After All That, The Score Report For Week 15 of the 2017 Season

You know it's bad when even Vegas admits it:

In the 4 pm games alone #NFL officials directly influenced the outcome of #LARvsSEA total and #PITvsNE side & total. Fortunately, a kick will decide #TENvsSF
OVER 44.5 is in

— VegasInsider.com (@TwitVI) December 18, 2017

In another ending decided by the #NFL rule book, after ALL of that...60 minutes, etc. - we end up with a push at most shops for #Cowboys (-3) and #Raiders. Dallas survives 20-17. Books survive, too. #SNF

— VegasInsider.com (@TwitVI) December 18, 2017

•  44.625 points per game this week.  43,625 last year.
• 15 week average:  44.14  Last year:  44.46
• Home teams were 9-7 last week, but it took 1-4 in the last 5 and all three regular national games going to the road side (TNF, SNF, and MNF) to get there.  120-99 for the season.  (.548)  Last year was 7-9 for the week, .575 for the season.
• Two of the mentioned games in the VegasInsider tweets pushed (SF did as well with the winning kick).  A first for the season:  Seattle and the Rams kicked a pick.  So favorites were 9-4-2 ATS and 14-1 SU.  8-8 ATS and 12-4 SU last year.
• Season totals:  116-100-7 ATS (just about enough to make money if you consistently picked favorites equally) and 157-66 SU.  107-99-7 ATS and 138-74-1 SU last year.
• Over was 6-9-1 this week for 104-112-8 for the year.  Last year:  7-9 and one game under .500
• Team with more penalties was 5-10 this week -- 90-117 for the year.  Last year:  8-7 and 80-109.
• Six non-competitive games, two games within 8 at some point in the fourth and not at the end, 8 games finished within 8, 3 Cliffhangers (NE, DAL, SF).  Still only about 48% of the games ended within 8 points this year so far, 30% of the games are blowouts that never get within 8.
• Big news of the week?  SEVEN Last Chance Misses, including two of the three Cliffhangers -- the third would've been had SF missed their field goal at the gun that won it.
• Both this year and last have had 43 Cliffhangers in 15 weeks.  The big difference?  This year has had 109 games finish within 8 points.  Last year had 120!

NFC Update, as I did the AFC last night to completion.

• You pretty much have your six playoff teams in the NFC:  PHI, MIN, Rams, NO, CAR, and ATL.  The only way that breaks is if one of the 10-4s (or Atlanta, who beats all the tiebreakers at 10-6, and they're 9-5 now) loses their last two and one of the three 8-6s wins their last 2 and the setup is right.

Ratings:

• Basically about what you'd expect for the last relevant regular-season game:  Steelers-Pats window went huge for CBS (+8%).
• CBS Regional Window:  -39%!!  Lowest window of the season.
• FOX Single was down marginally.  "Down a tick"
• Sunday night was down 20%.