NFL Week 16 - What We Learned

Written by John Edward Betancourt

With the playoffs on the line, the very season on the line for some in fact, we saw some incredible football this weekend. A couple of upset specials came to pass and teams with no hope at all for their season made a point to end their year on a high note, playing their hearts out.  It made for some incredible stories on the field this week as much of the off the field drama finally quieted down, so let's take a few moments and look at what we learned about several teams in the NFL in Week 16. 

1. The Denver Broncos offense is still a mess after all.  Not only did that offensive line re shuffle collapse, but the team could not execute on plays and the play calling was just awful. What's worse, is that the Cincinnati defense was able to fool Peyton Manning left and right because of how predictable the play calling was and the Bengals were able to get to Peyton Manning way too often, forcing ugly throws and interceptions galore.  It proves one thing, Denver has been able to mask and finesse its glaring issues and the Bengals fully exposed them to the entire league on national television.  The worst part about all of this? The Broncos have essentially a week or two to fix as many issues as they can or it will be an early exit from the playoffs for Denver. 

2. The Colts may not be ready for the playoffs either. Dallas simply dominated the Colts in every aspect of the game this week. Romo was able to throw the ball at will, and carved up the defense as though it were a Christmas Ham. The Dallas defense played lights out football as well, keeping the Colts from even seeing a single first down rushing wise.  It was a happy day for Cowboys fans as they locked up the NFC East title, but Colts fans need to be concerned, they did not play like a team that reflects their respectable record. That horrific play on defense and Andrew Luck not being able to get anything going on offense is a little scary. They should not be having these kinds of issues this late in the season and with the playoffs right around the corner, they need to be concerned about an early exit as well. 

3. Turns out the Raiders still have a little fight in them. Despite the fact that their season is completely lost to the point where they have nothing to play for, the Oakland Raiders still made a game of it on Sunday afternoon, toppling the Buffalo Bills 26-24, effectively sending Buffalo out of the playoff race completely.  Granted it was no guarantee for the Bills, but a win would have kept their hopes alive.  It's a positive thing for Raiders players, since the entire squad will be evaluated in the coming weeks to see whether they play for Oakland next year or not, and they had to enjoy the irony of playing the spoiler for Buffalo when the Bills have been doing that to other teams all year long. 

4. Turns out the Arizona Cardinals REALLY missed Drew Stanton.  The injury to Stanton ended up being far more costly than Arizona initially thought because the Ryan Lindley show was a disaster. He looked lost and terrified playing against the Seattle defense. He had trouble with his reads, with his throws, the list goes on and on.  The constant three and outs on offense wore the vaunted Cardinal defense down and Seattle took full advantage of it.  Logan Thomas will start in the regular season finale for the Cardinals and while the game may not matter since the Cardinals are in the playoffs...they really need Stanton healthy for when the postseason begins. 

5. Different Quarterback, same results in Chicago.  The hope had been that benching Jay Cutler and starting Jimmy Clausen would spark Chicago's offense and finally shake off the losing mantra surrounding the Bears.  Yeah.  Not so much.  Sure there were less interceptions thrown by Clausen and the Bears only lost the game by six, but no one cares about that in Chicago. The fans want wins, not incremental progress.  It was another loss that left fans hanging their head and oddly enough, the starting QB carousel will rotate once again as Jay Cutler takes the field for the regular season finale since it turns out Clausen suffered a concussion in this game.  But while Chicago is preparing for a game, it's obvious now that fans are just looking forward to sweeping offseason changes at Soldier Field after this disappointing season.  

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