It’s an odd week in the NFL after watching someone (nearly) die on the field. I’m certainly not feeling it like usual, and I can’t imagine the teams are. I expect the NFL hype machine to have plenty of performative recognition of the incident and what it means for the sport, with the underlying narrative that it really means nothing.
And that’s all the commentary for me this week. Check out the slate of games below, and share your thoughts.
Saturday
4:30 PM EST – Chiefs at Raiders (+9.5, 52.5)
8:15 PM EST – Titans at Jaguars (-6, 40)
Sunday Early games
Buccaneers at Falcons (-4, 40.5)
Patriots at Bills (-7, 42.5)
Vikings at Bears (+7.5, 43.5)
Ravens at Bengals (-7, 42)
Texans at Colts (-2.5, 38.5)
Jets at Dolphins (+1.5, 38.5)
Panthers at Saints (-3, 41.5)
Browns at Steelers (-2.5, 40.5)
Late games
Giants at Eagles (-13.5, 43)
Cowboys at Commanders (+7, 41)
Chargers at Broncos (-2.5, 40)
Cardinals at 49ers (-14, 40.5)
Rams at Seahawks (-6.5, 41.5)
Sunday Night Football
Lions at Packers (-4.5, 49.5)
Not sure how I feel about the Lions-Packers game being moved to Sunday Night. On one hand, I’m happy for the Lions to be getting some more national exposure; though I know it’s more about the game being a playoff decider than any recognition of the Lions’ resurgence (surgence?).
On the other hand, an early Lions-Packers game before the Seahawks played would have allowed the game to still exist in the possibility sphere that the Lions could still get the wildcard if they beat the Packers and the Seahawks subsequently lose. Now we’ll know for sure whether or not the Lions are playing for a wildcard or just to spoil the Packers’ chances before the game even starts. It’ll be great if the Seahawks happen to have lost, but I’m not confident of that at all.
Yeah, I see the Rams already played the Seahawks just a month ago and lost, but only by 4 points. Hoping the Rams can rise up and play spoiler…
If not, I guess I’ll just have to settle for the Lions playing spoiler. Not that I’m too confident about that, either, against the recently reanimated Packers, at Lambeau.
A somewhat strange thing to say about the defending Super Bowl champs. Yeah 5-11, but usually a SB champion will end up with a certain amount of mythology surrounding them. But for the Rams I have seen no articles pondering what went wrong, no discussions by the TV talking heads about last year vs. this year, etc. It’s like last season happened in the Mezozoic.
Multiple times this year I have said, I can’t believe these are the current champions. A regression is not at all unusual after a SB win, but this seems to be particularly egregious. In their first game (the first game of the regular season period) Stafford threw 1 TD and 3 interceptions and was sacked 7 times. They started off bad. It’s bizarre.
Those are two games that have interesting implications. Giants are locked into the #6 playoff seed, win or lose, so they have nothing to play for. Washington is done for the season, so they have nothing to play for. Eagles must win to keep the #1 spot, while Dallas needs to win to have a chance to move to the top seed, but only if the Niners lose to the Cards. A huge question mark is the status of Jalen Hurts.
I would agree with your assessment of the final point spreads.
But only if they beat the Raiders on the road. Chiefs barely beat them in Arrowhead earlier this season (30-29), and the Raiders played pretty damn well against the Niners last Sunday. I’m looking for a close game.
I’m sure some are but as a Bills fan myself i haven’t given that much thought for obvious reasons. Personally i could care less about the ramifications of whatever they decide to do regarding this game and how that affects the postseason.
i am just glad to hear that Damar is making progress and hope it continues in a positive direction. Whatever happens from a football perspective is a very minor concern right now and whatever is decided, so be it.
I just heard on the news that one of the solutions that the NFL is considering to fix the seeding and scheduling issue with calling off the Bills game is to add an extra playoff spot.
I’m not sure how that works exactly to benefit the Bills- I read this article but I think I need another pass or two to parse it.
But from a Lions fan perspective, it would mean that the Lions get in with a win over the Packers, no matter what the Seahawks do. That, my simple mind can understand,
Wait, so nobody gets a bye? I need to read that article; I couldn’t figure out how to make eight teams in each conference work unless nobody gets to bye.
It’s surprising to me that the most obvious solution (IMO, anyway) is getting very little traction.
Push the playoffs back a week and have the Bills/Bengals resume their game on Sunday, January 15.
Then everybody plays 17 games, and playoffs are set as usual. The only difference is that there would be no extra week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl.
But the NFL doesn’t appear to be very interested in that idea, for whatever reason.