Another week and another wild bunch of finishes as the NFL continues to rub its hands gleefully together. Even without caring who won Philly-Buffalo or Chicago-San Francisco, it was impossible not to get reeled in. Let's get into it, starting with the Saturday battles.
Houston at L.A. Chargers: Both defenses were about as delivered, except the Chargers did such a nice job covering Nico Collins that they left both of C.J. Stroud's rookie wideouts open for touchdowns. Omarion Hampton reminded us all of the difference between the NFL and fantasy football by having a nice PPR day but a forgettable actual NFL game. At the end, Cameron Dicker missed a couple of important kicks and there was a dubious officiating call that I imagine Chargers fans will be complaining about for a while. Texans defense sure is good though, will be a tough out in the playoffs (which who knows, maybe it will be the Chargers again).
Baltimore at Green Bay: Monster game for King Henry, which has to be a concern for a Packers team headed for the playoffs but which has lost three games in a row and has some injury issues, seemingly more significant in some cases than the coaching staff has acknowledged (Josh Jacobs). Packers are now locked in as the 7th seed, opening against either the NFC West champ or the Bears (a matchup I'm sure they're OK with), but they sure haven't looked good for a while. Ravens now back from the dead to play for the AFC North, due to Pittsburgh's loss at Cleveland.
Seattle at Carolina: Kind of a painful game to watch if we're being honest, stuck on 3-3 for a lengthy period of time until Seattle finally put things together and had Zach Charbonnet doing his thing, punching in touchdowns, a lot better than Kenneth Walker in this one (announcer used the term "dancing" a lot, which seems and looked like a negative. Both passing games pretty bad looking, especially Bryce Young, who went 14 of 24 for, uh, 54 yards, which doesn't seem good. Hopefully Tetairoa McMillan's lousy game can be explained in part by being sick, the other part that his quarterback was Bryce Young.
Arizona at Cincinnati: Arizona didn't really live up to its end of the shootout, unfortunately, as the Jacoby Brissett run is kind of over. Cincinnati did, with most key guys faring pretty well. Trey McBride and Michael Wilson were very good, and Marvin Harrison's pregame admission that he might not be 100 percent proved accurate (not sure how many snaps he played). Michael Carter didn't do much, in fairness a little too much might have been expected from him.
Pittsburgh at Cleveland: Pretty entertaining albeit ugly game, with Pittsburgh coming up short despite a final drive that ended with three incompletions in the end zone, one of which certainly could have drawn a flag. Some officiating crews would have thrown one, but I guess conspiracy theorists can argue that the league desperately wanted to have a nice Steelers-Ravens game for the AFC North in primetime next Sunday night (a little bigger draw than Panthers-Bucs). A single touchdown in this thing, scored early on by Harold Fannin (who then left after aggravating his groin injury, nice of him to score first). Browns do the former Browns a solid and the NFL gets its preferred game next week.
Jacksonville at Indianapolis: Kudos to the Colts for playing hard to win, but they're just not good enough at this point. Some more Rivers highlights, a good almost great game for Jonathan Taylor (second touchdown called back), and a big game again for Parker Washington. Rivers threw a touchdown to Mo Alie-Cox, who I'm guessing probably caught his last touchdown before Rivers retired initially. Jaguars haven't apparently wrapped up the AFC South yet, but probably will next week.
Tampa Bay at Miami: The other NFC South team who apparently doesn't want to win the division, but now will at 8-9 if it wins next week. Not sure how they couldn't come up a little bigger against the Dolphins, but at least you had Evans and Godwin scoring and No. 4 (?) Jalen McMillan going over 100 yards. Lot of receiving talent on those Bucs, but they lost to Miami anyway. And the running game helped no one at all. Greg Dulcich a nice game for Miami, instead of Darren Waller, the one people probably actually started.
New England at N.Y. Jets:If you bet the over on almost any Patriot in this game, it hit. Moving on to the Jets, I understand that they've paid a contract to Aaron Glenn and stuff, and it certainly isn't all on him. But the team has been such a disaster this year can they really run it back in 2026 without changes to more than just the roster? Breakaway touchdown run for Breece Hall, that was the highlight. Patriots looking good, but the Jets have a way of doing that. Tough playoff field.
New Orleans at Tennessee: This one was a little slow getting started, but the Saints heated up and wound up winning a shootout, to the delight of those of us who bet lots of overs. Shough, Olave, Juwan, all good. Saints are just 6-10 but they're looking like the best team in the NFC South right now. Seriously.
N.Y. Giants at Las Vegas: Good week to be using Jaxson Dart, Wan'Dale Robinson, and Raiders fill-in tight end Michael Mayer. And the Giants defense, which not only got to face Geno Smith but had a kickoff return touchdown. I don't think we need to discuss this one much more beyond the Giants cost themselves the No. 1 overall pick by winning.
Philadelphia at Buffalo: Epic finish to this one, which I assume most football fans were watching because the only late-window alternative was Giants-Raiders. Bills couldn't do anything on offense for three and a half quarters, but played enough defense to only trail 13-0. Put together a touchdown drive (missed the extra point ugh), got a stop, got the ball back, and pulled a cool hook-and-lateral play out of their butt to convert a fourth and long. Brandin Cooks made a remarkable downfield helmet-type catch to set up another touchdown, which the Bills had to score twice because of instant replay, whose sole purpose as I've mentioned before is to freeze plays which look like touchdowns and spot them inches short. Bills had a great 2-point conversion pass play...and Allen missed a wide-open Shakir. Great game, tough one for Bills fans. Fantasy-wise, key Bills worked out a little better than key Eagles.
Chicago at San Francisco: This was a wild one from the word go, with both quarterbacks lighting up the night and both defenses showing their considerable flaws -- no pass rush for the 49ers, and minimal coverage acumen for the Bears. The shootout (which included monster first halves from both teams) culminated in a wild final drive that, like Philly-Buffalo, fell just barely short. This seems to be like a bad thing for tonight's game, with the Rams now out of the NFC West race, but we'll see.
Monday, Monday: The Rams can't win the NFC West. A higher seed is desirable (playing at the NFC South winner rather than at Philadelphia), so maybe they'll play this one straight. But we'll need to see what they're saying today, given Sean McVay's long established practice of sitting guys to rest them for the playoffs. I am not sure who they'll be using in this game, but I'm a little nervous about counting on key starters. I'll make a prediction accordingly: Falcons 20, Rams 17.