NFL Week 17 Rundown
by Dan Angell | by Tyler Doty
Week 17 NFL Highlights
We’ve reached the penultimate week of the NFL season, and the league’s decided to do some massive experimentation for Week 17. Despite playing on Saturday, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Houston and Baltimore all played again on Christmas Day. That means the four teams will have played three full games in a span of 10 days, something that’s almost unheard of.
That could mean some poorly played games on Christmas, simply because all four teams are going to be exhausted. That goes double for the Ravens and Steelers, who tend to beat up on each other whenever they match up. It would not be a surprise if either the Chiefs or the Texans opt to rest a couple key players to try to avoid aggravating injuries. Baltimore and Pittsburgh cannot do that, because their division race is going to go down to the final day.
Beyond the Christmas games, the league has several important matchups that will affect the playoff race. Here’s a look at some of the biggest matchups for your NFL predictions:
Denver Broncos at Cincinnati Bengals
This game affects three teams’ fates. Not only do the Broncos clinch a playoff spot with a win and the Bengals get eliminated with a loss, but the Indianapolis Colts have their fate tied to this game. The Colts can still make the playoffs by winning a tiebreaker at 9-8, but they can’t be the only team in the tiebreaker with Denver because of their loss to the Broncos. They have to either bring the Bengals or the Miami Dolphins with them to qualify.
The Bengals only come with the Colts if they win this game and beat the Steelers. If Cincinnati loses either game, it’s eliminated. If Denver wins this game, it’s in the playoffs, and the Colts’ and Dolphins’ hopes would be down to the Chargers losing to both New England and Las Vegas to close out the year. That seems pretty unlikely, so their best hope is Denver losing to both Cincinnati and Kansas City.
The Broncos had won four in a row before getting tripped by the Chargers last week. The Bengals seem to be on their annual second-half surge, but it seems they have once again left things too late. With how well Denver is playing, it seems Cincinnati’s playoff hopes will end here.
Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Rams
This game’s relevance depends on how much Arizona cares about trying to ruin the Rams’ season. The Cardinals were officially eliminated from the playoff race last week by a feisty Carolina squad, but this is also the same Cardinal squad that embarrassed the Rams 41-10 in Week 2. Arizona has one of the highest ceilings and lowest floors in the league, as they gave Buffalo and Detroit all they wanted but got annihilated by Washington and blown out twice by Seattle.
If the Cardinals show up for the game, the Rams are in for a dogfight. Los Angeles was highly fortunate last week to escape New York with a win over the Jets, and both teams could be fatigued after crossing three time zones coming back from the East Coast.
The Rams have mostly run over Arizona since returning to Los Angeles, going 14-4 in the battle of ex-St. Louis franchises. If they win this game and the Seahawks lose, they’ll clinch the NFC West and next week’s finale with Seattle won’t even matter. There’s also a scenario where the Rams win the division even if Seattle beats Chicago on Thursday, but that gets into some convoluted strength of schedule tiebreakers.
Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
This is not where Tampa Bay wanted to be right now. The Buccaneers no longer control their playoff fate; they either need Washington to beat Atlanta or to have the Commanders lose their season finale to Dallas. And that’s assuming that things go well against Carolina this week, which is anything but a safe bet. The Panthers showed their fight last week in taking down Arizona to end the Cardinals’ playoff hopes, and they’ve been a different team since getting trucked by Denver on Oct. 27.
Part of that could be because they’ve somehow played just one true road game since then (they faced the Giants in Germany), but that game was at Philadelphia and the Panthers gave the Eagles a battle from start to finish. Plus, the Buccaneers barely survived last time against the Panthers, needing a field goal as time expired to force overtime before winning on another field goal in Charlotte.
The Panthers are playing with nothing to lose, and the Bucs have everything to lose and seem to be feeling the pressure. Tampa Bay has won eight of nine over Carolina, but none of the past four wins have come by more than nine points. This looks like another tight one.
Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings
There’s no question who the Packers hate most among their NFC North rivals: the Chicago Bears. But the Vikings and Lions both run a close second, especially with the recent rise of Detroit. However, the Packers can’t let personal feelings come into play here: they have no choice but to try to help the Lions clinch the NFC North by attempting to beat the Vikings here.
Green Bay is safely in the playoffs, but a loss to Minnesota coupled with a Washington win over Atlanta would see the Packers fall behind the Commanders for the NFC’s No. 6 seed. The difference between No. 6 and No. 7 is massive in this situation. The No. 6 seed will get a matchup with one of Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles or Seattle, all of which they’d probably be favored to win. The No. 7 seed has to travel to Philadelphia, where victory is very unlikely unless Jalen Hurts’ concussion keeps him sidelined for the playoffs.
The Packers have appeared a small step behind the NFC’s three best teams all season long, as Green Bay is 0-4 against Detroit, Minnesota and Philadelphia and 11-0 against everyone else. They lost to Minnesota by two in Week 4, but that game was not as close as the final score indicated. Green Bay trailed 28-7 with 12 minutes to play before trying to stage a furious comeback that fell short. The Packers have to play a stronger first half this time.
Atlanta Falcons at Washington Commanders
The switch to Michael Penix Jr. didn’t exactly jump-start the Falcons’ offense last week, but it did result in a win. But at this point, anyone could beat the walking corpse that is the New York Giants. Beating the Commanders represents a much more difficult task.
For starters, Atlanta won’t be able to rely on two pick-sixes like it got against the Giants. Jayden Daniels is much more careful with the football, completing almost 70% of his passes in his rookie season. He also leads Washington in rushing, making for a difficult challenge for the Atlanta defense. The Commanders also don’t lack for motivation; a win clinches their playoff spot.
The Falcons could win the NFC South with a win and a Bucs loss, but this is a much different challenge for a quarterback who’s been riding the bench all season. Last week, all Penix had to do was not lose the game. This time, he’s going to have to do something productive with the football to win the game for Atlanta.
