Let’s take a step back from the ledge for a moment and look at the big picture. The Pittsburgh Riverhounds currently sit in 14th place out of 14 teams in the league. The club has played 12 of 28 matches, with seven points to show for their troubles. Dire reading, to be sure.

However, what is it going to take, from a pure results approach, to find themselves in the playoffs? While nothing is assured, we can use the last two USLPro seasons (in which they’ve used a single table format) as a barometer to gauge what probably needs to happen to finish no worse than eighth place.

In 2012, the top six teams made the playoffs out of an 11 team field. In 2013 and 2014, the playoffs have expanded to eight clubs. While, six teams is clearly less than eight, as a percentage of the entire league it’s a close comparison. (~55% in 2012, 61.5% in 2013, ~57% in 2014)

For the 2012 campaign, the Harrisburg City Islanders took the final playoff position with 37 points in a 24 game season, which equates to 1.54 points per game earned by the Islanders.

Last season, the Dayton Dutch Lions took the final spot, also with 37 points in a 26 game schedule. However, since every team in the league took the maximum six points off a lifeless Antigua squad, we’re going to throw away those results, and look at Dayton as having made the playoffs with 31 points in a 24 game schedule. This would come out to 1.29 points per game earned by Dayton.

Average the necessary PPG to make the playoffs from the last two season, and we’re looking at 1.415 points, or a 39.62 point season, rounding up to 40 points.

After 12 games, the Hounds sit at seven points, or .59 PPG. To reach the 40 point mark, the Hounds will need to be play 2.06 PPG soccer the rest of the season.

A more optimistic view, would be to look at the adjusted 1.29 PPG from last season. Using that number, the playoffs are within reach at 36.12 points, rounding up to 37. To reach that mark, the Hounds will need to play at a 1.875 PPG clip, the rest of the season.

You may, now, choose to step back up on the ledge…