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Even with the most wins in the NFC South, the Saints would still miss the playoffs

(AP Photo/Bill Haber)

(AP Photo/Bill Haber)

Respective wins in Week 16 set up an NFC South title game between the 6-9 Atlanta Falcons and 6-8-1 Carolina Panthers this coming Sunday, with the New Orleans Saints left out of the playoff hunt despite also owning a 6-9 record.

Even if the Saints get to seven wins by defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 17, they would fall behind a victorious Panthers team (7-8-1) based on record or lose a tiebreak to a fellow 7-9 Falcons team that beat them twice this season.

But what if the Falcons and Panthers tie and the Saints win? At 7-9, New Orleans would seem to have a higher winning percentage than a 6-8-2 Carolina team, but as Pro Football Talk explained, that’s not the way the NFL calculates it.

What happens is that the Saints and Panthers would, in the eyes of the NFL, be tied.  The NFL considers a tie as one-half of a win; at 7-9 for the Saints and 6-8-2 for the Panthers, the two teams would have identical winning percentages of 43.75 percent.  With the head-to-head tiebreaker a 1-1 split of their series, the Panthers would eke out the division tiebreaker with a 3-2-1 mark over the Saints’ 3-3 record.

Sorry Sean Payton.

(AP Photo/Bill Haber)

(AP Photo/Bill Haber)

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