Hello and Happy Holidays everyone, it’s nearly Christmas and some NFL teams were in real giving mood this week! It has reached that time of year where some teams are playing to keep their playoff dreams alive whilst others are just playing for pride.
With one week left to go now in the regular season week 16 did a great job of clearing up a lot of loose ends, the only question I guess is where to start?
Let us start with my old friend the NFC South, the division that no one has wanted to win all year it seems and this week one of the teams took themselves right out of the equation. With that said we start off with the divisional game between the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints in the Superdome. The Superdome is usually a fortress for New Orleans but this year it has been more like a community playground with teams winning left, right and centre.
The game itself started off at a blistering pace with the opening kickoff being returned 99 yards to the Atlanta one yard line by Jalen Saunders. The Saints then scored on the next play with Mark Ingram running the ball into the endzone. At this point you would expect Atlanta to be shell shocked but instead they stayed composed and took their next drive 55 yards down the field and finished it off with a 44 yard field goal by Matt Bryant.
On the next two drives the teams exchanged punts and on their third drive New Orleans were starting to move the ball well down the field until New Orleans went for it on fourth and seven. On this play Drew Brees was intercepted by Desmond Trufant, was this to be a sign of things to come during the rest of the game, check out the highlights by clicking on the picture below to see for yourself:
Now with Atlanta’s win over New Orleans it meant that if Carolina could beat Cleveland, the NFC South division title would come down to a one off game next week between Atlanta and Carolina. With that said check out what happened between the Panthers and Browns by clicking on the picture below to see the highlights:
Now with it being week 16 it means that across the league there were several divisional games being played which brings us nicely to our next stop in the NFC East. Saturday night saw the Philadelphia Eagles smashing heads with the Washington Redskins in Washington, well Maryland to be precise.
At this point in the season the Redskins had a record of 3 - 11 going into the game where as the Eagles were a win away from securing a spot in the playoffs. As you can tell the Redskins had nothing to play for but pride and the chance to stop their rivals advancing to the postseason.
Starting at quarterback for Washington was Robert Griffin III (RG3) who has had an indifferent season this year thanks to a combination of injuries and being dropped in favour of Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy. Personally I did not know which RG3 would show up, the one who has struggled this year or the RG3 who won the heisman trophy just a few years ago.
On the flipside to that we had Mark Sanchez at quarterback for the Eagles who has had some good moments in this Chip Kelly offense but has yet to show the form that saw him reach two consecutive AFC Championship games in his first two years in the NFL. The rumours that plagued Mark Sanchez at the Jets around his lack of ability to improve and poor work ethic really seem to be coming true in my eyes!
Back to the game itself now and on their first drive the Eagles got the ball to midfield where on third and fourteen Ryan Kerrigan striped the ball from Sanchez’s hand forcing a fumble before recovering it himself. Luckily for the Eagles, the Redskins were only able to score a field goal on their possession. The next Eagles drive saw LeSean McCoy and Darren Sproles pick apart the Redskins defence and capped of the drive with an 11 yard touchdown run from LeSean McCoy.
Washington then answered back with a touchdown of their own thanks to an explosive 51 yard pass from RG3 to DeSean Jackson and a 28 yard run from Alfred Morris making the score 10 - 7 to the Redskins before one quarter had even been played.
The second quarter only brought us one score which was a three yard touchdown pass from Sanchez to Riley Cooper making it 14 - 10 to the Eagles at halftime. To see how the rest of the game played out please click on the picture below to watch the highlights:
With that loss Philadelphia effectively took themselves out of the NFC playoff picture and it left the Dallas Cowboys needing a win against the Indianapolis Colts to seal the NFC East division title. Now the Cowboys vs Colts game is where the Christmas gifts started. From the outset it was all one way traffic and by halftime it was 28 - 0 to the Cowboys.
Dez Bryant was reminding everyone of just how amazing he has been this season by snagging another touchdown reception from Tony Romo and DeMarco Murray also added another touchdown to his collection. If I was a Colts fan I would be so embarrassed this week because before the end of the game the Cowboys were leading 42 - 0 before the Colts got a consolation touchdown right at the end of the game. If you're not a Colts fan then you may want to check out the highlights of the game by clicking the picture below:
So we now know that the Cowboys are NFC East champions which guarantees their spot in the playoffs, let’s turn our attention now to the AFC and in particular the San Diego Chargers who this week visited San Francisco on Saturday night to try and keep their playoff hopes alive.
The game did not start so well for the Chargers and by the third quarter they were trailing the 49ers 28 - 7. It was midway in the third quarter before we truly saw which team was fighting for the postseason and which team was just on cruise control to finish the season. Click on the picture below to see the highlights of what happened next:
As I am sure you know by know from the last few weeks I cannot talk AFC without talking about the AFC North and the ongoing fight to become victorious. This week the Pittsburgh Steelers took on the Kansas City Chiefs with both teams needing a win to maintain their playoff push however the great thing about football is you will always have a winner, well 99% of the time you will anyway, stupid draws (ties). Now this week with so much to cover I’m afraid it is time for more highlights, click on the picture below to see how this one turned out:
In other AFC news this week Miami had a dramatic win against Minnesota involving a blocked punt in the dying minutes however due to Pittsburgh's win they can no longer make the playoffs. New England also moved a game closer to the number one seed with a close win against the New York Jets.
To be honest there is just so much to cover this week I strongly recommend you check out our podcast ‘Spitball’ which is available later in the week for more coverage on this weeks action. Here as always are the scores from the week:
San Diego 38 vs 35 San Francisco
Tennessee 13 vs 21 Jacksonville
Philadelphia 24 vs 27 Washington
Cleveland 13 vs 17 Carolina
Detroit 20 vs 14 Chicago
Baltimore 13 vs 25 Houston
Minnesota 35 vs 37 Miami
Atlanta 30 vs 14 New Orleans
New England 17 vs 16 New York Jets
Kansas City 12 vs 20 Pittsburgh
Green Bay 20 vs 3 Tampa Bay
New York Giants 37 vs 27 St Louis
Indianapolis 7 vs 42 Dallas
Buffalo 24 vs 26 Oakland
Seattle 35 vs 6 Arizona
To be played Monday 22nd December 2014
Denver vs Cincinnati
Tennessee 13 vs 21 Jacksonville
Philadelphia 24 vs 27 Washington
Cleveland 13 vs 17 Carolina
Detroit 20 vs 14 Chicago
Baltimore 13 vs 25 Houston
Minnesota 35 vs 37 Miami
Atlanta 30 vs 14 New Orleans
New England 17 vs 16 New York Jets
Kansas City 12 vs 20 Pittsburgh
Green Bay 20 vs 3 Tampa Bay
New York Giants 37 vs 27 St Louis
Indianapolis 7 vs 42 Dallas
Buffalo 24 vs 26 Oakland
Seattle 35 vs 6 Arizona
To be played Monday 22nd December 2014
Denver vs Cincinnati
OK well that is all she wrote from me this week and so until next week football fans stay safe, take care and ‘Thanks for Stopping By’.