The NFL regular season has come to a conclusion. As the football world focuses on what promises to be a very eventful playoff slate, a lot of things happened during Sunday’s season-ending New Year’s Eve action.
The Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills found a way to sneak into the AFC Playoffs following hard-fought wins. Meanwhile, over in the NFC, the Atlanta Falcons clinched the No. 6 seed over a Seahawks squad that laid completely down at home against Arizona.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Cleveland Browns joined the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only teams to go winless during a 16-game regular season schedule. And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Garoppolo led the 49ers to their fifth consecutive win to end the season. He’s now 7-0 as a starter in the NFL.
These are among the top takeaways from NFL’s Week 17 action.
Titans going to the postseason
It might not have been a great regular season for Marcus Mariota, but his Titans will play postseason football for the first time in his career. By virtue of the team’s 15-10 win over the AFC South champion Jaguars, Tennessee will head to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs in the AFC Wildcard round next weekend.
Sunday’s win was defined more by continued struggles in Jacksonville. Blake Bortles completed 15-of-34 passes without a touchdown and two interceptions. On the other hand, Mariota tallied just 134 passing yards in the win. At this point, the Titans’ only real hope in January will be to ride their defense to victory. Mariota regressed this season. The team’s rushing attack isn’t what it was in 2016. And in reality, Tennessee enters the playoffs as nothing more than a mediocre team. It will be heavy underdogs against Alex Smith and Co. this upcoming weekend.
Vikings clinch first-round bye
This wasn’t really in question heading into Sunday’s game against the last-place Chicago Bears. With a win in Minnesota, the Vikings would clinch a first-round playoff bye and the No. 2 seed in the NFC. Relatively early in this lopsided matchup, it became readily apparent that this would happen.
After a Bears three-and-out, Minnesota took the ensuing punt and drove 70 yards on seven plays, capped off by a Latavius Murray one-yard touchdown run. Then, on their next possession, the Vikings went 71 yards to take a 14-0 lead on a drive that once again culminated in a short touchdown run for Murray.
That was pretty much game. And despite losing out on home-field advantage to Philadelphia in the NFC, there’s very little reason to believe the Vikings aren’t favored to be the first team to ever host a Super Bowl in their home stadium. That’s what a 13-3 regular season mark will do for you.
Eagles limp into the playoffs
Despite having the No. 1 seed wrapped up heading into Sunday’s game against Dallas, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson decided to play his starters. To say it didn’t go too swimmingly would be an understatement. Before being replaced under center by Nate Sudfeld, Nick Foles completed just 4-of-11 passes for 39 yards with an interception en route to leading the Eagles to 44 yards and zero points on four possessions.
When all was said and done Sunday, Philadelphia dropped a stinker of a game by the score of 6-0. It was a downright ugly performance from a team that ends the regular season at 13-3 and with its MVP candidate sidelined to a torn ACL.
At this point, it’s hard to fathom the Eagles being considered serious contenders in the NFC. Simply put, the difference in play from Carson Wentz to Nick Foles might be too much for this team to overcome. Sunday represented that to a T.
Jets’ season ends in embarrassing fashion
If we needed an early indication of how Sunday’s game against New England would go for this Jets squad, Bryce Petty gave it to us. Attempting to take the field prior to his team’s first possession, the career backup had somewhat of a problem actually putting his helmet on. Yes, the social media world had an absolute blast with it. Then, later in the game, Jets defensive end Kony Ealy took the field without his helmet on.
Unfortunately for the Jets, the game itself actually didn’t go any better. Petty ultimately completed 19-of-36 passes for 232 yards en route to leading the Jets to a grand total of six points in a 20-point loss to the defending champs.
But fans in Jersey shouldn’t fret. This came after the team extended both its head coach and general manager for two more seasons. Hey at least, these fans have a reason to drink…it’s New Year’s Eve after all. Have fun.
Seahawks lay completely down
Pete Carroll may actually want to reconsider his decision not to retire, because his team pretty much retired on him Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. In a game Seattle had to win in order to even have a shot at the playoffs, it sleepwalked through the first half at home against Drew Stanton and the Cardinals.
By the time this game hit halftime, Arizona had opened up a 20-7 lead. But that’s not even the extent of the futility on Seattle’s part. The Cards outgained them 190-24 in the first two quarters, putting up 14 first downs compared to one for the home team.
All of this resulted in what would ultimately be a 26-24 loss for Seattle, ending its playoff aspirations in the process. And in reality, we could very well be viewing the end of an era in the Pacific Northwest. Look for the Legion of Boom to break up. It also wouldn’t be a complete shock if there was a widespread shake-up on the offensive side of the ball as well. Such is the nature of the beast when you miss out on the playoffs in an era where it’s been Super Bowl or bust for your organization.
Garoppolo ends season undefeated
It wasn’t a perfect performance by any stretch of the imagination. Making his fifth start as a member of the 49ers, Garoppolo threw two first half interceptions. They were on passes the quarterback simply didn’t need to make.
Despite this, San Francisco came out on top against the NFC West champion Los Angeles Rams by the score of 34-13 on Sunday. Sure the Rams were resting their starters in preparation for the playoffs, but it’s yet another great sign for Garoppolo and the 49ers heading into the offseason. The young signal caller completed 20-of-33 passes for 292 yards with two scores and those two interceptions.
By virtue of the win, San Francisco ends the season at 6-10 after a 0-9 start. For his part, Garoppolo is 5-0 as the 49ers’ starter and has won all seven of his NFL starts. And over the final two games of the regular season, San Francisco averaged an absurd 39 points. Not too bad.
AFC Playoffs going through Gillette
We pretty much knew this would be the case heading into Sunday’s Week 17 action. But as we’ve learned throughout the season, anything was possible. From the outset in New England on Sunday, it was apparent that the Jets wouldn’t be a match for Tom Brady and Co.
The Patriots opened up a 21-3 halftime lead before pretty much sleepwalking through the second half en route to a 26-6 win. This made Pittsburgh’s win over the Cleveland Browns at Heinz Field moot. And it guaranteed that the AFC Playoffs would go through the home stadium of the reigning Super Bowl champs.
Just some food for thought here. This is the seventh time that the Patriots have earned home-field advantage during the Tom Brady era. Five of the other six times resulted in a conference championship.
Worst team in NFL history
With all due respect to the 70s-era Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the 2008 Detroit Lions, this year’s version of the Cleveland Browns must go down as the worst team in NFL history. This was all magnified during a Week 17 loss to what was a backup Pittsburgh Steelers squad.
From DeShone Kizer turning the ball over multiple times once again to a game-ending drop by Corey Coleman, Sunday’s 28-24 loss to Pittsburgh brought the factory of sadness to yet another low. By virtue of the loss, Cleveland becomes the second team in NFL history to go winless during a 16-game regular season slate. It’s now 1-31 in the Hue Jackson era and has not won a game on Sunday since December of 2015. How fun.
Alvin Kamara, difference-maker
It’s going to be absolutely vital for the Saints to continue getting this rookie from Tennessee involved in their offense once the postseason starts. Kamara just continues to dominate in a manner we seldom see from rookies in today’s NFL.
On Sunday against the Buccaneers, it came in the form of this early 106-yard kickoff return for a TD. Kamara then added a touchdown run of his own to spot the Saints two early scores. All said, Kamara put up 268 all-purpose yards in the Saints’ loss to Tampa Bay. He ends the regular season having tallied 728 rushing yards to go with 81 receptions for 826 yards and 14 total touchdowns. That’s what we call a difference-maker.
Saints choke away top-three seed
It was rather simple here, especially with the Los Angeles Rams resting their starters against San Francisco. If the Saints could pull off a win against the last-place Buccaneers on Sunday, they would finish as the No. 3 seed. That didn’t happen.
Despite seeing Jameis Winston throw three interceptions, Tampa Bay rallied from behind in a big way — putting up 18 fourth quarter points to win going away. It was capped off by a 39-yard touchdown pass from Winston to Chris Godwin with the Bucs down one and just nine seconds remaining in the game.
This doesn’t necessarily change a whole lot for New Orleans. In fact, the team could be in a better position should it win in the wildcard round against Carolina. That would enable the Saints to likely take on Philadelphia rather than Minnesota. Even then, it’s a sour way to end what was a great season for Sean Payton’s squad.
Party like it’s 1999
For the first time since Bill Clinton was in the White House, the Buffalo Bills will be playing postseason football. Buffalo took care of the Miami Dolphins in a drama-filled game Sunday afternoon, but had to watch the Bengals and Ravens game in Baltimore from the locker room to see if they had indeed earn that rare playoff spot.
When Andy Dalton hit Tyler Boyd for the game-winning touchdown with less than a minute left to put Cincinnati on top, we can only imagine what the scene was like for the Bills in their locker room Sunday evening. Not only was it a dramatic loss for a Ravens squad that was in the playoffs if the team had won, it ends the longest playoff drought in North American professional sports. That’s about as good as it gets.
Kirk Cousins’ Redskins career over?
We’re not too sure how this entire situation will play out. What we do know is that Washington would be foolish to hand Cousins the franchise tag for a third consecutive year, guaranteeing him north of $35 million for the 2018 season. So if Sunday was in fact Cousins’ final game in D.C., it didn’t go too swimmingly for the Pro Bowler.
Without much to work with on offense due to multiple injuries, Cousins threw three interceptions in an 18-10 loss to the last-place New York Giants. It represents Cousins’ first three-interception outing since all way back in October of 2014.
This isn’t necessarily going to ruin Cousins’ value on the free agent market. He still finishes the season with 4,000-plus yards for the fourth consecutive year and will be among the most-coveted players on the open market. But if this is indeed the end of the line for Cousins in Washington, it’s a sad way to go out.
NFL Playoff sets
By virtue of everything that happened during Sunday’s Week 17 slate, we now have the full wildcard schedule to look forward to. In the NFC, the Atlanta Falcons will head to Los Angeles to take on the Rams, who finished as the No. 3 by after New Orleans completely dropped the ball against Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, the Cam Newton and and the Carolina Panthers will head to the Bayou to take on the NFC South champion Saints in an all-divisional wildcard matchup.
Over in the AFC, the Buffalo Bills will make their first playoff appearance since 1999. It will come on the road against a Jacksonville Jaguars team that will host its first playoff game since the very same season. And in the other wildcard game, the Tennessee Titans will travel to Arrowhead to take on a dangerous Kansas City Chiefs squad.