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zftcg

NFL screws over Pittsburgh/Oakland

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The NFL tries to arrange all of the Week 17 games so that no team can get an advantage based on when their game is scheduled. The games that affect each other are all scheduled for either 1:00 or 4:25. For example, Green Bay and New Orleans are fighting for the No. 2 seed, so both games are at 1:00. Philly and Dallas are fighting for the NFC East, so both games are at 4:25.

But the league faced an impossible dilemma this week. KC is in line to get the No. 2 seed if the Pats lose, so both games are at 1:00. But they are also in line to drop to No. 4 if they lose and Houston wins, and Houston doesn't play until 4:25. Now, obviously, the difference between 3 and 4 isn't as significant as that between 2 and 3, but it does matter. For one thing, it's the difference between facing a very good Buffalo team and a not-as-good opponent in Tenn/Pitt/Oak. Second, in the event that both teams win their divisional round games, the No. 3 seed gets home field for the championship. Admittedly, that's unlikely, but it did happen as recently as 2006, when the Colts hosted the Pats (and narrowly defeated them).

Here's the thing: If KC wins early as they are favored to, Houston is locked into the 4 seed and has zero incentive against the Titans. But the only way Pittsburgh and Oakland can possibly make the playoffs is if Houston wins.

Something to keep in mind for anyone whose league extends to Week 17, is gambling, or is in a pick-em pool.

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Steelers and Raiders should have won another game and they wouldn’t be in that position. 

 

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2 hours ago, zftcg said:

If KC wins early as they are favored to, Houston is locked into the 4 seed and has zero incentive against the Titans.

I'm in a league that plays through week 17 & have Hopkins & Hyde. So this is definitely a concern.... although, if you believe him.....

Texans head coach Bill O'Brien said that he has no plans to rest players for Week 17 against the Titans.
SOURCE: Adam Schefter on Twitter
Dec 23, 2019, 1:27 PM ET

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16 minutes ago, TheUsualSuspect said:

Op, are you employed?

Says the guy with 2,500 posts to the guy with 600.

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55 minutes ago, zftcg said:

Says the guy with 2,500 posts to the guy with 600.

Been a member for nearly years, what’s your story Buckwheat?

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On 12/24/2019 at 10:59 PM, TheUsualSuspect said:

Been a member for nearly years, what’s your story Buckwheat?

So on a website where literally everyone is wasting time discussing a made-up game that is itself a huge waste of time, your argument is that you can look down your nose at others because you've been wasting time here for seven years? Not sure you've thought this through, Spanky.

At least I don't have to bother asking if you're employed, because clearly your job is piano player in a whorehouse.

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What game would you be talking about that’s a huge waste of time? 

And what time isn’t being wasted discussion about it?  

And wasn’t spanky a little rascal, what do you have against a little rascal?  

 

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7 hours ago, weepaws said:

What game would you be talking about that’s a huge waste of time? 

And what time isn’t being wasted discussion about it?  

And wasn’t spanky a little rascal, what do you have against a little rascal?  

Fantasy football is a huge waste of time. Spending time on a message board discussing fantasy football is an even bigger waste of time. Nothing against that -- it's also a lot of fun, and this is the life we have chosen -- but it's a little rich for some busybody to unilaterally declare that, in his view, other people are wasting too much time on an activity because they have made X posts in a year whereas over the past decade, he has only averaged Y. 

And yes, Spanky is from The Little Rascals. He called me Buckwheat, so it was either that or Alfalfa.

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On 12/24/2019 at 10:56 AM, zftcg said:

Here's the thing: If KC wins early as they are favored to, Houston is locked into the 4 seed and has zero incentive against the Titans. But the only way Pittsburgh and Oakland can possibly make the playoffs is if Houston wins.

What does Oakland need? I’m not sure if something besides just HOU winning & PIT losing is needed?

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I guess tv is the reason but really yeah KC should be playing the Chargers at 325 CT. 
 

I guess I’ll also point out that west coast teams on the road didn’t get the automatic 300 CT times this year, and I’m not sure if that’s brand new. 

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1 hour ago, zftcg said:

Fantasy football is a huge waste of time. Spending time on a message board discussing fantasy football is an even bigger waste of time. Nothing against that -- it's also a lot of fun, and this is the life we have chosen -- but it's a little rich for some busybody to unilaterally declare that, in his view, other people are wasting too much time on an activity because they have made X posts in a year whereas over the past decade, he has only averaged Y. 

And yes, Spanky is from The Little Rascals. He called me Buckwheat, so it was either that or Alfalfa.

FF is not a huge waste of time, I totally disagree with you.  

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28 minutes ago, SaintsInDome2006 said:

What does Oakland need? I’m not sure if something besides just HOU winning & PIT losing is needed?

Tennessee and Pittsburgh lose, Indianapolis wins.

(As I understand it, the reason Indy matters is because if they finish tied with the Titans, they win the tiebreaker for second place in the AFC South. You cannot make the playoffs ahead of a team that beats you in your own division, so that means Tennessee is eliminated. Then Oakland wins the tiebreaker over Pittsburgh/Indy and gets the playoff spot. Whereas if it's just a three-way tie between Tenn/Oak/Pitt, Titans get it.)

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16 minutes ago, weepaws said:

FF is not a huge waste of time, I totally disagree with you.  

Fair enough, but if that were the case, there would have been no reason for him to troll me in the first place by snarking about my employment status.

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26 minutes ago, SaintsInDome2006 said:

I guess tv is the reason but really yeah KC should be playing the Chargers at 325 CT. 
 

I guess I’ll also point out that west coast teams on the road didn’t get the automatic 300 CT times this year, and I’m not sure if that’s brand new. 

I wonder if there was a reason they couldn't have moved both NE-Miami and KC-LAC to the late slot. Maybe they can't have too many games kicking off that late? It is already 8-7 (plus Sea-SF at night), so going 6-9 would be too unbalanced? Considering there are some weeks where there are like two games in the 4:00 window, I don't get that, but then, I'm sure calculating the schedule is a total logistical maze that requires reconciling a number of conflicting requirements, so I'm willing to cut them some slack. But I would still be ticked if I were a fan of those two teams.

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24 minutes ago, zftcg said:

Fair enough, but if that were the case, there would have been no reason for him to troll me in the first place by snarking about my employment status.

He actually got out of it what you have him given him, a rebuttal.  

Hes just looking for attention, positive or negative, that’s his game.  

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7 minutes ago, weepaws said:

He actually got out of it what you have him given him, a rebuttal.  

Hes just looking for attention, positive or negative, that’s his game.  

Also a good point. You're right, I shouldn't have bothered taking the bait.

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On 12/24/2019 at 12:08 PM, weepaws said:

Steelers and Raiders should have won another game and they wouldn’t be in that position. 

 

I'm a lifelong Steelers fan, and this is completely correct.  Don't lose to the Jets and you don't have to worry about who's playing when.  The NFL only has so many games slots at each time, and tickets are issued with a date/time LONG before the gameday.  

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On 12/24/2019 at 1:43 PM, easilyscan said:

I'm in a league that plays through week 17 & have Hopkins & Hyde. So this is definitely a concern.... although, if you believe him.....

Texans head coach Bill O'Brien said that he has no plans to rest players for Week 17 against the Titans.
SOURCE: Adam Schefter on Twitter
Dec 23, 2019, 1:27 PM ET

This has changed.  You might want to adjust accordingly...

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2 hours ago, jgcrawfish said:

This has changed.  You might want to adjust accordingly...

I was aware of the change, but thanks for the reminder!

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On 12/26/2019 at 6:02 AM, zftcg said:

Fantasy football is a huge waste of time. Spending time on a message board discussing fantasy football is an even bigger waste of time. Nothing against that -- it's also a lot of fun, and this is the life we have chosen -- but it's a little rich for some busybody to unilaterally declare that, in his view, other people are wasting too much time on an activity because they have made X posts in a year whereas over the past decade, he has only averaged Y. 

And yes, Spanky is from The Little Rascals. He called me Buckwheat, so it was either that or Alfalfa.

If you chosen profession is being an analyst, you probably have an incredibly deep passion for analyzing things.  That's a good thing because it helps your career.  Spending your free time analyzing sports isn't a waste of time in this regard - it actually keeps your skills sharp and sometimes the things you learn analyzing sports can be applied to your analyst career. 

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On 12/29/2019 at 12:13 PM, jgcrawfish said:

I'm a lifelong Steelers fan, and this is completely correct.  Don't lose to the Jets and you don't have to worry about who's playing when.  The NFL only has so many games slots at each time, and tickets are issued with a date/time LONG before the gameday.  

That is true for every week other than Week 17. NFL sets the schedule the week before to maximize ratings and to minimize the likelihood of situations exactly like this. It’s no one’s fault, but it did hurt both teams’ chances. (Though as it turned out, they both lost anyway, as did the Colts.)

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On 12/26/2019 at 9:10 AM, zftcg said:

I wonder if there was a reason they couldn't have moved both NE-Miami and KC-LAC to the late slot. Maybe they can't have too many games kicking off that late? It is already 8-7 (plus Sea-SF at night), so going 6-9 would be too unbalanced? Considering there are some weeks where there are like two games in the 4:00 window, I don't get that, but then, I'm sure calculating the schedule is a total logistical maze that requires reconciling a number of conflicting requirements, so I'm willing to cut them some slack. But I would still be ticked if I were a fan of those two teams.

That is a fair comment.   

the NFL should use flexible scheduling to have all the relevant games in week 17 go at the same time.

Nobody is gonna tune in to watch houston start a backup QB in a meaningless game.

But if all games start at the same time, houston does not have the luxury of knowing the outcome of the KC game, so they no longer start their backup.

Makes for more good football.   I think that's something we can all get behind.

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3 minutes ago, Ray_T said:

the NFL should use flexible scheduling to have all the relevant games in week 17 go at the same time.

That is what they generally do. It's why, for example, both Philly-NYG and Dallas-Wash were moved to the 4:25 window. In this case, either they couldn't move both the NE and KC games to the late window, or else assumed Houston wouldn't care that much about whether they were the 3 or 4 seed, and would rest starters regardless. As I've said, I don't think it was incompetence or maliciousness, just an unfortunate circumstance that probably reduced the Steelers' and Raiders' already slim chances of making the playoffs.

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2 minutes ago, zftcg said:

That is what they generally do. It's why, for example, both Philly-NYG and Dallas-Wash were moved to the 4:25 window. In this case, either they couldn't move both the NE and KC games to the late window, or else assumed Houston wouldn't care that much about whether they were the 3 or 4 seed, and would rest starters regardless. As I've said, I don't think it was incompetence or maliciousness, just an unfortunate circumstance that probably reduced the Steelers' and Raiders' already slim chances of making the playoffs.

fair enough.

I would argue that teams should be playing well enough that their fate does not rest with a bad call, a bad bounce or (in this case) bad scheduling.

I still think the odds of a good game would have been better if this had occurred, but I'm not king of the world so I guess I"m forced to go with the flow.

either way, its all said and done.  nothing we can do about it now.

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On 12/29/2019 at 3:10 PM, riversco said:

If you chosen profession is being an analyst, you probably have an incredibly deep passion for analyzing things.  That's a good thing because it helps your career.  Spending your free time analyzing sports isn't a waste of time in this regard - it actually keeps your skills sharp and sometimes the things you learn analyzing sports can be applied to your analyst career. 

I don't disagree. In fact, after never previously caring about fantasy (or football at all), my nine-year-old has suddenly expressed an interest in the past couple weeks, so I set up a playoff DFS tournament on NFL.com for him and some friends. It's been interesting watching his brain process the various strategies and permutations of who to start, basic game theory, etc. Not to mention that it was playing fantasy baseball as a teenager back in the pre-Internet days that forced me to learn Microsoft Excel.

All that said, I suspect that the vast majority of fantasy players are not doing it primarily to make themselves better at their jobs. I also suspect that, if their bosses asked them why they were spending work time posting on FFToday, saying, "I'm just sharpening my brain!" wouldn't fly as an excuse.

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Nfl needs to start being more sensitive to the feelings of those teams that where involved, and starting next season so no feelings get hurt, stop keeping score, then we can have no winners nor losers. 

Now teams like the Steelers and Raiders won’t feel like they aren’t important, oh my soul.  

Update let’s toss in the Bills also, poor guys. 

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The Bills were kinda of affected too, as Houston had a chance to rest some players a week when otherwise they wouldn't have.

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