Never Predict Your Matchups
There is a now famous little moment between Dan Campbell and Kevin O’Connell at the end of week 18’s big NFCN showdown. The Lions win, and big man Dan walks over to meet Kevin at midfield for the classic post-game handshake. He slaps him on the back and in that deep gravelly steroid voice that sounds like his vocal chords are more ripped than my jeans in the 90’s Dan goes “Great job great season I’ll see ya in two weeks“. It was a nice little line, clearly referencing a healthy amount of respect for his opponent by suggesting they’d meet again in the playoffs.
They did not.
It is unprecedented to see a 15-win team and a 14-win team in the same division. They both went to the playoffs with their annoying baby brother Green Bay, who mom demanded they drag along. Three teams from one division in the post-season. None of them would face each other. None of them would win a single game. I’m not sure that’s ever happened. Divisions have sent 3 teams to the playoffs before, but usually that last team is a 9-7 squeaker not an 11-win pest like Green Bay was. None could win a single game. Green Bay would get popped by Philadelphia, the Vikings would have the miracle season crumble to Los Angeles, and the Lions would get waxed by a rookie-led Commanders in the divisional after a bye. 40 total wins between them all, and not a single win when it counted.
The funny part to me is even if the Vikings won against Los Angeles they wouldn’t have played the Lions in those two weeks anyway, the Commies were the lower seed. Swing and a miss, Dan.
The Lions lost Ben Johnson as of two days ago, jettisoning for the Bears shockingly fast to the point where it seems he might have accepted the job and been working on his staff before the Lions even played. Lions fans are not thrilled about that and a lot have already turned on him and took the terrible offensive plans in the game as proof his mind wasn’t in it. I think the Lions fans have a point. There’s been a lot of discussion about how the NFL might need to prevent teams from interviewing coaches who’s seasons have not yet ended. I don’t know if I agree with that idea, but this is the reason why this sort of idea gets raised in the first place. The playoffs are important. You need everyone on the ball. Are you really on the ball if you are taking interviews and planning to get out? All of this is old hat NFL operation of course, but the Lions fanbase have never experienced this in their lifetimes. This is the first time I can remember a Lions coach getting poached, and they will lose both coordinators.
The Vikings might also lose Brian Flores but I think the chances are low. Flores is probably a toxic hire to NFL ownership after his lawsuit calling them out. He’ll probably need another year being great before he gets poached.
I hope Dan and Kevin have a nice relaxing weekend, wherever they may be.
I guess Dan thought the Bucs would take out the Commanders, too.
If you throw in the Bucs, then all 4 NFL Central teams went one-and-done in the playoffs.
Also, I looked it up, the closest to 3 teams from the same division going 1 & done in the playoffs was the 1999 AFC East that had Buffalo (Music City Miracle) & Indianapolis get beat by Tennessee & Miami getting murdered by Jacksonville 62-7, but even then Miami beat AFC West champion Seattle in the wild-card round.
I can’t believe Ben Johnson would phone in that offensive performance. He went back to Detroit to try and win a title. If anything, it was a total Lions collapse.
SUPER MARIO BROTHERERS DEPRESION DELUXE
I understand being uoset about it from the Lions fanbase, but I have a hard time thinking that a coach is going to take their eye off the gameplan during the playoffs.
> There’s been a lot of discussion about how the NFL might need to prevent teams from interviewing coaches who’s seasons have not yet ended.
That *used* to be the rule a long time ago, but then coordinators and coaches were complaining that they were missing out on opportunities, so the NFL changed it to “they can interview up to a certain point of the playoffs”. Which just made the situation worse.
What the NFL *should* do (but won’t, because this is the NFL, and simple problems require ultra-complex solutions) is simply put a full-stop freeze for all coach-related hiring and interviews on all teams for the entire playoffs through the SB (and maybe even start it before Christmas). You want to fire someone on Black Monday? Sure, go ahead. But you have to wait until mid-Feb before you can start interviewing and hiring a new coach or assistant.
Actually, that might even help another problem – there would (hopefully) be less of the retread hirings, where a team just hires someone who’s been hanging around simply because the owner/GM wants to gets a coach in place right away. I think that would actually be more impactful in minority hirings and promotions than the “Rooney Rule” ever has been (given that there are so many ways to skirt the thing).
Whatever convoluted, complex and ugly solution they come up with I expect they’ll call it “dynamic interview”
I was thinking the same. We’ve got a very clearly-defined line for free agency to start, with the start of the new league year. Tampering scandals aside, it’s done a pretty good job of giving every team have an equal shot at signing guys. Something similar for coaches would make sense.
This is the best idea. I hate when teams rush the process because they’re all competing for this right after the regular season. This would give the teams out of the playoffs time to do their pre-planning and vetting before starting the interview process.
Super bowl records by division since 2002 (Most recent team began)
AFCN: 3-2
AFCE: 5-3
AFCS: 1-1
AFCW: 4-3
NFCN: 1-1
NFCE: 3-2
NFCS: 3-3
NFCW: 2-7
Yeah they haven’t been to many lol
my poor NFCW 🙁
At least they go…. skol 🙁
I mean, we have some time before the heat death of the universe, so it could happen.
Awfully nice of the Patriots to include the whole division in their Super Bowl record.
> This is the first time I can remember a Lions coach getting poached
I saw a post that said this is the first time its happened since JFK was president.
The Johnson complaints remind me of Bill Parcells during Superbowl XXXI when he seemed to have spent his time negotiating his next deal with the Jets rather than preparing for Green Bay.