Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

As we wind down the regular season this Sunday, this might be an interesting discussion...
The 67 Colts and 68 Rams are obvious ones. It's a shame only one team could come out of that Coastal division each year. The 1991 49ers also came to mind. Finished the year on a 6 game winning streak but it wasn't enough to overcome their 4-6 start. They were already eliminated going into the final week IIRC.
Any others worth mentioning? 1975 Bengals? Dare I say... 2008 Patriots?

ChrisBabcock wrote:As we wind down the regular season this Sunday, this might be an interesting discussion...
The 67 Colts and 68 Rams are obvious ones. It's a shame only one team could come out of that Coastal division each year. The 1991 49ers also came to mind. Finished the year on a 6 game winning streak but it wasn't enough to overcome their 4-6 start. They were already eliminated going into the final week IIRC.
Any others worth mentioning? 1975 Bengals? Dare I say... 2008 Patriots?

Actually 1975 Bengals made the playoffs. The 10-4 Oilers didn't, nor did the 10-4 Dolphins.

Others:
1976 Cardinals (10-4)
1976 Broncos (Won five of their last six and set the stage for their emergence the following year) (9-5)
1977 Dolphins (10-4)
1979 Redskins (10-6)
1980 Patriots (10-6)
1981 Broncos (10-6)
1984 Cardinals (9-7)
1985 Broncos (11-5)
1985 Redskins (10-6) (Won seven of their last nine)
1986 Seahawks (10-6) (Won their last five games and outscored their last three opponents 112-40)
1988 Saints (10-6)
1989 Redskins (10-6) (Won their last five and six of their last seven)

Plenty of examples from the years before scheduled division-round playoffs:

1964 Patriots 10-3-1
1963 Packers 11-2-1
1963 Browns 10-4-0
1963 Raiders 10-4-0
1962 Eagles 10-4-0
1962 Lions 11-3-0
1951 Giants 9-2-1
1950 Giants 10-2-0
1948 Bears 10-2-0
1944 Eagles 7-1-2
1934 Lions 10-3-0

Weren't the 1950 Giants a postseason team? They played in a game after the season where the winner moved on, and the loser went home.

1967 Colts

conace21 wrote:Weren't the 1950 Giants a postseason team? They played in a game after the season where the winner moved on, and the loser went home.

I consider a division tiebreaker game a postseason game.

Actually 1975 Bengals made the playoffs.

aha! That's right. The 1976 10-4 team was the one I was thinking of.

1967 Colts

We'll never again see an undefeated team having to win in the final week of the regular season to make the postseason.