2017 Week 16 Fine Blotter

• Houston Texans:  DeAndre Hopkins:  $6,016 for throwing a ball into the stands.  He does not understand the safety ramifications involved.
• Houston Texans:  JaDeavon Clowney and
• Houston Texans:  Julian Davenport:  Both $9,115, both for face masks.
• Houston becomes the twelfth team to be fined $50,000 for reaching the first threshold.
• Los Angeles Chargers:  Joey Bosa:  $18,231 for roughing the passer.
• Los Angeles Chargers:  Rayshawn Jenkins:  $9,115 for unnecessary roughness.
• Dallas Cowboys:  Geoff Swaim:  $9,115 for a crackback block.
• Atlanta Falcons:  Desmond Trufant:  $12,154 for a punch.
• New Orleans Saints:  This one confuses me, with the new rules:  Alvin Kamara was fined $6,079 for illegal cleats, but they were holiday-themed cleats.  On Christmas Week.  Yeah.
• Another hypocrisy of the top end:  Jameis Winston was not fined by the NFL for his outburst at the officials, including shoving a sideline personnel member.  One can only hope this meant the team fined him at least the relevant amount.  Not only because Winston should've been fined, but that fine would've cost the Bucs $50,000 for reaching the first threshold too.
• Jacksonville Jaguars:  Yannick Ngakoue:  $30,387 for contact with an official.  It makes Ngakoue a TWO-TIME LOSER.

More to come.

What is this? The FOURTH Patriot rig-job? As Deadspin commenters called it: Patriots get Harrison.

The first thing a lot of the people on Deadspin said when the Steelers released James Harrison was that he's going to be a New England Patriot.

James Harrison was signed by the Patriots today.

No one's hiding it any more, are they?  The Gronk suspension being only one week, the two Calvin Johnson Rule calls, this...  That's FOUR major rig-jobs for the Patriots in 2 weeks.

I guess that's one of the reasons the Super Bowl odds, last I saw, were down to 2-1.

2017 Week 16 Score Report, where it IS all about Vegas, it seems...

... or at least one story, about the Christmas night Monday nighter.

Vegas installed Philadelphia as a 10-point favorite last night over Oakland, and got a Cliffhanger when Philly scored a late field goal with 22 seconds left to take the lead and win the game.

Then, on the last play, Oakland fumbles the ball and Philly scoops and scores for a nine-point lead.

They go for TWO for some reason...  *points above*

And a KNEEL DOWN!!!!  So Philly fails to cover the ten, and the reaction was not kind...

So here's the Week 16 Score Report, and no idea why that just posted...

• Well, the score report might as well have disappeared, because if that wasn't the lowest scoring week of NFL play since I started doing it, it's in the Top 3.  Only 37.75 points per game for the week -- and that puts the 15 week average at only 43.72
• Home teams were 12-4.  All four of the home losers were out of the playoffs.  132-103 for the year.
• Over was 3-13.  107-125-8 for the year.
• 8-7-1 against the spread, 13-3 straight up.  124-107-8 ATS, 170-69 SU for the year.
• Team with more penalties was 5-10, 95-127 for the year.
• SEVEN non-competitive games this week.  82 of them for the year.
• Five more games were within eight points at some point in the fourth quarter, but didn't finish there.
• That meant only FOUR games finished within eight points.  Gee, you think some of these teams have given up by now???
• Three Cliffhangers and Two Last Chance Misses.
• And now only NINE relevant games Week 17 (the Pittsburgh win made the Jacksonville game irrelevant, and the Philadelphia win made their game irrelevant and the Viking game barely so!).

Storyline Update: Goodell must be hating life right now.

NFC first.  We're down to seven teams for six spots, after Dallas and Detroit lost to be eliminated.

1. Philadelphia (12-2, plays tomorrow night at home against Oakland in the MNF finale).  Bye clinched.  Clinches homefield throughout and the #1 seed with one win or a Minnesota loss.
2. Minnesota (12-3):  Has clinched nothing but the NFC North.  Still needs a win or Carolina not to win the NFC South at 12-4.  To get the #1, Philly must lose twice and Minnesota defeat Chicago.
3. Los Angeles Rams (11-4):  Won the NFC West.  Can do no better than here, though, with the head-to-heads all against them above.
4. New Orleans (11-4):  Has clinched only a playoff berth.  Can do no better than the #3 anyway, and, if Carolina beats Atlanta and they lose to Tampa, Carolina vaults everybody unless Minnesota wins.  A win or a Carolina loss gets the NFC South.
5. Carolina (11-4):  See the New Orleans thing for the situation.  A win and a New Orleans loss means they can jump all the way to the #2 if Minnesota also loses.  A win and a New Orleans loss alone probably gets them the #3.
6. Atlanta (9-6):  Must either beat Carolina or have Seattle lose to get the #6, can do no better.

Only other team in it is Seattle at 9-6, needs a win over Arizona AND an Atlanta loss.

AFC is quite a bit more confusing, but it's all at the wildcards:

1. New England (12-3):  Wins the #1 with a win or one Pittsburgh loss.  Bye clinched.
2. Pittsburgh (11-3, plays Houston in the Christmas Bonus game with the NFL Network tomorrow):  Needs two wins and a New England loss to the Jets for the #1.  However, needs one win to avoid Jacksonville cropping up.  They do get a bye week next week with the Browns.
3. Jacksonville (10-5):  Unless Pittsburgh loses twice, nothing more to do.  Division clinched.
4. Kansas City (9-6):  Nothing more to do.  Division clinched.
5. Baltimore (9-6):  At least has the outright position, so a win in Week 17 gets them the #5 and Kansas City.
6. Tennessee (8-7, conference tiebreaker over the Bills and Chargers):  Win and in, lose and they need the other two to lose as well.
7.  Buffalo (8-7):  Needs a win and either Tennessee or Baltimore to lose.
8.  Los Angeles Chargers (8-7):  Needs a win and both Buffalo and Tennessee to lose.

And that's the entire playoff picture.  15 teams for 12 spots, and NO GAME worthy of the final game -- so the NFL has announced there won't be one.

For the first time since the flex scheduling and the like, there will be NO LATE GAME.  NBC gets no game for the last of the season, because there's no game worthy of it.  Late word had the Carolina-Atlanta game being flexed, and that probably was the closest call.

There are already five irrelevant games next week.  If Philadelphia wins Monday, their Week 17 game goes irrelevant. Minnesota kicks early (so does Philly), Carolina/Atlanta kicks late (so doNew Orleans and Seattle (and the Rams, but that game is irrelevant)).

So that's five or six games relevant in the NFC, and a lot of that is schedule manipulation.

New England and Pittsburgh kick early.  (The Pittsburgh game is relevant either way -- for the #1 if they win Monday, for the #3 if they lose Monday.)  Jacksonville/Tennessee kicks late, relevant for Tennessee at minimum.  Baltimore, Buffalo and the Chargers also kick late, so that whole wild-card situation goes in the 4 PM slot.

Six relevant games, again, ALL schedule manipulation.

So they had to manipulate the schedule, moving three CBS games in that wild-card mess in the AFC to the 4 PM slot.

Roger Goodell must be hating life.

Can this league lay off the damn New England shit? SERIOUSLY!!

Another Calvin Johnson thingie this week...

Kelvin Benjamin had a touchdown overturned this afternoon against the Patriots at Foxboro, and here's the official who called the reversal, from ESPN...

"Here is the NFL's official announcement from Senior VP of Officiating Al Riveron about why he overturned Bills wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin's touchdown catch late in the first half of Sunday's game at New England: "When Kelvin Benjamin gains control, his left foot is off the ground. The receiver only has one foot down in bounds with control. Therefore, it is an incomplete pass. -AL""

Buffalo had to settle for a field goal, game is 16-all late in the third.


Let's see how long the NFL allows that video to stand, because that is a perfect video of the play.

ARE THEY EVEN HIDING IT? He dragged the other foot after bringing the ball into his body. It's RIGHT THERE IN THE FUCKING REPLAY!

EDIT TO ADD:  Oh, and before the video, it's clear the guy is getting damn well MUGGED in the end zone.

Bunch of Odds and Sods

• We may be about to see the theoretical end of the Green Bay Packers.

Seriously.  The team they're trotting out barely beat the Cleveland Browns, and the egg they laid last week indicates they're in big trouble without an organizational house-cleaning.

There are NFL teams that want that to include Aaron Rodgers, and they have some case.

After the Packers were eliminated from the playoffs, the Packers put Aaron Rodgers back on IR after bringing him back for one week.  Now, there's no real question Rodgers was hurt against Carolina.

But the NFL injury rules state that, to put a player back on IR, there needs to be a new injury.  And a number of teams believe (I'm not clear on the penalty.) that the penalty for that is release of the player.

• How bad are the Green Bay Packers right now?  For their franchise, historically bad.

If there's a more obvious one-person team out there right now, I'd like to see it.  (OBJ has at least Eli...  Maybe Watt in Houston?)

But the Packers got shut out by the Vikings in Lambeau last night.  It's the second time since the Rodgers injury that the Packers have been shut out at home.  The last time a team was shut out twice at home in the NFL was 2006 -- both the Packers and Raiders have done it.

The Packers had never, at least since 1940, been shut out twice at home, and only five times have been shut out twice at home in that span.

Brett Hundley has the NFL record for home pass attempts without a touchdown.

• An ex-worker for the Green Bay Packer concessions department had an incident where the bomb squad had to be called to Lambeau Field on Friday.

Not a good week for the Packers.

• The Pittsburgh Steelers released James Harrison.

He played in about three snaps a game this year, and they needed the spot.  Word is, the parting was amicable -- but it does leave a lot of people thinking he may play in New England for the playoffs.  And CBS Sports says they are interested!

• How bad are the Cleveland Browns?

First off, as of writing this at 12:04 PM Pacific, they are playing the 4-10 Chicago Bears -- and losing 20-3.

Second, a little research from Pro Football Reference into the last three seasons, entering today...

0-14 this season, 1-29 the last two, 4-42 the last three seasons.

12 losses the last two seasons in which they never got within 8 points in the fourth quarter, only 10 in which it ended within 8 points.

• The owners of the Ravens believes the #NFLBoycott is working -- in that people are not attending games because of it.

Well, is it costing anybody money yet?  (I could see major cuts in ad revenue forthcoming, but will that be enough to force the issue??)  Otherwise, it may be up to Vince McMahon to determine if the #NFLBoycott (which we all know is REAL) is actually WORKING....

Two reasons the NFL Fan of Today is just too damn stupid to get it...

Tolerance level:  About ZERO this holiday season.  Bah humbug.

So I have two things to show you that indicate how the NFL fanatic of today is just too stupid and gullible to get much of anything.

First, you know how much people talk about how much the NFL wants the last week to matter?  It's a centerpiece of a lot of what Brian Tuohy intelligently talks about every year.

Well, this year, it appears as if the NFL has thrown in the towel completely.

Thirteen teams, at this point, are absolutely eliminated from the playoffs, ENTERING WEEK SIXTEEN.  Green Bay (by Atlanta winning), Washington, Arizona, Tampa, San Francisco, Chicago, and the Giants in the NFC.   The Jets, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, and Cleveland in the AFC.

Meaning that gets us down to nineteen teams with relevant football to play.

Now, I go to a FiveThirtyEight post from earlier this week, and show that even that is not very good.

The first problem, for the three remaining teams on the outside looking in in the NFC, is that there are 5 teams 10-4 and better (the three teams in question are 8-6:  Dallas, Detroit, and Seattle). The sixth is 9-5 and cannot lose the conference tiebreaker to any of those three teams - the best they can do is tie with four conference losses.

This means that, for each of the three teams, they must win twice and:

Dallas:  Must get one other result:  Detroit must lose to Green Bay.

Seattle:  Must get at least two other results.  Atlanta and Detroit must lose.

Detroit:  Must get at least two other results.  Atlanta to lose to Carolina, the winner of Seattle and Dallas loses Week 17.

So the only relevant games in the NFC (and the only seeding I will be concerned with is #1 and #2 and the last:

MIN / GB Seeding
DAL/SEA Elimination
DET/CIN Elimination
ATL/NO Seeding/Elimination
OAK/PHI Seeding (and maybe still elimination for Oakland by Monday night)
LA Rams/TEN Seeding for both (path to elimination for Tennessee)

In the AFC, there are five remaining teams.

Tennessee is listed above.  Both of their games will be relevant.

Buffalo is also in decent shape, same scenario, except they have New England here in Week 16

The Chargers must win both and have KC lose both for the division or get seven other different results.


Miami needs two wins and five other different results. 

Oakland needs two wins and SEVEN other different results.

So here we are, relevant for Week 16...

BUF/NE Seeding and elimination
LA Chargers/NYJ, but only if KC loses , or the sum of Buffalo wins, Indianapolis wins, and the Rams win.
IND/BAL for seeding and perhaps to eliminate Miami, Oakland, and any wildcard shot for the Chargers...
PIT/HOU Seeding.

I count ten relevant games this week, and that number can shrink.

Will look into that more next week.

So what's the second one?

Well, I took to Reddit.  I know, big mistake.

I basically took another look at the Jesse James catch rule fiasco.  I've drawn a conclusion that should disturb any NFL fan:  The NFL has now gone beyond "going to ground" to maintain control, but now must "survive the ground".

This, to me, is a very important distinction, because it changes the rule and removes the sideline exemption.  If you don't believe me, remember that the rule speaks of "after initial contact with the ground".  James is already making initial contact with the ground long before the ball slips out.  In fact, he does turn up field to lunge for the goal line...

So it would now appear that there is a significant (small, but significant) time between "initial contact with the ground" and "catch".  Would this not mean the following are now both incomplete passes?

1) James, if he were downed with possession of the ball before he satisfies "catch"

and 2) Any player who falls out of bounds before satisfying "catch", because it would be the same animal as if he didn't get the two feet in in the first place.

This was the result.  Your NFL fandom, people!!