Sunday Football Afterword: Week 16 Late Games

Richard Sherman returns a field goal blocked by Red Bryant
in the second quarter of Seattle's blowout win on Sunday Night.
Photo credit to Seahawks.com.

Peyton Manning got of to a great start at home against Cleveland and Denver rode it to a 34-12 win. Manning threw three touchdowns in the contest but also had one interception that was on a very poorly thrown ball. He was looking for his guy in the end zone and did a very bad job trying to toss it over the defender (it almost looked like he was throwing it to the defender. In any case, minus the interception, I think Peyton would agree that this was a Broncos team that looked better than last week and is just about ready for the playoffs.

Chicago kept their playoff hopes alive with a 28-13 win over Arizona, but they can only get in if the Vikings lost to Green Bay next week, which is certainly possible but not as certain as I thought before Minnesota beat Houston yesterday. The Bears play Detroit, who will look to get Calvin Johnson a little over 100 yards against one of the NFL’s best pass defenses so he can eclipse the 2,000-receiving yards mark for the season.

With the Giants’ season hanging in the balance, they needed a win against Baltimore, and completely flubbed it up. The Giants have been sliding as of late, just like they did last year. This time, there are other teams to take advantage of it (enter Dallas and Washington). Their secondary has been terrible after really pulling it together for much of the season. Their defensive line had issues committing penalties all game, and that opened it up for Baltimore to get not only Ray Rice over 100-rushing yards but Bernard Pierce, too. Flacco completed 69% of his passes for a little over 300 yards and two touchdowns. I said my peace yesterday about this game’s meaning, so I won’t get back into that now.

The late game was expected to be a really good game, a tight battle between two teams vying for the NFC West crown. San Francisco likely will still get it since they need just a win over Arizona next week, but Seattle most certainly deserves it. They game within eight points of scoring 50+ points in three consecutive games, which I don’t think has happened in NFL history. Colin Kaepernick will start again next week, but he was completely ineffective in Seattle, just a week after he beat the Patriots in Foxboro. Seattle is playoff-ready. San Francisco looks very vulnerable.

There is no more Monday Night Football this season, so I will move up my 10 Things You Need to Know post to tomorrow, publish my predictions on Wednesday, the same day The All-Sports Crew publishes theirs, and then write previews of the most important games (my Games to Watch) during the remainder of the week. Thanks for reading!