NFL Week 17: Steelers clinch playoff berth as Jets blow opportunity in Buffalo

Every Monday morning, Section 215’s Akiem Bailum gives an in-depth and unfiltered look at all of the latest sports news in The Monday Morning Realist. You can follow Akiem on Twitter @AkiemBailum.

Ball Drop

All you have to do is win.

That is your playoff scenario going into the final game of the regular season. All you have to do is win and you clinch an automatic playoff berth.

That is a dream scenario for a team going into Week 17 of the NFL’s regular season.

As we know, Realists, playoff scenarios can be so kooky sometimes it can read like trying to solve the Pythagorean Theorem, the Law of Cosines, and the Law of Sines at the same time. Imagine being a team that not only needed to win, but needed about five other games to go your way (or tie) and another team had to win by a set number of points (or tie).

Then imagine being that team that controls its own destiny where if you win you will automatically get to play football in January and can have a legitimate shot at a Super Bowl.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the New York Jets!

All the J-E-T-S, Jets! Jets! Jets! Had to do was defeat the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo in order to qualify for a postseason berth. Essentially only the Houston Texans were the other team in the AFC that had its playoff scenario not read like trying to solve the Pythagorean Theorem, the Law of Cosines, and the Law of Sines all at the same time.

And a couple of weeks ago, the Jets clinching a playoff berth was still within the realm of possibility but in order to be in a position to where they could be at an “win and in” playoff scenario, they had to defeat the New England Patriots in New Jersey.

As we know, Realists, defeating the Patriots on any football field is a tall task for any team whether that field is in East Rutherford, New Jersey or if East Rutherford (or Foxboro) were in Alaska.

Yet they did just that (thanks to assuming an early lead in the game, then only allowing New England to tie, then the controversial (but not REALLY controversial) coin toss allowing for the Jets to get the ball first, then the Ryan Fitzpatrick pass to Eric Decker, and Long Island (where the majority of Jets fans live) starts to celebrate.

So, conventional wisdom says that the Jets will take this momentum from defeating the Patriots into their Week 17 tilt with the Buffalo Bills—a game that shortly after New York’s win over New England, was an early leader in the clubhouse to be flexed to NBC.

And thinking about it, it would have made sense. A team that only had to win to get in playing against a team whose head coach was fired by said team contending for a playoff spot. Ooh, could one think of a better way to play spoiler than to dash the postseason hopes of the team that canned you just one season ago.

Unfortunately for the Jets, Fitzpatrick and his three interceptions seemed to perhaps do more to dash Gang Green’s postseason aspirations than any Buffalo Bill could. Fitzpatrick has not thrown that many picks this year and he has played (for the most part) like a quarterback that wants a taste of January Madness.

Unfortunately if you are a New York Jets fan, three picks of Fitzpatrick plus Bills wideout Sammy Watkins posting a 100-plus yard outing through the air meant that the Jets had blown a golden opportunity to control their own destiny.

Rex Ryan and his Bills end the season at an 8-8 clip—only good enough for third place in the AFC East finishing only ahead of the Miami Dolphins at 6-10. Realists, something tells me though that “Sexy Rexy” will be wearing a very sexy 100-watt grin on his face from now until training camp given he got a little bit of payback for being Jet-tisoned from Gotham after last season.

And Ryan Fitzpatrick’s long drought from the postseason continues. Fitzpatrick looked more like the Fitzpatrick we are used to seeing in previous seasons. He only completed 16 of his 37 passes for 181 yards, and two touchdowns plus the three picks. Chris Ivory had 81 yards on the ground with six carries. Brandon Marshall caught eight passes for 126 yards.

Tyrod Taylor was 18 for 28 and had 182 yards passing plus 51 yards rushing via 10 carries. Watkins’ 136 yards came on 11 receptions.

I guess Times Square was not the only New York-New Jersey area institution that was staging a dropping of the ball this week. Except Times Square’s was in celebration. The Jets’ come in a defeat that ends their season and will leave them watching this year’s playoffs from their couches.

Or as they say on TNT….Gone Fishin’.

Final Score: Buffalo Bills 22, New York Jets 17

Spoiler Alert

Rex Ryan and his Buffalo Bills playing spoiler in Upstate New York allowed for things to get interesting at the exact same time in Cleveland where the Pittsburgh Steelers paid a visit to their division rival—the seemingly eternally hapless Cleveland Browns.

With the Jets not holding up the end of their bargain of “win and in” the Steelers all of a sudden saw an opening. This meant that the Steelers, who earlier in the season was going through a quarterback kerfuffle induced by an injury to Ben Roethlisberger that saw a brief return of the Michael Vick Experience to the NFL.

Needless to say, Pittsburgh was not seeing the same Vick that Atlanta saw circa 2004.

Still, the Steelers in a division where it was only them and Cincinnati and experiencing a season that saw them beat the AFC North champion Bengals were in prime position to steal a playoff berth shipped to them in a big green box from northern New Jersey to Western Pennsylvania.

This is one of those games that had to have a rising feeling and a sinking feeling for a couple of franchises and their fanbases. Slowly but surely there had to be at least some sense of optimism for Jets fans and not as much for Steelers fans given what happened last week.

After all, last week, the Steelers suffered defeat at the hands of the Ravens in Baltimore. And even though it was a divisional game that Baltimore treated as its Super Bowl this year, these are not your older sister’s Ravens from B-More.

Even with this, Pittsburgh is not nearly as much of a soap opera as the Cleveland Browns appear to be yet again. With Johnny Manziel once again under scrutiny for partying and Mike Pettine on the hot seat, it did appear yet again as if the Browns were heading for “ANOTHER” rebuilding offseason.

There also had to be a sinking feeling for New York Jets fans as they also saw what was going on in this game. After all, when your team fails to control its own destiny via a win and you have to pin your postseason dreams on the Cleveland Browns, it is like asking for a college basketball team to place in the upcoming Olympics.

The Pittsburgh Steelers after all have a reputation of being one of the most stable franchises in football. The Cleveland Browns—this rendition and the pre-Baltimore rendition, do not. Plain and simple.

And throughout this game, that is what appeared to be the story. At one point with the Steelers leading 14-9, Roethlisberger was intercepted by Craig Robertson well within Steelers territory. This was a perfect opportunity for the Browns to take the lead and make this a 16-14 ball game in their favor.

Except…these are the Browns of course. And when Cleveland had the golden opportunity to go out in front, an Austin Davis pass instead of finding one of his own receivers instead found…James Harrison.

Go figure.

Ever since then, the Steeler lead only grew. And while the Browns managed to briefly stay within striking distance at 17-12, a muffed punt was the beginning of the end for Cleveland as well as the beginning of the end for the Jets’ playoff chances given what was happening in Orchard Park.

A 17-12 lead became a 25-12 lead. A 25-12 grew into a 28-12 lead. And it all translated into a playoff berth for the Steelers via the Wild Card and the six seed.

And if it is one thing about the Steelers is they can win a Super Bowl either as a top seed or a six seed as that is what they did when they defeated the Seattle Seahawks to win Super Bowl XL in Detroit in 2006. That, of course, was Jerome Bettis’ final game in the NFL.

Ben Roethlisberger had thrown for 349 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. Fitzgerald Toussaint had a better Sunday than the Jets’ Ryan Fitzpatrick with 12 carries and 24 yards on the ground (at least his team won) and Antonio Brown caught 13 passes for 187 yards and one touchdown.

As for the Browns, Austin Davis had completed 24 out of his 46 passes. He also threw for 240 yards, but threw for no touchdowns and had two interceptions. Isaiah Crowell carried the rock a total of 15 times and he got 53 yards out of those 15. Gary Barnidge had 66 receiving yards on eight carries.

The Steelers now know their next game—they will face Cincinnati in Cincinnati in the first round of the playoffs next week. The Bengals will probably still be without Andy Dalton that game and will once again have to rely on A.J. McCarron.

As for the Browns themselves, their mess seems to already be starting as it looks to be curtains for Mike Pettine.

Realists, the same appears to always be true on the Browns. They’re still the Browns and will always be the Browns unless one major event takes place.

Jimmy Haslam sells the team to someone who actually wants to win and will not just use the team as an ATM for their other business interests. That seems to be what the Browns only exist for at this point.

Final Score: Pittsburgh Steelers 28, Cleveland Browns 12

Dolphin Attack?

The Miami Dolphins are not supposed to beat the New England Patriots, whether they face off in Miami or in Foxboro. But, of course, that is the beauty of the NFL that crazy mess happens on a week-by-week basis.

After all, the Dolphins are coming off a week where they were only a few yards shy of defeating the Indianapolis Colts and ending their playoff hopes last week. Their playoff hopes actually were ended this week by virtue of the Houston Texans thrashing the Jacksonville Jaguars en route to this season’s AFC South championship.

Miami is another one of those teams with nothing to play for in Week 17, so they have a tendency to get up for games like this and treat them as if this is their Super Bowl. Just ask the Buffalo Bills this week playing the Jets.

But regardless, this game was of course about the New England Patriots as they enter the playoffs as the defending Super Bowl champions. This is a team that was the last undefeated team in the AFC before being knocked off their undefeated perch by Brock Osweiler (not Peyton Manning, but Brock Osweiler’s Denver Broncos in Coloardo).

That was also the game that stoked fears about Rob Gronkowski’s health even though those fears turned out to be not-warranted.

Even with this, it is not like there are not legitimate concerns. The Patriots are a very banged-up team and those weaknesses can certainly be exposed by whoever the right team could be in the postseason.

After the 10-0 start, New England has actually resembled more of an average football team. They look average primarily because the injuries have made the offensive line thin. And when the Patriots’ offensive line is thin, that means Tom Brady is quivering in his cleats and Uggs.

Brady, of course, is not a quarterback like Russell Wilson, Cam Newton, Teddy Bridgewater, or Robert Griffin III that knows how to make plays outside of the pocket. So a weak offensive line makes him vulnerable to a strong pass rush given his lack of mobility.

With all of this, though, the Patriots only had to do one thing and that is win in order for the AFC playoffs to go through Foxboro this season. The AFC playoffs went through Foxboro last year and that turned out to be pretty good for New England last year. Proof being their Super Bowl victory.

Just as their division rivals from New York failed to get the job done on a “win and in” scenario, so did the Patriots while on a “win and clinch” bit. It was actually a game where the Patriots had a balanced attack with 25 passes and 27 rushes.

This is, though, with Tom Brady, as quarterback.

Where the New England offense was not clicking on this day, the Miami offense was all about wanting to spoil the Pats’ bid for the top seed in the AFC. And just like Buffalo did, Miami did just that as they made New England settle for the number two seed.

Not that the number two seed is bad. But right now the New England Patriots look nothing like a number two seed given the way that they are playing right now.

After starting the season with 10 consecutive victories, the Patriots have now lost four of their last six games. It has also come with significant injuries to some of their key players such as Sebastian Vollmer and Julian Edelman.

The bye will help New England get healthy and when they do, perhaps they will begin to resemble the Patriots of old that began the season with those 10 straight victories. But right now (and maybe even with Edelman, Vollmer, etc. healthy), do you really like this team’s chances to beat a Carolina or an Arizona in the Super Bowl?

Me thinks not…at least not right now.

Ryan Tannehill completed 25 of his 38 passes for 350 yards and two touchdowns. Lamar Miller had 60 rushing yards on 19 attempts while Devante Parker caught five passes for 106 yards.

Brady only threw 21 passes and completed 12 of them for 134 yards. It allowed someone by the name of Jimmy Garoppolo to take a few snaps. He was only 1 for 4 for six yards. Steven Jackson had 35 yards on the ground on 14 carries and James White had 63 yards on only two receptions.

A bye week right now could not be a better friend to the Patriots given their health issues. But if they are healthy and look like the New England of old, as we know they can win on any field at any time, in any weather (especially the cold of January and February).

Final Score: Miami Dolphins 20, New England Patriots 10

Look Who Returned!

This year going into Week 17, the majority of the actual teams that would be participating in this year’s playoffs already clinched berths via either a Wild Card or a division championship. The main thing that was left to be determined is what seeds the teams would be and who they would be playing when their playoffs had began.

Just as the Pittsburgh Steelers might as well be sending a huge New Year’s Thank You card to the Buffalo Bills, the Denver Broncos also had reason to send one of their own to South Beach courtesy of what happened with the Pats and Dolphins.

With the Patriots losing, this meant that the Broncos, who were also in contention to win the AFC West, could defeat (of all teams) the San Diego Chargers and they would clinch the number one-seed in the AFC.

The past few weeks leading up to this past week actually have not been the best for Brock Osweiler and his team as they all of a sudden found themselves in a position where the AFC West was not entirely locked up and the Kansas City Chiefs (this year’s rags to riches story in the NFL, going from 1-5 to 11-5) found themselves with a clear chance at the AFC West.

Except, the Broncos defense began to look like the same Denver defense that had saved the Broncos’ bacon even when Peyton Manning had thrown only nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions this year.

Without the Broncos sporting the top-ranked defense in the NFL as they do, it is very likely that this team would already be looking up at the standings at the Chiefs instead of looking just barely at them below.

Except despite the Chargers coming into this game with a 4-11 record and the high possibility that after this season they may no longer be the San Diego Chargers, this was actually a fairly well-played game as San Diego had leads of 13-7 as well as 20-17.

Certainly this had to bring a huge modicum of delight to Kansas City Chiefs fans who still had their eyes on the prize that was the AFC West.

That was before a certain #18 came back on the field for Denver at quarterback.

Al Jazeera HGH story and all, in came Peyton Manning, and it would be a Ronnie Hillman 23-yard touchdown run to seal the deal for the Denver Broncos as they assumed a 27-20 lead over San Diego.

After the Chargers turned the football over on downs one more time—it became official. The Denver Broncos had indeed clinched the top spot in the AFC despite Manning being possibly at the end of his career and being embroiled in a quarterback controversy.

Good bye San Diego? We will see.

Osweiler threw for 232 yards and completed 14 of his 22 passes. He also had one touchdown and threw two interceptions. Manning (because his numbers seemingly matter regardless of he is on the field for two hours or two minutes) completed five of his nine passes for 69 yards.

Hillman had 15 carries for 117 yards and one touchdown. Demaryius Thomas also caught five passes for 117 yards plus one touchdown.

As for the Chargers, Philip Rivers completed 21 of his 35 passes for 228 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception. Donald Brown rushed for 81 yards on 21 carries and Tyrell Williams had one touchdown in addition to catching two passes for 90 yards.

Questions are abound for both teams in their immediate futures. The one for Denver is who will they be playing after the first round of the postseason has concluded. The one for San Diego is simply WHERE will they be playing.

We will find out the answers to these questions in due time.

Final Score: Denver Broncos 27, San Diego Chargers 20

Lambeau Taken to Skol

Notice how I have mentioned in a few recaps this season how the Arizona Cardinals seemingly love to play its games on NBC?

I guess we can put the Minnesota Vikings in the same or at least similar category. Last week, they won on NBC and this week they also happened to win on NBC.

Jumping out to a 20-3 lead and staving off a late comeback by the Green Bay Packers in the Packers’ home field of Lambeau will do the trick. It, at first, looked to have come at a cost via an injury to Adrian Peterson before he returned to the game a little bit later.

But as a result, Minnesota now gets a home playoff game against Seattle and Green Bay will have to travel on the road to the Washington Redskins. And right now given the way the Packers and Redskins have played their latest football, that one appears to be a win for the Skins.

What ever the Packers were at the beginning of the season they appear to be anything but now. Usually the Packers are Super Bowl favorites year in and year out of the NFC by virtue of them having Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. But this season has been completely different. They were dominated earlier in the year by the top two teams in the NFC in Carolina and Arizona, now they are facing a Washington team that themselves appears to be peaking at the right time.

No one outside of the state of Minnesota picked the Vikings to be champions out of the NFC North. It also looks like NBC picked the right game to flex as opposed to Bills/Jets which is what a lot of people wanted at first.

The last time the Vikings and Seahawks met ended in a dominant performance by Seattle…but that was in Seattle. It may be different in Minnesota but it could be the Game of the Week next week.

Bridgewater only threw for 99 yards on 10/19 passing with one pick. Peterson had 67 yards on the ground on 19 carries plus one touchdown and Jerick McKinnon had 33 yards on three receptions.

Rodgers threw for 291 yards on 28/44 passing with one TD and one interception. Eddie Lacy rushed for 34 yards on 13 carries and James Jones had 102 yards on four receptions.

Final Score: Minnesota Vikings 20, Green Bay Packers 13

Let the NFL’s postseason commence!

Other Games

New Orleans Saints defeat Atlanta Falcons 20-17

Cincinnati Bengals defeat Baltimore Ravens 24-16

Pittsburgh Steelers defeat Cleveland Browns 28-12

Houston Texans defeat Jacksonville Jaguars 30-6

Indianapolis Colts defeat Tennessee Titans 30-24

Washington Redskins defeat Dallas Cowboys 34-23

Philadelphia Eagles defeat New York Giants 35-30

Detroit Lions defeat Chicago Bears 24-20

Carolina Panthers defeat Tampa Bay Buccaneers 38-10

Kansas City Chiefs defeat Oakland Raiders 23-17

Seattle Seahawks defeat Arizona Cardinals 36-6

San Francisco 49ers defeat St. Louis Rams 19-16