As things stand right now, Atlanta and New Orleans "lead" the pathetic NFC South with four wins and seven losses. (All four of the Falcons' victories are against other teams from within the division. The division leaders are 0-7 against the other seven divisions.) Carolina sits one half game back of the lead, despite being on a five game losing streak. Tampa Bay, arguably the worst team in the league, is still just two games out at (gulp) 2-9.
How bad might it get? Let's consider...
Assume they each lose all ten of their remaining non-division games. (Not unreasonable: the only game we see as contradictory might be the Saints @ Chicago.) Then if Tampa wins its two division games, Carolina wins two of its three, and the Saints and Falcons thus lose at least those two each, the Carolina Panthers would win the NFC South with a record of 5-10-1. (Either Atlanta or NO would be 5-11, the other 4-10, and Tampa would be 4-10.) Travesty. Give the spot to an AFC North team, who all ALREADY have seven wins to their names.
Another thought: What if it's the Saints that win the division - say, at 7-9 - and they host the wild card team with the best record, which could very likely be Seattle... How ironic would it be if the tables turned and it was sub-.500 division winner New Orleans who upset heavily favored Seattle this time, instead of the other way 'round?!?
Our actual predictions, looking through the remaining five weeks of the season: New Orleans should reach seven, maybe eight wins; Carolina and Atlanta, probably five, and Tampa may or may not win again. Meanwhile, there are already two NFC teams with eight wins and who trail in their division, and there'll be a third in a few hours when either Seattle or San Francisco wins the Thanksgiving night game tonight. So five weeks in advance, we've already guaranteed ourselves an NFC team who's gonna be ticked watching the 7-9-ish Saints hosting a playoff game while they watch from home...
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