Am I missing something on this tiebreaker?
 

Found a site talking about NFC playoff scenarios:

http://simononsports.blogspot.com/20...breakdown.html

Most of it made sense. However I was a bit confused about the Eagles winning a bye.

of course the first part makes sense. However the three way tie (Saints, Eagles, Seahawks all 10-6) did not. I've been working from the tiebreaker rules on NFL.com:

http://www.nfl.com/standings/tiebreakers

Byes are determined using the wildcard rules on division champions. The first meaningful tiebreaker is common head-to-head, which none of the three teams had. Next is conference. Now this has some legs. The Eagles are currently 7-3, the Saints 8-2. 10 wins for the Saints would mean equal 9-3 conference records (as the Eagles have to win out to win the division and to get to 9-3 in conference). Seattle is out of the mix with 5 conference losses.

Now from what I understand, if a team drops off the pace, they are out of the running and the others start over from the top. So you have Saints and Eagles, go to the two way tiebreak, which of course head to head is the first tiebreaker.

This site indicates that the Eagles would get the #2 seed, but I don't see it.

Am I missing something?

Of course the easiest way for the Saints to make it moot is to win out. That's definitely the best way.

SFIAH

RE: Am I missing something on this tiebreaker?
 

Being that we beat the Eagles, that would put us ahead of them automatically right?

The only thing I can figure is that if the Saints went 10-6, then that means they'd have to lose one of their remaining 2 NFC games...which would give them a 3rd conference loss (just as many as the Eagles).

What is the next tiebreaker after conference record? Maybe the Saints would lose that one or something?

Either way, i had enough of that 3-way tie bull--- in 2004, and I really am in no mood to see it again. They just need to win their last 2 games and be done with it.

Your logic makes sense. And I remember the year we lost the tiebreaker to Minnesota and the Rams. We had beaten the Rams, but we got knocked out because of the three way tie. (We had the worst conference record of the 3.)

So....Seatlle should be the odd man out of the three assuming we all ended at10-6.They have 5 conference losses.

Then, you go back to the 2 way tie with Philly where we hold the head to head.

I have mostly been rooting for philly since their record was not a threaat and we beat them head to head.

We really just need to go 2-0 and get back on a roll. The 2 seed is ours to lose and yesterday was the first step in doing just that. Huge letdown yesterday. Huge.

Are we talking about getting the bye, or getting the wildcard? I'm confused.

The bye. (The 2 seed.)

Fortunately, we don't have to worry about the wildcard.

One other reason the 2 seed is so big this year.....

The bears can be had. Someone beats them in that second round, we win our game, and we host the NFC championship. THAT would kick major a$$.

I thought about that the other day. After I watched Tampa Bay put up 35 against that Defense yesterday, I saw MAJOR weaknesses in their secondary. If the Bears lose their first play off game, then whoever is in that second seed would be in the driver's seat.

Although, I would also like to point out that the Steelers were a wildcard team last year, and they won it all. So don't count any of the WC's out.

My only explanation would be that the first tiebreaker used in determining first round byes is not head to head?

Other than that I would chalk it up as a mistake on that particular site. Most sites I've visited say that the Saints will lock up the 1st round bye with a win and Dal loss or if we win out. I don't see any instance in which Philly ends up with the first round bye.

ok ok ok....ill take the time and break all this down.

1. We win out, means we clinch the 1st round bye, thats the easy way, i say we just do that so i dont have to give myself a headache, anyway.....

2. Cowboys are our biggest threat right now, not Phili. We have the same record as them, but we have the head to head tiebreaker. But if they win both games, we go 1-1 then they get the #2 seed.

3. Phili is 8-6, one game behind our 9-5. the thing that helps us all is phili and dallas play next sunday, so immediatley we can rest easy about a lil jump we have on them with one game to go. Phili's conference record is 7-3, also one game behind our 8-2.

4. Seattle- Kinda scary at the 8-6 mark. San Fran helped us big time with the upset. But Seattle's conf record is crap at 6-5, so now way they can have a better conference record than us, so if it comes down to a tie breaker, we got it.

SO, for us to clinch bye and homefield this weekend, the following needs to happen....

Saints win against NY Giants, Phili beats Dallas. And Seattle can do whatever they want. Thats it.
It leaves us 10-5, Dallas 9-6, Phili 9-6. We will have a conf record of 9-2 against the Dallas conf record of 6-5 and Phili conf record of 8-3 with one game to play. We also have the head to head tiebreakers against both teams.........

Please tell me I'm right, cuz my head hurts......

Not as far as I can tell. The nfl.com tiebreaker site specifically states that the wildcard rules are used for the bye tiebreaker with the only exception that only division winners can participate in the bye selection.

When two teams are in the running the first tiebreaker is head to head.
There's one but it's ugly and unthinkable. Philly wins out and the Saints lose out.

Don't even THINK IT!!

SFIAH

This is the way I see it and hope it happens this way.

We beat the Giants and the Eagles beat the Cowboys.
The Saints would be 10-5 after beating the Giants.
The Cowboys and the Eagles would have 9 wins each after their game, if we were to lose to the Panthers and both the Cowboys and Eagles win in week 16 all 3 of us would have 10 wins but we have the tie breaker on both of them being we beat both clubs.
With that said I want the Saints to win the next two in order to make a statement going into the playoffs.

I'll check your math.

Very much agreed. It's the simplest and best scenario for the Saints.

That is also true. So both games for the Saints are critical.

No problems there. Either Philly or Dallas would have to finish a game ahead of the Saints in order to best them for the #2 seed as the Saints holds the head to head over each of them.

Right. The site points out a 3 way tie as something magical. But I still don't see it.

If we finished tied with Dallas: Head to Head.
If we finished tied with Philly: Head to Head.
If we finished tied with Seattle: Conference Record.

The Saints holds all the tiebreakers against all the contenders. Also Dallas and Philly are playing off for the NFC East next week. So we don't have to worry about both teams, just one or the other.

So I can't see how the Saints lose out in a tie situation.

I think that's right. That's why I'm questioning the original site that says that somehow a 10-6 3 way tie bumps the Saints for the #2 seed.

I know who to root for next week.

Head to head is first, then conference record.

The math checks out for me.

I prefer 11-5 and no doubts, don't you?

SFIAH