Week 17 Results

St. Louis 27, Atlanta 31 (predicted: St. Louis 17, Atlanta 41) - Atlanta earned the #5 seed in the NFC by beating the hapless Rams in the week 17 finale. The Falcons get to play the Cardinals, who have recently lost 3 out of 4.

Chicago 24, Houston 31 (predicted: Chicago 20, Houston 27) - Chicago's loss to the Texans ended up not mattering as the Vikings managed to edge the Giants on a Ryan Longwell field goal as time expired. The Bears are going to have to address some significant age and skill issues in the offseason, especially on defense and at wide receiver.

Minnesota 20, NYG 19 (predicted: NYG 20, Minnesota 31) - The Vikings claim the NFC North title, while the Giants played their backups for three quarters and still put up a fight. By the way, other than Adrian Peterson's 67-yard touchdown run, he had 36 yards on 20 carries. By the way, 9 fumbles on the season for Peterson? That has to stop.

Carolina 33, New Orleans 31 (predicted: Carolina 24, New Orleans 34) - Drew Brees needed 16 yards to tie Dan Marino and would have had it if his final throw hadn't been so low. The Saints lost their chance to knock the Panthers out of the #2 seed despite having a 21-point fourth quarter.

Cleveland 0, Pittsburgh 31 (predicted: Cleveland 9, Pittsburgh 23) - Make that 6 games without a touchdown. GM Phil Savage was sent packing, and Romeo Crennel is next to go. Ben Roethlisberger got slammed to the ground and has a concussion, he'll have a week to recover as the Steelers have the #2 seed in the playoffs.

Oakland 31, Tampa Bay 24 (predicted: Oakland 17, Tampa Bay 30) - As soon as Monte Kiffin announced he was leaving to go to the Vols, the Tampa Bay defense fell apart. Michael Bush rushed for 177 yards and 2 carries. When's the last time you read that sentence??

Tennessee 0, Indianapolis 23 (predicted: Tennessee 24, Indianapolis 21) - Peyton Manning has his 9th straight 4,000 yard season, Dallas Clark sets the franchise record for receiving yards by a tight end, and Marvin Harrison moves to second in the all-time receptions list. The Titans don't do much of anything and hand the Colts their 9th straight win.

Detroit 21, Green Bay 31 (predicted: Detroit 13, Green Bay 28) - PERFECTION!!! One can only hope that the Lions manage to draft 21 starters in April.

New England 13, Buffalo 0 (predicted: New England 31, Buffalo 23) - The Patriots managed to blank the Bills in some of the windiest conditions I've seen in a game. The crossbars were slanted a good 5 degrees from the horizontal in opposite directions at either end of the field. The Bills looked good in the first quarter running the ball 100% of the time, but you know that it's not going to work for longer than that. It didn't. It's too bad that the Patriots' and Matt Cassel's efforts ultimately ended up being for nothing due to the Dolphins capturing the AFC East division title.

Kansas City 6, Cincinnati 16 (predicted: Kansas City 16, Cincinnati 21) - A long season ends in a whimper for both of these struggling teams.

Jacksonville 7, Baltimore 27 (predicted: Jacksonville 20, Baltimore 27) - Baltimore clinches the 6th seed in the conference and heads to Miami to the site where they gave the Dolphins their only win last season. The Jags took a 7-3 lead in the first quarter before LeRon Mcclain and Willis McGahee scored in the second to put the game away.

Miami 24, NYJ 17 (predicted: Miami 24, NYJ 23) - Bye bye Brett Favre. After throwing 3 interceptions (one of which panned to a shot of Eric Mangini mouthing "Why throw it??" afterwards), I'd be surprised if the Jets wanted him back. Chad Pennington adds insult to injury by beating his former team for the Dolphins first playoff appearance since 2000. Just goes to show that sometimes not even $140 million dollars in free agency will buy you a playoff berth.

Seattle 21, Arizona 34 (predicted: Seattle 24, Arizona 17) - The Cardinals showed that they won't necessarily roll over and die in their first playoff game in years. They'll have to deal with Michael Turner and Matt Ryan, both of whom are capable of beating nearly anything the lackluster Cardinals defense can throw at them.

Washington 24, San Francisco 27 (predicted: Washington 17, San Francisco 27) - Mike Singletary wins again. He certainly deserves to be the 49ers head coach, finishing with a 5-4 record (1-0 against Vernon Davis).

Dallas 6, Philadelphia 44 (predicted: Dallas 10, Philadelphia 7) - What? Another choke job? My favorite part of this game was the drive summary for the Cowboys in the second half: fumble, fumble, fumble, punt, punt, field goal, punt. Jerry Jones claims he's not going to make changes in the offseason to the coaching staff, but with the Cowboys' performance this season not matching up to the talent they have on the roster it's hard to see him sitting on his hands for another season. TO's not getting any younger, and their time is clearly now.

Denver 21, San Diego 52 (predicted: Denver 31, San Diego 37) - The Chargers absolutely trounced the Broncos and their "defense." Philip Rivers seemingly had all day in the pocket, and several times he went through all 5 of his reads before going back to an earlier option and launching it down the field (usually a completion). Thank you, San Diego, for invalidating Denver and their horrible defense as a playoff team. Not that the Chargers really deserve it either, but the real winners in this situation are probably the Indianapolis Colts who travel to San Diego in wild card weekend.

11/16 this week, 159/254 on the season (62.5%).