Month: December 2022

The playoff picture will become a bit clearer this week, but at least one division title will still up be for grabs in the final weekend of the season in two weeks..

Regardless of how the Titans, who have lost five in a row, and the Jaguars do against the Cowboys and Texans this week, their game in the final weekend of the season will decide the AFC South.

Tampa Bay can clinch the NFC South by beating Carolina although the 6-9 Panthers could still win it with an 8-9 record by beating the Bucs and Saints in their final two games. A Tampa Bay victory would put Tom Brady back in the playoffs after his team struggled much of the year.

Buffalo, Kansas City have clinched division titles in the AFC while Cincinnati is a game ahead of Baltimore in the AFC North but both teams have clinched playoffs spots. Philadelphia, Minnesota and San Francisco have clinched NFC division titles. 

The 8-6-1 Giants can clinch a wild card spot by beating the hapless Colts. Coach Jeff Saturday fell to 1-5 when he started Nick Foles, who was rusty after seeing little action the last two years and threw three picks in a loss to the Chargers. The 7-7-1 Commanders can keep the lead in the battle for the final wild card spot by beating the Browns, who are eliminated at 6-9. The Commanders need to win their last two against the Browns and Cowboys to clinch a playoff berth.

The key game of the weekend is the Monday night game with the 12-3 Bills at the 11-4 Bengals. The Bills need a victory over the Bengals to keep its tie break lead over 12-3 Kansas City in the battle for the top seed. The Bengals need a victory to keep a game ahead of the Ravens, who play the Steelers, in the fight for the AFC North Division title. A Bengals victory would also put them in play to get the top seed.The 7-8 Steelers are still alive in the playoff race but are a longshot because of theri 3-7 conference record. 

One of the more interesting games pits the sagging 8-7 Dolphins against the 7-8 Patriots. The Dolphins can clinch a playoff berth with a victory but the Dolphins will probably be going with Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback because Tua Tagovailoa is in the concussion program. The Patriots make the playoffs if they beat Miami and Buffalo in their last two regular season games.

The Chiefs should have an easy game against the Broncos, who fired Coach Nathaniel Hackett after they were routed by the Rams.

The Jets meet the Seahawks with both teams at 7-8fighting for a wild card spot in their respective conferences.

The surging 11-4 49ers figure to eliminate the 6-9 Raiders.

Philadelphia can clinch the top seed in the NFC by beating the Saints.

The Vikings have wrapped up the division title with a 12-3 mark but they have 11 one score victories and the skeptics wonder if they are for real. They are actually underdogs against the 7-8 Packers, who are still alive in the wild card race.

The 7-8 Lions stumbled against Carolina last week but hope to stay alive by beating the Bears.

Only one game — Cardinals at the Falcons – will pit two teams that are already eliminated.

Nine down, five to go.

That’s the way the playoff picture looks after the Los Angeles Chargers became the ninth team to clinch a playoff spot Monday night when they beat the Indianapolis Colts to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and the first time in the Justin Herbert era.

Five teams are now guaranteed spots in the AFC playoffs. The sixth spot will go to the winner of the AFC South, which will decided in the final weekend of the season when the Jaguars play the Titans. Both teams are 7-8.

The seventh spot will go to the final wild card team. The Dolphins, Patriots, Jets, Raiders and Steelers are all fighting for that spot but Miami suffered a blow when Tua Tagovailoa suffered his third concussion of the season. His status is listed as uncertain for the Patriots game but it is difficult to believe the Dolphins will risk his health by putting him back on the field so their playoff hopes are in the hands of Teddy Bridgewater.

Three teams — Buffalo, Kansas City and Cincinnati — are all battling for the top seed. Buffalo can clinch by winning its final two games Cincinnati and Baltimore are still battling for the AFC North title. One will win it and the other will be a wild team. The Bengals are currently 11-4 while the Ravens are 10-5. The Ravens can winthe division but are out of the winning for the top seed. Buffalo and Kansas City have clinched division spots.

In the NFC, Philadelphia failed to clinch the top seed when it lost to Dallas, but still needs to win only one of its last two games to wrap it up and will be favored to do it against the Saints in their next game.

Minnesota and San Francisco have clinched division titles and Tampa Bay can clinch by beating the 6-9 Panthers. The Panthers can still win the division if they beat the Bucs and Saints in their last two games. The Panthers ran for 320 yards to beat the Lions to stay alive.

Dallas has clinched one wild card spot but the other two are up for grabs. The Giants at 8-6-1 and the Commanders at 7-7-1 currently have the two spots but the 7-8 Packers, Lions and Seahawks and the 6-9 Panthers and Saints are still alive.

The Rams-Broncos game was not expected to be significant since both teams were eliminated but when the Broncos were routed 51-14, the new owners had seen enough and fired Nathanial Hackett.

There was a time the NFL didn’t play on Christmas Day.

Times are changing. The NFL has a tripleheader scheduled for Christmas Day but the matchups aren’t very good.

Green Bay plays at Miami on Fox at 1 p.m. while Denver is at the Rams at 4:30 on CBS and the Bucs are at Arizona on NBC Sunday night.

Three of those teams – Denver, the Rams and Arizona –have been eliminated and Green Bay has a slim wild card spot at 6-8 so the games aren’t compelling.

The Christmas Eve late game Saturday night has the Raiders at Pittsburgh the day after the 50^th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception on the NFL network.

It will now be a tribute to Franco Harris, who snared the ball inches off the ground and ran for the touchdown. He died Wednesday. The Steelers had already planned to retire his number 32 at the game.

The Thursday night Amazon Prime game is features the struggling Jets against the surging Jaguars, who can win the division if they win their final three games.

The Monday night game pits the Chargers against the Colts, who have benched Matt Ryan a second time and will start Nick Foles.

CBS main single game Sunday is Cincinnati at New England. In the other CBS early games, Buffalo, which needs a win to stay on top in the battle for the top seed, goes to Chicago, Houston goes to Tennessee, which will start rookie  Willis Malik because Ryan Tannenhill is injured,  and New Orleans is at Cleveland.

In the late game, Washington is at San Francisco. Washington is fighting for a wild card spot while the 49ershave clinched their division.

The Fox leading early game has Seattle, trying for a wild card spot, going to Kansas City, which is still trying to get the top seed. The other three are the Giants at Baltimore and Detroit at Carolina. 

Their only late game has Philadelphia going to Dallas, a game that has lost much of its significance since Philadelphia needs to win only one of its late three to get the top seed and Dallas has clinched a wild card spot.

Don’t touch that dial.

That seemed to be the message from the NFL last weekend as it showed that no lead is ever safe.

The Minnesota Vikings came back from a 33 point deficit to beat the Colts in the biggest comeback ever, overshadowing the Jaguars and Bengals both coming back from 17 point deficits to beat the Cowboys and the Bucs.

And the Bills made an interesting move to beat the Dolphins and clinch a playoff spot as time expired. Instead of trying to score a touchdown with about 30 seconds left and giving Miami time for a comeback, they let the clock run down before Tyler Bass kicked a field goal to win it.

The Bills took the chance he would make it in a snowstorm and he did. The Bills obviously remembered their playoff loss last year to the Chiefs when they scored to take the lead with 13 seconds left in regulation and lost in overtime.

And then there was the wild finish to the Raider-Patriot game.

Despite all that drama, there isn’t a lot of drama involving the race for the top playoff spots.

The Eagles victory over the Bears combined with Dallas loss to Jacksonville means the Eagles only have to win one of their last three to clinch the top seed. They have already clinched a playoff spot. So their Christmas Eve game with the Cowboys doesn’t have much at stake for either team. Despite their loss the Jaguars, the Cowboys clinched a wild card spot.

The Vikings and 49ers have clinched division titles so the Eagles, Cowboys, Vikings and 49ers are all in and one of them figures to be in the Super Bowl. The other three spots will be window dressing.

In the NFC South, for example, the Bucs lead at 6-8 while the other three teams are 5-9. The Giants and Commanders currently have the sixth and seventh spots at 8-5-1 and 7-6-1. The Lions and Seahawks both have a shot at the final spot. They are 7-7. 

The team with the best chance of stopping the Eagles is the 49ers, who may have the best team. But they have a rookie at quarterback in Brock Purdy, who has played d well but it is difficult to imagine a rookie drafted on the seventh round getting to the Super Bowl. 

In the AFC, only two teams – Buffalo and Kansas City – have clinched a playoff spot. They are both 11-3 after the Chiefs had to go to overtime to beat the Texans. Buffalo has the tie-break because they beat the Chiefs. The two teams figure to meet in the AFC title game.

The Bengals, attempting to become only the second Super Bowl loser to win it the following year since 1972, are the one team that could have a shot to upend one of the top two after their comeback against the Bucs. they are 10-4 and have a game lead in the AFC North on the 9-5 Ravens, who could wind up as a wild card team.

The Chargers and Dolphins figure to get wild card spots. They’re both 8-6 and currently have the sixth and seventh spots.

Tennessee at 7-7 and the Jaguars are 6-8 are likely headed towards playing for the division title in the season finale. At one point the Titans were 7-3 and the Jaguars were 3-7 but the Titans are struggling while the Jaguars are surging.

Only five teams – Texans, Bears, Browns, Rams and Arizona – have been eliminated with five games left. The Rams suffered the worst Super Bowl hangover ever after winning it last year.

The Jaguars will play their biggest game in four or five years Sunday when they host the Dallas Cowboys for the first time in 16 years.

Not since their 2017 playoff game against the Bills or the 2018 regular-season game against the Patriots has a game had so much anticipation and buzz for the Jaguars.

But the interesting thing is that it is not the only important game for the Jaguars on Sunday.

Even if they beat the Cowboys, they need the Titans to lose to the Chargers on Sunday.

A Jaguars win and a Titans loss would leave the Jaguars at 6-8 and the Titans at 7-7. That would mean if the Jaguars beat the Jets and Texans and Titans beat Houston and lose to Dallas, both teams would be 8-8 and they would play for the division title in the season finale.

Shades of 1999.

Surprisingly enough, the Jaguars could lose to the Cowboys and beat the Jets and Houston and if the Titans lose to the Chargers and Cowboys and beat Houston, the two teams would still play for the division title.

The Titans would be 8-8 and the Jaguars 7-9 and if the Jaguars won they would win the division title at 8-9 because they would have the tiebreaker by sweeping the Titans.

But if the Titans beat the Chargers and the Jaguars lose to the Cowboys, the Titans would be 8-6 and the Jaguars 5-9. The Titans would then win the division by beating the Texans. Either way, the important thing is the Jaguars are playing meaningful games in December.

And the bottom line is that win or lose against the Cowboys, the Jaguars focus will turn to the Tennessee-San Diego game.

There will be six national telecasts this weekend, including a tripleheader on Saturday on the NFL Network.

The weekend starts with San Francisco going to Seattle on Thursday night in a division battle between the top two teams in the NFC West. The 49ers are 9-4, while the Seahawks are 7-6 and currently seeded eighth. The 49ers aren’t sure if Brock Purdy will be ready to play.

That will be followed by Indianapolis at Minnesota, Baltimore at Cleveland and Miami at Buffalo on Saturday. The Miami-Buffalo game is one of the featured games of the week. Buffalo has a two-game lead over the Dolphins, who are currently the sixth seed. The Bills also need a victory to stay ahead of the Chiefs for the top seed because the Chiefs have an easy game against the Texans

The Sunday and Monday night primetime games are Giants at Washington and Rams at Green Bay, with Detroit-Jets being the main CBS Sunday afternoon game and Cincinnati at Tampa Bay the featured late game. .

Fox has a single game with three in the afternoon and two at night but none are compelling. Dallas at Jacksonville will get the most coverage early.

Baltimore, Tennessee, Cincinnati and New England, currently seeded third, fourth, fifth and seventh, need victories over Cleveland, the Chargers, Tampa and Las Vegas.

The Chargers are currently seeded eighth but would probably move up with a victory over Tennessee, which has lost three in a row and is in danger of losing the AFC South title to the Jaguars.

The Jets, seeded ninth, play the surging Lions. No other AFC team has fewer than eight losses but the Jaguars, who play Dallas, have a realistic shot at making the playoffs. They are aiming to having the division title at stake when they play the Titans in the season finale.

In the NFC, Philadelphia figures to keep rolling with a victory over Chicago. There is not much drama left in the conference. The Vikings, 49ers and Cowboys figure to make the playoffs and the other three seeds aren’t considered contenders.

Barring a late season collapse, the 12-1 Philadelphia Eagles will be the top seed in the NFC and have the inside track on getting to the Super Bowl.

Their rout of the Giants clinched a playoff spot and combined with Minnesota’s loss to Detroit virtually wrapped it up the top seed for them. The Vikings are now two games behind Eagles, who have the tie break.

The Cowboys barely escaped with a victory over the Texans and remained two games behind the Eagles. They lost to the Eagles in the first game, so the Eagles can afford to lose the rematch and nail down the top seed by beating the Bears, Saints and Giants in their other three games.

The Eagles also figure to win their first round playoff game after having a bye, but the key question is which team they will play in NFC title game.

Surprisingly enough, the team that could be an obstacle is San Francisco, which now has a two game, lead over the Seahawks in the NFC West with a 9-4 record. It is still difficult to imagine rookie Brock Purdy taking them to the Super Bowl, but he has played well in last two games since Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt.

The one quarterback we know won’t be going to the Super Bowl is Tom Brady. The Bucs were no match for the 49ers and while they still lead the NFC South, they have a 6-7 record. They could still win the division and hos ta  wild card game but they have the look of a one and done team even if they make it.

The Commanders and Giants, who play Sunday night, are tied for final two wild card spots at 7-5-1. The Seahawks at 7-6 and the Lions at 6-7 could still grab wild card spots. Two other teams at 5-8 – Packers and Panthers — are longshots for a wild card spot. But 5-8 Atlanta is only a game behind 6-7 Tampa Bay and could still win the NFC South.

In the AFC, the three teams with the best shot at the top seed – Buffalo, currently No. 1, Kansas City and Cincinnati all won. The Bills and Chiefs are 10-3 and the Bengals are 9-4.

Kansas City is favored to get the top spot since they finish with Houston, Seattle, Denver and Los Vegas. The Bills must play both Miami and Cincinnati and have lost Von Miller for the season. The Bengals finish with Buffalo and Baltimore. Baltimore is 9-4 and should win the next three against the Browns, Falcons and Steelers, but have that tough finale against the Bengals taht could decide the division title..

Baltimore and Tennessee may win their division titles, but aren’t playing like Super Bowl contenders. The Bengals, Miami and Patriots currently have the three wild card spots. The Patriots are tied with the Chargers and Jets at 7-6 but have the tie break over both teams. 

Only three teams — the Texans, Bears and Broncos — have been officially eliminated from the playoff chase.

A 13-point lead with four minutes left in the game is usually money in the bank in the NFL.

Of 553 games over the last five years until last Monday night, only two teams overcame deficits like that.

And then it happened twice in four days with the same score.

Both winning teams were behind 16-3 and both scored two touchdowns to win in the final 10 seconds.

Tom Brady threw the game-winning touchdown pass with three seconds left to beat the Saints Monday night, and then Baker Mayfield — who had only joined the Rams two days earlier — threw the game-winner with eight seconds left to beat the Raiders.

What are the odds of that happening?

The problem is that many fans probably turned off their TV sets, thinking the games were over.

Next question is when and if it will happen again this year.

There is no training program for becoming the owner of an NFL team.

You either have the money to buy it or you inherit it.

That‘s it.

Amy Adams Strunk inherited half of the Tennessee Titans from her late father Bud Adams, who founded the team in Houston, while the rest of the family owns the other half.

But she is obviously still learning on the job as her recent firing of general manager Jon Robinson showed.

The timing of the firing was head-scratching to say the least. Although some of Robinson’s recent moves were puzzling, the team was still in first place in the AFC South despite two losses in a row when she fired him. If she wanted to make a change, best to wait until the end of the season.

She also didn’t hold a press conference to announce the firing, leaving coach Mike Vrabel to discuss the firing even though it wasn’t his decision.

There are now more questions than answers about the future of the franchise and who will be in charge. Ryan Cowden will handle personnel the rest of the season, although not many personnel decisions are made this late in the year. Does Vrabel now get more control? Will there be a new general manager? How much control will he have?

Who knows?

And then there is the direction of the franchise. Vrabel and Robisnson built a team that was based on running the ball with Derrick Henry and having a strong defense. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill is not a franchise-type quarterback.

The problem is all the rules have been changed to help the passing game, and the AFC is loaded with good young quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow at the top of the list.

It is hard to imagine the Titans winning a Super Bowl anytime soon without a franchise quarterback. Last year they had the top seed in AFC and the only bye and then lost in the division round to Cincinnati, 19-16.

Things could get worse before they get better for the Titans, even though they will have a new stadium in a few years.

If Adams has a plan to make things better, she should go public with what it is.

This is not likely to be a good matchup weekend for the NFL.

Two of the three prime time games – Las Vegas at the Rams on Thursday night and New England at Arizona on Monday night – won’t have much at stake for either team although Las Vegas could stay in the wild-card race by beating the Rams. That would give the Raiders a 6-7 mark.

In the Sunday night game, Miami is at the Chargers in a flex game with both teams having wild-card hopes. Miami is 8-4 and the Chargers are 6-6. But neither team looks like a Super Bowl contender.

Of what I call the Big Six teams with the best shot at the top seed in each conference, five of them figure fairly easily.

In the AFC, the Bills should beat the Jets after losing the first meeting, Kansas City should win at Denver and Cincinnati is an easy choice over the Browns.

In the NFC, Dallas is a 17-point choice over the Texans in the biggest spread of the year and 11-2 Philadelphia figures to beat the Giants.

But Detroit has a good shot at beating Minnesota in a Fox early game that will be shown only in the Midwest. Minnesota is 10-2 but they may not be as good as their record while the Lions are on a roll and may better than their 5-7 mark. The Vikings barely beat the Jets last week and could have a tough time with the Lions. A loss would pretty much end the Vikings’ hope for the top seed, but they will still likely win their division.

Fox has an interesting doubleheader game that will be shown in much of the country since Carolina at Seattle is their other late game.

It will pit San Francisco rookie Brock Purdy, the last player drafted, making his first start against Tom Brady. San Francisco, 8-4, has the better team but could struggle with a rookie at quarterback. He had a good showing against the Dolphins last week when he took over in the first quarter after Jimmy Garopollo was lost for the season with a broken foot. But now the Bucs have a chance to look at him on film. 

Meanwhile, Brady is showing his age and put only three points on the board for the first three-and-a-half quarters against the Saints before leading two touchdown drives to win the game. The win gave the Bucs a 6-6 record.

Both teams may make the playoffs but it is unlikely that either Purdy or Brady is going to make the Super Bowl. 

This is the last week of byes and six teams – Atlanta, Chicago, Green Bay, Indianapolis, New Orleans and Washington – will have the week off.