Who to root for - week 17

[ItsNotGonnaBeAlright]

First off, just take a minute to bask in the fact that we're talking about playoff football. It's been five years, give yourself a moment.

Alright, now that that's out of the way, this week is really all about how you want the playoffs to be set up. Outside of rooting for the Panthers over the Falcons, the rest is just personal preference.

First, root for whoever you want to in AFC match-ups. With the Panthers securing a playoff spot, any tiebreaker that would involve an AFC team has become a moot point. Root away.

Next, obviously root for the Panthers. A win garauntees the #2 seed in the NFC and a first round bye. If you're trying to talk yourself out of the benefits of that, just stop now.

Now, if you want to see the Panthers become the number one seed, here's what needs to happen: San Francisco beats Atlanta, Rams beat the Seahawks, 49'ers beat the Cardinals. Everything else aside, if those two things happen, the Panthers become the #1. See, the 49'ers would become the leaders of the NFC West. As the division leader, their record is the only one that matters, and since the Panthers have the head-to-head tie-breaker over the Niners, the Panthers become the first seed, Niners the second seed, some other teams go to 3rd and 4th seeds, and the wildcards are Seattle and New Orleans (in that order). Would be funny to see the two teams who look unstoppable at home lose homefield advantage in the final week.

If you want New Orleans to miss the playoffs, because f**k the Saints, then you want this: San Fran wins against Atlanta but loses to Arizona, New Orleans loses to Tampa Bay. In this case, Arizona and San Fran finish with better records than New Orleans and take up both wildcard spots. The only way the Panthers are hurt in this scenario is that they cannot gain home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Is that enough to sacrifice for the Aints to suffer? Your call. It absolutely cannot work out that Carolina gets the #1 seed AND New Orleans misses the playoffs.

Outside of that, there are four teams playing for two divisional championships. Green Bay and Chicago play for the NFCN, and Philly and Dallas play for the NFCE. Whoever wins is in. This just comes down to who you would rather see in the playoffs. There's also the chance that the Panthers lose to the Falcons and wind up a wild card, in which case we'll be taking on one of these teams in the first round. Personally, I like Carolina's chances against Dallas and Chicago better.

I think that pretty much covers it. Giddyup.

[PantherDynasty]

There's no doubt we want Dallas and Chicago to win. Although I think we'd beat any of them, the Packers w/ Rodgers and the Eagles pose much larger threats than either the 'Boys or Bears.

[TheGreatestOfAllTimeCam]

as long as we win I dont care about anything else. With a bye and an extra week for Smitty to ice up those old knees we will be ready for ANYONE. Bring on Philly bring on New Orleans defeated asses, bring on Dallas bring on Green bay or Chicago's bum QB's or bring on San fran (Don't want to really see Harbaugh rolling in here to be honest but fug it)

We get that bye we will be in seattle playing for all the tea in starbucks motherfugers

[osd22]

Whoever comes here, we will trash em. But first, let`s focus on ATL, and only ATL is what counts now. The next biggest game is  on Sunday. I go with Schottenheimers "one play at a time" and focus only on ATL now.

[TNPanther]

Hot damn I would love nothing more than for Dallas to come to BOA and get destroyed. That would be a fun Sunday.

Too bad it won't happen though. I'm willing to bet money that Philly wins in a blowout.

[ctrcat]

Beat ATL, then enjoy the 4 pm games in peace, hoping NO (4 pm game now), SEA, and ARI lose. No Panther fan hates the Saints more than he loves his own team. #1 seed over Saints not dancing, not even a question.

[thunderraiden]

Beat ATL, then enjoy the 4 pm games in peace, hoping NO (4 pm game now), SEA, and ARI lose. No Panther fan hates the Saints more than he loves his own team. #1 seed over Saints not dancing, not even a question.

 

I think our offense would be really bad in Seattle with all that noise. They looked lost in N.O. I do think our defense can handle Seattles luck based offense however.

[jasonluckydog]

I would love for all these teams come to our house for the playoffs so lets go #1 seed