James Leroy Wilson's one-man magazine.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

The Seventh Game

I don't know if history's on my side here, but it seems to me that the 7th game may be the most important one for a struggling NFL team.

As I write, Pittsbugh, Houston, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, and San Francisco are all at 2-4. I'm guessing that at least one of them will make the play-offs if they win this week. They'll be at 3-4 and need to win just one more game to get to .500 and start the play-off hunt by week 8. A 2-5 team, however, has to win three games in a row just to get to .500 by week ten - a tall order since they were capable of winning only two games thus far. Only Pittburgh has the capability of doing that, and even then it's highly doubtful. Assuming that 10-6 will probably get one in the play-offs whereas 9-7 probably will not, the more games you lose now, the less room for error later on.

3-4 means you've been struggling; 2-5 means you've dug a deep hole for youself and you're probably not a very good team.

1 comment:

  1. Those kind of teams that make the playoffs are fun to watch, because despite their not-so-good record, they're hot and can do some real damage. The Raiders are now 2-5, but don't expect a miracle there. It would make for a good story, once being 0-5.

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