# NFL Week 16
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752
**Category:** The Game Room
**Tags:** football-nfl
**Created:** [December 16, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752 "2025-12-16T14:21:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 8
### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/141 "2025-12-21T18:27:37Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> Bad luck? Poor coaching? Hard to say.
I can’t answer this overall, either, but I did notice this: Doubs fucked up the onside kick bad, and if he recovers it the Packers almost certainly win. He waited way too long to grab the ball (poor coaching?), then took his eye off it and seemed to shy away when he saw the Bears rush about to smash him. One of the worst-played onside kicks I’ve seen in a long time. That play at least definitely wasn’t bad luck.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/142 "2025-12-21T18:29:47Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#):
>
> Doubs fucked up the onside kick bad, and if he recovers it the Packers almost certainly win.
Yup. In a postgame press conference, Doubs owned up to the mistake, and indicated that he practices on the onside kick team regularly. Just a brain-lock, apparently.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/143 "2025-12-21T19:01:38Z")
Performance in highest pressure circumstance should be its own stat.
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/144 "2025-12-21T19:17:58Z")
Quinshon Judkins sustained an injury apparently so nasty that they’re refusing to show it on TV. He was carted off the field with an air cast
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/145 "2025-12-21T19:19:34Z")
I’m watching Miami today, and Quinn Ewers has a zip on his ball that was sorely lacking in Tua. And the team is playing its other starters, so they aren’t intentionally tanking. This roster change was about the best chance to win.
The problem is that their defense is a sieve. As I type this, the team trials Cincinnati 17-14 in the 2nd quarter. Ewers has started 9 of 11 for 105 yards.
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### Author:  [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/146 "2025-12-21T20:42:30Z")
Just caught up on some news, and jeez
KC down to its 3rd string QB after Minshew suffers a knee injury in the first minute of the game, has to leave the game, and they’re trailing sad-sack Tennessee?
There’s snakebit and there’s snakebit.
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### Author:  [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/147 "2025-12-21T20:44:10Z")
Ah yes, poor long suffering Kansas City Chiefs
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### Author:  [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/148 "2025-12-21T20:46:38Z")
Oh, I’m not complaining.
But kicking a fella in the smallberries after he’s already down is letting the side down
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/149 "2025-12-21T20:52:38Z")
> [@DSeid](#):
>
> But explain to me please.
>
> That seemed like a high risk play while they were already pretty close to field goal range. Nothing wrong with choosing the high risk option and it paid off, but why then not have had the same faith in going for the two point conversion at the end of regulation?
I was at the game. Will take a shot here.
The risk on the 2 plays is very different. With the 2pt conversion it’s simple. You make it, you win. You fail, you lose. So that’s as risky as a play can get. Kicking the PAT almost ensures that you are going to OT where you get to effectively play a full quarter against a backup QB where you have all the momentum. At the time I wanted them to go for it and decide the game, but in retrospect against a backup at home, OT is the smart play.
As for the deep ball, it was 1st down. Deep balls aren’t especially high risk throws, especially on play action against zero coverage. Rarely do you get an INT there, and they got exactly the defense they were hoping for. Any pass is potentially disastrous but that’s probably the lowest risk throw you can make. If it’s incomplete, which is easily the most likely outcome, you have 3 more plays at least. The Bears were running the ball very well and the Packers D was gassed. It was the perfect situation for a play-action bomb and it was run to perfection.
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### Author:  [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/150 "2025-12-21T21:24:44Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#):
>
> Minshew suffers a knee injury in the first minute of the game
It’s being reported as a torn ACL. Chiefs might be holding open auditions for quarterback this week. Colin Kaepernick, perhaps?
> [@SenorBeef](#):
>
> Quinshon Judkins sustained an injury
Fractured fibula and dislocated ankle. Terrible news for a promising rookie.
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### Author:  [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/151 "2025-12-21T21:26:41Z")
Very similar to Cam Skatteboo. Hope he has a full recovery.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/152 "2025-12-21T21:26:52Z")
And, the snakebit J.J. McCarthy suffered an injury to his throwing hand.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/153 "2025-12-21T21:49:39Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#):
>
> There’s snakebit and there’s snakebit.
As indicated upthread, karma is a bitch.
> [@Great\_Antibob](#):
>
> But kicking a fella in the smallberries after he’s already down is letting the side down
But that’s true too. It brings me no joy, understand, the Chiefs at their peak were a massively entertaining team to watch.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/154 "2025-12-21T22:37:23Z")
No chatter here, can’t find the replay, but in the Bills/Browns game Sanders the Browns QB got sacked right at the goal line; he kept pumping the ball as he backpedaled, but by the time he actually threw it the ball was well across the goal line, and he got flagged for intentional grounding. The replay booth official initially called it a safety, but then overruled himself, and the retired official in the broadcast booth said the position of the ball in that case didn’t matter, only the QB’s body.
I examined the rulebook in the intentional grounding section, and it says this:
**if the passer is in his end zone when the ball is thrown, it is a safety.**
It doesn’t explicitly define what exactly “in the end zone” entails, however. The booth ref said it meant that his ENTIRE body had to be in there, and the ball’s position, UNLIKE if it he was tackled in the end zone, didn’t matter. Just seems like a weird inconsistency there to me; the _reducio ad absurdum_ there would thus mean that just one toe outside the end zone means no safety.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/155 "2025-12-21T22:58:35Z")
More bad news for the Packers: not only is starting quarterback Jordan Love in the concussion protocol after last night’s loss to the Bears, but his backup, Malik Willis, suffered an injury to his throwing shoulder late in the game.
The only other quarterback on the Packers’ roster is practice squad guy Clayton Tune, who played a bit for the Cardinals in '23 and '24.
> **[Packers' Willis also ailing with Love in protocol](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47382880/packers-monitor-love-concussion-willis-shoulder)**
>
> While Jordan Love remains in the concussion protocol, his backup, Malik Willis, is dealing with a shoulder injury suffered in Saturday's loss to the Bears.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/156 "2025-12-21T23:39:18Z")
>
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/157 "2025-12-22T00:14:28Z")
The Chargers won and the Broncos are about to lose. So, the Chargers are one game behind the Broncos with two to play. The last game of the season they face each other and the Charges won the first game. If the Charges win out, they win the division.
Next week the Broncos are in KC, the Charges face the Texans at home.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/158 "2025-12-22T00:36:14Z")
Annnnnd if the Jags win out and tie the Broncs, Bills, Chargers and/or the Pats for the best record, they are the #1 seed since they would hold _all_ tiebreakers, either head to head or conference record.
I’d be celebrating like mad right now, except for that Denver WR who may have been paralyzed or something equally grim on that hard hit.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/159 "2025-12-22T00:40:32Z")
Lions get a reprieve on PI on 4th down.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nfl-week-16/1025752/160 "2025-12-22T00:53:16Z")
Insane end to the Lions game and to their playoff hopes.
Lions got a TD pass to win it, but the other WR was called for an illegal pick. On 4th down they complete a pass to the 1, but the receiver is pushed back, laterals it at the very last moment to his QB, who scores with :00 on the clock, but the receiver pushed off for ANOTHER PI, and a game CAN end on an offensive foul.
The Holy Roller rule would NOT have applied since it was a legal lateral.
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