a .667 winning percentage against playoff teams.

FALCONS:   They played a total of 5 games against 4 playoff teams for a record of 3-2.  They played the Panthers (twice,) Eagles, Chargers, and Vikings.  Their losses were to the Panthers and Eagles.  They ended up  with a decent .600 winning percentage against playoff teams, but it should be noted that two of their wins were against the Chargers (who we determined yesterday beat no one) and the Vikings (who will cover below to see if that was a quality win.)

PANTHERS:  This one suprised me a little bit considering that the Panthers seem to be one of the media darlings during this playoff season.  They have done really well in the power polls and get a lot of talk for their running back duo.  They played 6 games against 5 playoff teams.  They played the Chargers, Vikings, Falcons (twice,) Cardinals, and Giants.  Their losses came to the Vikings, Falcons and Giants, but it may be more significant that their three wins were against the Chargers, Cardinals and Falcons.  We already know the Chargers beat no one and again we will see below that the  Cardinals was not neccesarily  a quality win.  They finished with a .500 winning percentage against playoff teams.

VIKINGS:  They played 6 games against 6 playoff teams.  They played the Colts, Titans, Panthers, Cardinals, Falcons, and Giants.  Their losses were to the Colts and Titans (suprise suprise) and the Falcons.   They beat the Panthers, Cardinals and Giants (again, the Giants game was weak 17 so weigh it as you wish.)  That gave them a .500 winning percentage against playoff teams.

CARDINALS:  Finally we have what I consider the Chargers of the NFC.  The Cardinals played 5 games against 5 playoff teams.  They played the Dolphins, Panthers, Giants, Eagles, and Vikings.  They won only one of those games.  They beat the Dolphins and that was in week two.  They have not beaten a playoff team since.  They finish with a .200 winning percentage against playoff teams.

Looking at the numbers above, the way I see it playing out in the NFC is as follows.  The Falcons will get by the Cardinals and the Eagles will beat the Vikings in the wild card round setting up an Eagles @ Giants and Falcons @ Panthers Divisional round, which is really too bad because that puts the best two teams, statistically, playing each other in the Eagles / Giants game.  That should be the NFC championship game, but it doesn't look like it will work out that way.  The Panthers and Falcons game is a toss up to me since, by the numbers, they are within a game of each other against playoff teams and split their season showdowns 1-1.  I will give the edge to the Panthers since they are at home.  That means we are looking at a Panthers @ Giants NFC Championship weekend, which the Giants, by all indications, should win.  That means that it should be a Giants vs. Titans Superbowl in Tampa, which also is actually in line with what the line in Vegas is predicting.  Maybe the numbers do paint the picture if you listen to them instead of getting emotional about all of those other things people talk about.

Again,  I guess we will know the answer in a few weeks.

This post is my first fan post is maybe a little long and too ambitious for newbie but I hope you will  with me.

I have been reading alot of blogs and "expert" articles and fans posts with everyone giving their opinion of who is going to dominate in the playoffs and why.  Of course alot of the resons are things like "momentum," "peaking at the right time," "big game experience," or even simply that "they" are a better team because "they have the hardest schedule in the last 25 years" so no one else can compare. 

Well I thought to myself that there really must be some way to judge how a team might do in the playoffs that is a little more tangible, because I don't know about you, but I really don't know how to measure "momentum" or "peaking" and don't have a crystal ball to see how another team might have fared against "the hardest schedule in the last 25 years." 

So I asked myself, Self, in order to guage how a team might perform against the teams that are in the playoffs this year, how about we just look at their performance against (wait for it.................) teams that are in the playoffs this year.

Here it goes.

TITANS:  Our Boys have played 5 games against 4 teams that are playoff teams this year.  Baltimore, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Minnesota.  They won 4 of those games including 3 against 3 different AFC playoff teams.  The sole loss came to Indianapolis in week 17 in a game that was played by backups, never the less it was a loss and gave the boys a .800 winning percentage against playoff teams.

COLTS:  They played 6 games against 5 playoff teams.  Minnesota, Baltimore, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, San Diego.  They won 5 of those games with their only loss coming to Tennessee in an emotional and important game on Monday night.  Really don't think they should get credit for the week 17 win, but just so no one claims foul, I will leave it in.  That gives them a winning percentage of .833 against playoff teams.

PITTSBURGH:  They played 7 games against 6 playoff teams.  Yes this means they had a very hard schedule and if they want people to think of them as an elite team then they should win a good percentage of the harder games yes?  Well they played Baltimore, Indianapolis, Tennessee, Philly, New York and San Diego.  They were 3-4 in those games.  Two of those wins were against division rivals Baltimore and the other one was against San Diego (we will see if that was a quality win in a moment.)  That left them with a winning percentage of .429 in games against playoff teams.

BALTIMORE:  They also played 7 games against 6 playoff teams.  New York, Philly, Miami, Tennessee, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.  They went 2-5 in those games with their wins coming against Philly and Miami.  They finish with a .286 winning percentage against playoff teams

MIAMI:  They played only three games against playoff teams.  All were in the first half of the season.  They played Arizona, San Diego, and Baltimore.  The only game they won of those three was against San Diego (again is this a quality win?)  That left them with a winning percentage of .333

SAN DIEGO:  They played 5 playoff teams and lost all 5 and thus had a .000 winning percentage against palyoff teams.  The teams were Carolina, Miami, Pitssburgh, Indianapolis and Atlanta.

So basically we see that the only playoff teams that have beatenTennessee and Indy are..........................Tennessee and Indy (although a contentiously conceded fact on our side because of the week 17 circumstances.)  Pitt only beat Balitmore and SD (who didn't beat any playoff team.)  Baltimore could only manage to beat one AFC Playoff team in Miami whose only win came against SD (who again beat nobody from the playoffs)

I don't know what anyone else out there thinks of these stats, but to me they paint a much clearer picture about who should be worried about who in the playoffs. My way of thinking says that Indy and Baltimore win in wildcard weekend setting up an Indy @ Pitt and Baltimore @ Tennessee line up for Divisional weekend which I think will lead to an Indy @ Tennessee AFC Championship game.  That is the matchup that scares me a little bit, but that is the one I see happening.  I think in the end our Titans win that game and make the trip to Tampa.

I will continue to sit back and listen to other fans try to justify their bravado with things like winning streaks, or hard schedules, or momentum or whatever they want.  I feel pretty safe in my analysis relying on facts and stats.  I guess we will see very soon how it works out

What do you all think?