The NFL regular season ended last weekend with 11 teams finishing with at least 11 wins, the most in a single year since the league adopted a 16-game schedule in 1978. The KC Chiefs 10-6 they became the fourth 10-win team not to make the playoffs since 1990, the year the NFL expanded to its current 12-team postseason format.
The Philadelphia Eagles became the fifth consecutive Super Bowl loser to finish the following season with a losing record (6-10) and the team’s failure to make the postseason in 2005 ended the longest current playoff streak in history. the NFL (five) from any franchise. Green Bay finished just 4-12, ending the second-longest streak in the league (four). That leaves the Colts, who finished with a league-best 14-2 record, with the longest current postseason in the league, four straight years.
The Cincinnati Bengals won the AFC North with a record of 11-5, ending the league’s longest current playoff drought at 14 consecutive playoffless seasons. The new ‘leader’ in that department is the Arizona Cardinals, who have failed to make the playoffs for seven straight years.
My bye game for Friday is the Tor Raptors over the Hou Rockets at 7:05 ET. It’s a great 13-game NBA card tonight, but I only see one HIGHLIGHT. It’s tonight’s ESPN Miami/Phoenix matchup. Get it now with my full review. Check back for my NFL wild card round picks around 6:00 ET.
The Bengals were the only new division winners in the AFC this year. Denver (West), Indianapolis (South) and New England (East) also won their respective divisions last year. Pittsburgh (won the North in 2004) returns as a wild-card team in 2005, leaving a 12-4 Jacksonville (first playoff appearance since 1999) as the only playoff newcomer from last year’s group.
In the NFC it’s a very different picture. Seattle (West) is the only repeat division winner, as Chicago (North), New York (East) and Tampa Bay (South) all failed to make the postseason last year. Both of this year’s NFC wild-card teams (Carolina and Washington) missed the playoffs last season, meaning that FIVE of the six NFC playoff teams in 2005 missed last year’s postseason.
Overall, SEVEN of the 12 participants in this year’s playoffs did NOT participate in last year’s postseason!
Looking ahead, it’s important to note that NONE of the last 30 Super Bowl berths (since the playoffs expanded to a 12-team playoff introduced in 1990) have gone to fifth- or sixth-seeded teams. In fact, only two No. 5 seeds (Indy in ’95 and Jax in ’96) have made it to the conference championship game.
Of the 30 Super Bowl entrants, 25 spots have been filled by a No. 1 or No. 2 seed but, interestingly, the Super Bowl hasn’t featured a matchup of the No. 1 seeds from both conferences in 12 years (Dallas/ Buffalo in SB XXVIII)!
As of Friday morning, here are the playoff lines and totals. In Saturday’s games, Tampa Bay is a 2 1/2 point favorite over Washington at home with a total of 37 and New England is a 7 1/2 point favorite over Jacksonville with a total of 37. The New York Giants are 2 1/2-point favorites at the Meadowlands against Carolina on Sunday (total is 43 1/2), while Pittsburgh is a three-point favorite on the road at Cincinnati (total is 46 1/2). An interesting point note this weekend is that since 1978, the home ‘dogs’ are 8-1 ATS in the wild card round, but as we all know, the home dogs were a lousy 29-48-4 in 2005!
Final NFL Ratings
Interestingly, the 9-7 Miami Dolphins (a non-playoff team) finished the regular season with the longest winning streak in the league (six games). The Washington Redskins’ five-game winning streak is the best among playoff entrants. Minnesota’s 34-10 Week 17 win over Chicago gave them a 9-7 record. The Vikings finished the year as the only winning team in the NFL to allow more points (344) than they scored (306). In contrast, no losing team was able to score more points than allowed.
Indy finished with the best record in the league (14-2) and Houston finished with the worst (2-14). Seattle was the highest scoring team in the league (28.3 PPG) and KC its best offensive team, averaging 387.0 YPG. Cleveland was the lowest scoring team in the league (14.5 PPG) and San Francisco the least productive based on yards gained (224.2 YPG). Chicago was the stingiest team in the league allowing 12.6 PPG and Tampa Bay allowed the fewest yards (277.8 YPG). Houston allowed the most points (26.9 PPG) and San Francisco the most yards (391.2 YPG).
Seattle and Denver were the only teams to go undefeated at home, with Seattle going 6-2 ATS and Denver going 5-2-1. The worst home record belonged to Houston at 2-6 SU and ATS. Indy was the best road team in the league going 7-1, going 6-1-1 or 6-2 ATS (depending on how you rate the team’s 26-18 win over Jax in Week 14). The Jets (1-7 ATS), Ravens (2-6 ATS) and Texans (5-3 ATS) finished 0-8 SU on the road.
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