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[thspfc]

I don't want to hear a word about Hurts' absence from Eagles fans who went nuts over beating a Cooper Rush-led team in week 6. But in any case, that was an excellent game. Dak bounced back in a big way after the early pick six. Defense has to tighten up, can't be relying on 4 turnovers and 40 points from the offense to beat anyone.

Sigh….Pats season is essentially over. They could have pulled out a win, but too many mistakes did them in.

Tough to win a game when you let the opposing QB complete 28 passes for 284 yards and 3 TDs in the first half.

Speaking of, also tough to win a game when you give up 320 rushing yards. The Lions is the Lions. Carolina is 5-4 in games started by anyone but Baker.

The Vikings just keep pulling it off, huh. Kirk has been the most clutch QB in the league this year.

[webny99]

As the playoff picture starts to crystalize, a reminder that this Thursday before Cowboys-Titans kicks off is the final deadline for any "forks" if anyone still has more to add.

8 teams have clinched playoff spots, including 6 division winners:
AFC: Bengals, Bills, Chiefs, Ravens
NFC: 49ers, Cowboys Eagles, Vikings

8 teams are eliminated:
AFC: Broncos, Browns, Colts, Texans
NFC: Bears, Cardinals, Falcons, Rams

16 teams competing for the final 6 spots which I'd classify as follows (bold=division race; italics=wild card race):
In good shape: Chargers, Dolphins, Jaguars // Bucs, Giants
Uphill climb: Jets, Patriots, Titans // Commanders, Lions, Packers, Panthers, Seahawks
On life support: Raiders, Steelers // Saints

A look at the most likely games to be chosen for the regular season finale on SNF...

ALL of these are looking pretty good right now. We're already guaranteed an AFC South title game, and all the rest except for Bucs-Falcons are still in play but will depend on next week's results.

[ilpt4u]

Remember Disney aka ABC/ESPN also has 2 National Broadcast games on Week 18 Saturday (I like to call them Games 257&258, respectively), and the Mouse House would love to also get 2 stand-alone, “Win and In”  type games, in addition to the Game 272 SNF finale for NBC/Comcast


The more Division Title Games, the Better for the NFL and its TV partners

[jgb191]

This marks the fourth (4th) consecutive season that both the Texans and Titans split road wins in both division games.  The last home team to win was four years ago in December 2018 when the Texans won the Monday Night meeting in Reliant/NRG Stadium, since then the visiting team has won every meeting.

On a related note:  my #2 favorite NFL team, Jaguars, has overtaken my #3 favorite NFL team, Titans, by virtue of the latter losing to my #1 team the Texans.  And next week is the battle of my #1 and #2 teams.  Just because my Texans won in Jacksonville earlier this season doesn't make our home game against them any easier, in fact Jacksonville is still rightfully favored to win the game; the revitalized Jaguars are surging and Trevor Lawrence is playing like a superstar QB.

[NWI_Irish96]

This marks the fourth (4th) consecutive season that both the Texans and Titans split road wins in both division games.  The last home team to win was four years ago in December 2018 when the Texans won the Monday Night meeting in Reliant/NRG Stadium, since then the visiting team has won every meeting.

On a related note:  my #2 favorite NFL team, Jaguars, has overtaken my #3 favorite NFL team, Titans, by virtue of the latter losing to my #1 team the Texans.  And next week is the battle of my #1 and #2 teams.  Just because my Texans won in Jacksonville earlier this season doesn't make our home game against them any easier, in fact Jacksonville is still rightfully favored to win the game; the revitalized Jaguars are surging and Trevor Lawrence is playing like a superstar QB.

It's weird that your three favorite teams are in the same division. Most people do not like the other teams in the same division as their favorite team.

[thspfc]

Nathaniel Hackett fired! Probably a month and a half too late, but at least they didn’t drag it out for too long.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Who would want to be Denver’s coach? A declining quarterback for whom the team raided all of its assets, no high draft picks, and a brutal division.

[ilpt4u]

Who would want to be Denver’s coach? A declining quarterback for whom the team raided all of its assets, no high draft picks, and a brutal division.

With Russ’s contract and game, might as well go with a Defensive HC and rebuild that side. Dumb the offense down to Run & Play Action

A plan can be developed. But if you are going Defense in THAT division, it must be iron-clad. Hard to do with the current NFL rules

[TheHighwayMan394]

Denver has quietly put together a dominant season defensively (minus yesterday, where the team quit). That's how insanely bad their offense has been.

[webny99]

And that's why yesterday was so brutal for the Broncos... their defense had been their one constant all season. To give up 51 points and get blown out by the worst defending champion of all time (whose offense hadn't been much better than Denver's) was truly a "wheels falling off" moment, and I believe it cost Hackett his job. I think he would've lasted the rest of the season and had a slim chance to stay beyond that if they were even competitive against the 4-10 Rams.

[JayhawkCO]

We must read different people.  All the guys I follow on Twitter thought there was at least a sporting chance that he was moved. Either way, the Broncos will be massively overrated and the Seahawks underrated.

Well dang, I wasn't thinking that you're literally in the Denver area. Like I said, not a total shocker in the big picture, there just didn't seem to be a lot of talk of it in the past few weeks before it happened.

But I agree on your other point, I could totally see the Broncos underachieving. I think they'll at least end their 13-game losing streak to the Chiefs (still can't believe they didn't end it in Week 18 last year), but I'm not assuming they'll go on a Super Bowl run.

I live in Denver, but I'm a Vikings fan (born in Minnesota, so loyal to the team I cheered for as a kid, and I moved here during the Elway heyday and he was just on the news so much it was sickening if you weren't a Broncos fan).

I'll go 9-8, maaaaybe 10-7 for the Broncos next year unless they make some other moves.

Alright. Denver over 10 wins, I win. Denver under 10 wins, you win.

Sure.  Assuming 10 is a push. What's the wager? (Right to nullify the wager if a major move happens before the season, i.e. they turn around and trade someone major).

If I win, you write a paragraph about how good Russell Wilson is. If you win, I write a paragraph about how bad he is.

Done and done. ::virtual shake::

Just seeing when we wanted to bring this bet to consummation. I can't see the Broncos going 7-1 the rest of the way to give you a push.

The 8th loss. Barring a miracle, you’ve cancelled out your bet on the Colts to advance further than the Rams and Cowboys in last year’s postseason, while I’ve failed miserably on this Broncos prediction  I’ll start thinking about that essay.

Now that he's gotten his coach fired, ready to rock? 

[jgb191]

GM Patton made some serious blunders (Vonn Miller trade, Russell Wilson trade); he obviously can't fire himself so instead takes it out on his coach.  That's like a supervisor getting canned for a mistake made by the manager.  Let's see if Nathaniel can land another Head Coach job for another team.  Also can't fire players with contracts.  Just wished the Broncos could have waited until season was over.  If you're going to fire a coach, a couple of things:  make sure the fired coach doesn't have many more years left to pay him, and best know who your replacement will be (be it the interim coach or a newly signed Head Coach).  Also I can't blame Nathaniel for taking the HC job; I don't know of very many people in any career field who would turn down a promotional upgrade at any workplace.  If it doesn't work out, you just return to your previous position so practically no risk there.

This marks the fourth (4th) consecutive season that both the Texans and Titans split road wins in both division games.  The last home team to win was four years ago in December 2018 when the Texans won the Monday Night meeting in Reliant/NRG Stadium, since then the visiting team has won every meeting.

On a related note:  my #2 favorite NFL team, Jaguars, has overtaken my #3 favorite NFL team, Titans, by virtue of the latter losing to my #1 team the Texans.  And next week is the battle of my #1 and #2 teams.  Just because my Texans won in Jacksonville earlier this season doesn't make our home game against them any easier, in fact Jacksonville is still rightfully favored to win the game; the revitalized Jaguars are surging and Trevor Lawrence is playing like a superstar QB.

It's weird that your three favorite teams are in the same division. Most people do not like the other teams in the same division as their favorite team.

AFC South represent! 

Unlike other divisions, AFC South fans don't seem to hate each other's teams all that much.  In fact I wish for my AFC South to be as strong of a division as potentially possible; I am tired of ours being labeled the weakest division.

[thspfc]

make sure the fired coach doesn't have many more years left to pay him

Biggest fallacy in sports. You’re going to pay him a lot whether he’s still your coach or not. Keeping the wrong coach so that you feel like your money is better spent is a good way to waste years where you could be rebuilding towards success. If your coach stinks, you fire him.

[webny99]

I didn't have much confidence in the Chargers but they got it done last night to clinch an AFC Wild Card berth! Jags-Titans will decide the AFC South and that leaves just one AFC Wild Card remaining to be fought out between 3 AFC East teams (plus technically the Raiders and Steelers who are both on life support at this point).

[webny99]

It's weird that your three favorite teams are in the same division. Most people do not like the other teams in the same division as their favorite team.

AFC South represent! 

Unlike other divisions, AFC South fans don't seem to hate each other's teams all that much.  In fact I wish for my AFC South to be as strong of a division as potentially possible; I am tired of ours being labeled the weakest division.

I don't know about that... there certainly seems to be some bad blood between the Titans and Colts (who were not on your list).

Speaking from an AFC East perspective, there's certainly no love lost between any of the four teams. There's perhaps a bit of comradery between the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins because of the ~20 years of shared suffering in the Brady/Belichick era but that doesn't mean the other two are anywhere near the favorites list, and there would certainly never be a rooting conflict when they play each other.

In fact if I was going to rank my "favorite" teams, I'd probably make an effort to pick one from each division before doubling up... and the rest of the AFC East would probably be 30, 31, and 32, possibly throwing in some other AFC rivals beneath the Jets.

[triplemultiplex]

Tom Brady is the luckiest sonofabitch in the history of sports.  With his career waning on an extremely mediocre team, he still is probably going to get a playoff game by once again playing in a division where the rest of the teams are total shit.  First he spends two decades playing against Buffalo, Miami and the Jets when all three sucked pretty hard.  Then as soon as one of those teams starts to get good, he bails to the new shittiest division in the league.

Since he's so goddamn popular, the Bucs have been on national TV a lot, despite their overwhelming mediocrity, so I've seen quite a few of their games.  Man, that team does not deserve to be in the playoffs.  I would support a change to playoff rules so that if no team in a division is over .500, the #4 seed goes to the first wild card team in that conference.  A winning record should be mandatory to host a playoff game.

[webny99]

On that note, I'm going to indulge in "if things were different, they would have been differentâ„¢": the Bucs have three terrible wins against three of the worst teams in the league (Rams, Saints, and Cardinals) in which they played terribly for three quarters and should have lost all three games. They should be 4-11 right now but are somehow 7-8. The Panthers and Saints have both looked more inspired than the Bucs over the last few weeks and I would rather see either of them in the playoffs over the Bucs. Sam Darnold in a home playoff game would be a great twist to this NFL season.

[thspfc]

should be 4-11

Apparently we’ve moved on from “could”  to “should” ? I can at least understand the “could” , but explain to me where the “should”  comes from.

[jgb191]

JJ Watt -- the greatest defensive force I've ever seen in my life!  And in my opinion the second greatest athlete in Houston sports history (only after Hakeem).  Thanks for all that you have done.

[webny99]

should be 4-11

Apparently we’ve moved on from “could”  to “should” ? I can at least understand the “could” , but explain to me where the “should”  comes from.

This whole post was tongue-in-cheek, so it's mostly a distinction without a difference, but I guess if games were 58 minutes instead of 60 then they "should" be 4-11. I don't even have a logical reason to dispute those three outcomes other than just disbelief that the Bucs can be terrible for the entire game and then start moving the ball at the end of the 4th quarter.

[Big John]

Derrick Carr benched.  So much for Adams playing with his college buddy.

[thspfc]

Cowboys 24, Titans 9
Cardinals 16, Falcons 14
Patriots 21, Dolphins 19
Eagles 45, Saints 14
Giants 23, Colts 20
Buccaneers 16, Panthers 10
Chiefs 30, Broncos 22
Bears 28, Lions 27
Browns 27, Commanders 13
Jaguars 41, Texans 17
49ers 25, Raiders 19
Jets 24, Seahawks 20
Packers 20, Vikings 19
Chargers 25, Rams 10
Ravens 21, Steelers 10
Bills 34, Bengals 24

[gr8daynegb]

Derrick Carr benched.  So much for Adams playing with his college buddy.

Wonder if much regret or not on Adams part in requesting the trade or not.  Got to play by his family and got the big payday he wanted.....but now playing for a garbage fire of a team and he had attitude issues this season that I don't recall him having any of them in Green Bay.

Packers for 2022 didn't win, but the players drafted with the picks Packers received for Adams appear to be the real deal and a big part of the future

[thspfc]

Derrick Carr benched.  So much for Adams playing with his college buddy.

Wonder if much regret or not on Adams part in requesting the trade or not.  Got to play by his family and got the big payday he wanted.....but now playing for a garbage fire of a team and he had attitude issues this season that I don't recall him having any of them in Green Bay.

Packers for 2022 didn't win, but the players drafted with the picks Packers received for Adams appear to be the real deal and a big part of the future

Chances are those draft picks aren’t turning into anyone like Davante Adams. Green Bay would be comfortably in the playoffs right now if they still had him.

[webny99]

Should be an interesting Week 17, as 15 of 16 games (including the one already played) have playoff or seeding implications. Falcons vs. Cardinals is the only one that doesn't.