2021 NFL Week 14 Score Report and Week 13 TV Ratings

Well, that ended a mess.

After a field-goal drive which netted THREE Ram "slop plays" (a Pat Troothner phrase to denote players intentionally missing plays to aid in an NFL rigging), the Cardinals get the onside...  then promptly barf it away with two penalties and a sack.

Sooooooooooo...

• Highest-scoring week of the year at 50.85 per game.  (Last year:  47.44)
• Season average:  46.17.  (Last year:  49.33)
• Now that we are finally at the same number of games:  The NFL has scored 659 fewer points in the first 208 games of the year than last year.
• Home teams were 8-6 this week for 101-103-1 for the year.  (Last year:  7-9 for 103-104-1)
• Over was 10-3-1 for the week!  92-113-3 for the year.  (Last year:  5-11 for 99-104-5)
• BIG comeback week as Vegas was giving out the Christmas-shopping money this week.  Only the Ravens and Cardinals did not cover -- and both lost.  So 12-2 straight up and against the spread.  (Last year:  10-6 ATS (the only other time in 2018-2021 that 10 favorites actually covered the spread in ANY NFL WEEK!), 12-4 SU)
• Season:  ATS:  97-109-1  SU:  125-80-1  (Last year:  89-113-3 ATS, 136-68-1 SU)
• David Purdum of ESPN Chalk noted it was one of the worst money weeks for Vegas all season.  DUH!!!  
• How bad?  The last 12-cover week for favorites in the NFL was Week 12 of 2017 (12-4).  
• 2015-2021 (how long I've been checking spreads -- did the O/U only one year previous) only had 10 or more favorites cover SIX TIMES.  (Ten unless otherwise noted.)

1. Week 12 2015
2. Week 14 2016
3. Week 12 2017 (12-4)
4. Week 14 2017
5. Week 14 2020
6. Week 14 2021 (12-2)

• Another week for the coaching to point at:  Teams with more penalties only went 4-8 this week.  80-98, now, for the year.  (Last year:  7-4 for 84-93)
• Two Cliffhangers, both of the late overtime games.  45 for the year  (Last year:  2 for 38)
• Seven games finished within one score, meaning only 97 of the 208 games completed this year have finished 8 points or within.  (Last year:  7 for 111/208)
• Five non-competitive games for 80 overall.  (Last year:  7 for 64)
• And four Last Chance Misses (including the Thursday and Saturday prime-timers) for 49 overall for the year.  (Last year:  5 for 66)

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Side commentary:

• As I'm beginning to look for the ratings for Week 13, I note that Sports Media Watch is reporting Amazon wants the Mannings and an NFL studio show.

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I don't know what it's been, but I've been slacking a bit on the previous week's TV ratings.  So here's the Week Thirteen TV ratings report from Sports Media Watch.

• Monday Night:  The final Manningcast for 2020 gave the NFL it's biggest Monday Night since Week 1 (and that took ABC!) at basically 15 million viewers -- about 1.6M of that for the Manningcast.  The Mannings are so popular, it was the highest MNF Week 13 in eight years AND was 3% above an ABC-dualcasted MNF game the year before!
• MNF is up 11% for the year and even up 4% from two years ago!
• Sunday Night:  9.7 rating, 17.5 million viewers.  (mixed -- down a tick rating, up a couple ticks viewers over last year)
• Thursday Night:  How bout them Cowboys fans??  9.3 rating, 16.7 million viewers for FOX and the NFL Network.  (Last year's Week 13 was COVID-moved to Tuesday)
• CBS National:  11.4 rating, 21.1 million viewers -- main national game was Steelers-Ravens.  Up 7% ratings, 10% viewers from last year.
• CBS Regional:  Chargers-Bengals in about 2/3 of the country...  Not so hot.  7.2 rating, 12.75 million viewers (-15% ratings, -12% viewers)
• FOX Single:  A mishmash, Raiders-Izzies getting the biggest chunk...  7.5 rating, 13.82 million viewers (and about the same down as the CBS Regionals got)