They won the Super Bowl. Obviously they weren't that mediocre a team.
I really don't think any of that is that important. The goal is winning games and ultimately titles. You can be dead last in all statistical categories but if you get the job done at the end of the day... you're good.The 2010 San Diego Chargers were 1st in Offense and 1st in Defense and still missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record. It's true a record isn't everything but context is needed for each team. The 2011 Giants were 9th Offensively but 25th Defensively. They were a mediocre team that happened to get hot at the right time, plus all of their post-season victories from the Conference Round onwards were come-from-behind.
Just saying, the 2011 Giants were the definition of mediocre.
It doesn't mean they were the better team that year lmao it means they were the better team THAT GAME I mean I also kinda agree that if a team wins their league's championship and literally cannot have a better outcome then you shouldn't really criticize them either, but I also don't think it's a rule that you have to think the champions are the absolute best team when people get lucky, injured, or whatever else in sports. Like I mean upsets happen all the time, and I don't think anyone thinks that every team that upsets a number one team in basketball is better...except for SFA beating Duke which should have had them ranked number 1 in the country 4 LIFE
Also to be fair, most of those teams that get in with shitty records are division winners, assuming this new format simply adds more wildcard teams then you probably won't end up with more shitty teams, but more good teams that would have lost their spot to shitty division winners under the current playoff format.
I just don't like assigning hard "rules" to what's considered the "best" in anything. Most years I 100% agree the team that wins the championship is the best in the league, and even if I don't think they were the best team in the league then I agree they were the best in the championship game bc they won it....but I mean if you think every team that gets an upset is better than the team they beat then I can accept that bc SFA is better than Duke AXE EM
Too bad SFA will never matter again...though.
This is a really good point, it might actually get more good teams in who deserve it over a team who got in only cause the while damn division sucked. Like the 2014 NFC South. Panthers made it in with a really shitty record of 7-8-1, because the whole division that year was straight up ass. Then you had the Eagles, who were 10-6 miss the playoffs, because they didn't get a wildcard because they weren't as good as The Lions and Cardinals. So we would've had another winning team actually get in to the playoffs, where a team with a losing record actually made it. But the NFC as a whole kind of blew that year, cause an 8-8 49ers also would've made it as well. Just slightly better than the Panthers.
Kind of like them Cincinnati Bengals am I right?