Wow that went quickly, week 17 is now in the history books and the 2014 regular season is over, where did that time go!
Rather than dwelling on the fact that the regular season is over let's instead take a look at what happened around the league this week.
We start with the NFC East divisional game between the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys had already secured the division itself and a place in the playoffs however a win plus some other results going their way would see them get the number one seed for the post season. Washington on the other hand had absolutely nothing to play for. I think one of the commentators said it best when he said 'when there is nothing to play for, that is when you really see which players love football!'
This week despite already being in the playoffs, Jason Garrett the head coach of the Cowboys said that his starters would play until at least the first half of the game. On the first drive Dallas took the ball 55 yards down the field and capped off the drive with a 36 yard field goal from Dan Bailey.
Washington then had a monster play on their ensuing drive as Robert Griffin III (RG3) throw a 69 yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson who is playing well even this late in the season. We have a game on our hands is what I thought! Unfortunately for me and all Redskins fans out there it was not the case, the Cowboys started turning the screw and racked up 24 unanswered points which included another magnificent touchdown catch from Dez Bryant. When you see the highlights in a moment be sure to check out the concentration and footwork to get both feet down in bounds!
In response to the onslaught, the Redskins did manage 10 points of their own before Dallas put the nail in the coffin with a further 17 points. Other things to note from this game are that DeMarco Murray broke the Cowboys single season rushing yards record with a total of 1845 yards and Dez Bryant not wanting to be left out also set the record for most touchdown receptions in a single season with 16 touchdowns. Both records are quite the achievement when you think the records were held by hall of fame running back Emmitt Smith and wide receiver Terrell Owens. You can see the highlights from this game including Bryant’s magnificent catch by clicking on the picture below:
Another battle that caught my eye this week actually involved four teams across three different games and that is because it involved the last playoff spot in the AFC. The four teams involved were Kansas City, San Diego, Baltimore and Houston. Kansas were actually playing San Diego whilst Baltimore faced off against the division rivals Cleveland and Houston faced off against their rivals Jacksonville.
Excluding the complications of tied games it basically broke down like this going into week 17: San Diego just needed a win regardless of the other results whereas Kansas City needed to beat San Diego and hope both Baltimore and Houston lost. Baltimore needed a San Diego loss and a win against Cleveland and Houston needed a win and a Baltimore and San Diego loss. Have you got that, good then let us continue..
Kansas showed how much they really wanted this win and one player more than most had an outstanding game and that is Justin Houston their outside linebacker. During the game Houston got four sacks including one which led to a forced fumble. These four sacks also helped him tie the sacks in a season record of 22.0 currently held by Michael Strahan.
San Diego on the other hand looked a completely different team to the one which came back from 21 points down against the San Francisco 49ers. You can see the highlights of this game by clicking on the picture below:
Now as you may have caught at the end of those highlights neither Kansas or San Diego secured that last playoff spot so the question becomes who did between Houston and Baltimore. Well I can tell you that Houston got the win they required but so did Baltimore meaning the Ravens take the last playoff spot in the AFC and we have three teams for the AFC North in the mix for the postseason. You can see the highlights of both games by clicking on the relevant pictures below:
Before we move onto some of the other games I would just like to say ‘how amazing is JJ Watt?’ I mean this year he has become the first player in NFL history to have multiple 20+ sacks in a season and let’s not forget the fact he also has five touchdowns this year with three of those being receiving touchdowns!
With that said we move on now to the big games in the NFC starting with the winner takes all battle for the NFC South between the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons in the Georgia Dome. Both teams seem to heavily rely on their quarterbacks with Atlanta relying on Matt Ryan's pocket prescence and precision passing whereas Cam Newton is more the emotional leader of the Panthers. The question is which one would shine and which one would crumble?
Well to be fair to Matt Ryan it was not actually him that crumbled but more his offensive line, you will hear the term ‘The game is won and lost in the trenches’ quite a lot and this refers to the battle between both offensive and defensive lines. Apologies I digress a little but suffice to say Atlanta’s offensive line was just plain horrible in this game giving up six sacks on Matt Ryan. You can see just how bad they were along with the other highlights by clicking on the picture below:
So there you have it Carolina make the postseason with a record of 7 - 8 - 1. A record that is not quite a winning season but technically not a losing season either. Bear in mind though that this time last year their record was 12 - 4 it is quite a slide but they make the playoffs anyway.
The last game I want to talk about before giving all of the scores from this weeks action is the NFC North battle between the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers. This game usually draws a lot of attention and even more so when it is being played in Green Bay with the division title on the line.
The first quarter turned into a bit of a struggle for both teams with the only score coming on an electric 55 yard punt return from Micah Hyde. The struggles continued into the second quarter to be honest and it was not until late in the quarter that Aaron Rodgers found Randall Cobb in the endzone for a touchdown. Unfortunately for Rodgers and the Packers faithful in escaping the pressure to throw the pass Rodgers appeared to pull his injured calf muscle and looked doubtful to return after being carted off to the locker room.
Detroit then found their way back into the game with two touchdown passes to the one and only Calvin Johnson aka Megatron! Now despite his earlier injury Rodgers came back into the game and proceeded to throw another touchdown pass to Randall Cobb and he also managed a rushing touchdown as well taking the Packers up 28 - 14. To see how the rest of the game played out along with the game highlights click on the picture below:
Now it’s time to bring you all of the scores from week 17:
Cleveland 10 vs 20 Baltimore
Jacksonville 17 vs 23 Houston
San Diego 7 vs 19 Kansas City
New York Jets 37 vs 24 Miami
Chicago 9 vs 13 Minnesota
Buffalo 17 vs 9 New England
Philadelphia 34 vs 26 New York Giants
New Orleans 23 vs 20 Tampa Bay
Indianapolis 27 vs 10 Tennessee
Dallas 44 vs 17 Washington
Carolina 34 vs 3 Atlanta
Detroit 20 vs 30 Green Bay
Oakland 14 vs 47 Denver
Arizona 17 vs 20 San Francisco
St Louis 6 vs 20 Seattle
Cincinnati 17 vs 27 Pittsburgh
Cleveland 10 vs 20 Baltimore
Jacksonville 17 vs 23 Houston
San Diego 7 vs 19 Kansas City
New York Jets 37 vs 24 Miami
Chicago 9 vs 13 Minnesota
Buffalo 17 vs 9 New England
Philadelphia 34 vs 26 New York Giants
New Orleans 23 vs 20 Tampa Bay
Indianapolis 27 vs 10 Tennessee
Dallas 44 vs 17 Washington
Carolina 34 vs 3 Atlanta
Detroit 20 vs 30 Green Bay
Oakland 14 vs 47 Denver
Arizona 17 vs 20 San Francisco
St Louis 6 vs 20 Seattle
Cincinnati 17 vs 27 Pittsburgh
That wraps up this weeks edition of ‘The Lo Down’ and what happens next is down to you my beautiful readers. Normally at this point in the season I would wrap up the blog and have solely a postseason podcast but this year you can vote below to tell me what coverage of the postseason you would like. You options are a) Just the blog, b) Just the podcast, c) Blog and Podcast, d) We are sick of you please don't do either!
Well until next time football fans stay safe, take care and ‘Thanks for Stopping By’.