Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaka
My concern is that Pittsburgh and Buffalo have already clinched their divisions and a home playoff game, and since neither one is fighting for a bye, how much do they really have to play for next week? I guess it could be for a second home playoff game should they survive the first one. Maybe I'm missing something and haven't thought through the new playoff format fully.
The good news is that because our game is late next Sunday, we'll know the outcome of the Dolphins, Browns and Ravens games by the beginning of our game against JAX. The Tennessee game is at the same time as ours.
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Yes, they would be fighting for the #2 seed and a guaranteed 2nd home playoff game.
This year it's interesting to see if that would matter. I think it would for both teams as they play in cold weather areas and it advantages them better to play at home, but that's just a total guess. It could also be for more mundane reasons, that players would rather not travel and be at home in their own beds, so they would play hard to get that advantage.
I think the Steelers will play hard too, just because even with their win against the Colts I doubt they want to go into the playoffs with 4 losses out of their last 5 games.