Tough road to climb

For teams wishing to unseat the Howard/Martin combo, it will not be easy considering the fact everybody else has at least one loss and they are at 3-0.
Here's the really bad news for the other 10 teams, no matter where you finish, if you're not in the 1-2 playoff game on Friday you're pretty much SOL. On top of that, it's best to be in first place.
Since the page playoff system was instituted in 1995, no team at the Brier has ever come from the 3-4 game to win the Brier.
Sure it's been done at the Scotties (it's becoming Jennifer Jones's M.O.) but it just doesn't happen at the Brier.
In those 14 Briers, the first place team has been the winner of the Brier all but three times. The other three — Jeff Stoughton in 1996, Kevin Martin in 1997 and J.M. Menard in 2006 — were all second place and the first two had won the 1-2 playoff game.
As an added bonus, the winner of the 3 vs 4 game has won the semifinal only four times —
2001, fourth place Manitoba (Burtnyk) won the semi over second place Ontario (Middaugh) but lost to first place Alberta (Ferbey) in the final;
2003, third place Nova Scotia (Dacey) won the semi over second place B.C. (Ryan) but lost to first place Alberta (Ferbey) in the final;
2005, third place Nova Scotia (Adams) won the semi over second place Manitoba (Dutiaume) but lost to first place Alberta (Ferbey) in the final;
2008, third place Ontario (Howard) won the semi over second place Saskatchewan (Simmons) but lost to first place Alberta (Martin) in the final.
So if anybody wants a chance they have to muscle past either of the top two before we get to the playoffs.