NFL Week 17 2013 Mayhem

The NFL Playoffs are now finally set and we have some great match-ups to look forward to. It was a weekend of excitement for some, bitterness for others, but a lot of great games in between all of the emotions.

As for me, I spent most of my day worrying about how my championship game was going in my fantasy football league.

Let me tell you a little bit about how many fantasy season played out this year, I started the season off on an alright start considering my first pick of the draft was Ray Rice. That was almost my downfall for this year, with Rice putting up similar numbers to his rookie season in 2008, averaging less than 50-yards per game and only gaining 660 yards rushing total, as in All Season! However, I would get a pretty solid team after that. Solid in every other position but the QB because I decided to grab Mike Vick, who was supposed to be perfect in a Chip Kelly run offense, and I went with RG3 who I had the year before. Griffin had a great rookie year at QB and brought me to an 11-2 season before the playoffs. Yeah so I started out my season on a 2-game win streak and thought I would be alright considering how bad my first pick in the draft was. Then I would lose 3 of my next 4 and was sitting at .500 with my season spinning in the wrong direction.

And that is when the fantasy god's opened the doors and said, "Ricky do not worry I have given you Josh Gordon, Eddie Lacy, the Panthers D/ST and oh no that is not all how about you switch that Vick for a Foles, you can grab them all on the waiver wire. Now do not worry any longer my son.” Next thing you know I'm on a 7-game winning streak and playing for the league championship. 
Well I would go on to win my first fantasy football championship Sunday evening with a final score of 213 to 159.

Anyways, back to real life football.

The Playoff seedings are now all official and the games are set for next weekends Wild Card games. Now in order to make all these seedings official there had to have been games played and we had some great ones Sunday.

Quick Headlines from Week 17:

The NFC Will Have to Go Thru Seattle. 

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Click Here for Recap
Prediction:

SEA over STL 24-18

Final Score:

SEA over STL 27-9

Packers Win NFC North In Rodgers Return

Charles Rex Arbogast, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

The Green Bay Packers were not supposed to make the playoffs this year. They lost their QB in Week 9 and went 0-4-1 in the first 5 games without their starting QB. To make matters worse, the Detroit Lions seemed poised to make the playoffs since both the Bears and Packers were without their starting QB's and Minnesota never even found a QB. That's when things started to turn around and they started getting great play from multi-released QB Matt Flynn, who won 2 of his last 3 before being replaced by Rodgers in the final game. The Packers weathered the storm throughout the middle of the season and stayed close enough to have a final shot in Week 17, but not against those Lions who couldn't have asked for a better scenario to win the division, no instead they played their most historic rival in the NFL, Chicago Bears. The Bears had their own problems this season, especially when it came to who should start once Cutler was healthy and backup QB Josh McCown was rolling. The Packers would win on a 48-yard TD pass to WR Randall Cobb, who was also returning this game from a fractured tibia he suffered against the Ravens in week 6. The late TD was enough to get the win over the Bears, 33-28, and end the Bears season just in time for more QB controversy and the Packers back into the playoffs for a home game against the San Francisco 49ers in a Wild Card game.
Prediction:
GB over CHI 38-28
Final Score:
GB over CHI 33-28

San Diego Chargers Sneak Into Playoffs

AP

The San Diego Chargers snuck into the playoffs by the hairs of their chin this year. They were 2 spots behind the last AFC Wild Card spot with Miami and Baltimore ahead of them with the Steelers hot on their trails. Miami would lose at home to division rival NY Jets and Baltimore would get smacked around by the Bengals and set up a win-or-go-home game for the Chargers. The Chargers got a break early in the day when the Chiefs decided to bench their starting QB Alex Smith and RB Jamaal Charles. You would think the Chargers would take full advantage of a situation where the other team is already locked into their playoff spot and nothing to really play for on Sunday. Well you would think wrong if that's the case, the Chargers could not capitalize on the situation and end up trailing the Chiefs 21-14 going into halftime! Phillip Rivers would need to throw 3 TD's and set up 2 field goals just in order to get into overtime and have a last chance at their playoffs dreams. Albeit their was an iffy no-call at the end of the game on a field goal by the Chiefs but it is what it is and the game went on. The Chargers would still need to convert a 4th and 2 on their own 28 with a fake punt in order to score a field goal and wait to see if the Chiefs could reciprocate the score. The Chiefs would try and match the field goal to keep overtime going, but would not get past the Chargers 41, failing on a 4th and 15 and ending the game. The Chargers are playing great on all cylinders right now and are looking like a tough match-up for anybody in the playoffs.
Prediction:
SD over KC 31-25
Final Score:
SD over KC 27-24

Eagles Win NFC East Championship in JerryWorld 

(Matthew Emmons / USA Today)

Kyle Orton sure did look similar to the guy he is replacing. Now I am not saying they are on the same level, because their not, Romo is bad but he is not Kyle Orton bad. So anyways what I mean when I say they looked similar is the stat line from the game. Orton had eerily similar numbers to Romo's regular production, throwing for over 350 yards, scoring 2 TD's including a late one in the 4th to bring his team within 2 points, 22-24. The Cowboys would fail on their 2-point conversion attempt on a pass attempt to Dez Bryant. Ok so as you can see Romo-itus is in full affect right, well if you're not sold yet then just wait here comes the kicker. Dallas is trailing by the same 2 points as earlier and get the ball back with 1:49 left in the 4th qtr after the defense did something uncharacteristic and hold the Eagles to a 3-and-out. Orton would start his final drive on the Dallas' 32-yard line and by now hopefully you can guess what the very next thing to happen was. Interception! Yep, on his very first throw on this do-or-die drive he threw a horrible pass towards WR Miles Austin that Eagles CB Brandon Boykin intercepted to ice the game and send the NFC East champion Philadelphia Eagles and 1st year coach Chip Kelly to the Playoffs.  
(SIDE NOTE: Pete Carrol, Jim Harbaugh, and Chip Kelly each won their division in their first year coaching after leaving the PAC-12, I wonder which will be the next coach out of that conference to move on up)

Prediction:
PHI over DAL 45-24
Final Score:
PHI over DAL 24-22

So as I was saying those are just some of the bigger headlines from Week 17, now here are all the rest of the final scores from the final games of the regular season, hopefully your team is moving on to the post-season but if not don't worry theirs always next year.

Sunday Afternoon Games:

Prediction: CAR over ATL 26-13; 
Final Score: CAR over ATL 21-20

Prediction: CIN over BAL 24-20;
Final Score: CIN over BAL 34-17

Prediction: TEN over HOU 27-24;
Final Score: TEN over HOU 16-10

Prediction: IND over JAX 34-13;
Final Score:IND over JAX 30-10

Prediction: NYJ over MIA 27-24;
Final Score: NYJ over MIA 20-7

Prediction: DET over MIN 31-27;
Final Score: MIN over DET 14-13

Prediction: NYG over WSH 35-31;
Final Score: NYG over WSH 20-6

Prediction: PIT over CLE 34-24;
Final Score: PIT over CLE 20-7

Prediction: DEN over OAK 48-24;
Final Score: DEN over OAK 34-14

Prediction: NE over BUF 27-20;
Final Score: NE over BUF 34-20

Prediction: NO over TB 26-17;
Final Score: NO over TB 42-17

Prediction: ARI over SF 25-24;
Final Score: SF over ARI 23-20

That is all the final scores from the final week of the regular season and now on to the post-season.

2013-14 NFL Playoff Scenario

I hope you all enjoyed my analysis throughout the season and stay tuned because their is still a lot of Sports to come in 2014!

Happy New Year!

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