For the Bucs to make the playoffs, it may come down to the sixth tiebreaker between the Falcons and the Bucs. Which could bring them to the sixth tiebreaker: the crapshoot known as strength of schedule.
In this case, you add up the records of all your opponents, wins or losses. Since 14 of their opponents are common and since Seattle and St. Louis would have the same record in this scenario, then it would come down to the difference between Tampa Bay playing Dallas and Atlanta playing Philadelphia.
Again, this tiebreaker presupposes Dallas is 11-5. And the best record the Eagles could have is 10-5-1. So that means the Bucs would win the tiebreaker against Atlanta because of Philadelphia's 13-13 game against the Bengals, the NFL's first tie in six years. Of course this assumes the Bucs don't tank in their last two home games. It's a bit of a soap opera here. We have a perfectly capable receiver (Joey Galloway) who was inexplicably inactivated on Sunday. And I hope that Coach Gruden is more faithful to his wife than he is to his quarterback.
Not to mention that the great wizard of defense, Monte the Pewter, will be off to the U of Tennessee to join his kid at season's end.
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