Nick Flick's Christmas Wish List

By Nick Flickinger, NYC Buffalo Bills Backers Columnist

With Christmas right around the corner and the playoffs nearing, Bills fans should ask for one thing. The playoffs. Now I know being 7-7 they might look grim, and with three other 7-7 teams and four 8-6 teams, the route is complicated and confusing. My article will be dedicated to sorting this very complicated process out, so every one knows whom to root for in McFadden's this weekend.

My list for Santa:
Bills to beat the Titans and Ravens
Jets to lose to Miami
Jaguars to lose to the Patriots or Chiefs
Broncos or Steelers to beat the Bengals

If jolly old Saint Nick grants me just these five gifts, we'll all be watching the Charging Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card round. Now obviously this needs some explanation. Why would we be rooting for the Broncos, Chiefs, and Steelers? It's all due to tiebreakers. If we win our next two games and all the 8-6 teams lose one we will have the tiebreaker over all of them. I'm actually not positive about the Bengals, it determines how the NFL values our two losses to their one loss against the Pats, and our must win against the Ravens to their 1-1 split with the Ravens. You'll have to call Roger Goodell to figure that one out. But for hope's sake I'm going to give us the edge. And for the rest of them I'm your guy.

So in an NFL 3 way or more tie, if two teams are in the same division it goes by division tiebreakers to immediately kick one of those two teams out. If the Jets lose to the Dolphins and the Bills win our next two we will knock them out of the playoffs. Sadly if the Jets beat the Fish we will be eliminated from the post season. No matter what else happens, if the Jets beat the Dolphins we're out, so root for the fish like you never have in your whole life. If we need any win more than the Bills this week its Miami. Please Joey, do it for all of us. But if J.P. beats Tennessee and Baltimore, and the Jets lose to Miami, we will have split head-to-head, tied division record, tied common opponents, and the Bills would take it in the AFC record.

That would leave us, Jags, Bengals, and Broncos looking for wild card dreams. Now if the Jags lose one of their next two, we win out and either, or both, the Bengals or Broncos go 1-1 the Jaguars will be eliminated, considering their AFC record would be lower than all three if the Bengals win, or just the Bills and Broncos if the Broncos win, so either way they would be eliminated.

And then there were three, the Bills, the Bengals, and the Broncos. In this situation, if Denver Beats Cinci they will be in the playoffs whether they win or lose to the 49ers. Leaving the Bills and Bengals in a convoluted head-to-head match-up that I explained in the beginning, but don't know the answer to. I think the Bills make it, but don't hold me to it. However if Cincinnati beat Denver then the Bills would make it only if Denver loses again the next week to San Francisco, or if the Bengals lose to the Steelers week 17. So lets just hope the Bengals lose their next two, it makes every thing a lot easier.

So for us to beat out Denver we need them to lose two in a row. I don't see that happening, but as it stands right now, the only must wins this week are the Bills and Miami. On a side note, if the Bills, Steelers, and Chiefs all go 9-7, the Bills make it over those two so I didn't discuss them, so don't worry about rooting for them. We actually could use big week 17 wins by both of them.

Recap: Order of importance this week.
1. Miami over the Jets (if we win it won't matter with if this doesn't go our way)
2. Bills over Titans (absolutely miniscule shot, but still plausible if we lose)
3. Patriots over the Jaguars (If this happens all we need to do is win to edge out the Jags)
4. Broncos over Bengals (We want this to happen, it's not necessary but it would definitely help.)

Get your different foam fingers out, we need to do a lot of cheering, but on the upside its very possible to expect the Jaguars to lose to either the Pats or Chiefs, the Bengals to lose to either the Broncos or Steelers, and for the Jets to lose to Miami. We're not just done yet.

On a quick, more dark side note, Al Wilson over London Fletcher-Baker in the Pro bowl?
Fletcher-Baker Wilson
Total Tackles 131 95
Solos 95 75
Sacks 2 1
Interceptions 3 0
Forced Fumbles 0 1
Recovered Fumbles 1 0
TDs 1 0
That's all I have to say on that subject.

First of all, forget fantasy we have a lot to deal with, the Bills come first. But if you must: Brees, Owens, and Tomlinson. Lock of the Week Bears -4.5 over the Lions.

E-mail feedback and comments to Nick at
sattt34 at aol.com

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