It's a long wait till Monday night…
It's getting really real. Some teams are in lose and go home mode already. Who thought one of those teams would be the Green Bay Packers when the season started? Maybe one annoyingly optimistic guy in Detroit? Minnesotans are far too reserved to make such bold assumptions. They're practically Canadian in that respect. And Bears fans knew their starting quarterback was Jay Cutler. Anyway, the Packers will need to win at home against the Seahawks to keep their faint playoff hopes alive. Remember when Aaron Rodgers was the presumptive favorite for greatest QB of all time?
It's a dream week for the NFL and their sagging TV ratings. The Chiefs and Raiders have already swapped places in the playoff race, the Sunday schedule is full of games like the Seahawks-Packers matchup and then there's Monday night's pigskin version of the octagon, Ravens at Patriots.
The Ravens will certainly be watching the Steelers against the Bills in Buffalo. Both teams need to win; the Bills to keep their playoff hopes on life support and the Steelers as they try to overcome the tiebreakers that currently don't break their way. As a Patriots fan I find it hard for me to root for either of these teams but a Pittsburgh loss could work to New England's advantage Monday night. Psychologically, it reduces the urgency/desperation to win for Baltimore if only slightly. Go Bills! On the other hand, a Steelers win would put Steelers players and fans in the uncomfortable position of rooting for the Patriots on Monday night. If I were obscenely wealthy I'd definitely fly to Pittsburgh to watch MNF in a sports bar to experience that first hand.
Quick Aside: Back in the day when the Red Sox won their first World Series championship in 86 years, they had to come back from down 0-3 to their archrivals, the Yankees, I had to travel to New York on business and wound up in a pub with Game 5 on the four televisions that braced the joint. Like most Red Sox fans, I was pretty sure the series was over; the World Series drought would continue and we would have to watch the Yankees in the World Series. Again. It was shocking and delightful experiencing Yankees fans talking big while sweating fear as the Yankees lost that night. I can only imagine what that place was like the night of Game 7.
The Broncos being on the outside looking in at the playoffs in Week 14 is something of a surprise, too. Apparently, the corpse of Peyton Manning was better than anyone remembers. If the playoffs started today, Denver would be the best team to miss the playoffs, which is actually not a thing. Denver will travel to Tennessee and the Titans are the mediocre 6-6-0 team in the AFC South that nobody is talking about. Unfortunately, the Titans talent level isn't quite up to their desperation level.
The other mediocre 6-6-0 AFC South teams will face off for the right to lose in first round of the playoffs this Sunday as Houston travels to Indianapolis. I'll be rooting for the Texans because they're playing the Colts just like I root for any other team playing the Colts but this one sets up as just the latest episode of this season's breakout comedy, Brock Osweiler, NFL Quarterback.
The Cardinals travel to South Beach in an attempt to salvage their collective manhood. Their crushing defeat in the 2015 NFC Championship was supposed to propel them to a trip to the Super Bowl. They went out and got Chandler Jones to bolster their pass rush and then backed up their claim as presumptive NFC West favorites by losing at home to the Patriots with Jimmy Garoppolo at QB. When NFL quarterbacks get old it seems to happen all of a sudden and Carson Palmer looks like he's done. Tony Romo to the Broncos? How about Tony Romo to the Cardinals? Sure, I'll be rooting for zombie Carson Palmer against the Dolphins because I root for any other team playing the Dolphins (the enemies list is long for Patriots fans) but I expect Miami to keep their faint playoff hopes alive with a big win against the emotionally compromised Cardinals.
I suppose the Washington roadie in Philadelphia is mathematically a big game but outside of the realm of integers not so much. Maybe Washington can catch the Giants for a wild card spot but at the end of the day, I just don't care. I don't think any football fan is saying, "Hey look! The Giants/Redskins are on!"
The Giants host the Cowboys tonight and despite the bold talk from Gotham, I expect this game will only embolden Washington's playoff aspirations. Well, unless they lose to the Eagles, of course. The Giants and Broncos are both 8-4-0 which is certainly confusing to those of us who've long believed Bill Parcells when he said, "You are what your record says you are."
I admit I do have some interest in the Jets game against the 49ers in San Fran in the same way that I like to watch Russian dash cam videos. Only Cleveland keeps San Francisco from being the worst team in the NFL so a loss by the Jets would require some serious consideration for changes at general manager, head coach and every single player on the 53-man roster. Yes, I'll be rooting for the 49ers against the Jets because see Colts and Dolphins, above.
As bad as it's been for Jets fans (and it has been very bad), imagine being the team that pigskin pundits and bobbleheads have been predicting would give up the first win by the 0-12-0 Cleveland Browns. Congratulations, Cincinnati Bengals!
As for the Patriots facing the Ravens, it's hard to play for concepts like "home field throughout the playoffs." There's an intellectual understanding of why that's important, of course, but it doesn't have a real emotional resonance. Fortunately, the Patriots and Ravens legit hate each other so there's that. I'll set the over/under on unsportsmanlike conduct penalties at 4.5, the over/under on trick plays at 2.5 and the number of Bill Belichick death stares at every single time they put him on camera.
Go Pats!
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