2021 NFC Week 14 Kayfabe and Political Rankings

Did the AFC last night.

Start with the Politicals:

1) Tampa Bay

2) Dallas

3) I guess Green Bay????

Not really much to talk about, as I think the NFL marketing machine for Brady vs. Belichick and the "Who Made Hulkamania?" Super Bowl LVI (and I don't give a damn if Vince sues -- if this consummates, that's what I'm calling it!) took another notch into overdrive, then Brady gets serious Refball to get the win in the overtime game on Sunday...

Kayfabe:

Another fun mess of tiebreakers...

East:  Dallas (9-4), three and the season's first HTH over the Football Team and the Eagles.  Dallas cannot clinch the division Week 15, because Washington and Philadelphia play.  A win, however, places the magic number over the winner of the WFT/PHI game at 1.

North:  Green Bay (10-3), four over the Vikings.  Green Bay wins the division Week 15 with no worse than a tie with Baltimore OR the Vikings no better than a tie with the Bears.

South:  Tampa Bay (10-3), four and the season sweep over the Falcons, four over the Saints.  A tie, at minimum, with the Saints on Sunday Night Week 15 wins the NFC South.

West:  Arizona (10-3) and a season split and a one-game lead over the Rams.

And now the fun:

Green Bay, Tampa Bay, Arizona for the 1-3:  The Bays do not play this season, Arizona does not play Tampa Bay.

So Conference Records:  GB 8-2, ARI and TB 6-3.  GB is the #1.

So we go through that tiebreaker with TB and ARI, now to common games, minimum of four:

Rams (ARI 1-1, TB 0-1), Bears (both won)...  Not sufficient.

So break out the Strength of Victory:  TB:  .492  ARI  .446  Tampa is the 2, Arizona now the 3.

1. GB (10-3, wins conference record tiebreak over TB and ARI)
2. TB (10-3, loses conference record tiebreak to GB, wins Strength of Victory over ARI)
3. ARI (10-3, loses conference record tiebreak to GB and Strength of Victory to TB)
4. DAL (9-4)
5. LAR (9-4)
6. SF (7-6)
7. ......

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

6-7...  FIVE TEAMS, THREE DIVISIONS, ONE SPOT.

Washington, Philadelphia, Minnesota, New Orleans and Atlanta

So two divisionals to break, Minnesota advances to the final three-way for one spot.

Washington and Philly:  As noted above, they play next week.  They play again in three weeks.

Divisional record:  WFT 1-1, PHI 0-2

Washington advances to the final tiebreaker.

New Orleans and Atlanta:  Atlanta won the first meeting.

Atlanta advances to the final tiebreaker.

Washington, Minnesota, and Atlanta for the #7:  Washington and the Vikings don't play.  Neither does Atlanta.

Conference record:  WFT 5-3, MIN 4-4, ATL 3-6.

The Washington Football Team gets the #7.

7)  WFT (6-7) (wins divisional record tiebreaker over Philly to get to final tiebreaker, wins conference record tiebreaker over MIN and ATL to get the playoff spot)

8) MIN (6-7) (loses conference record tiebreaker to WFT to fall to a tiebreak for #8 with ATL and PHI.  Eliminates ATL on the basis of conference record.  Wins common-games tiebreaker with PHI for the spot.)

9) PHI (6-7)  (loses divisional record tiebreaker to WFT to fall to tiebreak for #8, as above.  Loses common-games tiebreaker with MIN to fall to tiebreaker with ATL for #9.  Defeated ATL.)

10)  ATL (6-7)  (loses all other tiebreakers as above, but beat New Orleans in their first meeting to eliminate them from the tiebreaker scenarios)

11)  NO (6-7)  (loses all relevant tiebreakers to all the other NFC 6-7s)

12) CAR (5-8)  (wins conference record tiebreaker 3-6 vs. 2-6 with SEA)

13) SEA (5-8)  (loses conference record tiebreaker to CAR)

So that's only three NFC teams outside of 1 game out of the playoffs with 4 to play -- and two of them are two out at 4-9 (NYG and CHI)

Only eliminated Detroit is outside that window.

NFC DUD OF THE WEEK:  I guess DETROIT on that basis and the 38-10 loss to Denver...