Month: December 2024

The NFL put a menu of nine national TV games on Christmas weekend from Wednesday through Monday 

night but didn’t make it easy for a lot of fans to watch most of them.

–The weekend started with the two Christmas games Wednesday games — Kansas City’s 29-10 victory over the Steelers and the Ravens 31-2 rout of the Texans — that were shown on Netflix. After the usual Amazon Thursday night game (Seattle beat Chicago, 6-3), they scheduled three more on Saturday that were on the NFL NFL network — the Chargers at New England, Denver at Cincinnati and the Cardinals at the Rams. 

–The Green Bay at Minnesota late Sunday afternoon telecast on Fox will also be a national telecast along with the usual Sunday night game on NBC featuring Atlanta at Washington and the usual Monday night game pitting Detroit at San Francisco on ESPN/ABC. Putting games on Netflix and Amazon are good for the NFL’s bottom line and the NFL Network games are good for promoting the network, but not good for fans who don’t have access to those pay channels.

–There is not much drama left in the AFC after Kansas City nailed down the top seed with the victory over Pittsburgh. The Chiefs are now two home games away from the Super Bowl and their bid for a three peat. Their regular season finale against Denver is now meaningless and they will likely face either a wild card team or the Texans in the divisional game and will likely face the winner of the Bills-Ravens game in the AFC title game unless one of those teams is upset in either the first two rounds.

The Chiefs spent much of the season winning games by one score but now seem to be hitting their stride late in the season.

–In the NFC if Minnesota beats Green Bay Sunday and Detroit beats San Francisco Monday night, the Vikings and Lions will play for the top seed in the NFC in the final weekend of the season. The loser will be in the playoffs as a wild card team and they could meet again in the playoffs.     

-Patrick Mahomes doesn’t get slowed down by injuries. Despite suffering a mild ankle sprain a week ago,Mahomes led the Chiefs to a 27-19 victory over the Texans and now have to win just one of their last two games to clinch a first round bye. They play the Steelers Chistmas Day and close with the Broncos next week.

–The Buffalo Bills weren’t at their top form as they barely edged the Patriots 24-21. But even if they beat the Jets and Patriots in their last two games, they will be the second seed unless the Chiefs lose one of their last two.

–The Ravens beat the Steelers, 34-17, to tie them for first place in the AFC North. If they both win their last two games, the division title probably comes down to strength of schedule. The Ravens play at the Texans on Christmas Day while the Steelers play the Chiefs that day.  Next week the Ravens close with the Browns while Steelers play the Bengals.

–The Philadelphia Eagles probably lost their shot at the top seed in the NFC with 36-33 loss to the   Commanders. On top of that quarterback Jalen Hurts suffered a concussion. The Eagles are now 12-3 while the Lions and Vikings are 13-2.

–The top seed in the NFC probably comes down to a season ending game between the Lions and the Vikings. The Packers play the Vikings this Sunday while the Lions play at the 49ers Monday night. If they win, the Eagles can’t get the top seed because the winner of the Vikings-Lions game will be 15-2 and clinch top seed. .

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—There will be five national broadcasts this weekend including the feature game –Pittsburgh at Baltimore – as the late Saturday afternoon game on Fox as they battle for the AFC North lead. The Steelers are 10-4 and the Ravens 9-5. Both teams will have a short turnaround and play on Christmas Day nexr Wednesday. That will be the third game in 11 games for both teams. Baltimore goes to Houston and Pittsburgh hosts Kansas City on Christmas Day.

–Kansas City hosts Houston in a 1 p.m.Saturday game on NBC, which also has its usual Sunday night game featuring Tampa Bay at Dallas. The Chiefs-Texans game is an unusual one. Since Houston has clinched its division and is out of race for top seed, it has little at stake in the game against Chiefs so it remains to be seen how motivated the Texans will be. The Chiefs need to win to win two of their last three to get the top seed but don’t know how effective Mahomes will be playing on his sore ankle.  The Chiefs announced Mahomes has been a full participate in practice but he could aggravate the injury in the game.

–The weekend starts with Denver at the Chargers Thursday night on Amazon and ends on Monday night with New Orleans at Green Bay on ESPN and ABC. The Broncos are 9-5 and the Chargers are 8-6 as they both are batting for an AFC wild card spot. The Saints at 5-9 have little at stake while the 10-4 Packers are in the hunt for an NFC wild card spot.

—Fox has an interesting game late Sunday afternoon with Minnesota at Seattle. The Vikings are one of the three 12-2 teams in the NFC along with the Eagles and Lions while Seattle is tied with the Rams, who play the Jets, for the NFC West lead at 8-6.  The Vikings, Lions and Eagles have all clinched playoff spots but they are all going for the top seed. This weekend all three figure to win because the Eagles play Washington and the Lions play at Chicago.–The Atlanta Falcons, a game behind the 8-6 Bucs in the NFC South, are benching veteran Kirk Cousins for rookie Michael Penix for the game against the Giants. The Bucs figure to beat Dallas so the 7-7 Falcons can’t afford to get upset by the Giants.  

—The Kansas City Chiefs finally won a game by two touchdowns, but they may have paid a big price for it. The Chiefs, the master of winning games on the final play this year, beat the Browns, 21-7, but quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a what was described as a mild high ankle sprain in the fourth quarter. Mahomes is listed as week to week but the Chiefs are going to play two division leaders – the Texans on Saturday and the Steelers on Christmas Day and close against Denver. If the 13-1 Chiefs win two of the three, they clinch top seed and a bye. But if they lose two of three and the Bills sweep their final three with two against the Patriots sandwiched around a game against the Jets, the Bills get the top  seed. That would mean the the Chiefs would likely have to win two playoff games and then win at Buffalo to get to the Super Bowl and have a shot at a threerepeat. The Bills are 11-3 but if they tie the Chiefs they beat the tie-breaker because they handed the Chiefs their only loss of the season

–Josh Allen continued to look like the frontrunner for MVP honors as he passed for 362 yards and ran for 70 in the Bills 48-42 win over the Lions that wasn’t as close as the score sounded. He passed for two touchdowns and ran for two. With Patrick Mahones injured, the Bills now have a good shot at going to the Super Bowl.

–Injuries are catching up to the Lions. They’ve  suffered so many injuries on defense that they couldn’t stop the Buffalo offense. And it didn’t help that coach Dan Campbell went for an onside kick when the Lions were down 10 early in the fourth quarter and it set up another Biils touchdown. Campbell admitted it was a mistake. He tried to ut the best face on the loss, suggesting it was a wakeup call for the Lions. But they are now one of three 12-2 teams in the NFC along with the Eagles and Vikings.Both the Lions and Vikings have clinched wild card spots.

–The Eagles posted an impressive 27-13 win over the Steelers while the Vikings routed the Bears 30-12. The Eagles have clinched their division title while the Vikings are tied with Lions in NFC North, the best division in the NFL.. The Packers beat the Seahaws 30-12  to go to 10-4 but are in third place in the North and will likely have to settle fr a wild card spot.

–C.J. Stroud became the first quarterback to lead his team to a division title in his first two years in the league with  a 20-12 win over the Dolphins. It helps he plays in the AFC South. the Texans are 9-5 and the only winlnng team in the division. The Colts are a disant second at 6=9.  

—The NFL has two of the best attractions of the year this year that not only won’t be in prime time but they will go head to head against each other in the Sunday late games. So fans may be doing a lot of channel switching to keep up with both games.

–CBS will have the 12-1 Lions hosting the 10-3 Bills in a game that features two teams trying for the No. 1 AFC seed while Fox will have the 10-3 Steelers playing at the 11-2 Eagles. This is the first time since 1985 that the league has had two games with both teams having double digit wins in week 15 or earlier. That year the 13-1 Bears beat the10-4 Jets and the 10-4 Dolphins beat the 10-4 Patriots. The Bears wound up routing the Patriots in the Super Bowl. The Dolphins handed the Bears their only loss that year but lost to the Patriots in the AFC title game.

–Both games have a lot of playoff implications.  The Lions are one game ahead of the Vikings and Eagles in the battle for the top seed in the NFC. Buffalo is two games behind the 12-1 Chiefs in the battle for the AFC top seed. The Steelers are also two games behind the Chiefs. If the Bills tie the Chiefs, they would get the tie-breaker because they handed the Chiefs their only loss. If either the Bills or Steelers suffer their fourth loss, they will likely be out of the race for the top seed. The Steelers need to win out including a win over the Chiefs on Christmas day and have the Chiefs lose one other game for the Steelers to catch them. 

The other two late games on CBS are Indianapolis and Denver in a game with wild card implications as both teams are fighting for wild card spots in the AFC and New England at Arizona with the 6-7 Cards trying to stay in AFC West race.

–The CBS early games Sunday are the Chiefs at Cleveland, Miami at Houston and Baltimore at the Giants. The Chiefs, Texans and Ravens figure to win these three games. It will be interesting to see if the Chiefs can beat the 3-10 Browns without having to win it on the last drive the way they have won most games this year.

–Fox has four early games – Washington at New Orleans, Dallas at Carolina, Cincinnati at Tennessee and the Jets at Jacksonville. The Washington-New Orleans game has playoff implications for both teams. The 8-5 Commanders are three games behind the Eagles but are fighting for a wild card spot. The Bucs lead the Falcons by a game in the NFC South. 

–The weekend starts Thursday night with the Rams at the 49ers, an old rivalry that has major playoff implications. The Rams are 7-6 and the 49ers are 6-7 in the NFC West while Seattle leads at 8-5 and Arizona is at 6-7, tied with the 49ers.

–The Sunday night game features the Packers at Seattle in another game with playoff implications for both teams. The Packers are 9-4 and while they are three games behind the Lions in the NFC North, they are in good position to get a wild card spot. Seattle is at 8-5, a game ahead of the Rams. If the Seahawks lose and the Rams win, they will be tied at 8-6.

—There will be a doubleheader on Monday night with the Bears at Minnesota and the Falcons at Las Vegas. Minnesota at 11-2 is expected to beat the 4-9 Bears while the Falcons at 6-7 are a game behind 7-6 Tampa Bay in the NFC South. The Chicago-Minnesota game will start only a half hour before the Atlanta-Las Vegas game with the first one on ABC and the second on ESPN so fans may be switching channels to keep track of both games.

—The Kansas City Chiefs continue to defy the odds. They won another close one, beating the Chargers 19-17 on a field goal on the final play. Combined with Buffalo’s 44-42 loss to the Rams, they can clinch the top seed by winning three of their last four games. They are now two games ahead of the 10-3 Bills with a 12-1 mark but if the Bills tie them, they get the top seed because they handed the Chiefs their only loss. The conventional wisdom is that the Chiefs can’t keep pulling out close games but they keep doing it.

–The only other AFC team with fewer than five losses is 10-3 Pittsburgh, which beat the Browns, 27-14. The Steelers would have to win out, which means beating the Chiefs on Christmas Day, and hope the Chiefs and Bills lose one other game for them to be guaranteed the top seed.

–In the NFC, the Lions have the top seed at 12-1 after beating the Packers 34-31 as coach Dan Campbell went for it five times on fourth down and made four of them although the one time they didn’t make it on their own 30 and virtually handed the Packers a touchdown that almost cost the Lions the game. But gambling is his style.

–The Eagles and Vikings both won to go to 11-2 and remain just a game behind the Lions. The Eagles got a scare from the Panthers before winning 22-16 and the Vikings routed the Falcons 42-21. Detroit has Buffalo this week and Minnesota in the season finale plus road games at Chicago and San Francisco and while the Eagles play Pittsburgh this week, they close Washington, Dallas and the Giants so the Lions, Eagles and Vikings will likely go down to the wire in the battle for the top seed. Except for 9-4 Green Bay, no other NFC team has fewer than five losses so the NFC North could have three teams in the playoffs.

–The Dallas Cowboys need to learn the rules when a team blocks a punt. If it goes past the line of scrimmage it is like a regular punt and if a player from the receiving team touches it, it is a free ball.  When the Cowboys blocked a punt late in the fourth quarter of a tie game, Amani Oruwariye tried to field it, lost it and the Bengals recovered and Joe Burrow drove them for the touchdown to win, 27-20. A win would have given the Cowboys a 6-7 record and kept them in the playoff hunt but now at 5-8 their chances are remote. Burrow, meanwhile, had his house burglarized during the game.

 

—The Bills and Chargers will play back to back games Sunday as they continue their battle for the top seed in the AFC. The 10-2 Bills play in the late afternoon game at the Rams and then the 11-1 Chiefs will host the Chargers in the Sunday night game. If they both win or both lose, the Chiefs will maintain a one game lead. If Bills win and the Chiefs lose, the Bills will tie the Chiefs and have the tie-break because they handed the Chiefs their only loss so far. A Bills loss and a Chiefs win would give the Chiefs a two game lead so the stakes are high for both teams. The Chargers are 8-4 and could get within two games of the Chiefs with a victory. The Rams are 6-6  and tied with the Cardinals, a game behind the Seahawks.

–The weekend opens with Green Bay at Detroit Thursday night in a critical division game. A Detroit win keeps them in the lead for the top seed and would boost their record to 12-1. A Green Bay win would leave them a game behind with Detroit. A loss would leave them at 9-4 going for a wild card spot. Minnesota at 10-2 plays Atlanta in a Fox early game and needs a win to stay in the battle for the top seed. Atlanta is tied for NFC South lead at 6-6with the Bucs. Philadelphia also plays an early Fox game hosting Carolina and figures to get a win to go to 11-2.

–The Monday night game has the Bengals at the Cowboys. The Cowboys are 5-7 and trying to stay alive in the wild card race. The Cowboys are being featured in prime time despite their record because they draw good ratings. Cincinnati is a disappointing 4-8 despite Joe Burrow having a good season.

–CBS has five games with Cleveland at Pittsburgh the feature early game. The Steelers lead the AFC North at 9-3 and were upset by 3-9 Browns two weeks ago in aThursday night game. The other three early games are the Jets at Miami, Jacksonville at Tennessee and Las Vegas at Tampa Bay. Seattle is at Arizona in a late afternoon games. Seattle is 7-5 and the Cardinals are tied with Rams at 6-6 in the NFC West.

–Besides the Atlanta at Minnesota and Carolina at Philadelphia games, the third early Fox game is New Orleans at the Giants. The second late Fox game besides Buffalo at the Rams is Chicago at San Francisco. The 49ers are 5-7 and have lost Christian McCaffrey for the season and their Super Bowl window may be closing.

—Can the Buffalo Bills derail the Kansas City Chiefs’ bid for a theepeat? That is one of the interesting questions of the season as the teams head into December. The Chiefs have the best record in the AFC at 11-1 but barely escaped with a 19-17 win over the Raiders with the help of bad clock management by the Raiders and a premature snap the Chiefs recovered. The Chiefs last 14 wins by one score bu.t aren’t playing like a team ready for a playoff run

–Meanwhile, Buffalo boosted its record to 10-2 by beating San Francisco, 35-10, in a snowstorm.. Although the Bills are a game behind the Chiefs, they have the tie breaker if the tie the Chiefs because they handed the Chiefs their only loss and except for the upcoming game against the Lions, they should have no trouble in their final three games against the Pats (twice) and the Jets.

–In the NFC, it also looks like a two team race between the 11-1 Lions and the 10-2 Eagles. The Lions escaped with a 23-20 victory over the Bears with the of bad clock management by coach Matt Eberfluss that got him fired.  Meanwhile the Eagles continue to roll and beat the Ravens 24-19 as kicked Justin Tucker cost them seven points by missing two field goals and an extra point.

–The Vikings also remain a game behind the Lions at 10-2 as they got help from the opposing coach to edge the Cardinals. Facing a fourth-and-goal from the five-yard line late in fourth quarter, coach Jonathan Gannon decide to go for a field goal to go up by six instead of going for the touchdown and a chance 10-point lead. The Vikings then came back to score a touchdown and win, 23-22. Gannon was too conservative and it cost him.

–In the most talked about play of the week, Azeez Al-Shaair of the Texans hit a sliding Trevor Lawrence and knocked him out of the game with a concussion and that started a brawl. Not surprisingly, he was suspended for three games and that will cost him close to $2 million. The league noted he is a repeat offender who has been fined in the past. He issued an apology and said Lawrence slid too late for him to pull up but the league didn’t buy that explanation even when coach DeMeco Ryan defended him. The Jaguars signed quarterback John Wofford so Lawrence will probably be out a week if not longer.

—Can the Buffalo Bills derail the Kansas City Chiefs’ bid for a theepeat? That is one of the interesting questions of the season as the teams head into December. The Chiefs have the best record in the AFC at 11-1 but barely escaped with a 19-17 win over the Raiders with the help of bad clock management by the Raiders and a premature snap the Chiefs recovered. The Chiefs last 14 wins by one score bu.t aren’t playing like a team ready for a playoff run

—Meanwhile, Buffalo boosted its record to 10-2 San Francisco 35-10. Although the Bills are a game behind the Chiefs, they have the tie breaker if they tie the Chiefs because they handed the Chiefs their only loss. The Bills play the Rams and Lions the next two weeks and then they should have no trouble in their final three games against the Pats (twice) and the Jets.

–In the NFC, it also looks like a two team race between the 11-1 Lions and the 10-2 Eagles. The Lions escaped with a 23-20 victory over the Bears with the of bad clock management by coach Matt Eberfluss that got him fired.  Meanwhile the Eagles continue to roll and beat the Ravens 24-19 as kicked Justin Tucker cost them seven points by missing two field goals and an extra point.

–The Vikings also remain a game behind the Lions at 10-2 as they got help from the opposing coach to edge the Cardinals. Facing a fourth-and-goal from the five-yard line late in fourth quarter, coach Jonathan Gannon decide to go for a field goal to go up by six instead of going for the touchdown and a chance 10-point lead. The Vikings then came back to score a touchdown and win, 23-22. Gannon was too conservative and it cost him.

–In the most talked about play of the week, Azeez Al-Shaair of the Texans hit a sliding Trevor Lawrence and knocked him out of the game with a concussion and that started a brawl. Not surprisingly, he was suspended for three games and that will cost him close to $2 million. The league noted he is a repeat offender who has been fined in the past. He issued an apology and said Lawrence slid too late for him to pull up but the league didn’t buy that explanation even when coach DeMeco Ryan defended him. The Jaguars signed quarterback John Wofford so Lawrence will probably be out a week if not longer.