Saints4Life

Saints need help to get playoff berth
Seattle, St. Louis, Minnesota all have an impact on N.O.
Sunday, December 26, 2004
By Jeff Duncan
Staff writer
Upon further review. . . .

The Saints' chances of making the playoffs are more complex than just winning their final two games and hoping for Seattle to win the NFC West. Even then, there's a scenario -- albeit an unlikely one -- that could keep the Saints out. If Seattle, St. Louis and the Saints win their remaining games and the Vikings lose next week at Washington, the Saints would be eliminated because of tiebreaker disadvantages.

In that scenario, the Rams, Vikings and Saints would tie at 8-8. The first wild-card spot, according to NFL tiebreaker procedures, would go to St. Louis because of its superior 7-5 conference record. The second wild-card berth would go to Minnesota because of its 38-31 win against the Saints in Week 6.

Basically, Saints fans need to root for the Vikings and Seahawks to win and the Rams to lose.

The Saints lose head-to-head tiebreakers against the Vikings and Seahawks and win against the Rams.

If St. Louis loses either of its remaining games, against Philadelphia or the New York Jets, and Seattle wins one of its final two games, the Seahawks will win the NFC West and the Saints' chances improve dramatically.

If the Saints, Seahawks and Panthers win today and the Rams lose to Philadelphia on Monday night, the winner of the Saints-Panthers game would be guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.

There's a remote possibility the Saints could get in the playoffs even if they lose to Atlanta. Such a scenario, however, would require a number of teams to lose their remaining games, an unlikely scenario even in the mediocre NFC race.

. . . . . . .


Jeff Duncan can be reached at jduncan@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3405.