2017 Season: Week 16 Open

Playoff race update: The NFC East, West, and South are wrapped up. The Cowboys, Seahawks, and Falcons are guaranteed a playoff spot. Two division winners square off this week.  Will they rest players? Or play for the first guaranteed home field advantage spot?  The NFC North is not sorted out quite yet.  The Vikings have a complete gauntlet with the Packers and Bears on the slate.  If they win one, they win the division. If they win two, they probably get home field.  The Wildcard spot in the NFC is guaranteed to go to one NFC North team should the Vikings falter.  The Packers, Bears, and Eagles are all in play for the final playoff spot.

In the AFC, the Patriots are guaranteed home field throughout the playoffs.  The Titans are the only other division winner.  The AFC West is a a complete tossup between three teams.  The AFC North is the Bengals to lose, should they lose two and the Ravens win two.  The Colts are the only other AFC user team with a chance at the playoffs outside of Posky and MoneyNades.  There are six teams vying for the final four spots.


Both users are fighting for homefield advantage in the playoffs. Depending on how the Vikings season works out, these two could still slide in to homefield advantage despite losing to one another.  Plusch has already called out his angst for the Vikings, and hoping to do to them what they did to real life Ay-ay-ron.  A big game from Ezekiel Elliott should lock up his MVP candidacy despite objections from bouncers and women everywhere.

The Bears and Browns had themselves one heck of a matchup.  In the snow (hopefully no snow next week versus the Packers!), neither offense scored a TD in the first half, yet it was 6-9 in favor of the Bears.  Jabrill Peppers recorded a pick six in the red zone to open the game, but the Browns missed the XP in the frigid cold.  The Bears immediately answered with a kickoff return TD by Tarik Cohen.  Later in the half, the Bears were marching down the field, and Kevin White would fumble inside the 1 yard line.  This led to a safety as the Browns could not get out of their own backfield.

In the second half, more madness ensured.  Markus Wheaton would fumble at the 1 yard line just like Kevin White. The Browns would knock the ball into the end zone and recover it for a safety?  Yes, but no, a holding call on Josh Sitton would give the Bears the ball with 1st and 20 instead, and Josh Sitton would exit the game with an abdominal tear.  Sitton will miss the playoffs.  Should the Bears pull off a miracle and make the Super Bowl, he might return. The Bears would have to settle for a field goal after all the nonsense. From there, Pernell McPhee and Leonard Floyd would harass DeShon Kizer and Mitchell Trubisky rediscovered his #1 WR Cameron Meredith, finding him for 2 TDs in the 2nd half to extend the lead and put away the pesky Browns.