Lasting impressions from Week 17
The 32 things we learned from Week 17 of the NFL season:
1. The 49ers, Bills, Packers, Titans and Vikings are postseason-bound after staying home in 2018. This marks the 30th consecutive season in which the playoff field has turned over by at least four teams from the previous year.
2. Pretty cool to see Seahawks RB Marshawn Lynch back in his customary No. 24 and doing Beast Mode things – like vaulting his way to a TD – in a game Seattle narrowly lost ... and might not have without a costly delay-of-game penalty on the final drive that likely precluded another “Beast Quake.”
3. Hard to believe that Drew Brees – he has the most passing yards, TDs and highest completion percentage in the league’s 100-season history, among many other records – didn’t rate as one of the 10 greatest quarterbacks ever as it pertained to the NFL’s all-time team. I don’t have nearly as big a beef with Brees’ exclusion – does he rank ahead of Roger Staubach, Dan Marino, Sammy Baugh, Brett Favre or someone else? – as I did with the omissions of LaDainian Tomlinson, JJ Watt and others. Still, with only three active players (Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Adam Vinatieri) on the 100th anniversary team, methinks the blue-ribbon panel charged with selecting the players skewed
waaaay too nostalgic.
4. Speaking of Brady, he broke a tie with Peyton Manning and now has 541 TD passes, second to Brees (547).
5. Of course, the biggest news surrounding Brady and the Patriots was their stunning loss to the Dolphins, whom they beat 43-0 in Week 2, relegating New England to wild-card weekend for the first time since 2009. Since Bill Belichick and Brady came to Foxborough in 2000, the Pats have a 3-3 postseason record when they’ve failed to secure a bye and have never reached the Super Bowl.
6. A lot of you owe Carson Wentz apologies. You know who you are.
7. Talk about too little, too late. The Cowboys cracked 500 yards of offense for the third time in 2019 while scoring a season-high 47 points – all for naught as they came up short in their bid to repeat as division champs.
8. Bon voyage, Eli. A class act from soup to nuts.
9. Giants DL Leonard Williams played 15 games in 2019 – a full season because he enjoyed two bye weeks following his midseason trade from the Jets.
10. The Rams look nice in argyle.
11. The Los Angeles Coliseum no longer has an NFL team. Kinda sad.
12. Oakland no longer has an NFL team. Legitimately sad.
13. The Raiders have lost in Week 17 nine years in a row.
14. The Steelers lost in Week 17 for the first time since 2007, Mike Tomlin’s first season as their head coach.
15. Ravens backup QB Robert Griffin III notched a win in his first start since 2016.
16. RG3, Houston’s AJ McCarron and Minnesota’s Sean Mannion all started Sunday. That means 57 quarterbacks received starts league-wide in 2019.
17. Baltimore rushed for 3,296 rushing yards, shattering the single-season team record long held by the 1978 Patriots (3,165).
18. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers were less than sharp against a depleted Lions squad but still came away with a first-round bye. Green Bay might need the full two weeks to tighten things up because no one is likely to fear this team – even at Lambeau.
19. Kansas City DE Terrell Suggs notched his 139th sack, allowing him to vault past DeMarcus Ware for eighth place in NFL history. Suggs’ current team appears to be on a collision course with his longtime employer in Baltimore, both franchises earning bye weeks in the AFC playoff bracket.
20. Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey fell short of breaking Chris Johnson’s record for yards from scrimmage in a season (2,509), but “Run CMC” did join Roger Craig and Marshall Faulk as the only players to top 1,000 yards rushing
and receiving in the same campaign.
21. Saints WR Michael Thomas had an atypically quiet regular-season finale, but his four catches extended his newly established season record to 149.
22. In his first season with the Jets, Le’Veon Bell didn’t crack 90 rushing yards in a game once.
23. Cincinnati > Cleveland ... for the 51st time in 93 meetings.
24. Courtesy clap to Dan Quinn’s Falcons, who won six of their final eight contests following a 1-7 start, giving the coach and GM Thomas Dimitroff deserved reprieves for 2020.
25. Lions WR Danny Amendola would be wise to never throw another pass in the NFL. Why mess with your numbers when you’ve got a perfect passer rating (158.3 based on completing all three of his passes for 83 yards and two scores) for your career following Sunday’s 19-yard TD toss to David Blough, the first Detroit quarterback with a scoring reception since Gary
Danielson in 1984.
26. Raiders rookie slot WR Hunter Renfrow finished the season with consecutive 100-yard receiving efforts. Go, Clemson.
27. Kyler Murray turned the ball over four times in L.A. Will it cost him offensive rookie of the year honors?
28. Saints RB Alvin Kamara is heating up at the right time, scoring four TDs in the last two weeks after totaling two in 2019 prior to that.
29. The latest sprinkling of FitzMagic? Dolphins QB Ryan Fitzpatrick became the oldest player (37 years and 35 days old) to lead his team in rushing yards and TDs. Pay little mind to the fact he managed a meager 243 yards ...
30. Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston connected on 40 TD passes this season.
Forty! Disclaimer: 33 went to his Tampa Bay teammates and seven went to the other team.
31. Winston’s league-high 5,109 passing yards represent the eighth-highest total in league history.
32. None of the league’s top five most prolific passers of 2019 in terms of yardage (Winston, Philip Rivers, Dak Prescott, Matt Ryan and Jared Goff ) is headed to the postseason. What does that tell you, analytics dudes?