All games are on Sunday.
1:00 pm games:
Tampa Bay at Atlanta
N.Y. Jets at Buffalo
Jacksonville at Tennessee
Cleveland at Pittsburgh
Baltimore at Cincinnati
Chicago at Detroit
Houston at Indianapolis
Carolina at New Orleans
Philadelphia at N.Y. Giants
4:25 pm games:
Green Bay at Minnesota
Miami at New England
Oakland at San Diego
Kansas City at Denver
Arizona at San Francisco
St. Louis at Seattle
8:20 pm game:
Dallas at Washington
In the NFC, the Falcons have already clinched homefield advantage throughout the playoffs, along with a first-round bye. The Seahawks, 49ers, and Packers have already clinched playoff spots, but seeding is still up for grabs.
The Pack gets the other first-round bye if they beat the Vikes or if the 49ers lose; the 49ers would get that bye if they beat the Cardinals and the Pack stumbles. But if the 49ers were to somehow lose and the Seahawks beat the Rams, the Seahawks would win the West and the 49ers would be the higher-seeded wild card.
Meanwhile, the NFC East and the final NFC wild card slot are up for grabs. The NFC East crown goes to the Cowboys-Redskins winner. The wild card slot is a bit more complicated, with the Bears, Vikings, Redskins (if they lose to Dallas) and Giants having chances ranging from good to exceedingly remote, in that order.
C’mon Bengals, let’s get to 10-6 to finish off the season!
Speaking of which… you told me a month or two ago that I should prepare to be impressed and surprised by the Bengals, and you were right - Cincy’s heading for the postseason for the second consecutive year. Of course, I hope the Ravens run roughshod over them in a repeat of week 1, but in the end I’ll be happy to get through this game without any injuries.
One nice side effect of the Titans being pretty bad is that I get to go to Sunday’s game for free for the second time this season, thanks to people dumping their tickets. And they might even beat the Jags…
Go Giants! Go Redskins! Go Packers! Go Lions!
Richard Sherman really needs to shut his pie hole. You got off on a technicality. Stop running your mouth, you sound like OJ looking for the real killer.
The Browns finally confirmed that Richardson has been playing with broken ribs all season. Hopefully that explains the lack of performance - in fact, the performance becomes pretty damn impressive in that case.
AFC Clinching Scenarios
Hou-Bye
Win OR loss by NE OR Denver
Hou-#1 seed
Win OR losses by NE AND Denver
Denver-Bye
Win OR NE loss
Denver-#1 Seed
Win AND Houston loss
New England-Bye
Win AND loss by Denver OR Houston
New England #1 Seed
Win AND losses by Denver AND Houston
The way the Ravens are playing I highly doubt that the blowout (which didn’t even happen until the 3rd quarter) of that first meeting will be repeated. The Ravens are quite injured and the Bengals are not. The Bengals are also boasting the best front four on defense in the NFL, in my sorta biased opinion.
What will be interesting to see is how the offenses play. Joe Flacco played his best game of the year against the Bengals in week one. Since then it’s been really up and down for him and the Ravens offense. The Bengals offense is inconsistent as well…they had 5 games in a ROW of over 100 yards rushing but only managed 14 yards against the Steelers in the last game (they were ranked #1 in overall defense, to be fair) and Dalton was harried and hurried the entire game. But he made a couple plays when it counted. And when AJ Green is on your team, you always have a chance.
What’s equally interesting, since it appears both teams have declared that they won’t be resting starters despite the fact that neither team can really improve their seeding is the fact that they very well might meet again in the first round of the playoffs, which may mean that neither team wants to “show” each other anything from their evolving playbook.
Can Indy and Cincy flip-flop?
Yep, I expect to see a boring, boring football game. At least there’s beer!
Not likely - they don’t have enough common games for that to be the tiebreaker, so the next one is strength of victory - the Colts are ahead of Cincy .367 to .348. There’s a little uncertainty in the AFC’s 1-2-3 seeds, but the bottom 3 are pretty well set.
Unfortunately I won’t even have access to that (or the game). I will be taking in a stage production of A Christmas Carol with my parents and my two sons.
I really need to consult a calendar before I take leave of my senses like that again!
I suppose if one must miss a game (and I haven’t missed one in about 12 years), this would be the one to miss. You can bet I will be frantically consulting my smartphone at every possible intermission though.
Og bless us everyone!
What I find curious is that there are half a dozen meaningless games (five if one is looking toward April) but only one of them is being shunned as far as I can tell. Every game has a line handicap and an o/u that I can see except Browns@Steelers. Why would that be, do I just have poor apps?
The Browns are starting some dude named Thad Lewis (who’s never thrown a pass in the NFL) at QB - it’s probably pretty tough to put a line on that game.
Sunday is my birthday and I’d just like to see the Eagles beat the Giants before Eagles (hopefully) start to overhaul the crap out of everything.
Also:
Even though Pete Carrol is the largest scumshit in the NFL universe, I am impressed by the Seahawks. Wouldn’t a SB with Wilson and Luck be hilarious? All the top paid hurlers sitting at home playing Madden 2013… 
Go Vikings! Go Bengals! Go Colts! Redskins/Cowboys-- I’m hoping for a tie!
Random Question: How has Vontaze Burfict looked in Cincy this year? I’ve seen an amazingly low number of snaps of Bengals games this year and haven’t really heard much about anyone on that team, good or bad. Burfict obviously got a lot of press pre-draft, both early hype and then an eventual collapse of his stock. The Bengals got him undrafted as a reclamation project and he’s ended up being a starter since week 3. Any Cincy fans or AFC North fans have a take on him? How’s he look? One-year wonder? Over-rated? Legit steal?
A tie is as good as a win, from the Redskins POV. We’d win the NFC East at 9-6-1, and the Cowboys would begin their off-season.
I’m hoping the Falcons have sense enough to put their second string in as starters, this game means nothing to them.