Icness wrote: Would people rather they lose to a sub-.500 team or two instead of losing to a powerful team? It often seems like that. Atlanta hadn't played much of a schedule, they lose to a quickly improving Carolina team and get pilloried. Then they beat the living crap out of the vaunted Giants. If that tells you anything, it's that fussing about an easy schedule is pointless. For years the Colts had a cupcake division but they still wound up having decent playoff success.
I certainly agree that there's no such thing as an easy game in the NFL, and that a win should be valued and respected regardless of opponent. And as you mentioned, any team good or bad can beat any other team on a given Sunday. But over a period of games, the strength of your schedule can definitely have an affect on your record, or your performance. I don't think the Seahawks would have trashed their last two opponents by 50 each if their opponents had been the Broncos and 49ers instead of the Bills and Cardinals.
History says Manning is prone to mistakes when he feels pressure. The pressure teams will put on him in the playoffs is only going to inrease, and the combination of Manning not trusting his offensive line the way he has in years past, and the fact that they legitimately aren't as good as the lines he's had in years past, leads me to suspect they'll probably not make it to the Superbowl. I envision at least one game on the way there where errors end up costing them.
