FanPost

Broken Ties: Post Week 9

Going into Week 10, there are no ties for the Niners to break. Seattle and St. Louis have to break a couple but who cares about them, am I right?

Seattle won against Minnesota, forcing a head-to-head tiebreaker against them and winning. The up-side to that? Another loss for the Vikings. They own the head-to-head tiebreaker over our beloved 49ers. The Giants do to so thanks Pittsburgh. I'll hate you a little bit less for the rest of the season. St. Louis is on top of tiebreakers against New Orleans, Philadelphia and Dallas. You know, teams no one cares about. Moving on.

For anyone who doesn't know, the first four tiebreakers are:

  1. Head-to-head
  2. Division record
  3. Common record
  4. Conference record

For the purposes of this post, I'll be focusing on two through four by breaking down the schedules of all the NFC West teams into blocks based on division and conference. If you want to know who to root for each week, check out Fooch's playoff post he'll have up closer to Sunday.

OVERALL RECORD

San Francisco: 6 - 2

Seattle: 5 - 4 (-1.5 games)

Arizona: 4 - 5 (-2.5)

St. Louis: 3 - 5 (-3)

The Seahawks made some progress last week. While the cat's away, the seachicken will play. Seattle remains San Francisco's strongest competition in the division as far as overall record is concerned. However, when it comes down to owning tiebreakers, they keep choking. Sitting in 3rd and 4th places are Arizona and St. Louis. Both of their schedules look like they're actually getting easier down the stretch. They'll each win a couple more games, but there are some sure losses too.

DIVISION GAMES

San Francisco: 2 - 0, v.SEA(W), @ARI(W), v.STL, @STL, @SEA, v.ARI

St. Louis: 2 - 0, v.SEA(W), v.ARI(W), @SF, @ARI, v.SF, @SEA

Arizona: 1 - 2, v.SEA(W), @STL, v.SF, v.STL, @SEA, @SF

Seattle: 0 - 3, @ARI, @STL, @SF, v.ARI, v.SF, v.STL

San Francisco and St. Louis are still tied in division record until Sunday. We should all hope those extra days off without practicing the game plan don't come back to bite the Niners in the butt. With the reports that Amendola could play this week, Bradford will get his favorite target back. Is this the case? Or is the Rams coaching staff playing mind games? You tell me. No, really, you tell me. The past couple of days have been so hectic I haven't had the time to keep up.

NFCN GAMES

San Francisco: 2 - 1, @GB(W), v.DET(W), @MIN, v.CHI

Seattle: 2 - 1, v.GB(W), @DET, v.MIN(W), @CHI

Arizona: 0 - 2, @MIN, @GB, v.DET, v.CHI

St. Louis: 0 - 3, @DET, @CHI, v.GB, v.MIN

Seattle owned the Vikings while the Cards got owned by Green Bay. There's probably some sort of symmetry in that. The Hawks and Niners are now on equal footing against the NFC North. It will all come down to which team can bring it against the Bears. At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if the Cardinals and Rams get swept by our cold-loving confederates. Even so, Arizona still has a chance to tie it up. All they need is the teams above them to fall down to their level.

AFCE GAMES

San Francisco: 2 - 0, @NYJ(W), v.BUF(W), v.MIA, @NE

Seattle: 1 - 0, v.NE(W), v.NYJ, @MIA, @BUF

Arizona: 2 - 1, @NE(W), v.MIA(W), v.BUF, @NYJ

St. Louis: 0 - 2, @MIA, v.NE, v.NYJ, @BUF

The next AFC East game is this week when the Jets travel to Seattle. Being a half-game back against this division, the Seahawks have a chance to tie it up. If they do, then the only thing keeping them from tying up the common games record is their horrible division record. At this point in the season, technically nobody is out of the running for at least tying the non-conference record.

COMMON GAMES RECORD

San Francisco: 6 - 1

Seattle: 3 - 4 (-3)

Arizona: 3 - 5 (-3.5)

St. Louis: 2 - 5 (-4)

I know they saying, "That's why they play the games" could apply here. It's just that I don't see anyone else in the division taking away San Francisco's advantage in the third tiebreaker. It's possible but unlikely. They would really have to start dropping games in the division to lose their advantage. If that's the case then they have bigger problems than just their common games record.

NON-COMMON GAMES

Seattle: 2 - 0, v.DAL(W), @CAR(W)

Arizona: 1 - 0, v.PHI(W), @ATL

St. Louis: 1 - 0, v.WAS(W), @TB

San Francisco: 0 - 1, v.NYG, @NO

I continue to maintain that these games are the closest things to throwaways that the NFL has outside the preseason. If two teams are playing each other really close then sure, I could see them mattering. They probably mattered to AFC West teams last season. As long as your favorite team is taking care of business in other categories then these games mean squat besides overall record. Or maybe I'm just saying that because the Niners are behind? Tune in next week to find out!

CONFERENCE RECORD

San Francisco: 4 - 2

St. Louis: 3 - 3 (-1)

Seattle: 4 - 4 (-1)

Arizona: 2 - 4 (-2)

A St. Louis win Sunday will tie them up with San Francisco. Seattle has only five NFC games left and isn't playing one this week. Arizona flat isn't playing this week but has nine more NFC games throughout the rest of the season. San Francisco has eight more left with four of them being division games. I'll say it again, any team that starts dropping division games has more to worry about than their conference record. Conference record comes in handier for playoff seeding with other NFC teams. That's a position a team won't be in if they drop too many division games.

Everybody thank the Steelers for dropping New York to the 4th seed in the NFC playoff picture. Thanks, Pittsburgh. Was that so hard? Yes? Well it was good for you. Builds character. NFL.com and ESPN.com show the Niners at #3 and Seattle back in the playoffs at #6 with their win over the Vikings. Arizona rounds out the top ten contenders with the Rams sniffing at their heels. In the Wild-Card round, the more talked about game will be the Packers-Giants rematch. Everyone reading this knows, of course, that the most important game will be the Seahawks-49ers game. If you like those match-ups then too bad. They'll change a few more times by then anyway.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.