Week 18 is traditionally an odd duck, with motivations for different teams uncertain, unclear, and at times inexplicable. Why are starters playing? Why is this team trying to win? ("You play to win the game.") This year seemed especially odd, or maybe my memory of past years just isn't what it used to be.
Kansas City at Raiders: Easy win for Kansas City, with Jarrett Stidham looking more like was expected from Stidham last week and Patrick Mahomes easily moving Kansas City up and down the field. Jerick McKinnon scored early, as expected, but Isiah Pacheco didn't get in the end zone until after McKinnon, Ronald Jones and nearly a defensive tackle scored. Travis Kelce also a foot short of scoring after a reception. Kansas City is the No. 1. I don't think Stidham will be Las Vegas' Week 1 starter next year.
Titans at Jaguars: Trying to figure out the last big game that was decided on a late defensive touchdown. Nobody really wanted to see the Titans in the playoffs, I don't think, but Joshua Dobbs was pretty impressive in the first half, with a sweet touchdown to rookie tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo and some nice throws all day. I think it's possible Dobbs is a candidate to start here next year. The game-winning fumble return defensive score was awful close to being a forward pass, and if I were a Tennessee fan I'd probably be upset about it. But a lower-scoring game that could have gone either way. I'm a Trevor Lawrence fan; the critical lost fumble in this game charged to him was probably either the receiver's fault, or maybe Doug Pederson's. Anyway, pretty good game. Nice outing for Christian Kirk.
Bucs at Falcons: Predictably, Bucs starters didn't play for long in this meaningless game, and Atlanta rolled up big numbers. I don't know how much stock we should put in Desmond Ridder's nice game, but it's better than the alternative, and the big games for Drake London and Tyler Allgeier are just continuations of pretty good recent stretches for both rookies. Is the future bright in Atlanta? Safe to say the division is wide open, that's for sure.
Patriots at Bills: So the Bills returning two kicks for touchdowns was unusual. I'm pretty sure Nyheim Hines once returned two punts for a touchdowns in a game for the Colts, so a pretty unique, never to be equaled career in that regard. But the big thing, aside from all the Damar Hamlin emotion, was that the Bills had a big offensive day, which they haven't had many of the second half of the season. Big play touchdown for John Brown, up off the practice squad; big days for a lot of Bills. I think they should dispatch Miami and whatever quarterback the Dolphins send out with out too much trouble.
Vikings at Bears: Kind of a weird game, with the Vikings playing to win and leaving Dalvin Cook in long enough to seemingly get hurt once or twice and the Bears playing to lose by holding out Justin Fields and sending out a Nathan Peterman-Tim Boyle combo at quarterback. Minnesota wins, but I wouldn't say they're entering the playoffs with a lot of momentum (they'll hope Cook is OK). Bears earn the No. 1 overall pick in next year's draft thanks to the bizarre Colts-Texans game.
Ravens at Bengals: Baltimore held a lot of starters out of this one, which I understand; why play everyone on the faint hope that 1) you win, 2) the Chargers win, and 3) you win a coin toss -- if one of those things doesn't happen, you're traveling to Cincinnati anyway, same as if you lost. Cincinnati controlled this one throughout, with a big enough lead for most of it that I was surprised (and disappointed, since JaMarr Chase's last, fourth-quarter catch cost me a nice parlay of unders) how long the Bengals starters were on the field. No harm done, I guess; Bengals win and host Baltimore next week, but the Ravens were competitive enough without a lot of key performers that I imagine they feel OK about their chances.
Texans at Colts: I don't actually know any Texans fans, so I won't presume to speak for how they feel about this ridiculous win that was meaningless in every way except for costing them the No. 1 overall pick. Houston scored its winning touchdown (after a blowing a decent lead, perhaps remembering that winning was a bad thing) on basically a Hail Mary that should have been easily intercepted, a play where the Colts defender overran the ball so it just skimmed off his fingertips before being caught. And then hit a 2-point conversion to win. I believe there were like 3 defensive touchdowns in this game, with Davis Mills and Sam Ehlinger combining to set quarterbacking back by several decades. One hopes the Texans don't feel the need to trade multiple high draft picks to move up from No. 2 to 1 since they could have achieved it simply by trying a little less hard to win. Lovie Smith is even more popular with Bears fans today, maybe they'll bring him back (their defense couldn't be any worse).
Jets at Dolphins: Speaking of setting quarterbacking back a couple of decades. No touchdowns and no real highlights in this debacle, which gave us the No. 7 seed in the AFC playoff field, a Dolphins team that shouldn't fare very well at Buffalo next week.
Panthers at Saints: Not much of note in this one, aside from Chris Olave going over 1,000 yards (he and Garrett Wilson the first pair of rookie teammates to do so, kind of cool) and D'Onta Foreman getting ejected for throwing a punch. I hope the Panthers give him a legit shot to be their starter next year, he had a nice season. Saints were kind of rudderless much of the season and their offseason feels similar. They still need a quarterback, Alvin Kamara's status is in question, and I'm not sure about the head coach either. At least they'll be getting a high pick from whoever hires Sean Payton. Carolina was pretty respectable after canning Matt Rhule and I wonder if Steve Wilks will get a shot at the full-time job.
Browns at Steelers: This was a pretty entertaining game, which I was hooked on in part because I was thinking/hoping the Steelers would make the playoffs. They'd have gotten smoked in Buffalo next week too, but still. Early Najee Harris touchdown ruled short, Pittsburgh should have challenged. Instead they tried to hurry up and wound up fumbling a couple of plays later, after which Cleveland went down and scored. Crowd getting ugly, but it was all Steelers after that, including an easy George Pickens touchdown, a spectacular sideline catch, and Diontae Johnson not getting a touchdown but at least a 2-point conversion, with is a third as good. Pat Freiermuth left with an injury, hopefully not serious. Steelers win, unfortunately rendered moot a few minutes later.
Giants at Eagles: Can't be thrilling for the Eagles that the Giants held out a whole bunch of starters and yet were in this game until the final, failed onside kick. But the Eagles got their win and their bye and now get two weeks to get healthy. Giants maybe gain a little confidence -- not at their best, but they didn't get blown out like in the earlier meeting.
Cowboys at Commanders: Not sure what to say about this one. Most notably, Dallas played terribly and the many critics of Dak Prescott have more ammunition. Moreover, the Cowboys still had their starters in this game while clearly not likely to win, while at the same time Philadelphia was clearly not likely to lose. So what exactly was Mike McCarthy doing? Building confidence or momentum? Cause those things weren't happening. Washington plays well and wins, but it's probably only frustrating to think that if they'd won last week over Cleveland, they'd be in the playoffs right now.
Chargers at Broncos: MikeWilliams left this game with a back injury. Reportedly had to helped onto the team bus afterward. I don't know how serious, but it doesn't sound good. Every year, some playoff teams who can't affect their seeding play starters in meaningless final games. Every year, some teams get through it unscathed. But there always seems to be one team, or one player, who gets hurt, and some of us say, see, that's why you don't take the risk. Just doesn't seem to be worth it. Denver wins, Jerry Jeudy and Russell Wilson do good things, I'll probably be interested in them next year. The Chargers hope Williams is OK and they can go on a playoff run. Beating Jacksonville is feasible, and they've been very competitive in recent meetings with Kansas City.
Rams at Seahawks: Kudos to the Rams for playing Seattle tough. They had their chances, but their offense just wasn't good enough. Seattle missed a field goal off the upright at the end of regulation, and Baker Mayfield had Van Jefferson wide open for a game-winning touchdown bomb in overtime. But he hung it up a little, Jefferson had to wait, it was picked off, Seattle kicked the winning field goal. Good game, at least. Rams might look pretty different next year. ; Cardinals at 49ers: So San Francisco played this one straighter than I expected. Christian McCaffrey scored, George Kittle scored twice. But the 49ers did work in Elijah Mitchell for quite a bit (2 TDs), and Arizona's defense is so unthreatening I guess there wasn't much chance of anyone getting hurt. Corey Clement scored, if you had to start him, so there's that. I think San Francisco is going to win the NFC, which would be something pretty impressive what with Brock Purdy leading the offense.
Lions at Packers: When a big NFL game actually, honest-to-God surprises you, that's a pretty great thing. So it was with this one: I was sure the rolling Packers were going to win, and I think everyone was sure the Packers were going to win. Especially when the Lions were eliminated by Seattle's win earlier. But I think it's possible that being eliminated actually helped the Lions in some way, relaxing them to go out and play their best ball, certainly defensively, and pretty clutch on offense, too. Detroit had what might have been a game-winning interception wiped out a series before what actually was the game-clinching interception, on a Rodgers floater that was actually pretty similar to the Mayfield interception in overtime of the Rams-Seahawks game. The Lions, up 4 with 2 minutes left at the Packers 15, went for it on 4th and 1 rather than kick a field goal to go up 7, a decision I wholeheartedly endorsed. Some if not many coaches would have kicked the field goal to go up 7, probably losing in overtime. Detroit went for the throat and got it. Impressive stuff.
So now the playoff field is set, and while I might wish the Steelers and Lions were in the playoffs rather than the Dolphins and Seahawks, it won't matter much a week from now -- Miami and Seattle should make quick exits. We'll do a lot of talking about these upcoming games this week. For now I look back on the season just completed and think, well, it had its moments. Not the best, not the worst. Hopefully we'll get the playoff games we want.