Week Seventeen -- A Look (Way) Ahead

The NFL must be very pleased with the situation in the AFC. While the NFC playoff invitations are all addressed and it's now only a matter of seating arrangements, the AFC only has 5 teams that are technically eliminated from playoff contention entering the final week of the season.

The Colts, Chargers, Bengals, and Patriots are all in. Meanwhile, the Ravens, Jets, Broncos, Steelers, Texans, Jaguars, and Dolphins are ALL competing for the two wild card spots. That makes for an amazing percentage of Week 17 games that have playoff significance. And other games without postseason implications no doubt have coaching implications (e.g., Jacksonville at Cleveland, Chicago at Detroit).

Meanwhile, for our purposes, this week's games are all about who and where we play. Green Bay will end up as either the #5 or #6 team in the NFC. According to i94sports.com, we could find ourselves playing in any of three different places in the first round of the playoffs.

The simplest formula is this: If we win on Sunday, we'll be back in Arizona the following week to play the Cardinals again.

Even if we lose to Arizona, we might still be back there the following week. On the other hand, it is possible that we might play in Dallas or in Minnesota.

No matter how you slice it, our first-round game will be a re-match. It will either be an immediate re-match with the Cardinals, or a chance to beat the Cowboys again, or an opportunity for revenge against the Vikings.

Any of our three options will be meteorologically friendly -- no frozen tundra in Arizona, Texas, or the Metrodome. If I had to lose to someone, I would find it less noxious to lose to the Cardinals than to the Cowboys or Vikings. But if there is one team I would really like to beat and knock out of the playoffs, of course, it's Minnesota.

I can't root for the Packers to lose, and so I will effectively be cheering for a Cardinal re-match. But if Green Bay does lose in Arizona, then I shall hope that the Cowboys and Vikings lost, which would earn us a date with the Vikings the following week. It would be the shortest trip, the best-known opponent, and the very sweetest victory.