NFL Divisional Round Thread: Another Step on the March to the Eagles-Titans Super Bowl

Jags-Titans, the rematch Tom Coughlin has been waiting for since 1999! @QYFW

 

The 1999 Jags are on that list of "best teams never to win a title." Went 15-3, including the playoffs, with all three losses against the Titans. Eleven of the 15 wins were by 10 points or more. That was also the team that sent Dan Marino into retirement with a 62-7 ass-blasting in the divisional round.
Instead of a Super Bowl, though, they wound up having to face their own personal El Guapo in the championship game and lost 33-14.
Makes you wonder what might have been for a couple of franchises if not for the Music City Miracle. The last vestiges of the Buffalo AFC dynasty died with that game, and it set up a matchup that kept the late 90s Jaguars from achieving their full potential. The Jaguars franchise has never fully recovered from it and Coughlin was out a couple of years later. If they get to the Super Bowl in '99 maybe things go better and he never winds up in New York and the Giants-Patriots duels don't materialize, either.
Peyton Manning might also have missed an early shot at a Super Bowl. The Titans beat the Colts the following week. Maybe Manning does better against the Bills instead of a 13-3 Titans team that wound up as a wild card. There was a lot of fallout and "what if?" scenarios flowing from that game that I never really thought about until this moment.

 

I completely forgot until very recently that Jax only lost to Tennessee that year.

I don't think of the Music City Miracle Bills as a vestige of the dynasty Bills, though I didn't realize until I just checked out Pro Football Reference how many dynasty-era guys were still on the team then. That team was remarkable.

 

Peyton went on to prove he could lose to anyone. Except the goddamn Bears.

 

It's not his fault the Bears started Rex freaking Grossman in a Super Bowl!

 

Yeah, the Bills dynasty was long over by then but they were still making regular playoff appearances through the 90s. And then that was the last time they made it until this year, and still haven't had a 10-win season since then. I don't think that they'd have made the Super Bowl that year or the direction of their franchise would have changed that much if they'd won that game, but it's kind of weird -- and almost fitting considering how snakebit they seemed in the glory years -- that that was the absolute final nail in the coffin.

 

Suuuuuuuuuuure:

Bell might sit out 2018 or retire if tagged again

 

He and Ben can go into business together.

 

Excellent time for him to have his mind on that shit, too.

If he thinks he can threaten that front office into giving him a big, long-term deal, he's kidding himself. I'd be very surprised if they don't tag him again. He has no leverage except holding out or retiring. I doubt that front office will blink.

Bell is a very bad bet for a long-term deal. He has been busted for violating the league's substance abuse policy twice. If he manages to finish this season healthy, that will be a first. He's also got a great deal of mileage on him already. He already has fewer long runs this season. I wouldn't be surprised at all if his skills already show some decline by the end of 2018.

 

And the Panthers. Don't forget them. At least Peyton still had it when the Bears lost to him.

 

Give Indy Peyton the 2015 Broncos defense, and . . . oh my.

 

This is quite good.

Bill Simmons Is A Fucking Embarrassment