No spreads 
But here are the matchups
TNF
CIN@PHI
SUN
1PM
NYG@ATL
DEN@BAL
GB@CHI
WAS@CLE
IND@HOU
JAX@MIA
TB@NO
MIN@STL
4PM
DET@ARI
SEA@BUF
CAR@SD
PIT@DAL
KC@OAK
SNF
SF@NE
MNF
NYJ@TEN
Teams in bold need to keep winning. Can’t find clicnhing scenarios.
Courtesy of CBS Sports:
PLAYOFF PICTURE SCENARIOS: WEEK 15
AFC
HOUSTON TEXANS
Houston can clinch the AFC South division with:
Houston can clinch a first-round bye with:
BALTIMORE RAVENS
Baltimore can clinch the AFC North division with:
BAL win OR
BAL tie + PIT loss or tie + CIN loss or tie OR
PIT loss + CIN loss
Baltimore can clinch a playoff berth with:
BAL tie OR
CIN loss or tie OR
PIT loss or tie
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS
Indianapolis can clinch a playoff berth with:
IND win OR
IND tie + CIN loss or tie OR
IND tie + PIT loss or tie OR
IND tie + BAL win OR
NYJ loss or tie + CIN loss OR
NYJ loss or tie + BAL win + CIN tie + PIT tie (are you kidding me?)
NFC
ATLANTA FALCONS
Atlanta can clinch a first-round bye with:
ATL win + GB loss or tie OR
ATL win + SF loss OR
ATL tie + GB loss
Atlanta can clinch home-field advantage with:
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
San Francisco can clinch the NFC West division with:
San Francisco can clinch a playoff berth with:
SF win OR
SF tie + DAL loss or tie + WAS loss or tie + MIN loss or tie OR
SF tie + DAL loss or tie + WAS loss or tie + GB loss OR
SF tie + DAL loss or tie + WAS loss or tie + CHI loss OR
SF tie + DAL loss or tie + MIN loss or tie + CHI loss OR
SF tie + NYG los + CHI loss + MIN loss OR
MIN loss + DAL loss + WAS loss + SEA loss or tie
GREEN BAY
Green Bay can clinch the NFC North division with:
Green Bay can clinch a playoff berth with:
GB tie + DAL loss + WAS loss + STL-MIN tie OR
GB tie + DAL loss + WAS loss + MIN loss + SF win or tie OR
GB tie + DAL loss + WAS loss + MIN loss + SEA does not tie
Thanks! Went to NFL.com, wrote out most of that.
BTW, we’re down to:
NFC: 9 for 5
AFC: 4 for 3
Kolb on IR for the Cards, Ryan Lindley as starter. I think I’ll just go see The Hobbit on Sunday.
Unless you’re an Arizona fan, the game will be more entertaining.
It’s hard to find a Keystone Kops level of incompetence week-in, week-out in the NFL, but somehow Whisenhunt has managed just that with his QB musical chairs. Before this season, I would have said you couldn’t deliberately put such bad play on a professional football field, but I’d be wrong. Even the 0-16 Lions a few seasons back were just plain bad, not hilarious in their ineptitude.
The saddest part of the whole story is that Kolb did just enough in the first 4 weeks of the season to sabotage the Cards’ chances of getting the top pick in the draft.
You’re going to find ineptitude almost any time an NFL team loses their primary QB. I say primary only because Skelton was technically the opening day starter, but Kolb has been consistently better at everything but “throw it up to Fitzgerald.”
I think you’re selling Kolb short here. Do you realize that he completed 60% of his passes and threw 8 TDs to 3 INTs this season? His QB rating is a pedestrian 86.1, but that’s good for 17th in the league (and only .3 behind Eli Manning!).
The problem is that Kolb isn’t so great behind bad offensive lines, and the AZ O-Line might be historically bad. But actually, Kolb even seemed to have made great strides in his pocket awareness in his early games this season. I still think you can win games with Kevin Kolb as the starter (Arizona was 4-1 with him before he left midway through the Buffalo game), but I fear circumstance probably cost him any chance at being a starter again. Shame.
I’ll grant Kolb has been … serviceable, at best, but I was primarily referencing the “Will Lindley or Skelton play this possession” game that Whisenhunt has set up the last few weeks. Painful as a poor QB situation is, you’re not going to find many coaches turn the reins over to a completely untried and unprepared rookie multiple times over the course of a single season unless injuries force his hand.
He might otherwise be a decent coach, but Whisenhunt is crap at evaluating and coaching QBs. Starting Matt Leinart (who actually developed more in a half season in Houston than in his years at Arizona) over Kurt Warner at various points was the first big sign of that.
Nick Foles, I’d like to introduce you to the defensive line of the Cincinnati Bengals. That guy over there, #97? That’s your new Daddy, but he wants you to call him Mr. Atkins.
It would be just like the Texans to lose out to Indy, lose the division title, and end up playing a wild card spot. I certainly hope not, but I half expect it.
Meh. I don’t. While it’s not impossible, the Colts really are literally the worst 9-4 team in NFL history with lots of squeakers against bad teams. Beating Houston twice just isn’t in them.
The Texans got blown out by Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. So what? That happens to a lot of good teams.
If you vote for the Pro Bowl, put in a vote for Phil Dawson under kicker please. He’s been so good for so long and never got any recogniton because he’s on a bad team. Starting last year he kicked like 30 straight until a few weeks ago, and he’s 26/27 this year, leading the AFC in field goals made and only missing one due to a blocking failure leading to a blocked kick. He legit deserves it clearly.
Incidentally if the Browns can win 2 of the last 3 (Washington, Denver, Pittsburgh), I think Shurmur may stay. Going 7-9 after starting 0-5 would be a pretty decent salvaging of the season.
I always feel weird about how so many NFL coaches can’t make the correct decisions that the average Madden player can as far as in game management. I mean this is their life’s work, and they’re often outsmarted by 14 year old kids.
But the team is ridiculously young (double the rookie starts of any other team in the league this year) and they seem to be developing, so maybe he’s good at all that not-gameday stuff. I don’t know.
At this point I wouldn’t hate it either way if they fired or kept him, but 3 big losses to end the season would definitely change my mind.
I’m far more concerned about the GM, Heckert. If he gets fired (and god forbid for Mike fucking Lombardi, the most inexplicable high level employee in the NFL), well, I’ve already got my manservant polishing my raping boots.
The Browns really have been playing a lot better lately. I hope the Steelers overlook them. As for the Bengals, we gotta have this one tonight. We should by rights have beaten the stupid Cowboys but for horrorific clock management and shitty play calling in the second half.
Seriously, the Bengals stupidly had burned all three of their timeouts with like 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter for stupid reasons, like one they used to “calm down” Reggie Nelson after he was (rightfully) out of his mind pissed for being flagged for a textbook hit on Dez Bryant, separating him from the football.
So here they are, 10 minutes left in the game, have a two score lead, Lawfirm has been averaging almost 7 yards a carry, they have no timeouts…so they need to burn some clock and get the Cowboys to use some of their timeouts, right?
WRONG! The Bengals threw it on every down on their possessions in the fourth quarter and didn’t run it even ONCE! And this was against a super-depleted Dallas defensive line that they’d been manhandling in run blocking ALL DAY!
Marvin Lewis isn’t a good head coach. He’s a good evaluator of talent. Dude needs to be the GM (yeah, right) and have someone like Zimmer be the HC.
I’m a week late but if anyone wants to discuss the fantasy playoffs in general or the SDMB league playoffs, I started this thread.
For testing out playoff scenarios, the ESPN Playoff Machine is pretty good. For example, setting it to just use ESPN power rankings to pick all the games results in the Jets getting the 6 seed.
Then, just set the Chargers to beat the Jets, and the Eagles to beat the Bengals, and the Chargers are in!
But then set the Browns to win out, and they get in instead!
Fun 
The Eagles are amazing.
Amazingly bad. At every single facet of the game. They are inventing new ways to be bad.
This is puzzlingly common. In fact, many games offer no evidence that many coaches or QBs put much value on preserving timeouts for use late in the half.
“There’s a hold [on the Bengals] that’s not called…”
Every year, every game, I can always count on the announcers seeing obvious holds that the refs never do. I’m glad there are things in life that you can count on no matter what. Reassuring.
There’s an awful lot fo talk going around about Zimmer and Gruden being up at the front of the line for head coaching jobs this coming season (Mayock just mentioned both within the span of three minutes). Are there any chances the Bengals fire Lewis? If not, what do you think would happen if you lost both coordinators?