I think there's a more important difference in class between 7-win and 11-win. But if you're not talking about the competence class a team is in, that you're saying is that bad luck puts ether class out of the playoffs, yeah.It happens every year in the NFL.
Two or three teams are juggernauts fighting for a ring.
Two or three teams are dumpster fires fighting for the 1st pick.
The rest of the teams are basically all the same. The difference between a 7 win team and a 10 or 11 win team is so minuscule. One ball bounces another way or one field goal drifts left instead of drifting right makes all the difference.
The highlighted reminds me of the infamous double doink. The Bears were 12-4. Eagles were 9-7. It doesn't matter that the Bears were 3 games better. Just the slightest change in any one of many parameters could have bounced it in instead of out and ended the Eagles season instead of the Bears.