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Going by your video on Mike Boryla (though there's technically two cause he was also part of the '71-'72 Stanford Rose Bowl champs), I think I know what tomorrow's is going to be😁
The same scenario happened in 1979 and it involved one of the greatest regular season games in NFL history. The game involved the Redskins and Cowboys. Due to the Bears 42-6 drubbing of the listless Cardinals earlier in the day (Bears needed to win by 32 points then needed a Skins loss to capture the final NFC wild-card spot) the Skins needed a victory over the Cowboys to make the playoffs. And a win would also give the Skins home field throughout the playoffs. After being down 34-21 with just 2:40 to play, Staubach brought the Cowboys back to win 35-34 in what would be his "Last Hurrah". The Skins left the field shaking their heads while also motherfu***ng the Cardinals.
This year's Texans finished with a 3-2-1 record against their divisional opponents, all of the team's wins (and tie) were against divisional opponents. Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos only had one win against a divisional opponent and finished with 1.5 more wins than the Texans. The Texans had more wins against their division rivals than the Denver Broncos had against conference opponents.
@JetFan92 AFC West when Manning went there was a MOFO. KC managed to make the playoffs every year Alex Smith was there. Except one year where they had ( I think ) 10 wins. I still find it hilarious that the 7-9 Seahawks won the division and beat the Saints in the playoffs lol.
My least favorite wild scenario is my 1980 Patriots who went into the final week with a chance at #1 seed, and over 90% chance at the playoffs and then 5 games went against them, many of them upsets
The only year the chiefs missed the playoffs with Alex smith was 2014 when they went 9-7. That was also the last year to date that the chiefs missed the playoffs
Don't remind me. Been a Dolphins fan for a long while. The team hasn't won a playoff game since December 30, 2000, and have been stuck purgatory of mediocrity since I've been a fan.
Dolphins have been mired in mediocrity in the last 20 years with only just three playoff appearances in the last 21 years and one playoff win since Dan Marino retired after the 1999 season. But the future is bright with Mike McDaniel and if Tua Tuafunga can stay healthy and stay off the concussion list the Dolphins can be successful just like the Don Shula days.
Yeah, I remember this season because the Ravens had to have 6 teams lose and win themselves to get in. The only reason they had a chance because they had a good conference record. I actually wrote down for my grandmother a list of every team that had to lose because she couldn't keep it straight. She loved football.
I remember this season i was a young kid asking my dad how the dolphins could make the playoffs and he just said "it's complicated but they just need to win"
I absolutely love weird scenarios like this. You did a great job covering it. This whole thing is so unbelievable either first seed or not make the playoffs. I doubt something like this could ever happen again.
16:58 “Adam Vinatieri has just kicked the field goal to give the New England Patriots a come-from-behind 27-24 victory, and now the Jets have all to play for, with the AFC East on the line in this game!” “I’m getting confused, what game are you calling?” “I’M CALLING BOTH GAMES!!!!”
If NBC's Sunday night football with flex scheduling been in effect in 2002, the Miami/New England game would probably have been "flexed" to prime time.
Yep. Every other game could potentially have been made meaningless: even ATL/CLE, if NE had won, IND had won/tied, and NO, NYG, and NYJ had all lost/tied. However, just like in 2022 Week 18, there was a hitch in that NE could (and would) have been eliminated by earlier results. Specifically, a NYJ win + CLE win, NYJ win + DEN win, or NYJ win + SD win + KC loss/tie would knock the Pats out.
Needless to say that was a weird year in the AFC. It could have been because it was the first season with four divisions. Even the Raiders (who were the #1 seed and won the conference) at one point lost four straight in October and were last in their division.
Great videos, love the content. Keep it coming. 👍. A similar scenario happened in 1980, and you mentioned it. The Chargers were 10-5 and played a MNF game against the Steelers. Win and SD clinched the top spot and home field throughout the playoffs, lose and they’d be eliminated from playoff contention. SD won and finished with 11 wins. In fact, all of the AFC playoff participants finished 11-5, including the wild card teams. Had the Chargers lost, the Patriots would make it in at 10-6 and eliminate the Chargers.
They also would have eliminated the Steelers. The Pats, Chargers, and Steelers all would have been 10-6 in this scenario, and NE had the best conference record of the three. The Raiders would have had the 1-seed due to conference record (Cleveland would have been 2, and the Bills 3), and the Oilers would have hosted the Pats in the WC game.
@@jab1289 That is correct. What an exciting scenario. I just remember the Chargers and Raiders were neck and neck in the standings all season. Both teams split their regular season series. Chargers clinched the division over Oakland because of a better divisional record. Both teams end up playing each other in the AFC championship, with the Raiders advancing and becoming the first wild card team in the NFL to win the Super Bowl. Man, I miss those classic days of football.
That same year the Cowboys and Eagles met on the final weekend with Dallas needing to win by 25 points to win the division. Early in the 4th they led 35-10 before Philly came storming to only lose 35-27, and gain home field for the playoffs.
Props to the video maker, he could have just made a 5 minute video showing the records and talking about the final game, but he put the effort in to add 15 minutes about what the Dolphins players had for dinner the night before.
I forgot about the Dolphins' fate in all this. They didn't deserve a playoff berth given that they couldn't even beat the Vikings that day. Those Patriots, while short of where they were the season before, weren't awful. That was the last Pats team to miss the playoffs with Tom Brady playing the whole season. As for that Packers/Jets blowout, I remember it more for opening the door for the Buccaneers to grab the NFC's No. 2 spot and the 2nd 1st-round bye. All they had to do was beat a bad Bears side in Champaign, Ill. (Soldier Field was being heavily renovated) and they won 15-0 on ESPN's SNF. The rest is history.
My brain broke when you first mentioned Surtain lol. Was thinking how the hell PS2 was playing in the early 2000s and then remembered his dad was on the dolphins
At 12:53: "...strength of victory, or what your winning percentage is against teams that you beat". That would be a winning percentage of 100%, because you beat them. It should have been "the winning percentage of the teams that you beat".
This was most recent season in which #1 seed was 11-5. NFC wasn't as dramatic but Packers had chance for #1 seed and lost to Jets and became third seed, leading to shocking loss to Falcons.
I feel bad for this dolphins team because they were 9-5 as of week 15, 2002 but then they lost their last two games of the season finishing 9-7, they had no excuse to finish with that record. It is always a major pet peeve when an nfl team is 9-5 then loses their last two games.
What most people don't know about this 2002 nfl season is that the Saints started 9-4 and still couldn't qualify for the playoffs in the NFC. Patriots won against the dolphins on the last game of the season in 2002 who were sitting 1st place in their division on the live standings and still couldn't make it to the playoffs.
Not as bad as three years prior when they were 7-1 and ended 9-7. Granted, they made the playoffs that year, but that ended in a 62-7 loss to the Jaguars.
@@JeffWiersma the Dolphins had a 9-5 record or better, but then lose both of their last two games of the season four times in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2002
The 2002 Miami Dolphins were a heartbreaking team to watch. This team had the talent to go far, but they were held back by bad coaching and average QB play (that's being nice).
The 2002 Dolphins were the best team of the last 20 years to not make the playoffs, NOT the 2010 Chargers! This team was absolutely stacked! Still can't believe they only finished 9-7. They had the talent to go toe to toe with Tampa, Oakland, & Philly.
Fewer playoff teams, but Washington would have been #1 seed in '79 had they beaten Dallas. That loss and the Bears blowing out St Louis eliminated Washington from the playoffs.
I never understood Wannstedt's desire to have Jay Fiedler as QB. Jimmy Johnson had set him up with a great defense, and all he had to do was pick Drew Brees in 2001.
This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made a video about what it would have taken for the Patriots to make the playoffs in 1980. The last piece would have been Pittsburgh beating San Diego in the last game of the NFL regular season on Monday Night. If that happened the Chargers would have been eliminated from the playoffs. By winning the Chargers got home field advantage in the AFC playoffs.
I believe the same thing happened in 1979 with Dallas and Washington. They played in the last game of the season, and the winner would be in the 1 seed. Dallas won, got the 1 seed, but Washington was out of the playoffs because of point differential with Chicago, who won 42-6 in their final game.
This was my first year watching football and the Miami Dolphins. I was a freshman in high school. I learned then, this team was gonna give me lifelong headaches. Still never seen this team win a single playoff game.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but had there been a 7th playoff team that year, Miami would still have missed it, as the spot would have gone to the Patriots. (Had the Jets lost their game against the Packers, the Pats would have gotten the division, not the Dolphins)
AFC East was insane that year. Bills finished last with an 8-8 record. 2002 will always have a special place in my heart. That was the year I became a Jets fan. It was just an amazing run, capturing the division in the end.
@@Trancymind they were the NFC version of the Dolphins. Started off 6-1, then 9-4 only to lose their final three games including a head scratcher to a previously 1 win Cincinnati team to miss the playoffs
This is very similar to what happened in England 40 years ago in Division 1 (now the Premier League) with Luton Town & the final relegation spot. Heading into the final game of the season, Luton (who was 20th heading in) needed to win in order to stay in the league & could finish as high as 18th. I should point out that this was at a time in which Division 1 had 22 clubs as opposed to the 20 the Premier League has today. Meanwhile their opponents Man City (way before the 2008 takeover) only needed a draw to stay in the league & could finish as high as 16th if they beat Luton. However unlike Miami, Luton pulled off a remarkable shock 1-0 win in the last few minutes thanks to a goal from Raddy Antic over Man City relegating them to the 2nd Division & because Coventry lost their final game, Luton finished 18th. The 1982-83 season in English soccer was a weird one overall as Watford finished 2nd & qualified for European competition for the only time in their history while Chelsea (who are now one of the powerhouse clubs in the Premier League) finished all the way down in 18th in Division 2 (now the EFL Championship) & were 2 measly points away from being relegated to Division 3 (now League One).
@@adiuntesserande6893 they likely would have gone out of business if they did because they were in massive debt at the time. Not only that Stamford Bridge was falling apart & there were serious problems with hooliganism with multiple incidents (mostly on trains to away matches) involving Chelsea fans that season & a full blown pitch invasion at the last home match of that season that resulted in 90 arrests & 25 people injured.
Speaking of weird playoff scenarios, here's a complicated but mathematically possible scenario where a 15-2 team sits out January football: -Two teams from each division in a conference must have 15 wins (eight total teams) -Both teams from the same division must split their series -Division ranking from previous year must align only with the tri-yearly rotating division (for example, if this scenario were to work out in 2024 and both the Steelers and Bengals were in this 15 win race, the AFC West teams vying for it would need to be the Broncos and Chargers. The 1's and 2's from the AFC East and South would also need to be in this fight.) The series between the two in the rotating divisional schedule would need to be split, though the two teams in each division must split differently. -Obviously, any other game contested would need to be won by the teams fighting for 15 wins. Assuming these scenarios all work out as required, eight teams would be tied at 15-2 with only seven seeds up for grabs. Barring the NFL changing playoff rules due to fairness, one of these teams would be left out likely through a seven or eight round tiebreaker.
This happened to the Redskins in 1979. Not "could've" been the top seed, would've been the top seed. As long as the Cards didn't lose to the Bears by more than 31, they were guaranteed a wild card. Cards laid down, lost by 36. All or nothing at Dallas: down 1 point late, denied a chance at a winning FG when Dallas clock operator let time expire instead of stopping it when time out was called.
My other favorite playoff scenario videos (so far that I've watched) have been: 1. In 1970, how if certain game results were flipped; the Giants would have won the NFC East and the Wild Card could have been decided by a coin flip between the Cowboys and Lions. 2. How the Giants backed into the 1984 NFC Wildcard game ..... because every other team in front of them lost.
For anyone wondering how this tiebreaker actually shook out, consider this: The 2002 Miami Dolphins would not have made the playoffs even if the NFL were to add a fourth Wild Card team. Let me explain: After the final week, the Dolphins, Jets and Patriots were all tied for the AFC East at 9-7. The first tiebreaker, head to head to head, did not work because each team split 1-1 with each other team. Next comes Division record. The Jets and Patriots both swept the Bills, while the Dolphins got swept by the Bills. So the Jets and Patriots had division records of 4-2, while the Dolphins had a division record of 2-4. This eliminated the Dolphins from the division. (Now the Jets and Patriots entered a new tiebreaker for the AFC East division. NFL rules state that any time teams enter a new tiebreaker, they start over from the beginning of the procedure. The teams split their head to head games 1-1 and had identical division records of 4-2. But the AFC East also played the AFC West and the NFC North that year. Against those eight teams, the Jets went 5-3 for a common games record of 8-4 (counting their 3-1 record against their other two division opponents), while the Patriots went 4-4 against those teams, resulting in a 7-5 common games record.) So the Jets were division champs. And the Colts took the top Wild Card with a 10-6 record. But the second Wild Card was still up for grabs between four teams: the Dolphins, Patriots, Browns, and Broncos. Now, NFL rules dictate that the division tiebreaker must be taken care of first, and that any subsequent tiebreakers must use the same order within the division. Again, the Patriots and Dolphins had split their head to head series 1-1, but the Patriots had the better division record (4-2 to 2-4, by virtue of games against the Bills). That meant that the Patriots got to compete with the Browns and Broncos for the second Wild Card, and the Dolphins were eliminated. Now, a multiple way head to head tiebreaker between non-division opponents only applies if one team has beaten each of the others or if one team has lost to each of the others. The only game between the tied teams this year was the Broncos beating the Patriots. So the head to head to head tiebreaker did not apply since neither team played Cleveland. The next tiebreaker is the Conference record. The Broncos went 5-7 against AFC opponents, the Patriots went 6-6, and the Browns went 7-5. So the Browns made the playoffs as the #6 seed. Just for fun, let's break down the rest of the tiebreakers. The Patriots and Broncos would have entered a new tiebreaker for the #7 seed. Again, they had to start the procedure over from head to head. The Broncos beat the Patriots 24-16 in week 8, so the Broncos would have won the 7 seed. This leaves the Patriots and the Dolphins. The Patriots had already beaten the Dolphins in the earlier tiebreaker by virtue of Division record, so the Patriots would have taken the 8 seed and the Dolphins would have had the 9 seed. (The Jets went on to shut out the 5 seed Colts in the Wild Card round, 41-0, and then get crushed by the top seeded Raiders in the Divisional round, 30-10. Meanwhile, the Browns lost to the 3rd seeded Steelers in the Wild Card, 36-33, in what would be their last playoff game for the next 18 years.)
The league seemingly had an agenda to make Tom Brady a star. With the Dolphins leading by 11 with 5 minutes to go. Flags and pass interference penalties moved the Patriots to 1st and goal from the 1 yard line. It wreaked of an agenda. The home team gets the benefit of calls in the NFL. It's bad business to send paying customers home unhappy.
There is theoretically a scenario where all four teams in a division could be alive for a playoff spot and for the #1 draft pick entering Week 18. Let's use the NFC South as an example, since it's the only division that has had a sub-.500 division winner more than once. In Week 18, we have the 2-14 Falcons hosting the 3-13 Saints and the 2-14 Panthers hosting the 3-13 Buccaneers, all four teams having only won their divisional home games, and let's say that the other 28 teams are at least 3-13. Obviously, if only one of the home teams wins, the one that lost is 2-15 and gets the #1 pick, and the road winner gets the 4-seed at 4-13. But let's say that the pattern of home teams winning continues to hold serve, and both the Panthers and Falcons win. All four teams are 3-14, and they're obviously all tied on the first five tiebreakers--head-to-head, divisional record, record against common opponents, conference record, and strength of victory. This means we go to the sixth tiebreaker, strength of schedule, which incidentally is also the tiebreaker used for determining draft order among teams with the same record. And of course, in this scenario, the Falcons' and Panthers' unique opponents are top two in their divisions and the Saints' and Bucs' are bottom two...but those pairs' SOS's are *very* close. This leads to a situation where the games from the NFC East, NFC West, and AFC North decide the #1 pick and the NFC 4-seed. Eagles beat Cowboys and Seahawks beat Niners means Falcons win the division, other way around means Panthers do, a split means Falcons win it with Pittsburgh's result against Baltimore being better than Cincinnati's result against Cleveland and Panthers win it if Cincinnati's result is better. Meanwhile, a Giants win over the Redskins and a Rams win over the Cardinals gives the #1 pick to the Saints, a Redskins win and a Cardinals win gives it to the Bucs, a split means the Saints get it if Cleveland loses and Baltimore doesn't or Cleveland ties and Baltimore wins and the Bucs get it if Baltimore loses and Cleveland doesn't or Baltimore ties and Cleveland wins, and just for good measure, in the very specific scenario where the Giants beat the Redskins, the Cardinals beat the Rams, the Ravens and Browns _both_ win, the Patriots beat the Jets, the Broncos beat the Raiders, and the Colts beat the Texans, then the Texans can get the #1 pick (but *not* if it's the Redskins and Rams who win, because the Redskins were the Texans' unique NFC opponent).
The 1979 Washington Redskins were in that same scenario as the 2002 Miami Dolphins. Had those Redskins were to beat the Cowboys in week 16 at Dallas, they would have won their division and locked up the #1 Seed in the NFC. But because they lost, they were eliminated from the Playoffs giving the final NFC Wild Card to the Chicago Bears who beat the Cardinals by 36 points to qualify.
Interestingly enough, this was the first season with the 4 division structure. Kind of a foreshadowing to some of the bizarre things can happen as a result.
As a lifelong dolphins fan.. that year was 1 of my favorites as a season ticket holder we blew the brakes off the ravens, chargers, bears and patriots at home.. we had a bunch of home primetime games.. but we had some tough losses.. at buffalo in the snow when Ricky ran for over 200 yards and of course those last 2 at Minnesota and New England.. very frustrating 😕
As a dolphin for almost 30yrs, we had so many chances and options to make it to the super bowl in the 90s and 2000s, we simply say in the end .......Screw it! 🤷🏻♂️🤦♂️
8:59 "because I would be here for 45 minutes if I had to break down every single scenario." Man, you've already spent 9 minutes blowing smoke up our asses for clicks, what's another half-hour?
Ironically….the Patriots were also eliminated even AFTER winning this game and finishing with the Same record as the Dolphins AND getting this tie breaker. It ALL came down to CONFERENCE and HEAD TO HEAD Records. It was insane. 2002 was total insanity.
Dude, I love your channel. You present factual things that actually happened and not hyperbole (i.e. team so-in-so would have won if player A would not have gotten hurt) Thats speculation and sometimes good speculation, but bottom line, we don't know. We do know this crazy scenario actually happened. Something I wouldn't have believed until today.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were the #3 seed that year with a 10-5-1 record and would have been the #1 seed had they beaten the Houston Texans at home. Somehow, the Steelers lost 6-24 even though they outgained the Texans 422-47.
The Dolphins would have been out of contention for the top seed more than 12 hours before kickoff because the Raiders shut out Kansas City, 24-0, the Saturday before their game with New England. The Raiders-Chiefs game was on Saturday while the Patriots-Dolphins game was on Sunday. Plus, the Raiders held the tiebreaker over Tennessee because they beat them in their head-to-head meeting during the regular season.
@@ryanm.4519 Yes this was the year the AFC East and the AFC West just beat the hell out of each other! And I believe, teams like the Cleveland Browns were able to sneak their way in.
@@ryanm.4519 Yep, just like the Seahawks/Cowboys/Packers tiebreaker from 2014 that Cowboys fans are still bitching about to this day (another excuse why they haven't won anything since Clinton's first term). Packers and Cowboys didn't play each other, so it went to conference and the Cowboys win in Seattle meant nothing other than 'wow'--and had they been able to win at home they'd have had home field.
He has to be the worst coach in Dolphins history! Ironically the last Dolphins head coach to win a playoff game. But he and the organization really blew their window of opportunity, a great defense with what should be by now two future Hall of Famers,. Nice O-line and some pretty talented players on Offense. The arrogant refusal to Draft Drew Brees, pursue Trent Green, Kurt Warner even and the alleged botched trade of Matt Hasselbeck. As a Dolphins fan, looking back at this error of an era, this is when we really started to become like the Browns, Lions, Bungals, etc. Jimmy Johnson did some nice things but then he quit. I guess this all really started when ownership decided to shove Don Shula out the door. The man that literally made the franchise what it was at the time he was fired, the winningest franchise in NFL history.
Watching this a year later is really trippy, because right now my team, The Bills, will be the two seed with a win against the Dolphins and are going to be eliminated with a loss (Yea, I am assuming the Steelers beat the Ravens B-Team and the Jags beat the Titans). Literally the same swing in seeding 1 to 7 versus 2 to 8 with a win or a loss
You qualified it with "in the 4 division era", but this isn't even close to as bad as what happened to 1979 Redskins. You said that if Miami had beaten NE, they were 4th seed b/c Tenn, Oak, & Pitt all won. But with 1979 Wash, it was cut and dry in 2nd half of Dallas game: A) Beat Cowboys, and 11-5 Washington is #1 seed in 5 team NFC playoff field. B) Lose to Cowboys, and 10-6 Washington eliminated b/c lose point differential tiebreaker to Bears due to Cardinals laying down like dogs to Bears earlier that day 42-6. With 3:15 left, Wash had ball in Dallas territory leading 34-21, but lost on a Staubach comeback 35-34. I don't have time rn to look, but you MUST have done a video on 1979 Redskins. You are too knowledgeable not to have done so. But unless I missed it, you didn't even reference 1979 Washington in above video. That Skins loss was far more painful than 2002 Dolphins loss. Washington truly did go from #1 seed to eliminated from playoffs, by losing to Cowboys in gut punching fashion
2002 was the first year I really kept up with a whole season, so I have a lot of good memories of that year. But, I was highly upset that the Packers were embarrassed by the Jets. But, at least things were much better two weeks later, when they got embarrassed by the Falcons...
As a lifelong *Dallas Cowboys Fan*..I liked the Miami Dolphins as a side fan (I think all football fans have one, so no judging 😂). At first it was because I simply liked the colors as a kid..but watching The Miami Dolphins growing up in the 90s, they were a really good football team in the regular season and fun to watch (albeit at that point, a shadow of it's former and more successful championship seasons of the 70s & 80s) I had a blast watching them play.... Seeing Dan Marino play, I wish they could have put it all together in the playoffs to get #13 to one more Super Bowl.
In the old format we could of had a scenario like this in 2022. I remember the bills and pats had a shot of getting the #1 seed while also possibly falling to the #7 seed
Another bizarre playoff scenario: 1999 NFC. If one game (Giants-Cowboys) had had a different outcome, the final wild card spot tiebreaker would have been point differential--so the last game of the season saw the Panthers and Packers both running up the score, in pursuit of a playoff berth neither of them ended up getting.
The AFC West didn’t have a single team with a losing record either. The NFC South was kind of a runaway by the Buccaneers while the worst team was 7-9. And the Vikings were second in their division at 6-10. And it also featured the most recent double shutout of a division opponent as the Falcons beat the Panthers 30-0 and five weeks later, 41-0. It was a weird season
The title of this episode made me wonder if there was ever a situation where a team either missed the playoffs by winning their final game or made the playoffs by losing that game.
This #1 seed or out of the playoffs scenarios happened to the 1980 Patriots in the final week as well. They looked like the class of the AFC having the Conferences best point differential. Despite a 91% chance of moving on, 5 or 6 games went against them, many upsets, to leave them out. The promising team then nose dived for years
The Vikings were weird that year (so what else is new). Started 0-4, were 3-10 at one point, then won their last three. The Mike Tice years were...something.
The only teams that were already locked into the playoffs heading into the final week of the season in the AFC were the Titans (AFC South Champs), the Steelers (AFC North Champs), the Raiders (AFC West Champs), and the Colts (wildcard). The division champs seemed pretty simple. For those asking about Indianapolis, Indianapolis was the only team in the wildcard hunt that had 9 wins going into the last week of the season besides Miami. Miami owned the H2H tiebreaker with Indianapolis. However if both teams finished 9-7, this tiebreaker would be ignore since New England and/or NY Jets would beat Miami in their own tiebreaker and Indianapolis would beat the tiebreaker over NE and NYJ (conference record). Indianapolis also would have owned the tiebreaker over the Denver (H2H), San Diego (common opp), Kansas City (common opp), and Cleveland (H2H). Unfortunately, none of these tiebreakers were needed as the Colts beat Jacksonville and finished 10-6
2002 is also the first and, to date, the only time Brady missed the playoffs after starting all 16 games. 2008 doesn’t count as he missed 15 games when he got IR’d. The Jets, Pats, and Fins tied at 9-7, but the Jets clinched the AFCE due to them having a better record vs. common opponents than NE or MIA. NE then held the tiebreaker over MIA, but missed the playoffs after losing the conference tiebreaker to the Browns.
I believe this was the same situation with the 2015 Broncos going into their final game of the season against the Chargers. Manning had to go in injured for Osweiler in the 2nd half to get the comeback win.
The 4th qtr come back, Adam Vinatieri's clutch FGs and OT coin tossed more fuel onto the fire of the 'Phins-Pats rivalry. PATS come,-from-behind win a footnote in the GOAT story. ("Spoiler alert" - Brady, Belichick & NE would go on to win the next two Super Bowls, XXXVIII & XXXIX.)
Had to click off the video when I realized I was 8 minutes in and he hasn’t mentioned a single thing. 8 minutes in “but how is this possible??” Don’t know and don’t care ✌️
It's okay...Miami got the Jets back in 2008 for this as the Jets collapsed after an 8-3 start. Miami won the division after going 1-15 the year before.
The Raiders played on Saturday, so the #1 seed was off the table before the Dolphins kicked off. The Jets’ scenario: they were playing in the late window. If both the Browns and the Dolphins won in the early window, they would be eliminated. The Browns won, so it was all riding on the Dolphins result.
I don't want to be that guy to start talk about NFL Europe expansion, but it's displays of franchise ineptitude like here with the Dolphins in 2002 that makes me kinda want the NFL to expand to 36 teams + Europe, just so that we can adjust NFL Playoff tournament brackets.
@@matthewdaley746 The NFL doesn't revolve around your opinion, though you act like it does. For years I believed the NFL would never go back to LA, but of course they did. You don't talk about going somewhere for decades (as in putting a team there) and then never do it, which would be hypocritical on the NFL's part. It never ceases to amaze me how you zero in on my comments as if you have to contest me. You need to get a life in the real world, Matthew.
12 teams in the AFC that season finished at least 8-8. Of those 12, 8 finished with a conference record of 5-7 to 7-5. Of those 8, 6 finished with a division record of 2-4 or 3-3. Of those 6 only the Cleveland Browns made the playoffs.
In 2023, we saw a scenario where the bills got a 2 seed with a win, and if they lost (assuming the Jags won), they would be eliminated from the playoffs
There was so much more to that Miami-New England game. Bad pass interference call that the refs later said was a mistake, Wannstedt with HORRIBLE play calling near the end zone of 3 pass attempts instead of runs when you had a beast of Ricky that year/game, without taking time off the clock & NE not having to use all their timeouts. Just ridiculous. Oh well, first time in NFL history that 3 teams in the same division that year on the last week, all had first place during the day.
Their starting QB Jay Fiedler broke his thumb in the win that put them to 5-1. They had to rely on Ray Lucas under center for a good portion of the mid-season. That's what did them in.
@@ryanm.4519 Ray Lucas who looked pretty good as the Jets backup QB the year before in relief. Then Miami gets him and he sucks. That's so Miami Dolphins!
That’s what happened to the 1979 Washington Redskins . Lost to Dallas had they won they would have been number one seed in NFC. They lost in the final minute and missed the playoffs all together
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wanstedts play calling at the end of that game was pathetic
Going by your video on Mike Boryla (though there's technically two cause he was also part of the '71-'72 Stanford Rose Bowl champs), I think I know what tomorrow's is going to be😁
The same scenario happened in 1979 and it involved one of the greatest regular season games in NFL history. The game involved the Redskins and Cowboys. Due to the Bears 42-6 drubbing of the listless Cardinals earlier in the day (Bears needed to win by 32 points then needed a Skins loss to capture the final NFC wild-card spot) the Skins needed a victory over the Cowboys to make the playoffs. And a win would also give the Skins home field throughout the playoffs. After being down 34-21 with just 2:40 to play, Staubach brought the Cowboys back to win 35-34 in what would be his "Last Hurrah". The Skins left the field shaking their heads while also motherfu***ng the Cardinals.
Another weird playoff scenario is the 2010 Raiders. The team that swept the AFC West, yet still came in third place that year.
This is what happens when that team went 2-8 against other teams that same season.
This year's Texans finished with a 3-2-1 record against their divisional opponents, all of the team's wins (and tie) were against divisional opponents. Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos only had one win against a divisional opponent and finished with 1.5 more wins than the Texans. The Texans had more wins against their division rivals than the Denver Broncos had against conference opponents.
@JetFan92 AFC West when Manning went there was a MOFO.
KC managed to make the playoffs every year Alex Smith was there. Except one year where they had ( I think ) 10 wins.
I still find it hilarious that the 7-9 Seahawks won the division and beat the Saints in the playoffs lol.
My least favorite wild scenario is my 1980 Patriots who went into the final week with a chance at #1 seed, and over 90% chance at the playoffs and then 5 games went against them, many of them upsets
The only year the chiefs missed the playoffs with Alex smith was 2014 when they went 9-7. That was also the last year to date that the chiefs missed the playoffs
As a lifelong Fins fan, this video checks out with what it feels like being a fan of this team for the past quarter century.
Yeah Im a huge phins fan and it is extremely hard at times.
Don't remind me. Been a Dolphins fan for a long while. The team hasn't won a playoff game since December 30, 2000, and have been stuck purgatory of mediocrity since I've been a fan.
I been a fan since 1983.
@@charismatic9904 lucky they where good for a while Dan Marino 13🐬
Dolphins have been mired in mediocrity in the last 20 years with only just three playoff appearances in the last 21 years and one playoff win since Dan Marino retired after the 1999 season.
But the future is bright with Mike McDaniel and if Tua Tuafunga can stay healthy and stay off the concussion list the Dolphins can be successful just like the Don Shula days.
Yeah, I remember this season because the Ravens had to have 6 teams lose and win themselves to get in. The only reason they had a chance because they had a good conference record. I actually wrote down for my grandmother a list of every team that had to lose because she couldn't keep it straight. She loved football.
I was at that Jets Packers game 2002 week 17. What an insane environment. You could feel the electricity once the Patriots beat the Dolphins.
I remember this season i was a young kid asking my dad how the dolphins could make the playoffs and he just said "it's complicated but they just need to win"
I absolutely love weird scenarios like this. You did a great job covering it. This whole thing is so unbelievable either first seed or not make the playoffs. I doubt something like this could ever happen again.
16:58
“Adam Vinatieri has just kicked the field goal to give the New England Patriots a come-from-behind 27-24 victory, and now the Jets have all to play for, with the AFC East on the line in this game!”
“I’m getting confused, what game are you calling?”
“I’M CALLING BOTH GAMES!!!!”
and the famous Kevin Harlan line also had the Dolphins and Patriots involved.
I’m surprised the jets got it done, the jets we all kno n love would hav lost that gm lol
If NBC's Sunday night football with flex scheduling been in effect in 2002, the Miami/New England game would probably have been "flexed" to prime time.
most definitely. If I remember correctly, the Patriots beat the Dolphins in OT to give the division to the Jets
Yep. Every other game could potentially have been made meaningless: even ATL/CLE, if NE had won, IND had won/tied, and NO, NYG, and NYJ had all lost/tied.
However, just like in 2022 Week 18, there was a hitch in that NE could (and would) have been eliminated by earlier results. Specifically, a NYJ win + CLE win, NYJ win + DEN win, or NYJ win + SD win + KC loss/tie would knock the Pats out.
I just binge watch this channel in the background while working all day. Thank you sir for the classic content
"I'm just a baby 'cause the Dolphins make me cry" - Hootie and the Blowfish
Not often I’m this early on a vid love both channels tho man
Needless to say that was a weird year in the AFC. It could have been because it was the first season with four divisions. Even the Raiders (who were the #1 seed and won the conference) at one point lost four straight in October and were last in their division.
How about the NFC in 2002, the Saints started 9-4 and still no playoffs. Lol!
@Trancymind and swept the eventual Super Bowl champion Buccaneers
I remember how weird it was when they totally changed the divisions like that. Never mind that but moving the Seahawks to the nfc on top of it
Great videos, love the content. Keep it coming. 👍. A similar scenario happened in 1980, and you mentioned it. The Chargers were 10-5 and played a MNF game against the Steelers. Win and SD clinched the top spot and home field throughout the playoffs, lose and they’d be eliminated from playoff contention. SD won and finished with 11 wins. In fact, all of the AFC playoff participants finished 11-5, including the wild card teams. Had the Chargers lost, the Patriots would make it in at 10-6 and eliminate the Chargers.
They also would have eliminated the Steelers. The Pats, Chargers, and Steelers all would have been 10-6 in this scenario, and NE had the best conference record of the three. The Raiders would have had the 1-seed due to conference record (Cleveland would have been 2, and the Bills 3), and the Oilers would have hosted the Pats in the WC game.
@@jab1289
That is correct. What an exciting scenario. I just remember the Chargers and Raiders were neck and neck in the standings all season. Both teams split their regular season series. Chargers clinched the division over Oakland because of a better divisional record. Both teams end up playing each other in the AFC championship, with the Raiders advancing and becoming the first wild card team in the NFL to win the Super Bowl. Man, I miss those classic days of football.
That same year the Cowboys and Eagles met on the final weekend with Dallas needing to win by 25 points to win the division.
Early in the 4th they led 35-10 before Philly came storming to only lose 35-27, and gain home field for the playoffs.
Takes the phrase “Don’t get eliminated” to a whole new level
Right you are!
Babaganoosh
Props to the video maker, he could have just made a 5 minute video showing the records and talking about the final game, but he put the effort in to add 15 minutes about what the Dolphins players had for dinner the night before.
Hard to believe this was the last time the Jets won the AFC East
I feel like the 2002 AFC deserves its own video
📠
Vinetari's kickoff near the end of the game was absolute money
I forgot about the Dolphins' fate in all this. They didn't deserve a playoff berth given that they couldn't even beat the Vikings that day. Those Patriots, while short of where they were the season before, weren't awful. That was the last Pats team to miss the playoffs with Tom Brady playing the whole season. As for that Packers/Jets blowout, I remember it more for opening the door for the Buccaneers to grab the NFC's No. 2 spot and the 2nd 1st-round bye. All they had to do was beat a bad Bears side in Champaign, Ill. (Soldier Field was being heavily renovated) and they won 15-0 on ESPN's SNF. The rest is history.
My brain broke when you first mentioned Surtain lol. Was thinking how the hell PS2 was playing in the early 2000s and then remembered his dad was on the dolphins
At 12:53: "...strength of victory, or what your winning percentage is against teams that you beat". That would be a winning percentage of 100%, because you beat them. It should have been "the winning percentage of the teams that you beat".
This was most recent season in which #1 seed was 11-5. NFC wasn't as dramatic but Packers had chance for #1 seed and lost to Jets and became third seed, leading to shocking loss to Falcons.
That Falcons loss was the first time ever the Packers lost a playoff game at Lambeau Field.
I really think the packers let the jets win that game. I remember watching and thinking they just didn’t give a F if they lost
I feel bad for this dolphins team because they were 9-5 as of week 15, 2002 but then they lost their last two games of the season finishing 9-7, they had no excuse to finish with that record. It is always a major pet peeve when an nfl team is 9-5 then loses their last two games.
Excuse ...... Wanny
What most people don't know about this 2002 nfl season is that the Saints started 9-4 and still couldn't qualify for the playoffs in the NFC. Patriots won against the dolphins on the last game of the season in 2002 who were sitting 1st place in their division on the live standings and still couldn't make it to the playoffs.
Not as bad as three years prior when they were 7-1 and ended 9-7. Granted, they made the playoffs that year, but that ended in a 62-7 loss to the Jaguars.
@@aaronstark5060 the 1993 Dolphins have joined the chat :)
@@JeffWiersma the Dolphins had a 9-5 record or better, but then lose both of their last two games of the season four times in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2002
The 2002 Miami Dolphins were a heartbreaking team to watch. This team had the talent to go far, but they were held back by bad coaching and average QB play (that's being nice).
The most loaded Dolphins roster of the post-Marino era. 20 years later, it still hurts.
I love this video because it was the 2nd and last time the Jets won the AFC East . They were 9-7 and broke a three way tie .
My first year as a jets fan too and the start of true misery lol
The 2002 Dolphins were the best team of the last 20 years to not make the playoffs, NOT the 2010 Chargers!
This team was absolutely stacked! Still can't believe they only finished 9-7. They had the talent to go toe to toe with Tampa, Oakland, & Philly.
Fewer playoff teams, but Washington would have been #1 seed in '79 had they beaten Dallas. That loss and the Bears blowing out St Louis eliminated Washington from the playoffs.
And the Cowboys came from down two scores to win. That game broke my heart.
I never understood Wannstedt's desire to have Jay Fiedler as QB. Jimmy Johnson had set him up with a great defense, and all he had to do was pick Drew Brees in 2001.
One of my friends who's a Dolphins fan used to celebrate Dave Wannstedt Day on August 8th every year...8-8.
Wannstedt and the GM (Rick Spielman, I think) actually believed that Brees wasn't better than Fiedler, so they passed him up.
The Dolphins passed on Brees again in 2006 and made Daunte Culpepper their quarterback of choice in free agency.
@@jab1289 Wannstedt was his own GM (or at least in charge of player personnel). That was a big part of the problem.
I love this channel. Thanks for the countless hours of entertainment!
Dude your videos are absolutely incredible. But this whole thing could have been done in 5 minutes.
This unofficial Official Jaguar Gator 9 historian will remind everyone you made a video about what it would have taken for the Patriots to make the playoffs in 1980. The last piece would have been Pittsburgh beating San Diego in the last game of the NFL regular season on Monday Night. If that happened the Chargers would have been eliminated from the playoffs. By winning the Chargers got home field advantage in the AFC playoffs.
I believe the same thing happened in 1979 with Dallas and Washington. They played in the last game of the season, and the winner would be in the 1 seed. Dallas won, got the 1 seed, but Washington was out of the playoffs because of point differential with Chicago, who won 42-6 in their final game.
This was my first year watching football and the Miami Dolphins. I was a freshman in high school. I learned then, this team was gonna give me lifelong headaches. Still never seen this team win a single playoff game.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but had there been a 7th playoff team that year, Miami would still have missed it, as the spot would have gone to the Patriots.
(Had the Jets lost their game against the Packers, the Pats would have gotten the division, not the Dolphins)
If the Jets lost to the Packers we would have had Brady vs Manning in the Wild Card round
@@ericthomas917 perhaps that would have been a closer game that what we had. Jets slaughtered the Colts
@@ericthomas917 And barring the years they were both out injured, it was the only year they never played each other since Brady became starter.
AFC East was insane that year. Bills finished last with an 8-8 record.
2002 will always have a special place in my heart. That was the year I became a Jets fan. It was just an amazing run, capturing the division in the end.
AFC East and West divisions had every team who at worst had an 8-8 record.
@@vdubproductions2646 How about the Saints in 2002 in the NFC conference, they started their season 9-4 and still no playoffs! Lol!
@@Trancymind they were the NFC version of the Dolphins. Started off 6-1, then 9-4 only to lose their final three games including a head scratcher to a previously 1 win Cincinnati team to miss the playoffs
That season was about half of my senior year of high school. Fun times.
And didn't they destroy the Colts 41-0 in the playoffs? That is magical.
This is very similar to what happened in England 40 years ago in Division 1 (now the Premier League) with Luton Town & the final relegation spot. Heading into the final game of the season, Luton (who was 20th heading in) needed to win in order to stay in the league & could finish as high as 18th. I should point out that this was at a time in which Division 1 had 22 clubs as opposed to the 20 the Premier League has today. Meanwhile their opponents Man City (way before the 2008 takeover) only needed a draw to stay in the league & could finish as high as 16th if they beat Luton. However unlike Miami, Luton pulled off a remarkable shock 1-0 win in the last few minutes thanks to a goal from Raddy Antic over Man City relegating them to the 2nd Division & because Coventry lost their final game, Luton finished 18th. The 1982-83 season in English soccer was a weird one overall as Watford finished 2nd & qualified for European competition for the only time in their history while Chelsea (who are now one of the powerhouse clubs in the Premier League) finished all the way down in 18th in Division 2 (now the EFL Championship) & were 2 measly points away from being relegated to Division 3 (now League One).
I wonder if Chelsea would be the powerhouse it is now had they fallen to Division 3 back then?
@@adiuntesserande6893 they likely would have gone out of business if they did because they were in massive debt at the time. Not only that Stamford Bridge was falling apart & there were serious problems with hooliganism with multiple incidents (mostly on trains to away matches) involving Chelsea fans that season & a full blown pitch invasion at the last home match of that season that resulted in 90 arrests & 25 people injured.
Speaking of weird playoff scenarios, here's a complicated but mathematically possible scenario where a 15-2 team sits out January football:
-Two teams from each division in a conference must have 15 wins (eight total teams)
-Both teams from the same division must split their series
-Division ranking from previous year must align only with the tri-yearly rotating division (for example, if this scenario were to work out in 2024 and both the Steelers and Bengals were in this 15 win race, the AFC West teams vying for it would need to be the Broncos and Chargers. The 1's and 2's from the AFC East and South would also need to be in this fight.) The series between the two in the rotating divisional schedule would need to be split, though the two teams in each division must split differently.
-Obviously, any other game contested would need to be won by the teams fighting for 15 wins.
Assuming these scenarios all work out as required, eight teams would be tied at 15-2 with only seven seeds up for grabs. Barring the NFL changing playoff rules due to fairness, one of these teams would be left out likely through a seven or eight round tiebreaker.
In the 14-game era, a 9-5 record rarely got you into the playoffs. Double digit wins are still the standard.
The 1976 Bengals, at 10-4 were on the outside looking in that season's playoffs because two of the four losses were against the Steelers.
This happened to the Redskins in 1979. Not "could've" been the top seed, would've been the top seed. As long as the Cards didn't lose to the Bears by more than 31, they were guaranteed a wild card. Cards laid down, lost by 36. All or nothing at Dallas: down 1 point late, denied a chance at a winning FG when Dallas clock operator let time expire instead of stopping it when time out was called.
My other favorite playoff scenario videos (so far that I've watched) have been:
1. In 1970, how if certain game results were flipped; the Giants would have won the NFC East and the Wild Card could have been decided by a coin flip between the Cowboys and Lions.
2. How the Giants backed into the 1984 NFC Wildcard game ..... because every other team in front of them lost.
This was a heartbreaking ending to a Dolphins season. Choked horribly!
Thanks wanny
What about the ravens losing the last 6 of the last 8 to be eliminated
as a dolphins fan you just described any season that had promise in the past 2 decades lmao
Worse yet, it almost happened This season.
For anyone wondering how this tiebreaker actually shook out, consider this:
The 2002 Miami Dolphins would not have made the playoffs even if the NFL were to add a fourth Wild Card team.
Let me explain:
After the final week, the Dolphins, Jets and Patriots were all tied for the AFC East at 9-7. The first tiebreaker, head to head to head, did not work because each team split 1-1 with each other team. Next comes Division record. The Jets and Patriots both swept the Bills, while the Dolphins got swept by the Bills. So the Jets and Patriots had division records of 4-2, while the Dolphins had a division record of 2-4. This eliminated the Dolphins from the division.
(Now the Jets and Patriots entered a new tiebreaker for the AFC East division. NFL rules state that any time teams enter a new tiebreaker, they start over from the beginning of the procedure. The teams split their head to head games 1-1 and had identical division records of 4-2. But the AFC East also played the AFC West and the NFC North that year. Against those eight teams, the Jets went 5-3 for a common games record of 8-4 (counting their 3-1 record against their other two division opponents), while the Patriots went 4-4 against those teams, resulting in a 7-5 common games record.)
So the Jets were division champs. And the Colts took the top Wild Card with a 10-6 record. But the second Wild Card was still up for grabs between four teams: the Dolphins, Patriots, Browns, and Broncos.
Now, NFL rules dictate that the division tiebreaker must be taken care of first, and that any subsequent tiebreakers must use the same order within the division. Again, the Patriots and Dolphins had split their head to head series 1-1, but the Patriots had the better division record (4-2 to 2-4, by virtue of games against the Bills). That meant that the Patriots got to compete with the Browns and Broncos for the second Wild Card, and the Dolphins were eliminated.
Now, a multiple way head to head tiebreaker between non-division opponents only applies if one team has beaten each of the others or if one team has lost to each of the others. The only game between the tied teams this year was the Broncos beating the Patriots. So the head to head to head tiebreaker did not apply since neither team played Cleveland.
The next tiebreaker is the Conference record. The Broncos went 5-7 against AFC opponents, the Patriots went 6-6, and the Browns went 7-5. So the Browns made the playoffs as the #6 seed.
Just for fun, let's break down the rest of the tiebreakers. The Patriots and Broncos would have entered a new tiebreaker for the #7 seed. Again, they had to start the procedure over from head to head. The Broncos beat the Patriots 24-16 in week 8, so the Broncos would have won the 7 seed.
This leaves the Patriots and the Dolphins. The Patriots had already beaten the Dolphins in the earlier tiebreaker by virtue of Division record, so the Patriots would have taken the 8 seed and the Dolphins would have had the 9 seed.
(The Jets went on to shut out the 5 seed Colts in the Wild Card round, 41-0, and then get crushed by the top seeded Raiders in the Divisional round, 30-10. Meanwhile, the Browns lost to the 3rd seeded Steelers in the Wild Card, 36-33, in what would be their last playoff game for the next 18 years.)
The league seemingly had an agenda to make Tom Brady a star. With the Dolphins leading by 11 with 5 minutes to go. Flags and pass interference penalties moved the Patriots to 1st and goal from the 1 yard line. It wreaked of an agenda. The home team gets the benefit of calls in the NFL. It's bad business to send paying customers home unhappy.
Still the Jets last AFC East title
Yup
OH THE PAIN!-Joe In Saddle River
...and to think, had everything gone right this season, we could have easily had a 6-11 team win a division.
There is theoretically a scenario where all four teams in a division could be alive for a playoff spot and for the #1 draft pick entering Week 18. Let's use the NFC South as an example, since it's the only division that has had a sub-.500 division winner more than once. In Week 18, we have the 2-14 Falcons hosting the 3-13 Saints and the 2-14 Panthers hosting the 3-13 Buccaneers, all four teams having only won their divisional home games, and let's say that the other 28 teams are at least 3-13. Obviously, if only one of the home teams wins, the one that lost is 2-15 and gets the #1 pick, and the road winner gets the 4-seed at 4-13. But let's say that the pattern of home teams winning continues to hold serve, and both the Panthers and Falcons win. All four teams are 3-14, and they're obviously all tied on the first five tiebreakers--head-to-head, divisional record, record against common opponents, conference record, and strength of victory. This means we go to the sixth tiebreaker, strength of schedule, which incidentally is also the tiebreaker used for determining draft order among teams with the same record. And of course, in this scenario, the Falcons' and Panthers' unique opponents are top two in their divisions and the Saints' and Bucs' are bottom two...but those pairs' SOS's are *very* close. This leads to a situation where the games from the NFC East, NFC West, and AFC North decide the #1 pick and the NFC 4-seed. Eagles beat Cowboys and Seahawks beat Niners means Falcons win the division, other way around means Panthers do, a split means Falcons win it with Pittsburgh's result against Baltimore being better than Cincinnati's result against Cleveland and Panthers win it if Cincinnati's result is better. Meanwhile, a Giants win over the Redskins and a Rams win over the Cardinals gives the #1 pick to the Saints, a Redskins win and a Cardinals win gives it to the Bucs, a split means the Saints get it if Cleveland loses and Baltimore doesn't or Cleveland ties and Baltimore wins and the Bucs get it if Baltimore loses and Cleveland doesn't or Baltimore ties and Cleveland wins, and just for good measure, in the very specific scenario where the Giants beat the Redskins, the Cardinals beat the Rams, the Ravens and Browns _both_ win, the Patriots beat the Jets, the Broncos beat the Raiders, and the Colts beat the Texans, then the Texans can get the #1 pick (but *not* if it's the Redskins and Rams who win, because the Redskins were the Texans' unique NFC opponent).
The 1979 Washington Redskins were in that same scenario as the 2002 Miami Dolphins.
Had those Redskins were to beat the Cowboys in week 16 at Dallas, they would have won their division and locked up the #1 Seed in the NFC. But because they lost, they were eliminated from the Playoffs giving the final NFC Wild Card to the Chicago Bears who beat the Cardinals by 36 points to qualify.
Interestingly enough, this was the first season with the 4 division structure. Kind of a foreshadowing to some of the bizarre things can happen as a result.
Fact : the Jets clinch the AFC East over Packers
Lol
🤣🤣🤣
As a lifelong dolphins fan.. that year was 1 of my favorites as a season ticket holder we blew the brakes off the ravens, chargers, bears and patriots at home.. we had a bunch of home primetime games.. but we had some tough losses.. at buffalo in the snow when Ricky ran for over 200 yards and of course those last 2 at Minnesota and New England.. very frustrating 😕
As a dolphin for almost 30yrs, we had so many chances and options to make it to the super bowl in the 90s and 2000s, we simply say in the end .......Screw it! 🤷🏻♂️🤦♂️
8:59 "because I would be here for 45 minutes if I had to break down every single scenario."
Man, you've already spent 9 minutes blowing smoke up our asses for clicks, what's another half-hour?
This guy is pathetic.
Ironically….the Patriots were also eliminated even AFTER winning this game and finishing with the Same record as the Dolphins AND getting this tie breaker. It ALL came down to CONFERENCE and HEAD TO HEAD Records. It was insane. 2002 was total insanity.
Dude, I love your channel. You present factual things that actually happened and not hyperbole (i.e. team so-in-so would have won if player A would not have gotten hurt) Thats speculation and sometimes good speculation, but bottom line, we don't know. We do know this crazy scenario actually happened. Something I wouldn't have believed until today.
Similar situation to the 2023 Buffalo Bills
The Pittsburgh Steelers were the #3 seed that year with a 10-5-1 record and would have been the #1 seed had they beaten the Houston Texans at home. Somehow, the Steelers lost 6-24 even though they outgained the Texans 422-47.
Can you do Chris Hanson and the motivational axe?
The Dolphins would have been out of contention for the top seed more than 12 hours before kickoff because the Raiders shut out Kansas City, 24-0, the Saturday before their game with New England. The Raiders-Chiefs game was on Saturday while the Patriots-Dolphins game was on Sunday. Plus, the Raiders held the tiebreaker over Tennessee because they beat them in their head-to-head meeting during the regular season.
But the Dolphins beat the Raiders in Week 15, and Dolphins and Titans never played each other that year. Head-to-head tiebreaker becomes void.
@@ryanm.4519 Yes this was the year the AFC East and the AFC West just beat the hell out of each other! And I believe, teams like the Cleveland Browns were able to sneak their way in.
@@ryanm.4519 Yep, just like the Seahawks/Cowboys/Packers tiebreaker from 2014 that Cowboys fans are still bitching about to this day (another excuse why they haven't won anything since Clinton's first term). Packers and Cowboys didn't play each other, so it went to conference and the Cowboys win in Seattle meant nothing other than 'wow'--and had they been able to win at home they'd have had home field.
0:59 Didn't something very similar happen to the Colts in 1967? For #1 seed, although home field was on rotation.
He has to be the worst coach in Dolphins history! Ironically the last Dolphins head coach to win a playoff game. But he and the organization really blew their window of opportunity, a great defense with what should be by now two future Hall of Famers,. Nice O-line and some pretty talented players on Offense. The arrogant refusal to Draft Drew Brees, pursue Trent Green, Kurt Warner even and the alleged botched trade of Matt Hasselbeck. As a Dolphins fan, looking back at this error of an era, this is when we really started to become like the Browns, Lions, Bungals, etc. Jimmy Johnson did some nice things but then he quit. I guess this all really started when ownership decided to shove Don Shula out the door. The man that literally made the franchise what it was at the time he was fired, the winningest franchise in NFL history.
I forgot to add Trading a 2nd round pick for Eagles 3rd string QB AJ Feeley...(Face Palm)
Tom Brady last time not winning 10 games in a season until 2022
Only time he never made the playoffs when he started every single game of his teams' season.
Watching this a year later is really trippy, because right now my team, The Bills, will be the two seed with a win against the Dolphins and are going to be eliminated with a loss (Yea, I am assuming the Steelers beat the Ravens B-Team and the Jags beat the Titans). Literally the same swing in seeding 1 to 7 versus 2 to 8 with a win or a loss
You qualified it with "in the 4 division era", but this isn't even close to as bad as what happened to 1979 Redskins.
You said that if Miami had beaten NE, they were 4th seed b/c Tenn, Oak, & Pitt all won. But with 1979 Wash, it was cut and dry in 2nd half of Dallas game:
A) Beat Cowboys, and 11-5 Washington is #1 seed in 5 team NFC playoff field.
B) Lose to Cowboys, and 10-6 Washington eliminated b/c lose point differential tiebreaker to Bears due to Cardinals laying down like dogs to Bears earlier that day 42-6.
With 3:15 left, Wash had ball in Dallas territory leading 34-21, but lost on a Staubach comeback 35-34.
I don't have time rn to look, but you MUST have done a video on 1979 Redskins. You are too knowledgeable not to have done so. But unless I missed it, you didn't even reference 1979 Washington in above video. That Skins loss was far more painful than 2002 Dolphins loss. Washington truly did go from #1 seed to eliminated from playoffs, by losing to Cowboys in gut punching fashion
2002 was the first year I really kept up with a whole season, so I have a lot of good memories of that year. But, I was highly upset that the Packers were embarrassed by the Jets. But, at least things were much better two weeks later, when they got embarrassed by the Falcons...
So the Patriots actually closed 4 years in a row by winning a 3 point game.
2002.... the year of the 9-7 records
As a lifelong *Dallas Cowboys Fan*..I liked the Miami Dolphins as a side fan (I think all football fans have one, so no judging 😂). At first it was because I simply liked the colors as a kid..but watching The Miami Dolphins growing up in the 90s, they were a really good football team in the regular season and fun to watch (albeit at that point, a shadow of it's former and more successful championship seasons of the 70s & 80s) I had a blast watching them play....
Seeing Dan Marino play, I wish they could have put it all together in the playoffs to get #13 to one more Super Bowl.
In the old format we could of had a scenario like this in 2022. I remember the bills and pats had a shot of getting the #1 seed while also possibly falling to the #7 seed
Another bizarre playoff scenario: 1999 NFC. If one game (Giants-Cowboys) had had a different outcome, the final wild card spot tiebreaker would have been point differential--so the last game of the season saw the Panthers and Packers both running up the score, in pursuit of a playoff berth neither of them ended up getting.
Wow Dolphins, really??
(cue Billy Madison)
YOU BLEW IT!!!!!
I think the AFC East was the most competitive division in 2002 since all four teams didn't have a losing record.
The AFC West didn’t have a single team with a losing record either. The NFC South was kind of a runaway by the Buccaneers while the worst team was 7-9. And the Vikings were second in their division at 6-10. And it also featured the most recent double shutout of a division opponent as the Falcons beat the Panthers 30-0 and five weeks later, 41-0. It was a weird season
The title of this episode made me wonder if there was ever a situation where a team either missed the playoffs by winning their final game or made the playoffs by losing that game.
This #1 seed or out of the playoffs scenarios happened to the 1980 Patriots in the final week as well. They looked like the class of the AFC having the Conferences best point differential. Despite a 91% chance of moving on, 5 or 6 games went against them, many upsets, to leave them out. The promising team then nose dived for years
U can add this yr’s Bills to the list, they can either finish as high as the 2 seed or miss the playoffs altogether
The Vikings were weird that year (so what else is new). Started 0-4, were 3-10 at one point, then won their last three. The Mike Tice years were...something.
I just want you to know that as a Dolphins fan for over 30 years, this was one my saddest moments watching the team. Horrific collapse.
There was alot of choke jobs down the stretch in 2002: Saints, Patriots, Dolphins, Broncos, & Chargers
If the Jets also lost, Miami would be in as a wildcard and New England would win the AFC East.
The only teams that were already locked into the playoffs heading into the final week of the season in the AFC were the Titans (AFC South Champs), the Steelers (AFC North Champs), the Raiders (AFC West Champs), and the Colts (wildcard). The division champs seemed pretty simple. For those asking about Indianapolis, Indianapolis was the only team in the wildcard hunt that had 9 wins going into the last week of the season besides Miami. Miami owned the H2H tiebreaker with Indianapolis. However if both teams finished 9-7, this tiebreaker would be ignore since New England and/or NY Jets would beat Miami in their own tiebreaker and Indianapolis would beat the tiebreaker over NE and NYJ (conference record). Indianapolis also would have owned the tiebreaker over the Denver (H2H), San Diego (common opp), Kansas City (common opp), and Cleveland (H2H). Unfortunately, none of these tiebreakers were needed as the Colts beat Jacksonville and finished 10-6
2002 is also the first and, to date, the only time Brady missed the playoffs after starting all 16 games. 2008 doesn’t count as he missed 15 games when he got IR’d.
The Jets, Pats, and Fins tied at 9-7, but the Jets clinched the AFCE due to them having a better record vs. common opponents than NE or MIA. NE then held the tiebreaker over MIA, but missed the playoffs after losing the conference tiebreaker to the Browns.
I believe this was the same situation with the 2015 Broncos going into their final game of the season against the Chargers. Manning had to go in injured for Osweiler in the 2nd half to get the comeback win.
Sucks cause after we beat the Raiders week 15, we were sitting as the one seed, but still missed the playoffs by losing two straight.
7:19 that was amazing play by Moss
The 4th qtr come back, Adam Vinatieri's clutch FGs and OT coin tossed more fuel onto the fire of the 'Phins-Pats rivalry. PATS come,-from-behind win a footnote in the GOAT story. ("Spoiler alert" - Brady, Belichick & NE would go on to win the next two Super Bowls, XXXVIII & XXXIX.)
Had to click off the video when I realized I was 8 minutes in and he hasn’t mentioned a single thing. 8 minutes in “but how is this possible??” Don’t know and don’t care ✌️
I believe something similar happened with the 2015 Denver Broncos, or at least they weren't guaranteed a playoff spot going into Week 17
Miami could not win the strength of victory tiebreaker over both Tennessee and Oakland
The absolute best case scenario for MIA left them a few SOV wins short of TEN and OAK
When Brady and Vinatieri are involved, any seemingly impossible scenario is definitely within the realm of possibility
It's okay...Miami got the Jets back in 2008 for this as the Jets collapsed after an 8-3 start. Miami won the division after going 1-15 the year before.
And were one and done
We beat the jets ,to get to the super bowl in 1982,
The Raiders played on Saturday, so the #1 seed was off the table before the Dolphins kicked off.
The Jets’ scenario: they were playing in the late window. If both the Browns and the Dolphins won in the early window, they would be eliminated. The Browns won, so it was all riding on the Dolphins result.
I don't want to be that guy to start talk about NFL Europe expansion, but it's displays of franchise ineptitude like here with the Dolphins in 2002 that makes me kinda want the NFL to expand to 36 teams + Europe, just so that we can adjust NFL Playoff tournament brackets.
@@matthewdaley746 It's not like the NFL cares about logistical nightmares. If they want it, they'll have it. Doesn't matter what you or I think.
@@matthewdaley746 The NFL doesn't revolve around your opinion, though you act like it does. For years I believed the NFL would never go back to LA, but of course they did. You don't talk about going somewhere for decades (as in putting a team there) and then never do it, which would be hypocritical on the NFL's part.
It never ceases to amaze me how you zero in on my comments as if you have to contest me. You need to get a life in the real world, Matthew.
I love these videos
If there is a 3 way tie wouldn't head to head be the first tiebreaker?
12 teams in the AFC that season finished at least 8-8. Of those 12, 8 finished with a conference record of 5-7 to 7-5. Of those 8, 6 finished with a division record of 2-4 or 3-3. Of those 6 only the Cleveland Browns made the playoffs.
In 2023, we saw a scenario where the bills got a 2 seed with a win, and if they lost (assuming the Jags won), they would be eliminated from the playoffs
There was so much more to that Miami-New England game. Bad pass interference call that the refs later said was a mistake, Wannstedt with HORRIBLE play calling near the end zone of 3 pass attempts instead of runs when you had a beast of Ricky that year/game, without taking time off the clock & NE not having to use all their timeouts. Just ridiculous. Oh well, first time in NFL history that 3 teams in the same division that year on the last week, all had first place during the day.
Brady benefitted from a bad pass interference call? The heck you say.
Miami was 5-1 before they wet the bed. 2 losses to the mediocre bills ruined their chances of making the playoffs
Their starting QB Jay Fiedler broke his thumb in the win that put them to 5-1. They had to rely on Ray Lucas under center for a good portion of the mid-season. That's what did them in.
@Ryan M. Lucas threw 4 picks vs. Buffalo, 3 to 2004 pro bowler, nate clements, who also nailed the goat himself
The Dolphins motivational speaker also spoke to the Bills right before one of their games
@@ryanm.4519 Ray Lucas who looked pretty good as the Jets backup QB the year before in relief. Then Miami gets him and he sucks. That's so Miami Dolphins!
Wasn't this also the last time that an NFL division had all of it's teams with a .500 record or better?? Or am I forgetting anything??
That’s what happened to the 1979 Washington Redskins . Lost to Dallas had they won they would have been number one seed in NFC. They lost in the final minute and missed the playoffs all together