The game was close between New Orleans and Atlanta but in the end the game went the way of the Falcons, barely, and with that win and the very long list of rules that dictate who moves forward means that the Carolina Panthers are through to the playoffs even though in the grand scheme of things, if we were putting the truly best teams in there, they do not belong there.
I looked it up to see who the worst teams were to ever make the playoffs and it hasn't happened very many times that a team with a sub .500 win/loss record has made it through to the playoffs. Funnily enough, of the 7 times this has happened since the current playoff rules were established, one of the other times this happened was also the Carolina Panthers.
It is also kind of reassuring to any delusional fans out there that the last time the Carolina Panthers eeked into the playoffs they miraculously won the game in the first round vs the Arizona Cardinals, who at that time were ranked MUCH higher than the Panthers were.
Unfortunately for Carolina, they are going up against the LA Rams in the first round and I think the best result that Carolina can hope for is to simply not get completely embarrassed in this matchup. I'm not hopeful that this will end up being the case because The Rams have had a very good season and have only lost to mostly stellar teams such as Philly, San Fran, and Seattle. Oddly, another one of their losses was to Carolina in a shock upset. Could this be repeated?
One important thing of note about the game with Atlanta and New Orleans that is definitely worth talking about is how it very nearly went the other way. New Orleans was playing relatively well considering they were using a secondary QB and were holding their own on both offense and defense. In a final drive that could have resulted in them taking the lead by 1 point they threw a rather rushed short pass due to a blitz and a kind of sloppy pass resulted in an interception.
This is a horrible screengrab but you can see that there are 3 potential Atlanta defenders that could have gotten hands on this pass and this was a very poor decision to throw that one. I think it would have been a better idea to just take a few yards on on the part of the QB, even if for a loss, and then work on 4th down and hope for a better situation. Throwing into triple coverage is never a good idea, and this INT sealed the fate of Atlanta winning the game.
A slightly less crap screencap of the same play. Great defending on the part of the Falcons secondary
Had they gotten that TD, Tampa Bay would have been advancing to the playoffs and a lot of people, including me, believe that would have been the better outcome for the NFC South because with Carolina advancing, it kind of feels like we are putting forth the 2nd worst team in the division to represent us.
This could just be my pessimism talking though.
New Orleans did manage to get a TD a bit later to put the game at 16-19 and at that point going for a 2-point conversion would be a waste of time because 18-19 is the same thing as 17-416 so they had no choice but to go for an onside kick. The conversion rate on an onside kick is extremely low. I looked it up and the success rate is 4.7% so yeah, it was no surprise that this failed and then Atlanta just ran the clock out with short runs that had no intent on really moving anything other than the clock.
Just for those that didn't know, the onside kick rule change dictates that the team must declare that they are attempting one and you can only do them in the 4th quarter when the team kicking is down on points. This is a strange rule change in my mind. It is rumored that the NFL is currently mulling over changing this rule to make games more exciting.
Well good job Carolina, I guess. See you on the 10th!