NFL Week 16 Takeaways.

The Results Of Week 15 Of The NFL Season Reduced The PLsyoff Field Down To A Handful Of Teams, But The Seeding And Division Races Heat Up After Week 16’s Results. The Texans Hang On To Defeat The Raiders, Something I Ddin’t Believe Would Have To Type In Week 16. The Raiders Scored More Than 20 Points For The Fourth Time This Season, First Time In Six Weeks Against The Number One Scoring Defense In Football, to Give Houston A Scare. The Texans’ Offense Played Atrociously Even Compared To The Low Standard They’d Set For Themselves This Season, Just 4.4 Yards Per Play. Stroud And The Texans' Passing Attack Made Enough Plays Late in The Fourth To Escape The Raiders. The Jaguars Upset The Broncos On Back Of Four Touchdowns by Trevor Lawrence, Who Continued His Hot Streak In A Pivotal AFC Matchup. The Broncos Suffered Their First Defeat Since September, And The Loss Opens Up Several Intriguing Story Threads For The Final Two Weeks Of The Season. The Chargers, Who Defeated The Cowboys (The Eliminated Cowboys), Maintain A Shot At The Division Should The Broncos. The Patriots' Odds To Win The Conference Jumped After A stellar Comeback Victory Over The Baltimore Ravens, and after His Stock Dropped After Recent Subpar Performances, Drake Maye shone, 380 passing yards on 31/44 passing, 271 Air Yards,131 deep yards, 102.5 Passer Rating +0.21 EPA Per Pass Play The Pats overcame an 11 Point Quarter Deficit To Earn another Quality Win. The Ravens lost Major Ground to the Steelers In The AFC North Divisional Race, and Quarterback and Two-Time MVP Lamar Jackson Suffered A “Significant” Back Contusion, adding to the List Of Injuries He Suffered This Season. The Ravens Need To win out and Hope The Steelers Lose Out If They Hope to Snag The Division. In The NFC, One Division Has A Champion As The Eagles Secure Back To Back NFC East Titles For The First Time In More Than 20 Years. One Wild Card Spot Remains Open With two NFC North Candidates viable, Both The Lions and Packers Took The Dive Over The Weekend, and now Detroit's odds plummet below 10% To Close The Season. The Seahawks Emerged From Thursday Night Football as The Top Team In The NFC, but They Don’t Have Security In That Position, As The Bears, Rams, and Niners Remain Contenders For The Number One Spot as Of Sunday’s Results. The Overlooked Niners Need To Win Out, Starting Monday Night Football Against The Colts and Week 18 Against The Seahawks.

Broncos Vs Jaguars

It’s Always Dangerous To Trust In Jacksonville Jaguars Quarterback Trevor Lawrence Based On A Hot streak Of Games During A Season. If Lawrence Delivers A Big Game Against The Broncos in week 16, He’ll Add More Evidence To His Case, But For Now, Trusting His Track Record For Falling Off Track Remains The Safest Bet.

So Many “Football Know It All” Labeled Lawrence the Golden-Child, the Next Great Quarterback Coming Out Of Clemson In 2021, And Five Years Ago, Based On What We Know, Everybody appeared right about Lawrence: A 6’6 Frame, Athletic and Mobile With a Rocket Arm. In Lawrence’s Rookie Season, He Played Under Former Ohio State Head Coach Urban Meyer, Who Took Over The Jags Coaching Duties Before Getting Fired Nine Games Into The Season For General Malpractice. When Lawrence Failed To Live Up To The Hype He Created Coming Out Of College, Meyer Became The Easy Target. Lawrence Continued To Fail to develop, never finishing inside The Top 10 Or Even the Top 15 in QBR In Any Of His Five seasons. He’s phenomenally performed These Past Few Games, Ranking Third In Success Rate and Sixth In EPA Per Play Since Week Nine, A Stretch That Includes His Touchdown Week 15 Performance. For The Season, Lawrence Still Ranks Outside The Top 20 In QBR and 17th In Pass EPA, Measured By ESPN. Lawrence Produced Stretches Of Success In Multiple seasons before, But Never A Sustainable, Trustworthy, bank-on-it Type Of Success, which suggests he’s the number One Pick. On The Strength Of A Career Game From Former Penn State and Round Pick Wide Receiver Parker Washington with Six Catches, For 145 Receiving Yards, One Touchdown as The Jags Upset The AFC Number One Seed Broncos. Trevor Lawrence Nearly Got Broken In Half By A Broncos Safety Blitzer, PJ Locke, A Sack That Would’ve Set The Tone and Shifted The Momentum In Denver’s Favor. Instead, Locke Earns An Unnecessary Roughness Penalty for 15 Yards after The Ref Blew the Play Dead. A Jaguars Offensive False Start, but Locke didn’t Hear The Whistle, and instead of the Jags Going Backwards Five Yards On 3rd and ten, They Moved Forward 15 Yards With A 1st down Play That Added +8% Win Probability For The Jags. The Jags Score On That Drive, 10 Plays For 66 Yards, and Take a 7-0 Lead at the End Of The First Quarter. The Jags Offense Started The Game with Two 3 and Outs, but One Drive Sparked Confidence as Trevor Lawrence Racked Three Touchdowns, 23/36 for 279 Passing Yards, 115.4 Passer Rating, Adding One Rushing Touchdown, Took Five Sacks on 29 Pressures With A Near Even Blend of Air Yards and Yards After Catch (51.6%). Ahead of week 16, if I Told You Bo Nix Threw For 357 Yards(154 After The Catch) and the Broncos Lost, you wouldn’t believe what I said. Nix and the Offense Generated One Of Their Highest Offensive Yardage Outputs Of The Season: 458 Total Yards, 7.0 Yards Per Play, and Lost. The Negatives For The Broncos Outweighed The Positives In The End, Nix Took One Sack -0.033 Epa Per Play and Suffered Two Turnovers Both Off The Hands Of Nix.

Nix Fumbled At The End of The Third quarter With The Jags in Control Of The Game, 31-17, and the Jags converted The Fumble into A Field Goal In The Fourth Quarter. In 2025, the Broncos Showed The World Their Mastery Of The Miraculous Comeback, But Not In This Game. The Jags Offense Didn’t Need To Score again. The Defense Made A Few Plays, including A Fourth Quarter Interception and a Sack That Resulted in Downs, basically An Unofficial Turnover. Sacking Bo Nix Matters Because He’s One Of The Hardest Quarterbacks To Bring Down when Pressure Attacks Him. The Broncos struggled on third down, converting only 4 out of 15 attempts (26%). The Jaguars' special teams consistently placed the Broncos in difficult field position, often starting from inside their own 25-yard line. This situation resulted in Denver gaining many yards but failing to generate significant offensive production. The Broncos' Pressure Couldn’t Cover For The Vulnerable Spots In The Secondary As The Jags Picked On Riley Moss, Denver’s Cornerback Opposite Patrick Surtain, and Miss gave up 129 Yards in Coverage, The Most On The Team, 70% Completion Rate, 112.5 Passer Rating Generated When targeted. If the Broncos don’t disrupt pressure And Sacks, they will Be Able To Continue hiding Their Vulnerable Coverage Spots, and Teams In The Playoffs Will Look To Exploit Those areas. I don’t think Nix played badly. He played conservatively in Key Spots, Especially On Third Down, Then Turned Too Aggressive In The Fourth Quarter When He Threw The Pick down The Boundary With The Check open.

The Jags Have To Feel A lot More Confident About What they Have On Offense Heading Into The Closing Stretch Of The Season.

Packers Vs Bears

For Most Of The Season, The Bears Played The Role Of The NFC’s Version Of The Patriots In The AFC, a Mediocre Team Hidden Behind A Winning Record, Boosted after Feasting On a Soft Schedule and Overlaying Their Flaws As A Team With Peaks and Valleys In Spots This Season. The Patriots Have Drake Maye, and The Bears Have Turnovers. Outside Of A Black Friday Win Over The Eagles, The Bears’ Season Lack A Signature Win With a Comeback Victory Over Division Rival Packers 22-16 In Overtime. The Bears and Caleb Williams Had To Win From The Pocket, And As A Passer For the Bears Offense To Succeed, Even Without Edge Rusher Micah Parsons In The Lineup. For the Packers, Green Bay’s Defense Wanted To Keep Caleb contained. Could Caleb Beat The Packers As A Passer In And Out of The Pocket? He Proved So In The Biggest Moment When He Connected With Wide Receiver DJ Moore For A 46-yard Touchdown In Over Time. The Bears' Offense Played With Several Key Injuries. Second-year receiver and The Team Leader in Receiving Yards, Rome Odunze, Missed His Third Game. Second-round pick Luther Burden Missed This Game, and Running Back D’Andre Swift Entered Week 16 Banged Up. The Bears scored just Three Points Through Three Quarters. The Bears' Offense Averaged -0.073 EPA Per Play, Finished 18% Of Third Down, and Suffered a Turnover On Downs on a Botched snap on the Offense's First Drive. Caleb Williams EPA Per Play,

Neither offense could find much of a rhythm. The Packers lost starting quarterback Jordan Love to a head injury after a sack in the second quarter. Love Exited 8/13, 77 Passing Yards and 43.6 Passer Rating, and Love Suffered Multiple Roughing The Passer Penalties One In The Second Quarter Took Him. Malik Willis Would Step In as One Of The Best Backups In Football, and He Got The Packers' Only Touchdown Of The Game In The Third Quarter On A 33 Yard Dot To Wide Receiver Romeo Doubs. The Packers' Red Zone Offense Failed, Despite Averaging + 0.055 EPA Per Play on Offense. The Packers finished 0/5 In The Red Zone, Three Field Goals, Two Failed Red Zone Drives, one a Fumble By Running back Josh Jacobs, and The Other On Downs On The team's First Drive. Malik Willis Started The Game 3/4 for 69, Including The Touchdown, before finishing 9/11 for 122 Passing Yards, one Touchdown, and A Passer Rating of 143.2, 4/5 On Passes Of 10 Air Yards Or More, But The Inability To Convert long Drives Into points left The Pack Stunned Throughout The Game. Green Bay Rushed For 192 Yards On The Ground, But Chicago’s Management A More Efficient Ground Game That Opened The Door. The Packers Held A 16-9 Lead At The 2 Minute Warning But The Bears Recovered An Onside Kick Attempt Attempt and Caleb Williams To His Credit Completes 6 of 8 Passes For 53 Yards Including A 20 Yard Pass To DJ Moore and Six Yard Touchdown Pass To Rookie Receiver Jahdae Walker on Fourth Down For A Six Yard Touchdown and The Bears Tie The Game 16-16 Forcing Over Time. The Packers Had One More Chance To Take The Lead and Potentially Win The Game in overtime on the first Drive That Started With Promise, Including A 31-yard Pass Play That Flipped Field Position. Malik Willis Took A Sack On Third Down And Fumbled On Fourth Down, and Chicago Took Over From There. Ben Johnson’s Commitment To Running The ball with two Successful Runs in overtime opens the Door For a play-action strike Down The Field As Caleb Williams Makes The Throw Of His Career To DJ Moore In Tight Single Coverage. The Packers' loss puts them in a precarious position, as they now need to win all their remaining games to secure their playoff spot or rely on the Lions losing over the next few weeks. The performance of Jordan Love will significantly influence Green Bay's prospects moving forward. Injuries Continue To Stalk The Packers. Micah Parsons and Tucker Kraft both Tore ACLs, And Love Suffered A Concussion, Which Leaves Them With No Timetable To

Return. Texans Quarterback CJ Stroud Missed Multiple Games After Suffering A Concussion. The Bears Had No Right Winning This Game, Holding A less than 4% Chance After They kicked a fourth-quarter field Goal Before Pulling Off The Improbable, recovering the Onside Kick, and winning the Game In Overtime.

Bengals Vs Dolphins

Week 16 Features So Many Storylines From Playoff Clinching Scenario, The Chaos and Mediocrity Of The NFC South, And The NFC Hierarchy. Not Every Game On Sunday Will Demand The Interest Of Fans. The Bengals Travel To South Florida To Take On The Dolphins In A Game Between Two Eliminated Teams With Divergent And Complicated Quarterback Situations. What Projected Out As A Battle Between Two 200 Million Dollar Quarterbacks, both Drafted in 2020, Will Shift to A Seventh Round Pick Who Once Committed to Ohio State before Moving To The SEC against another former Ohio State Commit Who Also Transferred to A SEC School, Joe Burrow Of The Bengals against Quinn Ewers And The Dolphins. Ahead of Week 16, the Dolphins Coaching Staff Announced The Benching Of Starting Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, The Organization’s Top 10 Pick Of 2020, A Man Who Once Piloted The Team Offense To Some Of The Most Historically offensive outbursts of The Decade Thus Far, Most Famously A 70 Point Game against the Broncos in 2023. The Bengals won't bench their 2020 Round Pick Time Soon, but Will Burrow Bench The Bengals? Burrow Has Hinted In Subtle Ways That His Patience And Commitment To The Bengals Could Come To A Head In The Offseason. If you’re Ewers and the Dolphins coaching staff, you won't find a better defense in football to start your first game against (except the Cowboys). The Bengals’ defense ranks 28th in drop-back Success Rate and 24th in drop-back EPA Allowed. The Bengals Offense Rebounds From A Scoreless Game Against The Ravens By Scoring Six Touchdowns Against The Dolphins In 45-21, 407 Yards Of Offense As Cincy Reminds The Football World How Potent They Can Be When In Tune. Joe Burrow 25/32 For 309 Passing Yards, Four Touchdowns, 143.2 Passer Rating, +8.6% Completion percentage Over Expected, 7/8 On Passes Of 10 Plus Air Yards. Burrow Started Dialing In After the Bengals' Opening Drive Faltered, But The Second Drive Started With A 35 Yard Vertical Pass Play To Tee Higgins and ended after 7 Plays, 91 Yards, and a nine-yard touchdown Again To Higgins. The Dolphins, Who Started Rookie Quarterback Quinn Ewers After Benching Starter Tua Tagoviloa, Responded With A Touchdown Drive Of Their Own After Running Back Devon Achane Added Another Clip To The Long Reel Of Highlights In His Career With a 48 Yard Touchdown That Nodded The Game 7-7. Ewers Played Confidently, 20/30 For 260 Passing Yards, But He Threw Two Picks, 66.0 Passer Rating. However, Joe Burrow and the Bengals' Offense Proved Too Much. After a Quarter, the Bengals’ Offense Rattled Off Six Straight Scoring Drives, Five Touchdowns, and One Field Goal with Burrow Registering Touchdown Passes To Running Back Chase Brown(2) and Tight End Mike Gesicki(1). Jamar Chase led the Bengals In Receiving With 9 Catches For 109 Receiving Yards, Including A Massive 36 Yard Catch. This Game Matters More About Joe Burrow’s Psyche and With Regards To Draft Position. After A Troubling Performance In Week 15, Burrow Proved He’s Still Capable Of Putting up Level Performances Should The Bengals flirt With Moving On From Him. The dolphins Got Their First Look at Quinn Ewers, the Former Number One High School Quarterback who turned into a seventh-round pick. Ewers Threw Two Picks, One A Ricochet Off His receiver’s Hands, The Other A Force Throw To Jaylen Waddle Along The Boundary. He’s certainly more aggressive (7.7 intended Air Yards Per Attempt, 23.3 ‘Aggressiveness’ Rating Per Next Gen Sats. Perhaps Ewers’s prototypical Quarterback Size May Open Up The Dolphins, and Mike McDaniel’s something that An Undersized Tua Failed To Achieve. Both Teams Got Eliminated from Playoff Contention In Week 15, but This Game May Impact Draft Statuses For Both Teams Through The Final Two Weeks.

Seahawks Vs Rams

How Well Does the Loss Of Davante Adams Affect the Rams Offense? Because of Years Wasted In New York and Las Vegas, Adams No Longer Dominates The Conversation As A Top Receiver In The Game, But He’s still ‘One Of Them Ones’ At The Top Of the Wide Receiver food Chain.

For Most Of The Season, the Rams utilized Adams' Ability To Win quickly Of The Line In short area Situations and In The Red Zone, Where He Leads All Receivers In Targets, and Nine Of His 14 Touchdowns Came Within Five Yards Of The End zone. Sean McVay and the Rams Started To Open UP The playbook Book And gave Adams More Targets downfield, Which Subsequently Resulted In His Hamstring Injury. The Rams Miss Davante Adams immediately, Despite Taking A Commanding 13-7 Lead In The First Half With Three Long and Successful drives into the Seahawks' Red Zone. Los Angeles Settled For Field Goals On Their First Two Trips To The Red Zone. Unlike the First Matchup Between These Two Division Rivals, Where The Defenses Dominated Both Quarterbacks, Matthew Stafford Found Success Against The Seattle Defense early as the Rams piled on 597 Net Yards Of Offense +0.234 EPA Per Play, The Rams had 249 Total Yards When The Two teams Last Met in mid-November. The Rams' Offense in Week 16 Generated That amount Of Yardage by halftime. The Major Difference in Week 16 Matthew Stafford, Who Went Full Six Path Sage Mode, 29/49 completions (59.2%), 457 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 15.8 Yards Per Completion, +0.52 EPA Per Pass Play, 353 Yards On explosive Plays. The Rams Showed Their Depth With Nine Players Registering One Catch. Puka Nacua Showed No Fall Off From The Extra Attention From Both him and the offense, Leading The Rams Receivers With 225 Receiving Yards On 12 catches, Two Touchdowns, 7 First Downs, 125 Yards After The Catch, and a 41-yard overtime score. In The Fourth Quarter, Stafford cooled down Immensely Despite The Rams' Offense Leaning On Stafford More 8/19, -0.026 EPA per drop-back, 26.3% Success Rate, 73.4 Passer Rating As The Rams' Offense Sputtered Into a Punt-A-Thon. After Scoring A Touchdown To Start The Quarter, the team punted on Four Of Their Last Five Drives, and Missed A Field Goal on The Other Opportunity. The Rams Run game Struggled With Consistency, a 38.5% Success Rate, 3.2 Yards Per Carry, and -0.13 EPA Per Run Play. Compared to Seattle, which actually Found Rushing Success Against This Vaunted Rams Defense, +0.43 EPA Per Rush, 7 Yards Per Carry, 160 Yards Total, Three Explosive Runs led by Kenneth Walker, 11Carries for 100 Yards On the Ground, including an Explosive 55 Yard touchdown In The Third Quarter That Gave The Seahawks A Brief 14-13 Lead.

Walker Also Added 64 Through The Air, 46 On a Screen Play In The First Quarter That Set Up a Zach Charbenot Score in The First Quarter.

The First Rams punt Of The Fourth Quarter Resulted In A 58 Yard Punt Return Touchdown By Wide Receiver Rashid Shaheed. The Seahawks Trade For Shaheed To Add Another Threat To The Offense, And While His Contributions In The Pass Game Have Proven Tepid At Best Since Coming Over From The Saints, His Special Contribution has Stood Out as the 58 58-yard play gained the Seahawks +5.1 EPA and A Quick Score With Little Time Loss.

Sam Darnold Struggled Two Picks, Losing -12.2 EPA In Total, One Pick Lead Directly To A Touchdown in The Third Quarter. Darnold didn’t rebound, But He Made Enough plays, Racking Up 273 Passing Yards, 59.3% In Yards After The Catch, 23/35(65.7%) Completion Percentage, but Darnold Looked Rattled and Unprepared For The Moment. Darnold threw Another Pick In the Red Zone, and Those Disguised Coverages Really Left Him Puzzled. Darnold Would Respond In The Fourth, Netting One Score and Multiple Two-Point Conversions, The Game Tying Conversion On a Batted Backwards Pass Picked Up By Running Back Zach Charbonnet. In The Overtime Period, Darnold Stayed Hot, converting Overtime Score To Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Who Registered All Of His 96 Receiving Yards, One Touchdown In the Second Half, and Darnold connected on A Two point Conversion to Blocking Tight end Eric Saubert as the Seahawks escaped with The Divisional Upset.

The Seahawks' Offense Averaged -0.091 EPA Per Play, But Got The Swing Plays To Fall Late In The Game Over Time.

Los Angeles Winning The Quarterback Battle (Slightly) and The Turnover Battle Made The Difference In LA’s Two-Point Win. On Thursday, Week 16, the Rams Won The Turnover Battle, Forcing A Fumble Of Former Rams Star Cooper Kupp in The Second Quarter, and Later Intercepting Sam Darnold Twice In The Second Half, Once In The Fourth Quarter as Los Angeles Protected and exercised a 30-14 Lead Over Seattle. The Rams Red Zone Offense, 66.7% As Of December 10th, but finished 50% On Red Zone Drives. The Loss, While Upsetting, won’t deflate Matthew Stafford’s MVP Case. He played phenomenally, Despite The fourth-quarter moments, and Put The Rams In Position To Win In The End. Darnold's response In The Second Reminded Fans What He’s Capable Of When Engaged, but the win won't gloss Over The Flaws, and Confidence In Darnold remains shaky—Darnold Freezes In Big Moments. This Game Represented The First Time The Seahawks' Defense Got Completely Blasted By An Opposing passer Since The Tampa Bay Game. Stafford Unraveled In The Fourth Quarter, But Beforehand, He Basically Got Whatever He Wanted. The Rams' loss to the Panthers Proved Costly as the Los Angeles Now Owns A 20% Chance To Earn The Number One Seed, as Seattle Owns The Tie Breaker, and If The Niners Win Out, San Francisco Would Then Take Over The Conference Lead. Whomever the Rams Face Come Playoff Time, Whether From The Fifth, Sixth, Or Number One Seed, Will Serve As An Underdog To This Juggernaut NFL team.

Buccaneers Vs Panthers

After Briefly Flirting With The NFC South Lead In week 15(Three Days), the Panthers officially Take Over the South, Holding Off The Buccaneers Late 23-20 in A back-and-forth battle. Humans Love Classifying Things. Setting One Bin Or Group Apart from The Other, And Football Plaudits Love Classification Even More, But For Months The Carolina Panthers Stubbed The Toe of Football Fans Trying To Decipher If The Panthers Class With The Good Teams or The Bad Ones. Carolina remains an Enigma, But Their late-game fourth-quarter interception proves the Panthers are opportunistic as An Errant Baker Mayfield Pass Landed Right In The Hands Of Panthers Defensive Back Lathan Ransom. Early in The Game, the Bucs Looked Ready To Pull away With The game. On Defense, Tampa Bay Held Bruce Young and the Carolina Offense to just 86 Yards Across Carolina’s First Four Drives. The First Drive For Carolina Went 56 Yards Before Stalling Out In The Red Zone and Settling For Ryan Fitzgerald's Field Goal and A Panthers 3-0 Lead. A Couple Of Successful Runs Set Up The Field Goal. Maybe we get the rush-heavy version Of The Panthers as The Rushing Offense Finished +0.11 EPA Per Play, But Only Ran 20 Times after Falling Behind Early In The First Quarter, and Carolina succumbed to drop-back syndrome. Unlike against San Francisco, Carolina managed some success, Bryce Young outdueled Baker Mayfield Through The Air In What Boils Down to a Playoff Team—An Unfathomable Thought Back in Week Six. Young Posted Less Than Gaudy Numbers: 21/32, 190 Passing Yards,+0.13 EPA Per Play, and Two Touchdowns In a 22 Yard Touchdown To Rookie Wideout Tet McMillian Along The Side Line with Seven Seconds Left In The Half. The Panthers drove 63 yards in 8 plays in less than a minute, with timely throws from Young making each attempt count in a slow-paced game. Carolina took a 13-10 lead at halftime. Late in the third quarter, Young hit his receiver, Ja'tavion Saunders, in the back of the end zone after escaping pressure from the Buccaneers. Throughout the game, Young faced pressure 24 times and was sacked twice. Tet McMillian had 6 catches for 73 receiving yards and one touchdown. In Terms Of Playoff Scenarios, The Panthers Needed This Game More than the Bucs, Considering The Panthers Face The NFC's Latest Top Team, the Seattle Seahawks.

The Bucs Put Together A Picturesque First Drive: 10 Plays, 52 Yards, Multiple Successful Run Plays Meshed In With A Few Pass Plays That Ended With A One Yard Mike Evans Receiving Touchdown. The Bucs' Other Drive Of The first Half Ended In A Field Goal after 14 Plays, 85 Yards, But The Second Quarter Went Backwards Due To Penalties resulting In Sacks And Negative Yardage, and Suddenly The Bucs' Momentum Just Zapped Away. Mayfield Started The Game 8/11 for 40 passing Yards through the Third Quarter. The Receivers Struggled With Separation, And Play Calling Didn’t Help Open The Field More. Mayfield Completed Just Two Passes Over 10 Air Yards and Attempted One Of 20 Air Yards Or Better downfield, a 40 Yard Strike to Emeka Egbuka. Mayfield Performed His Best Work As A Scrambler, 49 Yards On Two Scrambles. Mayfield and the Bucs Drove Into Field Goal range with a Chance To Tie The Game, trailing 20-23, but His Errant Pass Resulted In a Pick, Which Ended The Game. The Bucs Didn’t Exactly Struggle On Offense, 30.1 Yards Per Drive, +0.076 EPA Per Play, 301 Yards Of Offense. All Numbers were Superior To Carolina’s Production, But One Turnover and Multipole Offensive Penalties On The Offensive Line In The Second Half Proved The Difference In Carolina’s Favor. The Bucs Played To The Panthers' Pace, Slow and Methodical, A Style That Always Leaves The Panthers with Opportunity To Capitalize On Chaos. Trying To Wrap My Mind Around The Panthers Actually Making The Playoffs and Earning A first-round advantage. With One Catch, Emeka Egbuka Led The Bucs In Receiving Yards For The Game. Mike Evans had five catches for 31 receiving yards, while Chris Godwin had five catches for 30 yards. It's tough to trust the Bucs offense, which hasn't developed a sustainable identity.

Steelers Vs Lions

The Lions Took Decades To Remove themselves From The Ranks Of NFL Teams Associated With Losing, and Their Recent Stretch Of Success Showed So Much Promise. Watching Jared Goff and Dan Campbell’s Offense Struggle To Score And Convert Downs Left Me Jarred And Dismayed. Detroit Falls To The Steelers 29-24 After The Door To The Playoffs Cracked Open. After Green Bay Lost on Saturday, The Lions' Minute Bid To Record a Game Winning Touchdowns Fails. The Offense For Detroit averaged +0.089 EPA Per Play, but the Run Game Mustered Just 15 Net Yards on 12 Run Plays, 1.3 Yards Per play, -0.40 EPA Per Play. The Lions Quickly Settled Into A Drop-back, Centric Offense after The Play-calling Wouldn’t Get Much Going Out Of The Run Game. Goff Finished With 57 drop-backs, finishing 34/54 for 367 Passing Yards, three touchdowns. Goff Surrendered A Bad Safety In The Third Quarter After Detroit's Defense Forced A Fumble In The Red Zone, Become Swing Plays In A 10-10 Game Ahead Of The Final Quarter, and These Moments Of Ineffectiveness Capsulize The Lions Offense This Game and Much Through This Season. The Steelers Would Score 17 Points In The FOURTH Quarter as The Steelers Rushed In Two 45 Yard Touchdowns On Their Way To Amassing 230 Yards On The Ground. Running Back Jaylen Warren Rushed for 144 Yards On 10 Carries, 95 Yards Over Expected as The Lions’ Defense Suffered A Hard Time Trying to Contain Warren Late As The Steelers Produced the Type Of Run Game. Aaron Rodgers 27/41 For 266 Passing Yards, A 45 Yard Touchdown To Running Back Kenneth Gainwell, One Touchdown, 92.1 Passer Rating. One Of His Best Games. The Steelers Take Complete Control Of The AFC North With The Win And The Ravens' Loss, and Fans Might Get to Witness 42-Year-Old Aaron Rodgers in the Playoffs As The Steelers' Odds Improve. Detroit Now Holds A 7% Chance To Make The Playoffs, needing To Win out on Detroit’s End and A Complete Packers Collapse Down The Stretch. Detroit's loss secured a wild-card spot for both the Niners and Chicago in the playoffs.