VITO'S VIEWS

Super, it wasn’t.

The NFL tried to promote its expanded three day wild card weekend as Super, but it featured sloppy play, bad coaching and good teams often not bringing  their A game.

The weekend ended Monday night with that was expected to be an exciting game with Tom Brady facing the Cowboys, but Brady looked old and the Cowboys routed the Bucs 31-14 for their first road playoff win in decades. Now Brady has to decide whether to return next year at age 46.

And the results didn’t have much of an impact on the road to the Super Bowl. The two top seeds, Kansas City and Philadelphia, had byes and the four other leading contenders – Dallas, San Francisco, Cincinnati and Buffalo –all won.

All the wild card teams except for the Giants lost. The other survivor was Jacksonville, which overcame a 27-0 deficit to beat the Chargers.

As expected the two seventh round seeds both lost to the second seeds. Miami lost to Buffalo and the Seahawks lost to the 49ers, the hottest team in the league who will now host the Cowboys.

But Miami made it a closer game than expected, thanks to mistakes by the Bills, who weren’t at the top of their game. As it turned out, Miami made mistakes of its own on the last drive, including failing to get a 4^th and one in time and getting called for delay of game. Seattle made it a game for a half before the 49ers pulled away as rookie quarterback Brock Purdy continues to show he can lead a good team.

The Chargers had a 5-0 edge in turnovers but lost to the Jaguars, a loss that cost the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach their jobs although head coach Brandon Staley survived even though the team was undisciplined. Joey Bosa got two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, including throwing his helmet to the ground after the officials missed Jawaan Taylor’s false start that should have nullified a touchdown pass. 

Baltimore, the sixth seed in the AFC, was down to its third quarterback but also made a game of it against Cincinnati, the third seed. Baltimore was the victim of its own mistakes. Tyler Huntley went high instead of low on a quarterback sneak at the goal line and the Bengals knocked the ball out of his hands and it was returned 98 yards for a touchdown as the officials missed a block in the back. And at the end the Ravens tried to score without leaving time on the clock, botched the clock management and didn’t score

The wins by Buffalo and Cincinnati sets up the best divisional game of next weekend,  but the shaky performances by both teams raises the question of whether they both can bring their A game next week.

Meanwhile, top seed Kansas City will be favored over the Jaguars. The Jaguars lost to Kansas City in the regular season to fall to 3-7 but then went 7-1 and are now 10-8. After their comeback win over the Chargers, they can’t be counted out.

The Giants win over the Vikings wasn’t a major surprise because the Vikings had won 11 one score games during the regular season and they don’t have a good defense and the Giants exploited that.

The Giants also played well on defense to neutralize Justin Jefferson and even though Kirk Cousins played well, he had a Cousins moment when he threw short on fourth-and-8 on the final play. The Giants will now go to Philadelphia where they will be big underdogs.

The league will probably keep calling the wild card weekend Super, but the format of matching the second seed against the seventh seed is not a formula for good games.

More is not always better.

That is the lesson the NFL is learning this weekend. They knew adding a seventh playoff team to each conference would increase their revenue by adding two playoff games to the schedule and the NFL is all about the bottom line.

But it doesn’t do much for the fans this wild card weekend.

The two seventh seeds, Miami and Seattle, figure to have little chance of beating the two seconds seeds, Buffalo and San Francisco. Miami’s quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is in the concussion program and backup Teddy Bridgewater has an ailing pinkie. That leaves Skylar Thompson to face Josh Allen. San Francisco has already beaten the Seahawks twice and are favored to do it a third time..

And even the sixth seeded Ravens in the AFC figure to have little chance against third seeded Cincinnati because Lamar Jackson has been out over a month.

That leaves three games that could be interesting – Chargers at Jacksonville, Dallas at Tampa Bay and the Giants at Minnesota.

 But those three games feature a third seed, two fourths and three wild card teams although there is a lot of buzz in Jacksonville because it will be the Jaguars first playoff game but it may not cause a lot of buzz around the league.

Still, the Chargers-Jacksonville winner probably goes to Kansas City next week.

Tampa Bay is an attraction because of Tom Brady and the Cowboys are always an attraction but neither team figures to make a Super Bowl run.

It’ll be interesting to see what the TV ratings will be for these six games. The NFL is not putting on much of a show for the fans on wild card weekend. 

Things will likely get more interesting next week when Cincinnati is likely to face Buffalo.

The final week of the regular season was a week to remember but not for the football.

What will be remembered is the way the medical personnel saved Damar Hamlin’s life when he suffered cardiac arrest. A truly inspiring story.

But when it comes to the football, the NFL once again didn’t handle a crisis well. There are still denials but it appears the league’s first reaction was to try to finish the game. We may never know exactly what happened but it was obvious the players weren’t going to play. Technically, the players can’t refuse to play but under the circumstances there was no way the NFL could threaten them.

And once the game was cancelled, the league decided that if the Bengals lost a second time to the Ravens, they would have a coin flip for home field advantage in the playoffs. The Bengals weren’t thrilled about that but beat the Ravens anyway.

And the final weekend of the season was anti climactic. The NFL is learning seven teams in each conference making the playoffs is at least one too many. They don’t have seven good teams in each conference.

Going into the final week, New England, Miami and Pittsburgh were alive in the battle for the AFC seventh spot. Buffalo knocked out New England and Miami clinched by beating the Jets. The Steelers beat the Browns but were eliminated.

The Steelers were the real winners. They got to end the season with a win and not have to go to Buffalo where the Dolphins are a huge underdog. It didn’t matter which team got the seventh seed. All three had little chance in Buffalo.

Seattle got the seventh spot in the NFC when they beat the Rams to knock out the Lions, who then knocked out the Packers to hand the spot to the Seahawks

All the Seahawks won was a trip to San Francisco, which has beaten them twice.

And Philadelphia sewed up the top seed in the NFC by beating thtie Giants, who rested their quarterback.

The best game game Saturday night was the Jaguars beating the Titans and will host the Chargers Saturday night in what should be a good game except that the winner is likely to go to Kansas City.

The Chiefs figure to once again be in the AFC title game. If Buffalo also makes it, the game will be played at a neutral site. Buffalo is likely to play Cincinnati next in a game that will have a lot of drama.

Philadelphia and San Francisco figure to play in the NFC title game.

The NFL has never had the final week of the regular season resemble this one.

The concern about Damar Hamlin, who is sedated and in critical condition in a Cincinnati hospital after underdoing cardiac arrest on the field Monday night, has overshadowed what will happen on the field Saturday and Sunday.

Nobody knows if the Cincinnati-Buffalo game that was postponed when Hamlin was injured will even be played or whether the Bills players will be mentally ready to play their season finale at 1 p.m. against New England.

The weekend starts with two games on Saturday – Kansas City at Las Vegas at 4:30 and Tennessee at Jacksonville at 8:30. Both will be on ABC and ESPN.

The winner of the Tennessee Jacksonville game will win the AFC South and host a playoff game. Kansas City needed a victory over the Raiders and a loss by the Bills in one of their two games to get the No. 1 seed but nobody knows if the Bills will play their last two games. It is even uncertain if the Bills will be ready to play NewEngland Sunday. The Patriots need a victory to clinch the final AFC wild card spot.

The Sunday night game will feature Detroit at Green Bay and Green Bay can clinch a wild card spot with a win.

Baltimore and Cincinnati have both clinched playoff but the winner of their 1 pm. game may decide which one wins the division.

Philadelphia has lost its last two games with backup Gardner Minshew at quarterback but can still win the top seed with a victory over the Giants or a Dallas loss to the Commanders.

Once the games are played Sunday, the NFL will decide what happens next.

Never has the NFL dealt with so much uncertainty at the end of the year.

This is usually the most exciting time of the year for the NFL. The regular season is ending, and the playoffs are just a week away.

But all that seems trivial after Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest while making a tackle in the Buffalo-Cincinnati game Monday night on national television..

Medical personnel quickly revived him and he was rushed to the hospital where he remains sedated in critical condition.

Meanwhile, the game was postponed and it is uncertain if it will be played. It is also uncertain if the Bills regular season finale against the Patriots will be postponed. The Patriots can clinch the final wild card spot with a win if it is played Sunday. 

The Bills have clinched their division title and needed to win their final two games to clinch the top seed but that is the last things on the Bills’ minds these days.

The injury he suffered was another reminder of how dangerous it is for the players to play in the NFL and the risks they take.

It is believed the only player to actually die on the field because of heart problems was Chuck Hughes in 1971 while playing for the Lions against the Bears. It happened with about 62 seconds left and they finished the game but the NFL wasn’t then what it is today. His widow, Sharon, now 77, told NBC News she was very emotional when she saw Hamlin go down. She said she never blamed football for her husband’s death.

But Hamlin’s injury will raise more questions what the NFL can do to protect the players and whether parents even want their sons to play football. And many players suffer negative effects from playing decades after they leave theg game.

In the NFC, Philadelphia, which has lost two games with backup Garden Minshew at quarterback, can clinch the top seed with a win over the Giants or Dallas loss to the Commanders. Jalen Hurts may return for the Eagles.. Green Bay can clinch the final playoff spot by beating Detroit.

 The Jacksonville-Tennessee winner will win the AFC South and host a playoff game. Tennessee has lost six in a row after being 7-3 and is still alive.

But Hamlin’s injury has overshadowed the rest of the NFL season until the doctors determine if he will recover.

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.