NFLChristmas Day Review

The NFL’s Second Season Of Christmas Games Delivered A Package Of Games With Lowered Competitive Value But Still Meaningful In The Big Picture, With Interesting Footnotes To The Week 17 Slate.

Cowboys Vs Commanders

The Cowboys Take Care of Their Division Rival, Washington Commanders, in a Game That Played Out A Lot Better Than The Start and The Names In The Box Score Suggest as The Cowboys 30-23 The Final Score Belies How One-Sided This Game Started After The Cowboys Jumped Out to a 21-3 Lead Over The Short-Handed Commanders. The Cowboys' Run Defense Got Chewed Up By The Commanders 8.6 Yards per Carry, +0.22 EPA Per Run Play On 16 Rushing Plays. The Reason I Bring This up is that The Cowboys Traded Away Their Round Pick To The Jets For Quinnen Williams To Help Address Some Things Or Anything Along The Defensive Side Of The Ball. The Dallas Defense Responded Briefly Before Falling Comatose One More

For The Rest Of The Year. The Williams Trade also Made The Cowboys Roster More Expensive in Terms Of Cap Space, and Offseason decisions are Always Critical In “Big-D” every Season. Wide Receiver George Pickens May Have Played Himself Out Of The Cowboys' Budget. Pickens Finished With Four Catches For 78 Receiving Yards. The Commanders' Defense Didn’t Roll Over For Dak and The High-Powered Cowboys Offense. Washington Sacked Dak Six Times Led by second-year Player Jer’Zhan Newton, With Three sacks, and The Defense Opened The Door For an Expected Interesting End. Prescott 19/37 For 307 Passing Two Touchdowns 97.5 Passer Rating All part Of A Stellar Season For Dak, who didn't get A Playoff Nod, But He Certainly Silenced A Few critics With This Season. The Commanders played their third-string quarterback, Josh Johnson, who finished 15 of 23 for 198 passing yards and a 92.3 passer rating against the Cowboys' ranked defense. With One Of The worst records In Football, the Commanders Put Themselves In a Position To secure An Easier Schedule In 2026 And Perhaps Make another Run AT the playoffs if Daniel’s Healthy.

Broncos Vs Chiefs

In The Night Cap, The Broncos Dispatch The Chiefs 20-13 in a Tight Contest That Keeps The Broncos Ahead Of The Jags In The Conference and The Chargers In The Conference. I’m Not A Gambling Man, But Vegas Posted a Twelve Point Advantage For The Broncos In This Game With The Chiefs’ String Quarterback Chris Olafokun, And While The Situation Screamed Broncos Advantage, I couldn’t See The Broncos Beating Any team in Football By Two Scores, Especially On Thursday Night. Both Offenses Struggled, The Broncos Missed Several Opportunities, whether a Dropped Pass Or Bad Execution, And Needed Second-Half Touchdowns To Pull Away From The Short-Handed Chiefs. Bo Nix Late In The Fourth Quarter delivers with an Opportunity To Win The Game, A one-yard touchdown To Running Back RJ Harvey to Help The Broncos overcome The Upset Bid Late. The Broncos More Than Double The Chiefs In Terms Of Yardage 303-139. The Browns' Pair Of Touchdown Drives In The Second Half Accounted For 137 Yards Of Offense alone. Bo Nix’s First Quarter Interception Rewarded The Chiefs With A Short Field, and Olakodun Registered His First Professional Touchdown, Five Yards To Running Back Brashard Smith, 10 Plays, 35 Yards Later. The Broncos' Pass Rush Won’t Break The Sack Record after Recording Just One Sack Against the Chiefs, Credit olakodun For Managing The Pocket Swimmingly Against The Top Pass Rush In Football. I’m Confident In This Team’s Ability To Win and Gut Out Tough Victories Late In Games.

Vikings Vs Lions

The 7-8 Record For The Vikings Heading Into Week 17 Seems Like a miracle considering the Vikings Have Suffered Through The worst quarterback Situation In The Sport, and that’s Saying Something In A Season riddled with Quarterback Issues For Several Teams. The Vikings have won three consecutive games as they approach Week 17, just before Christmas Day, marking a mini-run to conclude the season. The Vikings started undrafted quarterback Max Brosmer in place of J.J. McCarthy, who suffered a hand injury, resulting in his 24th missed game. The Vikings had drafted McCarthy 10th overall in the 2024 draft. The Vikings' Pass Defense Has helped carry the Team In Recent Weeks. Only One Passing Offense Has Generated A Passer Rating Above 100, and On This Winning Streak, the 41.6 Passer Rating across the three-win Streak. The Vikings Defense Put Their Imprint On Their Christmas Day Matchup, Getting A Sack and Forcing a Punt On Detroit’s First Drive After Detroit Suffered A False Start Penalty. On Detroit's Second Drive For Detroit In The First Quarter Ended In A Fumble After Vikings Head Coach Oddly challenged the Ruling That Lions running back David Montgomery picked up The Necessary Six yards on 2nd And Six. The Vikings Won The Challenge, Forcing Detroit To Run Another Play, Jared Goff Fumbles The Snap, and the Vikings Recovered Inside The 20 Inside Detroit’s Red Zone. The Vikings Run Five Plays, Four Run Plays, for 16 Yards, And The first Score Of The Game. The Detroit offense suffered another fumble at midfield during its next drive. Despite outplaying the Vikings' offense in terms of yardage, Detroit lagged. The Lions Authored A 19 Play Drive, an 80 Yard Drive That Required Two fourth-down conversions before Jared Goff Hit Isaac Teslaa For A Yard Touchdown to Tie A 7-7 Game. By halftime, Jared Goff had 103 Passing Yards To 27 Yards For Max Brosmer For The Vikings, 3.8 Yards Per Play For Detroit, and 1.6 for Minnesota. Both defenses played incredibly. The Vikings forced turnovers, Multiple Fumbles In The First Two Straight Picks Of Jared Goff In The Second Half. For Detroit, Pressure and Sacks Crushed Max Brosmer, and While The Vikings Took A 13-7 Lead Before The Fourth Quarter, The Vikings Couldn’t Move The Ball with Brosmer Constantly Under Pressure. O’Connell, For His Brilliance As an Offensive Mind, commits to calling long-developing routes and Pass Plays downfield that just opened The Door For Pressure On Brosmer. Late In The Fourth, the Vikings produced -6 passing yards as A Team Due To Sacks Taken. After a long touchdown drought, the Vikings scored in the fourth quarter on a 65-yard end-around run by wide receiver Jordan Addison, which pushed the Vikings' lead to 20-10 over the Lions. Another Botched Snap and A Fumble Recovery by Vikings Linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel. The Lions' Season, once 5-1, Ends On Two back-to-back horrific Offensive performances As The Vikings Stretch Their Win Streak To Four Games, ending Detroit's PLAYOFF hopes. For Detroit Six Turnovers On Offense, Four Off The basically Hands Of Jared Goff Although All The Botched Snaps Don’t Fall On Him. Detroit Couldn’t Run The Ball For The Second Week In A Row Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery Looked Like Mere Mortals, Crashing Into Closed Holes Up The Middle and Breaking Very Few Runs To The Outside, As Detroit Averaged 2.3 Yards Per Carry. Max Brosmer Took Seven Sacks and Only 51 Net Yards, But He Didn’t Turn The Ball Over Like The Five Picks He Threw against Seattle. Justin Jefferson Caught 30 Of Brosmer’s 51 Passing Yards. The Vikings Rush For 158 Yards On The Ground, 65 On One Play, Two Touchdowns.

The Vikings Defense Stayed Hot, Adding Jared Goff To The List Of Quarterbacks They’ve Hit With Near-Season Low Quality and Efficiency Metrics, 64.9 Passer Rating, 18/29, 197 Passing Yard, One Touchdown, Two Picks. This Season’s Results Proved How Crushing The Collapse A Blow The Lions Suffered In Divisional of Last Season To Commander. As The Number One Seed, the Lions went one and done, and The Turnover From Season To Season Happens Fast: Coaching Staff Moves On, Talent Diminishes, Guys Get Older, and Injuries Happen. The Lions Face an Intriguing Offseason. The Stafford draft picks are likely to become expensive, and most of them will be eligible for contract extensions this offseason. Although their cap hits have not yet been recorded in the books, Detroit may start to lose a significant amount of key productivity after this season. Meanwhile, the Vikings' defense could finish the season ranked number one, despite the team missing the playoffs.