SOS

Is it just me or does Seattle have top #5 schedule every 5 years. That couple w/the longest traveling distance seems unfair
Thoughts? http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2016/1/5 ... l-32-teams

Welcome to life outside of the AFCE, NFCS, and lately, the NFCE.

The first two are historically bad, with half their teams usually not even sniffing 7-9. Couple this with winning our division so much, and making the SB twice recently, and yes, you're going to have a tough schedule.

The other thing that sucks is that our division always has perennial powerhouses. The rams are never awful and never good, but the second the niners go from near dynasty to complete failure on life support, the cards suddenly come in as regular season killers.

Meanwhile Carolina is fully benefiting from the weakest turds in the league and getting to play them twice a year each.

Same as the East. Nfc. We could be reigning division champs for the next five years over there.

We gotta take the division back next year hell or high water.

I dont know..on the whole I think our schedule is finally pretty easy next year. No walk over, but I will take it.

Ridiculous.

On paper we have a tough schedule but the Seahawks faced a pretty easy road filled with broken/injured QBs for a stretch too.

And for the love of all that is holy, the Rams suck. Just because we lost to them does not make them good. It just means we lost repeatedly to a bad team that continually has our number. They beat us and the Cards, but they also lost to the Bears & Ravens. They were not a good team.

If everyone we faced had been healthy? Sure. But we got to play the Browns and a Cowboys team missing its first 2 QBs. The 49ers team we played was a shell of itself too. To imply that our opportunities were limited by the schedule is laughable.

Optimus25":n25ubr3f said:

Meanwhile Carolina is fully benefiting from the weakest turds in the league and getting to play them twice a year each..

Click to expand...

I'd agree with you if you were talking about the AFC East or AFC South.

But the weak sauce of the NFC South is a new thing, The Falcons were in the NFC Championship three years ago, and the Saints prior to that were one of the best teams in the NFC for a long time.

There are a LOT of strong NFC teams, so us having a difficult schedule each year isn't surprising.

Your observation is true, and it's a consequence of 1) playing in a strong division, and 2) finishing #1 or #2 in the division, and consequently playing the #1 or #2 teams from the corresponding conferences the next year.

Example. . . last year the Seahawks finished #1 in the NFC West. The scheduling for this year for the NFC West was 1) each team played the other NFC West teams twice, 2) each team in the NFC West would play every team from the NFC North Division (Green Bay, Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota), and 3) each team in the NFC West would play every team from the AFC North (Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, & Cincinnati). That gives a total of 14 games.

The final two games would be played by NFC West Teams against teams from the NFC East Division and NFC South Division who finished at the same position in their respective conferences. Therefore, Seattle -- who finished #1 the previous year, played Carolina, who finished #1 in the NFC South, and Dallas, who finished #1 in the NFC East.

Arizona, who finished #2 in the division in 2014, had the same schedule as Seattle, except they played the number 2 team in the NFC South -- New Orleans, and the #2 team in the NFC East -- Philadelphia.

The same was true for the 49ers -- same schedule, except they played the number 3 team in the NFC South -- Atlanta, and the #3 team in the NFC East -- the Giants.

So -- success on the field translates into a harder schedule the next year.

Sgt. Largent":3thb6m8w said:

Optimus25":3thb6m8w said:

Meanwhile Carolina is fully benefiting from the weakest turds in the league and getting to play them twice a year each..

Click to expand...

I'd agree with you if you were talking about the AFC East or AFC South.

But the weak sauce of the NFC South is a new thing, The Falcons were in the NFC Championship three years ago, and the Saints prior to that were one of the best teams in the NFC for a long time.

There are a LOT of strong NFC teams, so us having a difficult schedule each year isn't surprising.

Click to expand...

You'll have to excuse Optimus.

The NFC South has been poor ever since he's been watching the NFL.

Optimus25":2r2j6gp2 said:

The other thing that sucks is that our division always has perennial powerhouses. The rams are never awful and never good, but the second the niners go from near dynasty to complete failure on life support, the cards suddenly come in as regular season killers.

Meanwhile Carolina is fully benefiting from the weakest turds in the league and getting to play them twice a year each.

Same as the East. Nfc. We could be reigning division champs for the next five years over there.

We gotta take the division back next year hell or high water.

Click to expand...

What PowerHouses, only the Rams have won a SB in your division in the last 20 years besides yourself. The Saints, Bucs and Panthers (this year) will all have won it in that same period and the Falcons have played in 1 as well....

francois.nc":2c2ojmdf said:

Optimus25":2c2ojmdf said:

The other thing that sucks is that our division always has perennial powerhouses. The rams are never awful and never good, but the second the niners go from near dynasty to complete failure on life support, the cards suddenly come in as regular season killers.

Meanwhile Carolina is fully benefiting from the weakest turds in the league and getting to play them twice a year each.

Same as the East. Nfc. We could be reigning division champs for the next five years over there.

We gotta take the division back next year hell or high water.

Click to expand...

What PowerHouses, only the Rams have won a SB in your division in the last 20 years besides yourself. The Saints, Bucs and Panthers (this year) will all have won it in that same period and the Falcons have played in 1 as well....

Click to expand...

The last 20 years? How is that relevant to current scheduling? Are you saying that your division was as strong as the last 3-4 years in the NFC West? (three teams that went to the SB and one that went 13-3 to the NFC Championship.) Don't play that game where you will extrapolate a statistic to make your point, it just weakens you credibility.

dogorama":1sk2k8y8 said:

francois.nc":1sk2k8y8 said:

Optimus25":1sk2k8y8 said:

The other thing that sucks is that our division always has perennial powerhouses. The rams are never awful and never good, but the second the niners go from near dynasty to complete failure on life support, the cards suddenly come in as regular season killers.

Meanwhile Carolina is fully benefiting from the weakest turds in the league and getting to play them twice a year each.

Same as the East. Nfc. We could be reigning division champs for the next five years over there.

We gotta take the division back next year hell or high water.

Click to expand...

What PowerHouses, only the Rams have won a SB in your division in the last 20 years besides yourself. The Saints, Bucs and Panthers (this year) will all have won it in that same period and the Falcons have played in 1 as well....

Click to expand...

The last 20 years? How is that relevant to current scheduling? Are you saying that your division was as strong as the last 3-4 years in the NFC West? (three teams that went to the SB and one that went 13-3 to the NFC Championship.) Don't play that game where you will extrapolate a statistic to make your point, it just weakens you credibility.

Click to expand...

Excellent point.

However, let's play along, just for fun.

Super Bowl appearances, by Division:

NFC West
Atlanta Falcons* 1
St Louis Rams 2
Seattle Seahawks 3
Arizona Cardinals 1
San Francisco 49ers 1

NFC South
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1
Carolina Panthers 2
New Orleans Saints 1

*Falcons were in the West prior to 2002

So by my count, the NFC West has 8 Super Bowl appearances, compared to 4 from the NFC South.

To further stretch the credibility of using the last 20 years, the NFC South didn't even exist 20 years ago.

Strength of schedule for next year is completely meaningless. Teams will not have the same records as this year.

francois.nc":1wgim305 said:

Optimus25":1wgim305 said:

The other thing that sucks is that our division always has perennial powerhouses. The rams are never awful and never good, but the second the niners go from near dynasty to complete failure on life support, the cards suddenly come in as regular season killers.

Meanwhile Carolina is fully benefiting from the weakest turds in the league and getting to play them twice a year each.

Same as the East. Nfc. We could be reigning division champs for the next five years over there.

We gotta take the division back next year hell or high water.

Click to expand...

What PowerHouses, only the Rams have won a SB in your division in the last 20 years besides yourself. The Saints, Bucs and Panthers (this year) will all have won it in that same period and the Falcons have played in 1 as well....

Click to expand...

So, either you win a SuperBowl, or you suck ? Sure, let's go ahead and just disregard the 13-15 wins it actually took to get there.

Do you watch football at all, or just SuperBowls ? Because if you're a Panthers fan, and only watch SuperBowls, well...you see where I'm going.

Look at one of the previous posts and see how many SuperBowl appearances our division has. It's the most in the NFC during your current time frame.

TwistedHusky":12jx9ef2 said:

Ridiculous.

On paper we have a tough schedule but the Seahawks faced a pretty easy road filled with broken/injured QBs for a stretch too.

And for the love of all that is holy, the Rams suck. Just because we lost to them does not make them good. It just means we lost repeatedly to a bad team that continually has our number. They beat us and the Cards, but they also lost to the Bears & Ravens. They were not a good team.

If everyone we faced had been healthy? Sure. But we got to play the Browns and a Cowboys team missing its first 2 QBs. The 49ers team we played was a shell of itself too. To imply that our opportunities were limited by the schedule is laughable.

Click to expand...

You can't schedule injuries. On paper, we typically have one of the toughest schedules in the league on an annual basis.

I'm not complaining. Someone posted in another thread about how having a harder schedule typically means it's more likely you're going to a SuperBowl, among playoff teams.