So if a running back fumbles the ball on their first drive, they're likely gonna have a great game.

Kareem Hunt always killed the Patriots. Luckily he's on the Browns now.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28362887/seahawks-add-rbs-marshawn-lynch-robert-turbin

Marshawn Lynch is back.

I sure as hell hope not. - 49ers fan.

Well the Vikings folding is as surprising as ever. I thought the Patriots' offense was worrying at points, at least we never failed to score a single point in the second half...at home, no less.

Speaking of those Patriots, as it turns out, the sky isn't totally falling after all. As before, I still won't claim that I'm especially enthusiastic about the offense, but they're starting to look a little more cohesive (almost as if having a bunch of young/new players coming in takes time for them to gel). Hopefully we can stop having drives stall inside the 30 and figure out how to get Sanu involved...at all...but our offense line didn't look like wet paper against a very good Buffalo d-line and Brady's finally looking kind of comfortable in the pocket for once.

Assuming we can beat the Dolphins, we'd have a very likely rematch against the Chiefs in Foxborough, which is doable, I think. Game could have easily gone either way last time. It'll be really good to give everyone a week off to rest; that really helped playing the Chargers last year. A win there would mean probably going to Baltimore, which...I'm less enthusiastic about, but hey, if they could go into Kansas City and win last year, I'll keep believing until they're eliminated. 

Anyway, tonight's results means that Minnesota is locked in as the 6 seed and will get obliterated by either New Orleans, Green Bay (again), or Seattle in the wild card. The loser of the NFC West title game is guaranteed the 5 seed, which means that, hey, at least whoever loses can take comfort in knowing they have as close as you can get to free pass to the divisional round for a wild card team.

Also, if anyone's interested, standings are updated through Week 15 on the google sheet. I'll have them updated through this week before predictions.

McDaniels has actually done a great job trying to get everyone involved on offense, including Sanu. Sanu needs to find a way not to be a liability, cause so far he's been a huge bust. I'm getting slightly more optimistic about N'Keal every week, which is hard to imagine only a couple weeks removed from him getting two snaps in a game (the week before that only getting one target where he tripped on a route leading to an int, and wasn't seen again). But whether or not it's N'Keal, they need someone to keep improving and make an impact, cause I'm not sure how viable Elandon Roberts at Fullback is going forward. If the run game can keep at that level, then the o-line and play-action will be able to fuction as seen, but I'm not totally confident in that yet.

Seeing the Pats finally string a clean game on offense (even with the late first half blunder mostly thanks to Sanu), in the most important game of the year, has at least helped me calm down from the KC loss. I'm also buoyed by the fact that even if the Ravens, Chiefs and Texans are all more talented, they're still young and inconsistent. It's no guarantee if the Titans get through that the Chiefs will beat them, as seen already. And the Pats should at least get the bye and one home game. If they were having to go play in New Orleans or Green Bay, I'd give them no chance in hell.

Of course there's still one game left against Miami, and against a former Belichick assistant. Perfect chance for them to throw away that optimism.

Same old Cousins, folding like a lawn chair. They would've been shut out at home if the Packers' O didn't give 'em short fields with the turnovers.

Still, though, that D finally looks to be playing up to the hype and getting hot at the right time. Their O still looks inept, though outside of Jones and Adams. The Ravens would probably be a matchup nightmare in the SB should they secure home field advantage.

Merry Christmas everyone. Here are the penultimate standings.

Last week was a rough one for sethnintendo, dropping him from a tie for second down to third and probably sunk any chance of winning. With a 3 game lead, Level1Death is in a very good position to win. RolStoppable is the only other individual with anything approaching a realistic chance of claiming the title, but that will probably require going out on a limb for some upsets. Which, hey, it's week 17, teams are resting their starters, who knows.

For your convenience, I have marked teams that actually have something to play for (i.e. they can qualify for a playoff spot or their playoff seeding can change based on this week's results) in capital letters. Any team in lowercase is either eliminated for contention or is locked into their playoff spot and their seeding cannot change regardless of this week's results.

Week 17 Picks

Damn I was doing so good..... There is a playoff round still right? My only hope is in playoffs.

I still picked better teams even though they will bench their starters. Just something about not being able to pick shitty teams to win.

Man we just...are not showing up right now.

Defense has come out flat against one of the shittiest offenses in the league, and the offense hasn't managed to keep any of the momentum from last week. I cannot for the life of me figure out why our DBs are giving the Dolphins' receivers so much space. Killing ourselves with completely unnecessary penalties as well.