Ready for a hypocritical statement? I’m glad the Lions got a bye week before they play the Bears at Soldier Field Sunday.
Why is that hypocritical? Because I don’t think NFL teams should be allowed to have their bye weeks before playing divisional rivals.
Divisional games are just too important.
A divisional game isn’t just an opportunity get a win; it’s not just an opportunity to hand a divisional rival a loss. On top of being both those things, divisional games carry hugely important tie-breaking weight for teams to get into the playoffs.
If a division is tied, head-to-head games and divisional records are the first things looked at to break that tie. If a Wild Card spot is tied for by divisional foes, same tie-breaking rules apply. It will even affect a Wild Card tie if the teams aren’t in the same division by being a conference game and could easily make the difference.
You can see the full tie-breaking procedures here.
Coming off a bye week is a big advantage.
Some might argue that a team could lose momentum, get out of sync, or even be a bit rusty after a bye week.
But come on, for good coaches and for players who are smart and disciplined, two weeks to prepare for an opponent with only one week to prepare is a definite advantage.
Advantages come in the NFL. For example, having home field is a big advantage. But this advantage is neutralized in divisions by having divisional rivals play each other twice, each getting a chance to be on their own turf.
Why then allow bye week advantages in divisional games when schedules could easily be arranged to avoid this?
In Week 5, Detroit, coming off a Chicago game, had to go to Lambeau Field and play Green Bay, who had been preparing 2 weeks for the Lions during the Packers’ bye. Back-to-back divisional games, playing away, and against an opponent with twice as long to prepare for the game: that’s a triple whammy.
Consider Calvin Johnson was out (along with Nate Burleson, leaving Matthew Stafford without his top 2 targets) and it’s a quadruple whammy.
This week, Chicago gets dealt the whammies. Back-to-back divisional games, a short week after a Monday Night Football appearance, and facing a Lions team that has had two weeks to prepare: triple whammy.
Considering Jay Cutler is expected to play this game so quickly after a groin tear and this could be a quadruple whammy.
Not to rip on Cutler, no pun intended, but I like the Lions odds better with him in this game than out of it. Cutler may be the stronger athlete than former Lion Josh McCown, but McCown has shown excellent decision-making and poise in Cutler’s absence.
In the first quarter of Monday Night’s game when McCown threw that beautiful TD pass to Brandon Marshall after absorbing a 2 handed hit from Packers Defensive End Mike Neal, I thought to myself WWJD—What Would Jay Do? I expect he would have scrambled. Maybe he makes the play. Maybe he throws a pick. Maybe he gets sacked.
Cutler does scramble very well, but how well will he be able to scramble Sunday? He’ll need to be in top form with Ndamukong Suh leading Detroit’s D-line. But I digress.
You won’t hear players or coaches complaining about bye week advantages. Their job is to go out and try to get that W no matter what the conditions. They should leave questioning things like bye week policies to the commentators, sports writers, and fans.
Injuries, like Aaron Rodgers’ collarbone fracture, create much bigger advantages than bye weeks. The league is working on creating rules that reduce injuries. Perhaps they could squeeze in eliminating advantageous divisional bye weeks–a much easier problem to fix.
In the meantime, I might as well be glad when the Lions get a bye week advantage over a divisional foe and have faith they can overcome when that advantage goes the other way.
No point in making that Packers bye week an excuse for the Lions’ loss. Detroit would have beat the Packers in Week 5 if Megatron had played. Ooh, wait, was that another excuse…?
