RICH MACLEOD: the blog

How Stevie Johnson Changed the Face of the 2011 NFL Postseason

Now that the preseason is over and all eyes are looking toward the future 2011 NFL season, but today I’m taking one final look back at 2010.

A Week 12 match-up of the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t seem like a game with playoff implications at the time but that would change after a Buffalo comeback would force overtime. With the score tied at 16 with just over 10 minutes remaining, after a play fake, Ryan Fitzpatrick would make a perfect 39 yard throw into the endzone to a wide open Stevie Johnson for what looked like the game-winning touchdown. Unfortunately, Johnson would (in)famously drop the ball in the endzone and the Bills would go on to lose 19-16 in overtime.  You may be asking, “how did this change the playoffs?”  Well, here’s how…

The playoff seeds in the AFC were as followed:

1. New England Patriots
2. Pittsburgh Steelers
3. Indianapolis Colts
4. Kansas City Chiefs
5. Baltimore Ravens
6. New York Jets

The Pittsburgh Steelers finished the season 12-4 and in first place in the AFC Northern Division.  However, if the Steelers dropped that game in Buffalo as they appeared to have, this changes everything.  Not only would they have finished 11-5, they would have won the Wild Card instead of the AFC North, become the 6th seed because the Jets would own the tiebreaker after their Week 15 victory and that is when the playoff picture changes to this:

1. New England Patriots
2. Baltimore Ravens
3. Indianapolis Colts
4. Kansas City Chiefs
5. New York Jets
6. Pittsburgh Steelers

Now this may not appear to be a radical change but in fact it is.  Instead of the Colts playing the Jets in the Wild Card Round and the Chiefs playing the Ravens, that switches with Pittsburgh playing in Indianapolis and the Jets playing in Kansas City.  This also gives the Baltimore Ravens a bye-week and home field advantage.  Assuming the Jets would go on to defeat the Chiefs and the Steelers win over the Colts, there would have been no Jets-Patriots rematch and therefore, no monumental upset.  Say the Jets and Steelers both wind up in the AFC Championship Game as they did last season, the tables would have turned and the Jets would have been playing their first home playoff game in the Mark Sanchez era and who knows what happens then.

Looking back it’s amazing to think that a rookie wide receiver on the last place Buffalo Bills could impact the NFL postseason so greatly but there’s no doubt that he did.  Oh what would have been if Stevie Johnson made that catch… We can only wonder.