Month: December 2021

The NFL’s premiere attraction of this holiday weekend won’t be played in primetime.

The 9-5 Patriots and the 8-6 Bills will battle for control of the AFC East at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Although it will be shown to much of the country, there will be three other games being shown on CBS at the same time including the Ravens at Cincinnati. Both teams are 8-6, and the winner will take the lead in the AFC North at 9-6.

The other two games being played at the same time are the Chargers at Houston and the Jaguars at the Jets.

The 8-6 Chargers, who trail the 10-4 Chiefs by two games, need a victory to stay in the wild-card race.

The significance of the Pats-Bills game is that a Pats victory would give them a two-game lead over the Bills with two left and would likely mean they will win the division and resume their dominance of the division without Tom Brady. Since the Patriots play the Jaguars next week, it is almost a certainty that they will win the division if they beat the Bills.

Kansas City and Green Bay, currently the top two seeds, will both be home and favored. The Packers host Cleveland on Christmas afternoon and the Chiefs host Pittsburgh Sunday.

Tennessee remained on top of the AFC South by rallying to beat San Francisco Thursday night. The Titans are 10-5 with a game lead over the Colts, who play at Arizona Christmas night. They are 8-6 and can remain a game behind the Titans.

The AFC wild card race is wide open with only three of the 16 teams having losing records going in the Christmas games. They are the Jaguars, Jets and Texans.

Dallas, which clinched the NFC East title Thursday night, hosts Washington Sunday night. The 10-4 Cowboys went into the Christmas games as one of four NFC teams with 10-4 record along with the Cardinals, Bucs and Rams. Green Bay is on top at 13-3 and those five teams are likely to make the playoffs.

The other two NFC spots are wide open with three teams at 7-7. The 7-7 Vikings face the toughest task against the 10-4 Rams. The 7-7 Eagles host the Giants and the Saints host Miami in a game in which both teams are 7-7. Miami and the Saints will play Monday night in a game that will have a playoff feel since the loser falls to 7-8. Washington goes to Dallas in the Sunday night game and the Washington team falls to 6-9 if it doesn’t pull an upset.

One factor that makes it difficult to handicap the weekend is because so many teams are losing players to Covid. That could have a big impact as teams may not know until Sunday morning which players will be available.

The Green Bay Packers played the Kansas City Chiefs in the first Super Bowl in Los Angeles.

Now they have a chance to meet again in the 56^th Super Bowl next February in Los Angeles.

They almost had a rematch in the 55^th game last year but Green Bay failed to make it when they lost to Tampa Bay in NFC title game.

This year with three games left, the Packers and the Chiefs are the two top seeds. Three more wins and they are in.

And the top seed is more important this year because in the era of seven game playoff formats, only one team gets a bye.

Kansas City took over the top seed with its overtime victory over the Chargers and losses by the Patriots to the Colts and the Titans to the Steelers. The Chiefs are now 10-4 and the Titans and the Patriots are 9-5. The Chiefs have the Steelers, Bengals and Broncos in their last three games.

The Packers are now the only team with an 11-3 record in the NFL after their victory over Baltimore, which went for a two-point conversion at the end for second time in three weeks instead of kicking an extra point and going to overtime.

The Ravens didn’t convert either time and are now 8-6. Cincinnati, which beat Denver, is also at 8-6 in the division but has the tiebreaker over Baltimore. The two teams meet Sunday in Cincinnati. If the Bengals win, they can lose to Kansas City the following week and still wrap up the division title with a win in the finale over Cleveland.

There is another AFC division game in which first place is on the line. The 9-5 Patriots face the 8-6 Bills in that game.

Tennessee has a one game lead over Indianapolis, which beat the Patriots, in the AFC Central but faces a tough Thursday night game against San Francisco.

In the NFC, Dallas has a four-game lead in its division and is a game behind Green Bay in the race for the top seed. The Cowboys beat the Giants to boost their record to 10-4.

Arizona also is 10-4 after being stunned by Detroit and the Rams improved to 10-4 to tie Arizona for first place with the Tuesday night win over the Seahawks.

Tampa Bay was blanked by New Orleans but is still 10-4 and leading the division by three games over the Saints. Tampa Bay has two games left with Carolina and a game the Jets so it is likely to finish at 13-4 and have a shot at top seed if the Packers falter. The Packers finish with the Browns, Vikings and Lions so they are likely to finish 14-3.

The Packers Cowboys, Bucs, Cardinals and Rams figure to get five of the seven NFC playoff spots. San Francisco at 8-6 is likely to get the sixth slot and Eagles, who beat Washington Tuesday night, Saints and Vikings at 7-7, will battle for the final spot. Three of the four NFC West teams – Cardinals, Rams and 40ers — could get playoff spots.

The only NFC division title up for grabs is in the West where the Cardinals and Rams are 10-4.

They don’t play each other rest of the way. Cards play Colts, Cowboys and Seahawks and the Rams play the Vikings, Ravens and 49ers.

The NFL race down the homestretch began Thursday night. And it could have an unusual twist.

The 32 teams head into the final four games of the regular season now that there are no byes left, and it appears that the road to the Super Bowl may be decided by which teams can find ways to stay a step ahead of the virus.

The NFL switched three games Friday because teams were hit by so many positive tests.

Saturday’s game between the Browns and Raiders was moved to Monday, while the Washington-Philadelphia and the Seattle-Rams games were moved to Tuesday.

There will now be just one game on Saturday, the night game featuring the Patriots at Indianapolis in what was once a great rivalry in the Peyton Manning-Tom Brady era.

The Raiders-Browns game will be shown Monday at 5 p.m.on NFL Network, while the Washington-Philadelphia and Seahawks-Rams games will be shown at 7 p.m. on FOX.

The big question is how many quarterbacks will be affected by the positive tests. For example, Cleveland’s two quarterbacks — Baker Mayfield and Case Keenum – have tested positive. If they aren’t back, the Browns will have to go with Nick Mullens, who was activated Thursday.

Cleveland at 7-6 can stay in midst of the wild card race with a win and even tie the Ravens for the lead if they win and Ravens lose to the Packers. Cleveland, Baltimore and Cincinnati could all be tied at 8-6 if the Ravens lose and Cleveland and Cincinnati win. The Bengals play Denver. The Raiders at 6-7 need a victory to stay in the wild card hunt and Raider owned Mark Davis was unhappy his game was switched.

The New England-Indianapolis game on Saturday night will be one of the two best games of the weekend. New England goes to Indianapolis and a victory would keep the Patriots at least two games in front of the Bills going into their rematch the day after Christmas.

The Bills are playing Carolina Sunday. Indianapolis needs a victory to go to 8-6 and stay within striking distance of Tennessee and remain in wild card race. Tennessee goes to 6-6-1 Pittsburgh, which is desperate for a win to stay in wild card race.

The other key game is Green Bay at Baltimore Sunday. If the Packers win their next six games – four in regular season and two playoff games – they will be in the Super Bowl. But since Tampa Bay figures to beat New Orleans and Arizona is likely to beat Detroit, the Packers need to win to stay in the lead in the battle for the bye.

Denver’s game against Cincinnati is critical for the Broncos, who are 7-6 and can remain in the wild card race with a victory over the Bengals.

Kansas City took control of the AFC West Thursday nightwith the overtime win over San Diego, which three times went for it on fourth down in field goal range and missed it all three times.

The Chiefs now have 10-4 record and a two game lead over the 8-6 Chargers.

Dallas, which plays the Giants, and Green Bay, which plays Baltimore, and Tampa Bay, which plays New Orleans Sunday night, have virtually locked up three of the four NFC division races.

The only undecided NFC race is in the West where Arizona, which has a two game lead over the Rams, figures to beat Detroit. The Rams are playing Seattle.San Francisco at 7-6 figures to beat Atlanta to stay in the wild card race.

Then there are five 6-7 teams fighting for the final NFC wild card spot — Philadelphia, Washington, Minnesota, Atlanta and the Saints. Two of them – Washington and Philadelphia – play each other in the game switched to Tuesday so one will fall to 6-8.

Atlanta, which plays San Francisco, and the Saints, who play Tampa Bay, also figures to lose to also fall to 6-8. Minnesota figures to beat Chicago to go to 7-7.

So by the end of the 15^th week, the Rams, 49ers and Vikings should be in place to get the three NFC wild card spots with three games left. There is only one game – the 49ers at the Rams in the finale — left involving those three teams the rest of the way..

It turns out the Arizona Cardinals apparently aren’t ready for primetime.

They brought a 10-2 record into their second prime time game of the season Monday night and lost to the Los Angeles Rams as Kyler Murray threw two picks. They lost their other primetime game to Green Bay, so they are 0-2 in primetime and 10-1 in the rest of their games.

The loss cost the Cardinals a chance to take a three-game lead in their division. Instead they are now only one game ahead of the Rams with four left.

Five of the eight division leaders–Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Dallas, Tennessee and Kansas City — posted victories while Arizona and Baltimore lost and New England had a bye.

Now all teams have played 13 games and it is a four week sprint to the end of the season now that there are no byes the rest of the way.

In the AFC three teams – New England, Kansas City and Tennessee — are all 9-4 in the battle for the top seed and a bye in the playoffs. Since the three teams don’t play each other in the final four weeks, the schedules will be important.

Tennessee figures to beat Pittsburgh, Miami and Houston but has a tough one against San Francisco. New England plays Indianapolis this week and is a slight underdog on the road and then has a rematch with Buffalo before finishing with Miami and Houston. Kansas City has three of its last four on the road including a trip to the Chargers Thursday night. Its other three games are against Pittsburgh Cincinnati and Detroit.

In the NFC, Arizona is now tied with Tampa Bay and Green Bay for the top seed at 10-3. The Cards have their second primetime game in two weeks, a Saturday night game in Indianapolis. They also play the Lions, Cowboys and Seattle.

Green Bay takes on Baltimore and Cleveland the next two weeks and finishes with division games against Minnesota and Detroit.

Tampa Bay may have the easiest road with two games against Carolina plus games with Saints and Jets.

The Buffalo Bills lost to the Bucs, falling to 7-6, two games behind the Patriots. And Baltimore’s loss to the Browns dropped them to 8-5, just a game ahead of the Browns and Bengals. The Bengals could have tied for first if not for the overtime loss to the 49ers.

Dallas virtually wrapped up the division title with the victory over Washington. It has a three-game lead over Washington and Philadelphia, but it is behind three other division leaders in the race for the bye so the Cowboys have an uphill climb in the battle for the bye.

Green Bay has a four game lead over the Vikings after the victory over the Bears so it is only playing for a bye the rest of the way.The Chiefs at 9-4 only have a one-game lead over the Chargers. The two teams play Thursday night in a pivotal game for both teams.

The Bucs have a four game lead over the Falcons and Saints after beating the Bills in overtime and like the Packers are only playing for a bye.

Twenty six teams are no worse than home game out of playoff picture with four games left.

The NFL likes to schedule division games late in the season, so it isn’t surprising that six division leaders will play division games this week.

One of them, Green Bay at Chicago in the Sunday night game, won’t have much significance because the Packers are 9-3 with a four-game lead in the loss column over Minnesota while Chicago is 4-8.

But the other five games will give division leaders a chance to solidify their leads. New England is the only division leader with a bye.

Baltimore, 8-4 in the AFC North, takes on 6-6 Cleveland. The Ravens have a one-game lead over 7-5 Cincinnati, which plays San Francisco, which is fighting for an NFC wild card spot at 6-6.

Tennessee at 8-4 in the AFC South figures to beat 2-10 Jacksonville to maintain its two-game lead over 7-6 Indianapolis, which has a bye.

Kansas City is 8-4 in the AFC West and meets the Raiders, who are tied for third with Denver at 6-6. The Chargers, who are second at 7-5, figure to beat the Giants and can tie the Chiefs if the Raiders pull off an upset.

Dallas leads the NFC East at 8-4 and can virtually wrap up the division title with a victory over Washington, which is second at 6-6.

Arizona, with the best record in the NFL, leads the NFC West and meets the Rams, who are second at 8-4. An Arizona victory would all but wrap up the division title. This is the Monday night game.

Tampa Bay, which is 9-3 in the NFC South, has a four-game leads over Carolina, Atlanta and New Orleans, who are all 5-7. So they are only playing for a bye.

But they take on Buffalo, and it is a critical game for the Bills. After their loss to New England Monday night, the Bills trail the Patriots by a game and will fall two games if they lose this game.

For the TV fans, CBS has the doubleheader with the Raiders-Chiefs and the Bills-Bucs game being shown to most of the country. Fox has a single game and will feature the Cowboys-Washington game.

So wins by Dallas and Arizona would enable them to join Tampa Bay and Green Bay that have virtually wrapped up their titles with four games left.

This is the last week of byes so all 32 teams will be playing the final four week of the regular season.

Parity continues to be the theme of the NFL season.

There has yet to be a team to emerge as a strong favorite to get to the Super Bowl.With five weeks left, 12 of the 16 AFC teams are at .500 or better. All four division leaders have four losses.

The battle for the top seed is wide open although New England at 9-4 is currently in the top spot with just four games left and one of them is against Jacksonville. The Patriots managed to beat Buffalo while throwing only three passes in windy conditions.

If the Patriots beat Indianapolis this weekend and win the rematch with Buffalo the day after Christmas, they should get the bye.

Baltimore had the top seed but suffered its fourth loss when coach John Harbaugh went for two instead of kicking the extra point to send the game against Pittsburgh into overtime.

In the NFC, Arizona has two losses and Bucs and Green Bay have three each and one of them will likely get the bye. None of top three NFC teams will play against each other in last five weeks.

The Cardinals, who boosted their road record to 7-0 with a victory at Chicago, have a key Monday night game with the Rams. They also have road games with Lions and Cowboys and home games with Colts and Seahawks.

Tampa Bay, which beat Atlanta last week, has home games coming up with Bills and Saints, road games with Carolina and the Jets and a home game with Carolina.

The Packers, who had a bye last week, have a tough game at Baltimore in two weeks but figure to beat the Bears, Browns Vikings and Lions in their other four games.

In the NFC division races, Tampa Bay and Green Bay are virtual locks with four games leads so all they have to play for is the bye the rest of the season.

Dallas and Arizona have two game leads over Washington and the Rams and since the Cowboys play Washington and Arizona plays the Rams, they both can boost their lead to three games with four to play and virtually lock up their division title.

In the AFC division races, Tennessee has a two game edge over Indianapolis but the Patriots, Chiefs and Ravens all have only a one game lead.

The NFL saved its best for last this weekend.

The weekend ends with a game with major ramifications in the AFC East and even the entire AFC as Buffalo hosts New England in Buffalo’s first home Monday night game in December.

Each team has four losses and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

New England, which has won six in a row with rookie quarterback Mac Jones, is trying to show it can be a playoff team without Tom Brady.

Buffalo started out 4-0 but the Bills are 3-4 in their last seven games and have had trouble running the ball, which has made them too one dimensional. And quarterback Josh Allen has made too many mistakes.

The Bills have spent the last two decades trying to end New England’s domination of the division. This is their chance to take a step towards ending it. The Bills play Tampa Bay next week and have a rematch the day after Christmas at New England, so they face several challenges down the stretch.

The winner of the Pats-Bills game also will have a shot at a first-round bye. Baltimore currently leads in the race for the AFC bye with an 8-3 record. Every other AFC team has four or more losses.

In another primetime game featuring contenders, Denver is at Kansas City Sunday night. The Chiefs are 7-4 with the other three division teams including Denver at 6-5.

In the key Sunday game featuring contenders, the Chargers are at Cincinnati. The Bengals are 7-4 and Chargers are 6-5.

In the Thursday night game, the Dallas victory over New Orleans boosted the Cowboys’ record to 8-4 and if Washington loses to the Raiders, the Cowboys will have a three-game lead in the division. The Washington team at 5-6 currently has the seventh NFC playoff spot. New Orleans fell to 5-7 after the loss. If Washington loses, the Falcons and/or Vikings can get to 6-6 and move ahead of Washington in the NFC playoff race. But Atlanta has the tougher task against Tampa Bay while Minnesota figures to beat Detroit.

In the other games involving contenders, Indianapolis is favored over Houston, Baltimore is expected to beat Pittsburgh, Arizona figures to beat Chicago and the Rams are likely to beat Jacksonville.

It remains to be seen if any upsets will scramble the playoff picture, Green Bay at 9-3 and Tennessee at 8-4 both seem playoff-bound and have byes.

The Packers, Ravens, Bucs and Patriots took positive steps towards punching their tickets for a berth in the playoffs Sunday. All are in first place with six games left after posting victories.

Meanwhile, the Rams, Colts, Vikings and Chargers all lost and may wind up settling for battling for a wild-card berth.

The 8-4 Titans lost at New England but stayed two games ahead of the Colts, who lost to the Bucs. The Bucs at 8-3 remained three games ahead of the Falcons, who beat the Jaguars. And two teams with byes, 9-2 Arizona with the best record in the NFL and the 7-4 Chiefs, remained in first place.

The Packers boosted their record to 9-3 and extended their lead to three games over the Vikings, who lost to the 49ers. The 49ers are in the wild card race at 6-5. The Vikings at 5-6 are also in wild-card race.

—Leonard Fournette scored four touchdowns in the Bucs victory over the Colts that kept them a game back of Arizona in the battle for the NFC bye.

—The Patriots are the hottest team in the league as they posted their sixth victory in a row with the triumph over the Titans. They now play the Bills twice down the stretch to determine if they will win the division title. They play the Bills on Monday night and the day after Christmas. The Pats are 8-4 and the Bills are 7-4.

—The Chargers fell a game behind Kansas City at 6-5 with loss to Denver. The Chargers, Broncos and Raiders are all tied at 6-5, a game back of the Chiefs.

—Washington’s victory over the Seahawks Monday night moved them within two games of the Cowboys in their division despite their losing record.

—The Rams went all in to win the Super Bowl this year but suffered their third loss in a row when they lost to the Packers. They’re 7-4 in second place in their division, two games back of the Cardinals and just a game ahead of the 49ers. They figure to beat the 2-9 Jaguars this week, but may have to settle for a wild card spot if Arizona doesn’t stumble.

—Cincinnati routed the Steelers and are a game back of the Ravens at 7-4. The Steelers are 5-5-1 and not looking like a contender.

—Although the Ravens are only a game ahead of Cincinnati at 8-3 after beating the Browns, they have the best record in the AFC. The critical loss dropped the Browns to 6-6 and they are now battling for a wild card spot. If they had beaten the Ravens, they would have been a game out of first place. Now they are three back.

—The NFC race is so wild that Washington’s third straight win over Seattle made them one of four teams at 5-6 battling for the final NFC playoff spot. The other three are Saints, Falcons and Vikings with Washington currently having the tie breaker. Washington is also now just two games behind the Cowboys in their division.

—So unless one of the 5-6 teams finishes 4-2, a team with a losing record at 8-9 will get the seventh NFC playoff spot. That is the downside of having seven teams in each conference in the playoffs.

—So with six games left, there is one two-loss team (Arizona), three three-loss teams (Packers, Bucs and Ravens), seven four-loss teams, five five-loss teams and six-six loss teams. That means 11 teams with two, three or four losses have the inside track on the 14 playoff spots and if all 11 make it, three of the 11 teams with five and six losses will have to fight for the final three slots. The 10 teams with seven or more losses are the longest of long shots.