My Week 17 NFL Notebook

posted 12/30/19

1. When Dre Greenlaw stopped Jacob Hollister one inch short of the goal line in the thrilling regular season finale between San Francisco and Seattle, the fortunes of the top NFC contenders drastically changed...at least, according to history and the numbers. Since seeding began seeding in 1975, 58% of the NFC’s top seeds have made it to the Super Bowl. Their victory earned the 49ers the top seed in the NFC their first since 1997.

2. In the AFC, 46.5% of the top seeds have made it to the title game. This will be Baltimore’s first time as the #1 seed.

3. San Francisco’s win pushes the 13-3 Saints to the third seed and will now host the Vikings on Sunday. Since 2002, only 19.8% of teams who played on Wild Card weekend have won the Super Bowl.

4. New England’s stunning loss at home to Miami means they’ll be without a bye for the first time since 2009. Brady and Belichick have never reached the Super Bowl after playing on Wild Card weekend.

5. Seattle’s loss means they will be on the road for the playoffs where they are 2-7 in their history. However, they went 7-1 in road games this season.

6. The least successful seed in history? The fifth seed. There’s only been one to win a title, the 2007 Giants who beat the undefeated Patriots.

7. The early lines (home teams in CAPS)

HOUSTON -3.5 over Buffalo (Over/Under 40.5)
NEW ENGLAND -4.5 over Tennessee (42.5)
NEW ORLEANS -7.5 over Minnesota (46.5)
Seattle -1.5 over PHILADELPHIA (45.5)

8. My picks (just for fun, of course) I’ll pick Buffalo (under), New England (under), New Orleans (over), and Philadelphia (under)

9. Carson Wentz threw for 4,000 yards and yet didn’t have a single receiver with 500 yards all season. It’s a testament to the Eagles’ resilience and the troubles they’ve had on offense all season.

10. Is Joe Burrow that good or was Oklahoma’s secondary that bad? Both could be true.

11. Sam Darnold’s foot work still troubles me. He doesn’t seem to step into the throws even when he has the chance to do so.

12. It seems like there where a ton of big guys scoring touchdowns this year. Fittingly, there were two longer distance ones to end the year courtesy of Atlanta’s Ty Sambrailo  and the Patriots Elandon Roberts.

13. For Philly fans, 5’6” Boston Scott > Baby Yoda

14. FOX cameras caught Jerry Jones watching the Philadelphia/NY Giants game in his suite just as Scott scored to put their game out of reach.

15. Jameis Winston’s 5,100 yard, 33 TD, 33 INT, 7 pick six TD, season made me think this scene in Bull Durham between Bulls manager Joe Reardon (Trey Wilson) and bench coach Larry Hockett (Robert Wohl) after they watched Ebby Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh (Tim Robbins) debut performance:

• Reardon: He walked 18.
  
• Larry: New league record!
  
• Reardon: Struck out 18.
  
• Larry: Another new league record! In addition he hit the sportswriter, the public address announcer, the bull mascot twice. Also new league records! 
  

16. Cleveland fired Freddie Kitchens after they “didn’t see opportunities for improvement.” Some names being bandied around to replace him are Urban Meyer (yeah, right) and Josh McDaniels (who should be Jerry Jones’ first call after he fires Jason Garrett.)

17. Since this is the last post of the year, let me wish you all a happy, safe, and less insanity-filled year in 2020...