NFL 2022: Week Sixteen Candles

The Game Room
1

It’s week 16, Christmas week, which means the schedule is somewhat skewed. One game on Thursday, a boatload on Saturday, three on Sunday, one on Monday. Plus, a bittersweet 50th anniversary tribute to the Immaculate Reception game, featuring the Raiders at Steelers.

I copied all the lines from the DraftKings website.

Thursday Night Football
Jaguars at Jets (-2.5, 36.5)

Saturday
Early Games
Seahawks at Chiefs (-10, 49)
Bills at Bears (+8, 39.5)
Bengals at Patriots (+3, 41.5)
Lions at Panthers (+2.5, 44)
Giants at Vikings (-4.5, 48)
Texans at Titans (-3, 35.5)
Falcons at Ravens (-6.5, 35.5)
Saints at Browns (-2.5, 32.5)

Late Games
Commanders at 49ers (-7, 37.5)
Eagles at Cowboys (-5.5, 46.5)

Saturday Night Football
Raiders at Steelers (-2.5, 38)

Sunday Games
12:00 CT – Packers at Dolphins (-3.5, 51)
3:30 CT – Broncos at Rams (+3, 36.5)
7:20 CT – Bucs at Cardinals (+7.5, 40.5)

Monday Night Football
Chargers at Colts (+4.5, 45)

Tonight’s game could be a good one. Jags are just a game out behind the Titans in the AFC South and will win the division if they win out. Jets are tied with the Pats for the last AFC wild-card spot, although the Pats have the tiebreaker. Lions have won 3 in a row and are a half-game out of the last NFC wild-card spot, while the Panthers could still win the division, even though they are 5-9. Vikings somehow keep winning, while the Giants have the #2 NFC wild-card position right now. And will Jalen Hurts play against Dallas?

2

Hurt’s out against Dallas.

3

I’m a Hawks fan but I predict a bloodbath.

I think Seattle has been much better than anyone predicted but they’re now depleted at the WR and RB groups due to injuries, and they’re a couple of key personnel away from having a great defense. (The D has varied between good and awful all year.)

Hopefully having a bevy of draft picks, including one likely in the top 3, will make them a force next year.

4

I’m a Chiefs fan, but I’m not sure about them right now. They have barely won their last two games against teams that they were favored by double-digits. I’m afraid of another game like the last two weeks. Although the loss of Tyler Lockett for the Hawks is huge, as you mentioned.

5

Yeah, when the Texans offense takes a lead against your defense at the half and takes you to OT, you can’t have a lot of confidence in a victory at all, much less a margin of victory.

6

Bad news for the Eagles, but that makes it Minshew time!

7

The Moustache Era begins anew.

8

Uncle Rico back in action!

9

Ronnie Hillman, a running back with the Broncos for four seasons, and who led the team in rushing during their 2015 championship season, passed away yesterday at age 31, from a rare form of kidney cancer.

10

Jags made the Jets look bad in the rain tonight. Jacksonville now goes to Houston and then hosts the Titans. Win those two and they will host a playoff game. Who woulda thunk it?

11

Passed out a couple hours before the game last night and slept right through it. When I woke up, I was mad at myself for forgetting to set the DVR, but then I remembered it was a Thursday game.

Is there any way to watch Thursday night games other than in real time? Is it still on prime right now? I can’t find it.

12

You can watch all of the Prime games again. You just have to search them individually, or find them on this page:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/storefront/ref=atv_me_pvs_c_7sjRqq_2_1?contentType=merch&contentId=tnf&merchId=tnf

13

Think we can just about close the book on Zach Wilson. Maybe he’ll get his shit together and have a Geno Smith-like renaissance 8-10 years from now, but right now he’s looking like a career backup QB, at best.

14

The Eagles only need one win of their last 3 games, (or Dallas, Minnesota, & SF to each have one loss in their last 3 games) to wrap up the number 1 seed. So while it would be fantastic to crush the Cowboys face into the turf in Dallas, I’m guessing Sirianni would rather give Hurts another week to recover and beat the Saints or Giants, or both.

15

How do teams with so much money to spend on scouting and so much time to prepare for the draft whiff so often? I watched a play where Wilson got sacked last night and he never saw the defender coming. He was so locked onto his #1 option he had no awareness that someone was charging basically unobstructed.

16

The last Jets QB to go to a Pro Bowl was Joe Namath.

Even the Bears have had more success at the position. Trubisky was a Pro Bowler (no seriously, he was) and even Jim McMahon made it in 1985 more recently. The Jets haven’t sent a QB there since 1972.

Yes, it has been a full 50 years.

17

Vinny Testaverde enters the chat.

Sweet, thank you very much. Searching tnf pulls it right up. (That’s the search term in your link.)

It even lets me fast forward, though I don’t quite have the touch yet. Also not sure what’s going to happen during commercial breaks, but we’ll see.

EDIT: There are commercial breaks, but you can fast forward through them. Still haven’t gotten the hang of this fast forward, but I’m sure I will.

18

Ah, I didn’t realize he’d made a Pro Bowl in '98 also, his first year with the Jets. I was aware of Testaverde, he was involved in the infamous play where he was given a TD against the Seahawks erroneously on a failed QB sneak, costing the Seahawks not just the game but the playoffs. It was so bad that it was one of the main reasons why instant replay was instituted the next year. Ugh.

19

Still, that’s the only probowl season the Jets have posted at quarterback in the last 50 years. Your point stands that even the Bears have more success than that.

20

How soon after the game are these replays available on prime? This is far superior to watching live.

I haven’t mastered holding fast forward down yet, but if you tap it it skips 10 seconds ahead. Doing this between plays, it generally takes somewhere between a half a second to a second to resume after skipping. Occasionally up to three or four seconds. That could just be my internet, but even with that it’s still much faster than a recording on my DVR.

Commercials are a bit of a bummer. You can skip them, but unless you skip them entirely you have to wait for whichever one you land on to load. Those take around 5 seconds to load for me; one time well over 10.

If you hold fast forward, eventually it engages auto fast forward instead of 10 seconds per tap. But then when you stop holding, it doesn’t stop fast forwarding. You have to hit the play button. It’s kind of a dexterity check, almost videogame-like.