Ridiculous
Take a look at this. With some AFC teams facing the (outside) possibility of going 11-5 and missing the playoffs (and a number of them looking at the possibility of sitting out the postseason after a 10-6 finish), here’s the situation in the miserable NFC West: It appears very likely that a 7-9 team will win the division — that’s win the division with a losing record — and possible that the Arizona Cardinals, now 4-8, could be that team. Let’s look at the records and upcoming of the “best” teams in the division (actually, all the teams except San Francisco, which at 1-11 is too horrible to contend even in the NFC).
St. Louis, 6-6: at Carolina, at Arizona, Philadelphia, NY Jets
Seattle, 6-6: at Minnesota, at NY Jets, Arizona, Atlanta
Arizona, 4-8: San Francisco, St. Louis, at Seattle, Tampa Bay
Now, while it’s hard to predict what might happen in week 17 (will Atlanta be in a position to rest its starters and take a loss at Seattle?) it’s entirely possible that both St. Louis and Seattle will lose to three of their upcoming opponents. If they both do that, but each team beats Arizona, the team that wins the tie-breaker (St. Louis) will be the division champ. If, on the other hand, Arizona can find a way to beat both teams (the Cards have already beaten the Seahawks once this season, and while they lost to the Rams, that was back in week one, and it wasn’t exactly a blowout), and both St. Louis and Seattle lose the rest of their games (which, again, is a distinct possibility), then all Arizona would need to do would be to win one of its other two matchups (like the one this weekend with San Francisco) and it would finish 7-9, winning the division over 6-10 Seattle and St. Louis.
I recognize this is all completely speculative and fairly unlikely. But the mere fact that it’s a possibility is astounding. And absurd.
