The Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs are the winners of the week as both took sole position of first place in their conferences. Both teams benefited from losses by most of their biggest competition and have a strong chance to maintain their first round bye position.
Jonathon Taylor deserves to be in the MVP race and quite honestly I don’t know why he isn’t the current favorite. This Colts run has been impressive and his 67 yard touchdown run to put away New England felt like one of those signature MVP plays. This is a team quarterbacked by Carson “I literally need to make a stupid play at least once per game” Wentz and is playing better football right now than just about any team in the league. Let’s throw Taylor’s hat in the ring.
These wild card races are absolutely insane and with three weeks left in the regular season it seems like nearly any team who has record of .500 or above has a chance at making the post season. We are essentially seeing an English Premier League style table just to make the playoffs which will be a great lead in for a certainly chaotic post season.
Kansas City Returns to a Familiar Place
And just like that, the Kansas City Chiefs are back at the top of the AFC Conference. The defending AFC Champions started out the year looking far from anything depicting the team that had been to the past two Super Bowls, but with a 34-28 overtime win against the Los Angeles Chargers they now find themselves being the hunted once again. Since Kansas
City won it may go unnoticed, but it was crucial for the Chiefs to win since a loss would’ve given the Chargers sole position of first place in the AFC West. Fortunately the Chiefs “Big Three” of Pat Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill had one of their greatest performances. Kelce, the brightest star finished with 10 catches for 191 yards and two touchdowns including the game winning 34 yard touchdown to win the game. It’s especially comforting for KC fans since this type of performance by Kelce has been hard to come by, sometimes doing his best disappearing act in other games this season. The Chiefs will look to hold that top spot in the conference as their final three games will be against Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Denver. The Chargers may be quietly pulling for Kansas City since all three of those teams are right on their tail in the wild card race.
Patriots Winning Streak Ends At Hands of Colts
This was a fun one and it felt like playoff season. The Indianapolis Colts ended the New England Patriots’ seven game winning streak with a 27-17 win at Lucas Oil Stadium. Indy seemed like it was going to blow the Pats out with a 20-0 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but the Pats pulled within three points thanks in large part to two touchdown connections between Mac Jones and Hunter Henry. Jonathan Taylor obliterated any victory hopes of New England though by breaking off a 67 yard touchdown run with two minutes left to put the game away. Taylor, who should be taken as a serious MVP candidate, had another great day finishing with 170 yards rushing on an average of 5.9 yards per carry. The Colts have quietly won seven of nine games and have enough balance on both sides of the ball to be taken as a serious playoff contender. On the other hand, the Patriots played a less disciplined game than what we’ve seen during the winning streak. Mac Jones and the offense didn’t seem to be completely on the same page for a good portion of the game with timing routes being off and drive killing penalties. Both teams will get touch challenges next week as New England plays the Buffalo Bills for the second time in three games and the Colts travel to Arizona for a Christmas Day game with the Cardinals.
Lions Likely Spoil Cardinals Hope of Playoff Bye
Give credit where credit is due. The Lions may not have many wins to show for it, but they’ve played almost every opponent tough this season. They were rewarded with a “W” for the second time in their upset win over the Arizona Cardinals, 30-12. The score makes the game feel like it wasn’t an upset and the play on the field would match that assumption as well. The Lions flat out bullied the Cardinals. Jared Goff shredded the Cardinals defense for 216 yards passing and three touchdowns while something called Craig Reynolds rushed for 112 yards. The Lions defense also made it hard on Kyler Murray, who is already playing without DeAndre Hopkins, as he completed only 23 of 41 passes. The Cardinals who survived holding the number one seed without both Murray and Hopkins for multiple weeks have now lost two games in a row and have dropped to the fourth seed. They are also at risk to lose first place in NFC West for the first time all season as they now have the same 10-4 record as the Los Angeles Rams. With games against the red hot Colts, Cowboys, and Seahawks to end the season, Arizona needs to get back on page quick or they will be playing their first playoff game on the road.
Packers Win After Ravens Gamble Doesn’t Pay Off Again
For the second time in three games, John Harbaugh took the risk of going for the win on a two point conversion and lost, 31-30 to the Green Bay Packers. I admire Harbaugh’s confidence in his team, but unfortunately for Baltimore Ravens fans, they have now lost three games in a row and are on the outside looking in of the playoffs. Without Lamar Jackson, the Ravens started Tyler Huntley at quarterback who played brilliantly and dare I say, showed a little bit of Jackson in his game with his ability to run out of the back field. Even in a loss, it has been continuously impressive how this Ravens teams continues to play teams tough through so many injuries. As well as the Ravens played, they simply had no answer for Aaron Rodgers who will once again find himself in the MVP discussion at the end of the season. Rodgers was brilliant, throwing for 268 yards and three touchdowns. With the win, the Packers now find themselves at 11-3 and the top team in the NFC. Things seem to be really coming together for Green Bay, especially considering they are still waiting on the injury returns of cornerback Jaire Alexander, linebacker Za’Darius Smith, and offensive tackle David Bakhtiari. With two home games against the Browns and Vikings, then a regular season finale against Detroit, it could be in Green Bay’s best interest to rest all three players until they are certain they are ready to go. The Packers may not blow out teams like they have in years past, but their ability to close out games has earned them the most victories in the NFL thus far.
Saints Continue to Have Brady’s Number
Since Tom Brady joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season, they have gone 0-4 against the New Orleans Saints in the regular season while being outscored 117-53. Of course, the Bucs had the final laugh last season with a divisional round playoff win over their rivals, but that stat is still quite something. Considering how bad Brady dominated the AFC East for years, we have never seen one team give “The GOAT” so much trouble. Sunday night’s 9-0 Saints win wasn’t terribly exciting, but it was a big game for both teams. The Saints are now up to 7-7 and are staying in what appears to be a four horse race for the final two NFC wild card spots with San Francisco, Minnesota, and Philadelphia. The Bucs loss dropped them to third place in the NFC and makes the likelihood of a first round bye rather difficult considering how well Green Bay has been playing. To make matters worse, Brady’s weapons took a major hit as Chris Godwin’s season is over with a torn ACL, while Mike Evans and Leonard Fournette also sustained injuries. Antonio Brown should finally return back next week, but it’s hard to imagine he can make up for the heavy losses the reigning champs just experienced.
Looking Ahead to Week 16
First off, let me say that I’m happy to not see the Vikings playing on Christmas Day this year. Watching them give up 52 points to the Saints and six touchdowns to Alvin Kamara didn’t put me in the holiday spirit last year. Lots of spiked egg nog was had that day.
The week starts out with a Thursday game between San Francisco and Tennessee. The Niners are trying to hold off several teams and ensure they hold their wild card position. Barring a collapse, the Titans should be able to hold off the Colts in the AFC South title race since they’ve already defeated them twice but with Indy being on fire lately a win for Tennessee would help erase any doubt.
I’m not a big fan of Christmas Day games in general, but I will say that we get two great gifts this year. Cleveland will need to head to Lambeau and pull off an upset to have any shot at the playoffs. The other holiday game should be a fun game between Indianapolis and Arizona, two likely playoff teams.
Sunday is loaded with great games that could make or break teams’ playoff hopes. The Vikings will need to likely upset either the Rams this weekend or Green Bay the following weekend. Los Angeles is back to playing pretty good football and will be looking to keep giving themselves a chance at the NFC West crown.
For the second time this season, the Ravens and Bengals will be playing to decide who jumps to first place in the AFC North. In the first meeting, Cincinnati went on the road and turned Baltimore to dust with a 41-17 win. I don’t think these teams are that far apart in talent so I hope this one is a better game.
The Buffalo Bills travel to Foxboro for a rematch with the New England Patriots. The Patriots are coming off their first loss after a seven game winning streak so it will be interesting to see how they respond. The Bills, even with a win this weekend, are in the seventh place with an endless amount of teams chasing them. This game is HUGE for them.
The Chiefs will look to keep their winning ways going against Pittsburgh. The Steelers have been staying alive like the Bee Gees, but will likely need to pull off the upset in order to stay in the race. Keep an eye on the Chiefs’ players who are in COVID protocol, including Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill.
Maybe not as high profile, but the Raiders/Broncos game is an AFC West divisional game that is probably an AFC playoff eliminator match. With both teams being 7-7, it is hard to imagine the loser working their way back in contention when you consider tie breaks.
I will once again be drinking plenty of egg nog this year, but it will be to enjoy the abundance of great games surrounding the holidays. Happy Holidays, Football Fans!