DiploBall 3, Week 20: The Falcons Bump

Man!  I am totally kicking myself for not picking the Giants.  In my heart of hearts I thought they were going to win, but the numbers weren’t supporting my theory… so I couldn’t justify picking them.

However, there might be some truth to my ‘Falcons bump’ theory.

In the last four seasons the Atlanta Falcons have made the playoffs three times.  All three times they lost in the first round of the Wild Card games.  In 2008/2009 they lost of the Arizona Cardinals and in 2010/2011 they lost to the Green Bay Packers… both teams went on to win the NFC Conference Championship for berths into the Super Bowl. 

Oddly enough… the season in-between (2009/2010), when the Falcons came in 7^th overall in the NFC, barely just missing out on a Wild Card berth, they came in second place in the NFC South.  Essentially losing their division to the New Orleans Saints… and you guessed it… that was the year the Saints humiliated the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl.

You get the idea.    

Does the ‘Flacons Bump’ really exist?  I don’t know… we’ll see.  Back in 2007 the New York Giants beat the Falcons in the third week of regular season and went on to win the Super Bowl… so… can beating the Falcons ago bring home the gold for NY?  As I said, “We’ll see.”

Week 20 Recap:

Only one person got three games correct this week, so we were close, but no cigar, for taping into the new ‘Perfect Week’ rule… and well… with so few points at stake, we were plagued with an abnormally larger number of ties.  14 people actually participated this week… and if you ignore the silly ‘tie break’ rule, we all landed in one of five placements:

1^st Place: Badger and EricC (4 points)

2^nd Place:  President Malaise (3 Points)

3^rd Place:  Robbins, VJ, Jp, Jim, and Pac12Bear (2 Points)

Honorable mention goes to Pac12Bear for getting three out of four games correct.  Unfortunately his 4 point weight on Green Bay didn't pay off.

4^th Place:  BigCat and Ryan (0 Points)

Last Place:  Ted, Steak N Potatoes, Big Dave, and Jeff (-4 Points)

With only two games this week there is a real shot at having a perfect week!  Who can do it???