Saturday
IND @ BAL
MIN @ GB
Sunday early
LAR @ TEN
BUF @ NE
CLE @ CHI
ATL @ NO
DET @ CIN
TB @ CAR
MIA @ KC
DEN @ WAS
LAC @ NYJ
Sunday late
JAX @ SF
SEA @ DAL
NYG @ ARI
MNF
PIT @ HOU
OAK @ PHI
I can’t believe they didn’t flex the New Orleans Atlanta game. So much rides on that game.
There’s no Sunday Night game, I guess because they anticipate low Christmas Eve ratings, and I don’t think it’s in the contracts to flex games to Monday.
Go Houston!
Ah, for some reason I was thinking of Sunday late as Sunday night’s games. Thanks 
I thought that the Chargers were effectively eliminated after losing to KC, but they have paths to the playoffs that seem reasonable. For example:
Chargers beat Jets and Raiders
Ravens beat Colts and Bengals
Titans lose to Rams and Jaguars
Bills lose to Patriots
So that’s 7 different games, but at least it’s favourites winning.
I have a strange feeling and while I can’t rule it out I don’t think it’s because they’ve changed my meds but I think the Browns will win one today. The team is in the top half of the league in rush yards per attempt but dead last in rush attempts per game. The weather in Chicago today makes me think (hope) it will be impossible for Hue to prematurely abandon the ground game.
Anyway, go Browns.
Goddamn Pats with that call. At least Buffalo got the tying field goal to end out the first half. I was convinced it was going back at first with the first replay angle, but the other two angles, to me at least, look like the left foot was definitely dragging when possession was established. I have no idea how they found enough to overturn the field call of touchdown there. Grrrrrr…
[QUOTE=pulykamell;20683973I have no idea how they found enough to overturn the field call of touchdown there. Grrrrrr…[/QUOTE]
It was pretty obvious. They scored on the Patriots in the last 2 minutes of a half, which is a violation. No lost yardage, but loss of down.
Yeah, this one seemed even worse to me than the last one. From the first angle they showed (the inside angle), it seemed like, yeah, it’s possible the toe wasn’t touching the ground when he established possession, but you couldn’t really tell if the toe was on the grass or just above it. But when they showed the two other angles (on the outside), it seemed clear to me that when the ball was in his hands and against his body and possession was established, he toe was dragging on the grass, as evidenced by the black trail it was leaving. It wasn’t even at the end of the toe drag when control was established. It was towards the first 1/3 or maybe 1/2 of the drag. There certainly wasn’t anything I saw that incontrovertibly overturned the ruling on the field. If anything, I thought it confirmed the ruling on the field.
OK, it’s looking like it was just the meds, though in the words of the late great John Astin “But I’m feeling much better now.” You know, except about football.
The ref was standing right there and pointed at the toe mark in the grass. Both feet were down and that was after he held the ball to his chest.
Why New England always gets the benefit of these reviews is beyond me. I thought the TD call back during the Steelers game was bad, but this is worse.
What makes it extra infuriating is the NE doesn’t really need the help most of the time.
Ladies and Gentleman, your 2017 AFC North Champs, the Chicago Bears.
Is Kirk Cousins worth $23.9 million/year… or even more, should the Skins choose to sign him as a free agent? Is he one of the premier QBs in the league? I’m not really seeing it. He played OK again today but still made a couple of ill-advised throws, including a pick in the end zone where the Skins receiver had three Bronco defenders on him.
Your thoughts?
You basically described every non-elite/non-terrible QB in the league. He’s basically upper-middle class. You can win a Super Bowl with upper-middle class QB, but he won’t throw the team on his back and carry you there himself. There’s maybe 3 guys who can.
The real question, is what is a upper-middle class QB worth? Most of the armchair GMs don’t think anyone but those handful of elite guys deserve $20M+ a year, but ask yourself, is it worth being a team without a QB who’s essentially hopeless? Is there a $15M guy out there to get who you can still win a SB with?
Basically the Skins have 2 choices. Pay Cousins, or rebuild again. If they choose the latter, they better be damn sure they get a first-class QB in this draft.
I agree 100%. I was making bets with myself on whether the call would be ‘upheld’ or ‘confirmed’, and was rather surprised the answer was neither of those.
This is, in a nutshell, the biggest problem with the NFL today. They took like five minutes, bored the hell out of their fans, interrupted the rhythm of the game, and then still managed to get the call wrong. Seriously, just trust the refs on the field to get it right, and let coaches challenge if it’s egregious. This every-scoring-play-every-turnover nonsense is just slowing games down with no improvement in quality.
Check, check, check, check. So:
Chargers beat Raiders
Ravens beat Bengals
Jags beat Titans
and the Chargers get in.
Any of those are about a 4 out of 5 So you got a fifty-fifty shot it looks like.
There’s apparently some level of stink going on over the Packers placing Aaron Rodgers back on injured reserve this week, despite apparently not suffering a new injury during last week’s game.
As noted in this story in today’s Washington Post:
As former Packers exec Andrew Brandt is quoted, later in the article: “Good luck with that. Players with hangnails are put on IR this time of year.”