2008 NFL Schedule Simulation (Part 5)

Okay, so with so many playoff spots still in question after week 16, it makes this post that much more intriguing. Again, if you want to see how things have progressed through this simulated season, you can check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Also, if you would like to know the results from any specific games, have any other questions or comments, you can feel free to leave a comment or contact us.

I’ll start off this post discussing the standings after week 17 (the final game of the season) when the Steelers secured themselves as the winners of the AFC North and the surprising Ravens from the same division captured the second AFC Wild Card spot. Now in the NFC things were quite a bit more interesting. The Rams, with a surprising turn around this season, beat the Falcons and knocking them out of playoff contention in the process, while clinching a wild card spot of their own. This also gave the NFC South division title to the Buccaneers. In the NFC North the Packers won the division, while the Vikings stumbled, losing their final game of the season, which put them at a tie with the Eagles for the second NFC Wild Card Spot. To settle this tie I used the NFL’s official tie breaking procedures. This result added one more to surprise to the NFC this season, with the Eagles edging out the Vikings for the last available playoff spot.

Here are the season’s final standings, with the playoff teams in bold, and as with Part 4 if there is ‘x’ before the teams name then they have clinched a playoff spot, if there is a ‘y’ then they have clinched their division, and if there is a ‘z’ then they have clinched home field throughout the playoffs.

AFC
North	South	East	West
y-Steelers (11-5)	z-Jaguars (15-1)	y-pats (10-6)	y-Chargers (11-5)
x-Ravens (10-6)	x-Colts (14-2)	Bills (8-8)	Chiefs (8-8)
Browns (9-7)	Texans (7-9)	Jets (6-10)	Broncos (7-9)
Bengals (2-14)	Titans (6-10)	Dolphins (5-11)	Raiders (6-10)
NFC
North	South	East	West
y-Packers (10-6)	y-Buccaneers (9-7)	y-Giants (11-5)	y-Seahawks (11-5)
Vikings (9-7)	Saints (8-8)	x-Eagles (9-7)	x-Rams (10-6)
Lions (4-12)	Falcons (8-8)	Cowboys (7-9)	Cardinals (7-9)
Bears (4-12)	Panthers (3-13)	Redskins (6-10)	49ers (5-11)

Now that all of that is set we will be moving on to the playoffs. For the seedings in the conferences I used the same tie breaking procedures that I used to decide the last playoff spot with the tie between the Eagles and Vikings. So with that said the seedings in the AFC are 1. Jaguars, 2. Chargers, 3. Steelers, 4. pats, 5. Colts, 6. Ravens and on the NFC side of things it’s 1. Seahawks, 2. Giants, 3. Packers, 4. Buccaneers, 5. Rams, 6. Eagles. I made up a bracket for it which looks like this:

(You can click on it for a clearer image)

For this post I will be simulation up to the Super Bowl and then my next post will be an entire one devoted to just the Super Bowl. There were some upsets in the NFC Wild Card round and maybe a few other unexpected wins here and there. Looking at who made the playoffs in this simulation, and considering what their seedings are, I think it’s safe to say that this simulation of the 2008 season has had some definite surprises. After simulating through the conference championships here’s what the bracket looks like:

(You can click on it for a clearer image)

Don’t Worry

Okay, this is simply a post to let everyone know that Bryan and I are still alive and that we didn’t just disappear off the face of the earth, though I might when Bryan realizes that I managed to go five days without a single post. As you know from previous posts, Bryan has been out of town and hasn’t had much access to the internet to be able to create posts of his own while I on the other hand don’t really have too much of an excuse. I do however have some good news. Early this week I found out that I would be doing an internship at a local radio station, called KLWN 1320. My internship is under Brian Hanni, and the station also features programming from ESPN Radio. This summer I am providing the station with statistics for a segment that they are calling “Weller’s Wisdom” which is similar to ESPN’s “Did you know?”

My segment is on the air right around 4:15 every weekday. You can listen online if you go to their website and scroll down to about the middle of the page then click where it says “Listen Live”

This internship was the inspiration for the new page we added to our site, Daily Trivia. In that section of our site we will be providing a question each day, and answering it the next day when we post the next question.

In some sporting news, I heard that Rosevelt Colvin wants to join the Colts.  He was brought in by the Colts for a physical and to meet with Head Coach, Tony Dungy. Colvin passed the physical and also impressed Dungy who according to various sources has said that he wants Colvin on the team. Colvin was born and grew up in Indianapolis and played in college at Purdue. So he would fit in well considering he’d be playing for his hometown team and according to Colts would also fit in well with there defensive schemes as a pass rusher. On a side note about the Colts, Dungy said of the team’s recent mimi camp that there were six players who really stood out in his eyes that have made huge improvements since this past season. Included in these players was wide receiver Roy Hall, who is likely to step in to the 4th slot on the depth chart behind Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne and Anthony Gonzalez. Dungy also mentioned linebackers Clint Session and Ramon Guzman, as well as offensive tackle Tony Ugoh, and cornerback Dante Hughes. The player that Dungy mentioned that jumped out at me was wide receiver Reggie Wayne. I say that this surprised me the most because Reggie was one of the best receivers in the league last year, so if he made significant enough improvements for Dungy to mention him among some second and third year players, then Wayne could be scary good this season.