Potentially…A Realllly Interesting Week 17

Posted on | December 23, 2009 | No Comments | by Jon

Not to look past the less-than-scintillating slate of NFC games upcoming in Week 16, Week 17 could potentially be very, very interesting and impact the playoff structure dramatically. Let’s assume the following in Week 16:

Green Bay beats Seattle
New Orleans beats Tampa Bay
Minnesota beats Da Bears
Dallas beats Washington
Philadelphia beats Denver
The NY Giants beat Carolina
Arizona beats St. Louis

New Orleans will have then clinched home field advantage throughout…Minnesota , Philly, and Arizona are in the playoffs. Nothing else has been determined…leading up to the following games:

Philadelphia at Dallas: Dallas may need to win to get in the playoffs. Philadelphia will either earn a first round bye with a win and Minny loss or will host a first round playoff game against an undetermined opponent. Philly destroyed Dallas last year in the season finale…look for plenty of Jerry Jones luxury box reaction shots in this one.

NY Giants at Minnesota: Minnesota earns a first round bye with a win or potentially hosts a first round game against an undetermined opponent with a loss. The Giants must win to have any shot at a playoff berth. The Vikings would love to rest some starters but will not be able to, and the Giants all of a sudden look like potential world champs again.

Green Bay at Arizona: Arizona will host a first round game regardless against an undetermined opponent and their head coach has stated that he will not be resting starters…let’s see about that come game time. Green Bay may well need to win to get into the playoffs based upon what happens earlier in the day…in an odd twist Packer fans may need to root for the “Old Gunslinger” to win versus the Giants.

There is a very real chance that the Philadelphia-Dallas and Green Bay-Arizona games may be replayed the following week in the first round of the playoffs. The real winner in this scenario…Fox Sports, which will get meaningful Week 17 games in a number of major markets.

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