A Tale Of Two NFL Finishes

After 11 games in their 2008 NFL season, the New York Jets and un-retired quarterback Brett Favre had an 8-3 record and looked like a solid playoff contender. They'd just finished knocking off the previously 10-0 Tennessee Titans, handing the Titans their first loss of the year. The future couldn't have looked brighter for Brett and the boys.

Just one week later, the San Diego Chargers lost to Atlanta and saw their record fall to 4-8. All of the sudden, the best that they could hope for, in the unlikely event that they could somehow run the table the rest of the way, was an 8-8 record. More probable was that they'd finish at 6-10 or some other sub-0.500 mark and slink out of the 2008 season as perhaps its biggest disappointment.

Today, though, as that season wrapped up, both teams' fortunes had incredibly reversed! The Jets went 1-4 in their remaining games for a mediocre 9-7 record that will see them watching the postseason on their big screen TVs, while the Chargers did climb up to 0.500 for the first time since the season started, and overtook the division-leading Broncos by smoking them 52-21 tonight! San Diego not only makes the playoffs at 8-8 but also gets to host next week's game against the Colts, despite having lost twice as many games this season as Indianapolis did!

Steelers QB "Big Ben" left today's game with an injury but sadly it doesn't sound like it's anything that'll stop him from playing in January. Way to get my hopes up for nothing!