On Sunday, we saw the NY Giants continue their late season run by beating the Lions in a game that had huge playoff ramifications. A few questionable calls and fumbles resulting in the Giants win. Houston rallied behind backup QB Tom Savage to beat the Jaguars. The Texans benched starting QB Osweiller to the delight of their fans and watched the team comeback in the 4th quarter to win. Houston will start Savage over Osweiler the rest of the season at quarterback. Also after the game, a game which saw Jacksonville lose for the 9th straight time, fire their HC Gus Bradley. He was the second Head Coach fired in the last week as the Coaching carousel begins. The Bills downed the Browns continuing the Browns quest to become the second team in NFL history to go 0-16 in a season. It was also a game that many have started the countdown in Buffalo to see the end of the Rex Ryan debacle as Coach. The Colts went into Minnesota and throttled the Vikings all but ending the slim hopes of the playoff for the once 5-0 Vikings this year. The only good to come out of this game for the Vikings was the return of RB Adrian Peterson. Tennessee overcame a 14 point deficit and won on a last second FG to remain tied in the AFC South and the loss by the Chiefs send them to 2nd place in the AFC West with 2 games remaining. Green Bay won for the 4th game in a row, also on a last second FG after blowing a 17 point lead late in the game. With the win, it looks like a huge showdown with Detroit on New Years Day in the D. Pittsburgh rallied to beat the Bengals and next weeks game against the Ravens will be for 1st place in the AFC North. Baltimore beat the Eagles to remain one game behind the Steelers but got allot of help to win the game as the Eagles went for 2 at the end of the game instead of kicking the extra point and forcing overtime. Atlanta had no issues downing the 49ers and extending their lead in the NFC South with the win. New Orleans, who struggled the previous 2 weeks on offense went into Arizona and put on an offensive show in beating the Cardinals. Oakland overcame early miscues and shoddy play to beat the Chargers in San Diego to regain 1st place in the AFC West. It was a game that the fans of the Chargers showed their disgust with the Chargers Owner and gave their tickets away to Raider fans. At times there seemed to be more Raider fans then Chargers fans at the game. The main game saw the New England Patriots go in Denver and easily beat the Broncos as it has been all season long, the defense has carried the team but the offense just cannot move the ball at all. Rumors have a fight breaking out int he locker room after the game between Broncos players.
The Sunday night game saw the Dallas Cowboys hang on to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Early miscues and wasted chances by the Buccaneers cost them the game. The Cowboys can score but have shown a tendency for terrible OL penalties and can be beat on short routes and a good running game. On Monday night, in Washington where it was a must win game for the Redskins and nothing more then a game of pride for the Panthers, Carolina proved tough enough to win and all but end the Redskins playoff hopes as well. It was a game that the Redskins could not get into the end zone but once and had to rely on too many FG's again.
Also some NFL players, most notably Seattle's Richard Sherman criticized the NFL for playing games on Thursday nights for teams who played the previous Sunday are saying it is too hard for Players to be ready for a game on only 3 days of rest. I respect the players and their speaking out on issues but the NFL and its players have been playing Thursday night games for a long time now. The game played during the week brings in extra revenue to both the teams and the players via more salary cap money. If the players are ok with a lower salary cap and lower salaries and the Owners are ok with making less money, the hey I am all for it. Also here is another thought when scheduling teams for Thursday night games, see if it is possible to schedule the teams to play on a Sunday, then play on a Thursday night 11 days later and then play their next game 11 days after that on the following Sunday. Or even, give teams an extra bye week during the season so that all teams have 2 bye weeks during the season instead of just one. Not sure they could do it with the schedules but maybe they could work it out. The NFL also needs to address their domestic violence policy better and work with the NFLPA to take all the loopholes out of it and make the penalty for violating this policy a very strict suspension. Officiating is looking even worse then ever as pick plays, pass interference on the offense and defense continues not to be called and late hits and roughing the passes depends more on who the player is, then was the play an actual penalty or not? Ratings are also low due to the parity in the game and as they do every year they select the teams before the season for the Thursday night and Sunday night games. Cooper went 11-5 in his week 15 picks and is 167-55-2 for the season We will continue to post His record for each weekend and season total. twitter; @cupofjoeinthed email; cupofjoeinthed@gmail.com
Wishing Everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years and a Joyous Holiday Season.
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| Cooper after making his Week 16 NFL Power Rankings |
WEEK 16
NFL Team Power Rankings
1. Patriots
2. Cowboys
3. Raiders
4. Steelers
5. NY Giants
6. Seahawks
7. Chiefs
8. Falcons
9. Lions
10. Buccaneers
11. Titans
12. Dolphins
13. Packers
14. Ravens
15. Redskins
16. Texans
17. Broncos
18. Colts
19. Saints
20. Panthers
21. Bills
22. Vikings
23. Bengals
24. Chargers
25. Eagles
26. Cardinals
27. Bears
28. NY Jets
29. LA Rams
30. Jaguars
31. 49'ers
32. Browns
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