Fear the Turtle

Bills 20 Steelers 17 Yes. St. Louis beats NYJ.

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Hmm, I don't know about that. If the Pats beat the Jets, which we need them to do, then they clinch the 2 seed I believe.

You're stupid. We'll have plenty of chances to show off our manhood IF we make the playoffs. Let's get there first, jackass.

I'd rather save our manhood for the postseason. Something tells me if we make it there we'll face plenty of teams at full strength trying real hard to beat us.

Pittsburgh now goes into this week's game against Baltimore knowing they can clinch home field with a win. The players will clearly be up for the game with the knowledge that a win lets them clinch and rest aches and pains in week 17. The Pats, meanwhile, are now in danger of losing their first-round bye. They are still in the driver's seat, but you can bet Belichick will have them ready against the Jets this week. I realize that teams in the NFL play hard every week, but little differences in intensity can make a huge difference. To me, this Pats loss ensures that we will get Pittsburgh and New England's best games this week. And assuming Pitt does clinch vs Baltimore, we become the week 17 beneficiaries of their desire to rest up in week 17.

Exactly.

Exactly. It's just fun to be in the hunt this late in the season. It feels like so long ago that we've had a late-season surge like this.

No, the Ravens can win one of the last three. They just can't win 2.

I think the Bills are very much alive, not on the outer fringes of playoff contention, assuming we win out. We got what we needed to get today. We got a Bills win and a Jets loss, which is all we could reasonably expect. Let's keep in mind that we do not need any major upsets to occur in order to make the playoffs. If most of the games simply fall the way the oddsmakers say they should, we are close to where we need to be. Take a look. The Bills need to win out. They will likely be slight favorites vs. Cincy and heavy favorites vs. the 49ers. Pitt will be a slight favorite coming to Buffalo. Then we need 3 of the following 4 things to happen (bold indicates the team is likely to be an underdog in that game, italics indicates an even game): Jax lose 1 out of 3 ( @Green Bay, Houston, @Oakland) Bal lose 2 out of 3 ( @Indy, @Pitt, Miami) Denver lose 2 out of 3 ( @Kansas City, @Tenn, Indy) Jets lose 2 out of 3 ( Seattle, New England, @St. Louis) Obviously the games won't go exactly according to the Vegas lines, but I think you see my point. We are not counting on major underdogs knocking off elite teams. If the Bills win out, I think we have at least a 50-50 shot. I also think the odds are very good that we will be very much alive going into the final week of the season, which will make that Pitt game a whole lot of fun.

Great, thanks for the info.

so just the one team then?

I started crunching the numbers for the Bills playoff hopes the rest of the season, and suddenly my head started to hurt. So then I took a peak at the NFL standings for the last umpteen years, and realized that it is difficult, nay, nearly impossible, to find a 10-6 team in either conference who failed to make the playoffs. If memory serves, it has indeed happened, and perhaps my number-crunching headache prevented me from seeing it, but I ask someone to show me the team(s) that have failed to make it with a 10-6 record. http://ww2.nfl.com/history/standings/1993.html Yes, I'm aware the AFC is disproportionately better than the NFC this year. And yes, I understand that this year may in fact be an aberration with perhaps an 8-8 team squeaking in over in the NFC, and a 10-6 team missing it in the AFC. Still, part of me wonders if things will equal out somewhat the rest of the way, at least enough so that this year's playoff participants don't buck the trend of recent history. If that's the case, and our Bills can somehow pull out the next four games, then we could indeed see them in the postseason.

I seem to remember being able to listen on a canadian affiliate, but i cant remember. Anyone have any insight?