Unless teams jockeying for seeding truly thrills you, this wasn’t one of the most memorable week 17s in NFL history. On the last Sunday of the regular season, only one playoff spot remained up for grabs, the sixth seed in the AFC, and the Pittsburgh Steelers claimed it mere hours after the early afternoon kickoff.
Pittsburgh advanced to the postseason after beating the Cleveland Browns 28-12, but they had to rely on some help. All the New York Jets needed to do to render the Steelers’ game meaningless was defeat the very much not-playoff bound Buffalo Bills. This being the Jets, they instead threw away their shot, and a late Ryan Fitzpatrick interception helped seal a 22-17 loss.
So the Steelers made it into the playoffs partly because the Jets went and pulled a Jets, but that’s not reason enough to dismiss them as a serious contender. The 10-6 Steelers enter the postseason as the sixth seed, yes, but they haven’t really been playing like one, having gone 6-2 over the last eight weeks. Could quarterback Ben Roethlisberger once again lead a sixth-seeded Steelers team to the Super Bowl like he did a decade ago?
Well, there are some marks against them. Pittsburgh’s defense has been inconsistent, never worse than when it allowed five Seattle Seahawks touchdowns in November. Roethlisberger has been careless with the ball. Even in Sunday’s win, he threw two interceptions, increasing his season total to 16. If these tendencies win out, the Steelers have zero shot of winning the three straight road games they would need to win the AFC championship.
If they don’t, however, the Steelers could be perfectly poised to exploit an imperfect AFC playoff picture. Next week, they will be traveling to Cincinnati to face a Bengals team that desperately could have used a first round bye. Thanks to the Denver Broncos’ win over the San Diego Chargers, the Bengals will be forced to choose between starting untested young quarterback AJ McCarron on Wild Card Weekend or rushing Andy Dalton back early from his thumb injury.
If the Steelers get past the Bengals – and they should be favored no matter what the QB situation – would it be shocking if they defeated any of the remaining AFC teams? The Patriots have suffered a cavalcade of injuries over the last two months, and even Tom Brady is hobbling. The Broncos have no idea what they will get from the quarterback position, which was obvious when Peyton Manning unexpectedly relieved Brock Osweiler on Sunday. The Kansas City Chiefs are heading into the playoffs on a ten game win streak, but nobody trusts Alex Smith to win a big game. The Houston Texans should be just happy to be there.
The Steelers aren’t the best team in the AFC: it’s hard to give that designation to the team that needed a Jets loss to sneak into the postseason. They could, however, very well be the team that none of the others want to face when the games matter the most.
Stat of the week
2,755 – The number of receiving yards collected by the New York Giants’ Odell Beckham Jr in his first two seasons, surpassing the record set by Randy Moss. Not a bad accomplishment, especially when factoring in the one-game suspension he earned thanks to his dirty hit on the Carolina Panthers’ Josh Norman.
How the Patriots cheated this week
The New England Patriots had a chance to seal up the top spot in the AFC with a win over a Miami Dolphins team playing for absolutely nothing, but instead they lost by 10 points. The Denver Broncos took advantage of the Patriots’ loss, sewing up the No1 seed by beating the San Diego Chargers 27-20. Obviously, whatever cheating Bill Belichick and company were doing last week didn’t work out.
Unless...
What if the Patriots, who looked strangely disinterested all day, were deliberately throwing the game because they felt that potentially having home field over the Broncos would be some sort of disadvantage? It doesn’t make any sense, but neither did kicking off to start overtime last week. Who knows with this team, Bill Belichick can exploit angles that we mortals can’t even see.
Wait, what if all along, Belichick’s biggest method of “cheating” has been making us so paranoid that we think everything is a conspiracy? It’s a conspiracy conspiracy!
Quote of the week
I don’t know. I wasn’t.
– (Former) Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine, when asked if Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, officially out with a concussion for Sunday’s game, was in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Pettite, who almost certainly knew he was going to be fired shortly, wasn’t just making a half-decent quip here – he was basically saying “Manziel’s not my problem any more.” Manziel also won’t be Ray Farmer’s problem either, as the Browns relieved him of his GM duties on Sunday as well. Perhaps they can both go to Vegas now.
Fantasy player of the week
Here’s some advice: if you’re in a fantasy football league whose playoffs last until Week 17, maybe rethink that next time? It’s not a wise strategy because on this last week of the real football season there are teams that are playing for nothing, which means that weird things happen. For instance, the Dallas Cowboys’ Kellen Moore could end up leading all quarterbacks by accumulating 435 yards and throwing for 3 touchdowns against Washington. That’s a weird thing.
Gif of the week
Bills K Dan Carpenter slammed his helmet down after missing an extra point - hit himself in the face pic.twitter.com/9cCB8N0JBt
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) January 3, 2016
Maybe Carpenter was especially worried that this missed extra point could have jeopardized Bills head coach Rex Ryan’s yearly tradition of preventing the Jets from making the postseason.
Elsewhere around the league
• The Houston Texans solidified their AFC South title with a 30-6 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Because they won their division, the 9-7 Texans will be hosting the 11-5 Kansas City Chiefs next week in the Wild Card Round, despite their opponents’ superior record. If that seems somewhat undignified, it’s nothing compared to J.J. Watt ruining at least three different popular dances in the span of less than a minute.
J.J. Watt celebrates sack by doing every dance he can think of - https://t.co/4KC50S7shd pic.twitter.com/RZBTRBXqdp
— For The Win (@ForTheWin) January 3, 2016
• The Carolina Panthers finished up their historic season by sewing up the No1 seed in the NFC, defeating a lifeless Tampa Bay Buccaneers team 38-10. The Panthers, along with the Arizona Cardinals, will enjoy a bye week, which should give the team an opportunity to address the clear “cries for help” that are Cam Newton’s shoes.
Cam's shoe game: 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/rehByQ3e03
— NFL (@NFL) January 4, 2016
• The NFC playoff picture wasn’t clear until the exciting conclusion of Sunday Night Football, when the Minnesota Vikings held on to beat the Green Bay Packers 20-13 when Aaron Rodgers’s last second touchdown attempt faltered. The Vikings’ reward for winning the NFC North? They get to host the dangerous Seattle Seahawks next week while Green Bay will hit the road to face the NFC Least winners in Washington. Maybe they should have just let the Packers have that one.
• Teams are no longer waiting for Black Monday to get rid of coaches and executives. As mentioned above, the Browns cleaned house on Sunday, firing both their head coach and GM. The San Francisco 49ers let head coach Jim Tomsula go. The Philadelphia Eagles didn’t even wait until their final game before giving Chip Kelly the boot. Don’t worry though, there will almost certainly be some NFL teams engaging in the time honored tradition today. The Indianapolis Colts, for instance, will most likely part ways with head coach Chuck Pagano, possibly by the time you read this. Tom Coughlin, meanwhile, treated Sunday’s game as if it were his swan song with the New York Giants, so much so that it would be kind of awkward if he comes back next season.
• The biggest loser-who-was-also-a-winner on Sunday? The Tennessee Titans, whose 30-24 loss to the Colts solidified their grip on the number one pick of the 2016 Draft. Congratulations on your successful failure, Tennessee.
