4:25 PM EST
Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys
The Washington Redskins have not really had a great season. The biggest news to come from their year so far is that they fired former head coach Jay Gruden. Things just never seemed to click during his tenure and a constant rotation at quarterback ultimately doomed his tenure. The team turned the reins over to rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins late in the season and he struggled at first but he looked great in the last two weeks, however, he will not play after suffering an injury in the team’s Week 16 game against the New York Giants. The other two promising young offensive pieces (Derrius Guice and Terry McLaurin) will also miss the season finale as they recover from injuries of their own. There are reasons for hope in Washington and with the report that Dan Snyder’s right-hand man Bruce Allen will no longer be in charge of football operations next season, there’s a chance that the team can finally get real football people calling the shots.
This game is of course of great importance for the Dallas Cowboys as they are still holding out hope that they can make it to the playoffs this year. They no longer control their own destiny after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles last week. Dallas has to win and then hope the Eagles are upset in their final game versus the New York Giants. Regardless of the outcome, it’s pretty safe to say that this is the final year of the Jason Garrett experience. The coach nearly made it through the decade with his dream job but mediocrity will only be tolerated for so long by Jerry Jones. With some high-profile names available look for Dallas to make a move quickly once their season comes to an end. Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliot, and Amari Cooper have been unable to carry this team to the heights that were expected of them before the season.
PREDICTION: COWBOYS 35 , Redskins 20
Oakland Raiders vs. Denver Broncos
The Oakland Raiders still have an outside chance of making it into the playoffs this week. They just need EVERYTHING to go right basically. First, the Raiders will need to defeat the Denver Broncos. Next, they would need the Titans, Steelers, and Jaguars all to lose their games and that would allow for Oakland to make it in based on their strength of victory. Now, I don’t think the team has ever been that lucky in franchise history and I feel it would be unlikely that their luck changes today, especially since this is the same group that found a way to lose the team’s final game in the Bay Area. Jon Gruden has helped the team look more competent in his second season back on the sidelines but they definitely don’t look playoff-worthy.
In the Mile High City, the Denver Broncos have been on a roller coaster of a ride in Vic Fangio’s first season as the head coach. Through the first four weeks of the 2019 season, Denver was 0-4 and had lost by a total of 21 points in those contests. Two of those defeats came on last-second field goals. Then the team lost Joe Flacco in the final game of October and Brandon Allen went 1-2 as his replacement before they gave their rookie second-round pick, Drew Lock and he’s gone 3-1 in his first four starts. John Elway has searched for years for a quarterback to take the torch after they were able to get all they could out of Peyton Manning at the end of his career. If Lock is the guy then next season could get interesting for the Broncos.
PREDICTION: BRONCOS 21 , Raiders 17
Arizona Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Rams
Despite the snickering at the hire when it first was made, Kliff Kingsbury rise from being fired by Texas Tech to nearly taking the offensive coordinator position at Southern California to head coach of the Arizona Cardinals hasn’t been a complete dumpster fire this year. Much of that is thanks to the fact that the team trusted its gut and selected Kyler Murray at the top of the 2019 NFL Draft. Murray has been great in his first season and there still are areas where he can improve going forward. The biggest development though happened at the running back position where Kenyan Drake has usurped David Johnson as the team’s starting running back even though he was acquired at the trade deadline this year. A year after having questions about who should be their quarterback of the future the same can now be accredited to the running back spot.
The Los Angeles Rams are the latest teams to fall victim to the Super Bowl hangover. After running through the NFC a year ago with relative ease, the team was not able to capture that same magic this season. Sean McVay’s offense wasn’t able to obliterate opponents as easily and that may have something to do with the fact that they took a different approach with how they used Todd Gurley over the duration of the season. Jared Goff got paid big money prior to the start of the season but he was unable to match his production from a season ago as well. The defense underwent a makeover in the secondary with the team losing Aquib Talib and Marcus Peters but gaining Jalen Ramsey. Yet, it was not as dominant in the end. Aaron Donald was still Aaron Donald but it takes more than just one player to be a Super Bowl contender.
PREDICTION: CARDINALS 18 , Rams 13
Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants
The Philadelphia Eagles were considered one of the most talented teams in the NFL when the season started nearly four months ago. Yet, injuries have depleted most of that depth to the point where they are only rostering three wide receivers week-by-week. In the midst of that, the team has been able to do just enough to get back to the top of the NFC East standings. The path to the playoffs is simple, win and get in. For most of the season, it looked like there would be no chance that the Eagles could make it into the postseason and now they are a win away from getting back for the third straight season. Carson Wentz has been able to negotiate not having several of his reliable weapons and the emergence of rookie running back Miles Sanders along with the dual-threat tight end combination of Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert has allowed the offense to be just good enough to get by when they were needed the most.
In New York, the Giants have officially seen the end of the Eli Manning era. He was benched quickly for rookie Daniel Jones who didn’t relinquish the job until an ankle sprain forced him to miss two weeks of action (where Manning went 1-1 to secure a perfectly even 118-118 record as a starter). The ankle injury suffered by Saquon Barkley was an even bigger detriment to the team’s hopes of having a better than expected season. Barkley missed just three games but it wasn’t until the team’s final two games that he began to look like himself again. The Giants will need to add some more upper-end talent to the defensive end if they are going to once again attempt to compete for division titles in the future.
PREDICTION: EAGLES 24 , Giants 15
Indianapolis Colts vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
The Indianapolis Colts were a good story at the start of the season. Not a lot was expected of them when Andrew Luck shockingly retired during the preseason but Jacoby Brissett was able to step in early and lead the group to a 5-2 start. However, the good times weren’t meant to last long and as the season comes to a close they need a win today to finish 8-8 on the season. Like many teams who have not been able to keep their strong play a constant on the season, injuries were a big part of the reason that the play dropped off for this group down the stretch. Indianapolis had the chance to determine their own outcome but they suffered a few bad losses and find themselves on the outside looking in for another season.
The story of the Jacksonville Jaguars season has been the play of their quarterbacks. They spent a lot of money to bring Nick Foles in and he was looking good for the first quarter of the team’s opening game before suffering an injury on his first touchdown pass with his new team. He was replaced by rookie sixth-rounder, Gardner Minshew who took Duval County and the NFL world by storm with his moxie and mustache. The Jaguars were able to get by for a few weeks but eventually Minshew Magic wore off and Foles came back from his injury and was given the starting job once again. However, it was too little too late and Foles was unable to play the part of a former Super Bowl MVP for the team.
PREDICTION: COLTS 28 , Jaguars 24
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens
The Pittsburgh Steelers were once thought to be left for dead in a football sense. Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell were on other teams and Ben Roethlisberger was out with an injury and the team’s record was 1-4. Since then, the team has gone 7-3 and now they just need a win today and a loss by the Tennessee Titans to secure their spot into the playoffs. Mason Rudolph is out with an injury and Devlin “Duck” Hodges will no longer have to look over his shoulder if he plays poorly, this team, this game is now 100 percent his going forward. Mike Tomlin has a real shot at taking home Coach of the Year honors at the end of the season regardless of what happens in this final game.
The Baltimore Ravens have secured their spot as the top seed in the AFC already and instead of trying to make their record even better, they are opting to rest most of their starters and enter the postseason healthy. Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh have morphed this team into something very special and it will be curious to see if they can remain as dominant throughout the playoffs as they were during the regular season this year. Robert Griffin III will get the start in Jackson’s absence and from a nostalgia standpoint, it will be nice to see if he still has anything left in the tank as there are several teams out there that could use an upgrade at quarterback next season. I think the defense comes to play and does enough to get them the win here.
PREDICTION: RAVENS 13 , Steelers 9
Tennesee Titans vs. Houston Texans
The Tennessee Titans looked on their way to another unnoticed 8-8 or 7-9 finish on the year before Mike Vrabel made the switch and inserted Ryan Tannehill as the team’s starter in place of Marcus Mariota. Tannehill wore out his welcome in Miami but he has looked like a completely different player. Rookie wide receiver AJ Brown has exploded in the second half of the season and looks to be a big part of the team’s future offensively. An even bigger part both literally and figuratively is running back Derrick Henry. He has been unstoppable as the Titans have worked their way back into playoff positioning in the final weeks of the season. On defense, this team plays much as their head coach did during his time with the Patriots. They are aggressive and nasty and make plays all over the field. They’ll likely face several backups today but if they maintain their same fierce approach they should win and be in the playoffs.
The Houston Texans already have their spot secured and after the events of the afternoon games, they cannot change their spot and are locked into the fourth seed in the AFC playoffs and will face the Buffalo Bills. All of that stands as reasons why players like Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins and others will likely not suit up at all in this game. They would much rather enter the Wild Card round with their team as healthy as possible instead of keeping a in-division team out of the playoffs by winning what would ultimately amount to a useless game in the long run. Bill O’Brien, like Vrabel, made a name for himself in New England so it’s no surprise that he’s playing it safe in this scenario. We’ll know more about this team when the postseason starts next weekend.
PREDICTION: TITANS 27 , Texans 17
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