Big Blue View
Happy Holidays, and welcome to Week 17 – the Championship round of the Fantasy Football Playoffs! If you made it this far, congratulations. One big Christmas present (or stocking full of coal) awaits.
But you’ll need to be patient. Like it or not, the Week 17 games are staggered, with three games on Christmas Day, two more on Saturday, eight on Sunday, and one on Monday. It could be an agonizing wait for fantasy managers, and especially against the backdrop of holiday commitments and distractions. Trust me on this: The important people in your life aren’t going to understand. Time to spike the eggnog.
The biggest story of Week 16 was the two absolutely bonkers finishes in pivotal NFC West and North division games on Thursday and Saturday nights. I feel like Jack Buck – I can’t believe what I just saw, twice. But the Seahawks and Bears did in fact both pull off miracle fourth quarter comebacks in front of their ecstatic home fans. I’m sure that the overtime points scored in those games ended up swinging some semi-final matchups.
From a fantasy standpoint, a big story heading into this final week is a bunch of fresh quarterback injuries. Five quarterbacks were knocked out of games in Week 16 and amazingly, Jaxson Dart wasn’t one of them, although you wouldn’t know it from his stat line. There are multiple second and third string QBs that will be running NFL offenses this week (some of whom have no business doing so), wreaking havoc for fantasy managers. More on this later.
Stats of the Week:
The streak continues: Mike Tomlin has not had a losing record in any of his 19 seasons as an NFL Head Coach (all with the Steelers).
The Eagles are the first team to repeat as NFC East champions in two decades.
Miasma in the Meadowlands: The Giants and Jets have a combined record of 5-25.
The 2-13 Giants and 12-3 Patriots have the same number of wins (2) against teams that currently have a winning record.
The Bears have won six games this season where they trailed inside the final two minutes of regulation (that’s the most in a season in the Super Bowl era).
In their two meetings this season: Rams 58, Seahawks 57, Rams 830 total yards, Seahawks 829 total yards.
The Rams are the first team in NFL history to lose a game where they had 500+ yards of offense, committed zero turnovers, and forced 3+ turnovers. The Rams have also rolled up 500+ yards of offense in three straight games.
Last stat from this game (there are a lot): Before Thursday, the Rams were 323-1 all-time when leading by 15+ points in the fourth quarter, and the Seahawks were 0-172 all-time when trailing by 15+ points in the fourth quarter.
The 49ers have not punted in the month of December.
The Giants have turned the ball over on downs inside the red...
