Sports_Freak

SOL...win the games they should lose and lose the games they need to win. /s

Split with Green Bay, Minnesota and beat Pittsburgh and we win the division.

Yeah...but they were lucky. Losing division games makes it really hard to win the division. They had a very lucky season.

Most of us have him on ignore and only see his trolling post when somebody responds to him. I unblocked him before the season but I didnt even last the 1st quarter of the first game. 😆😅

The 4th place schedule won't mean anything if we cant win division games. 2-4 in the division cost us a playoff berth.

Bittersweet win. Win one more stinking division game and make the playoffs. Lesser draft pick but We. Own. The. Bears. 😅😅

Exactly. It would be up to the coach to "rest" his better players. Just to judge how the backup players perform.

I dont agree. Ben Johnson wants to beat Dan Campbell very, very badly.

I know logic says a loss would make the most sense but I cant root against them. Where has this team play been the last few weeks? A total season team failure.

Whew...

Tom Brady has some good insights but he just doesn't shut up. Ever.

And they did. And Green Bay ended up losing out, just what we were looking for so the Lions could make the playoffs...IF they coulda won..

Has anyone heard where Blaha has been?

That was actually LOL funny...

All we can do is look and compare what players were traded and what for. Its not fair to say...well this pitcher didn't do well or this hitter slumped...there's no way to predict a player going into a slump (Suarez) or a quality pitcher who then struggles for the last 6 weeks. Its players like Morton or Paddack who were easily predictable in their struggles.

The schedule wasn't the problem this season. It was the division games. Going 1-5 (with a loss today) in our division cost us any chance to win the division or make the playoffs. And no matter how we finish, we'll still be playing those division games. Its the better draft pick i want. There's a big difference in the 11th pick over the 18th pick.

It's to maintain fan interest. Artificial playoff races by having too many divisions. Your proposal would only work if they were to eliminate divisions and only have two huge groups of teams, the AFC and the NFC. And I agree with your idea, but keeping these divisions in place wouldn't work. There would be fans screaming if their team won a division but didn’t get into the playoffs. Eliminate the divisions and the top 7 teams in each conference make the playoffs...

I'm not a baseball GM. I have no idea which players were available or what other teams were asking. A RH hitting 3rd baseman or a quality SP would have made a huge difference. We finished one game out of winning our division and one single run in extra innings from going to the ALCS. Even if a hlitter or pitcher failed to help us, at least it would have been a valid attempt to improve our team. Instead, with the 2 pitchers Harris brought in, it weakened our team. And I'll repeat, it was totally predictable.

True...very true. And we'll never know what may have happened, only what did happen. And I know it's hindsight but career baseball executives should have known the possible downside of bringing in the 2 pitchers they did. I dont need to repeat the negatives about those pitchers, the results speak for themselves.

Its usually the manager who gets fired by a new GM, sometimes. I like to think if Avila would have been fired sooner, a new GM woulda told Brad to take a hike. 😆😆

If New Orleans wins, Tampa wins the division and is the #4 seed. If Atlanta wins, Carolina wins the division and is the #4 seed. And yes, both teams are 8-9. There are 2 things I want the NFL to change...allowing these weak teams into the playoffs and a new way to enforce the play clock. Teams taking extra time to snap the ball shouldn't be allowed. Maybe this system was OK in the 50's but there are many ways they could upgrade this system. A buzzer in the refs ear would be a simple fix. I have no idea how they can stop these weak teams from making the playoffs.

Well, from what I gathered, the players you mentioned weren't as highly rated as several of our prospects. Sweeney and Malloy weren't even Tigers draft picks. Jung may have been, I don't care enough to look it up. But the Tigers have a few of the top prospects in all of baseball. Those other guys were only near the top in their former organization. Young, team controlled talent is the way to build a successful organization these days. Older, established players are just too expensive. And trading away top prospects for rentals is wrong. In hindsight, Harris woulda been better off not picking up Paddack and Morton. Using bullpen days probably would have had better results. And it really should have been something he should have seen or known. One guy was washed up a few years ago and the other was a reject from a bottom feeding team.

How can Tampa fans think they have any chance with Mayfield under center? He's proven, over and over, he's not capable of beating quality teams the necessary 3 or 4 games. It's like "We've seen that movie before." Yeah, several times.

They weren't Harris draft picks. 😁 It's not unusual for a new team GM (or POBO) to come in and clean house of all players and coaches from the previous regime. Harris should be given some credit for recognizing the talent already here and allowing AJ to use those players and get the most out of them.