The Philadelphia Eagles clinched home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs by defeating the Oakland Raiders on Monday night. The Eagles (offense) basically tried every way possible to lose the game, but the Raiders outdid them, and so the Eagles walked away with a win.
Oakland's fourth turnover of the second half set up a Jake Elliott field goal that gave the Eagles the lead with 22 seconds left, but the scoring did not end there. Because the 2017 season is just straight-up bonkers, we had yet another night game end with a defensive touchdown on the game's final play after the offense tried to set up a series of laterals to matriculate the ball down the field.
This time, rookie defensive end Derek Barnett was the beneficiary of the Raiders' mistakes.
Previously, the Chiefs scored a defensive touchdown against Washington on the final play of the game, giving gamblers fits. The Chiefs entered the game as 6.5 or 7-point favorites, depending on where you'd bet the line, and the final play touchdown pushed their margin of victory from three to 10.
Wouldn't you know it, the same kind of thing happened this time around. Philadelphia entered this game as a 10-point favorite, and the late touchdown pushed their lead from three to nine. Only instead of kicking an extra point to push the lead to 10 and get a push, Doug Pederson had his team kneel on the football.
Line closed at Eagles -10. After scoring on the game's last play to go up by 9, they kneeled. Incredible. pic.twitter.com/Q2MCVVurRS — Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) December 26, 2017
The emotional swing from elation at possibly not losing your money, to definitely losing your money because the coach decided he valued sportsmanship, has got to hurt.
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Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers seemed like a candidate to flex into prime time on Dec. 31, but instead their game against the Atlanta Falcons will kick off at 4:25 p.m. (Bob Leverone/Associated Press)
A higher than normal level of uncertainty surrounding so many teams’ playoff positioning moved the NFL to make a rather unusual scheduling decision.
For the first time since 1977, the league’s regular season slate will not end with a prime-time game. Per a Christmas Eve announcement from the league office, there will be no Sunday night game in Week 17, a decision made to ensure that all games with postseason implications that could have an effect on one another are played at the same times.
The @NFL has finalized the Week 17 schedule. pic.twitter.com/P9RnwwI1EI — Michael Signora (@NFLfootballinfo) December 25, 2017
Said NFL senior vice president of broadcasting Howard Katz in the announcement: “We felt that both from a competitive standpoint and from a fan perspective, the most fair thing to do is to schedule all Week 17 games in either the 1 p.m. or 4:25 p.m. ET windows. This ensures that we do not have a matchup on ‘Sunday Night Football’ on New Year’s Eve that because of earlier results has no playoff implications for one or both of the competing teams.”
Left unsaid is the fact that a game played at night on New Year’s Eve probably won’t draw well from a television ratings perspective. But it’s tough to argue that, for example, flexing both NFC South games to the 4:25 p.m Eastern time window won’t make for a compelling few hours. The New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers are all in flux regarding their positioning for the playoffs (with the Falcons not even guaranteed to make it).
Three AFC games with potential ramifications — Cincinnati at Baltimore, Buffalo at Miami and Jacksonville at Tennessee — were also moved to that late time slot, joining the Los Angeles Chargers-Oakland Raiders contest, which could send L.A. to the playoffs with a win and some help.
The complete list of playoff scenarios for Week 17 is below.
Trying this again (this time with the FULL AFC scenarios) Week 17 @NFL Playoff Scenarios here pic.twitter.com/D5V1KPYo8P — Randall Liu (@RLiuNFL) December 25, 2017
Read more on the NFL:
Ezekiel Elliott’s return didn’t help enough, and now the Cowboys are done
Buccaneers’ Jameis Winston loses his mind after losing fumble to Panthers
Kelvin Benjamin’s overturned TD in Bills-Patriots game sparks anger, confusion
NFL teams reportedly think the Packers should have to release Aaron Rodgers over IR move
The NBA on Christmas is a lot. With five staggered games and few substantive breaks in action beyond halftime, you really need to prioritize what’s most important to catch, especially if you have children or guests. Luckily, we have a guide to your viewing experience.
Consider these our rankings on the five Christmas Day games based on wholly superficial criteria that boils down to this: Will the game be fun to watch? Consider this caveat, though: predicting which NBA games will turn into madhouse adventures is difficult, so keep your head on a pivot (and open up text notifications for @SBNationNBA once the action starts).
That said, here’s our best attempt to rank the games out in terms of watchability based on the teams’ quality, injury reports, and fun factors.
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5. Sixers at Knicks, 12 p.m. ET, ESPN
The New York Knicks always seem to get a Christmas game, no matter how low the expectations are when the schedule is made. But as it turns out, the Knicks are pretty good this year (weirdly enough). So are the Sixers! Well, so were the Sixers, until the curse of Jahlil Okafor set in. Philadelphia started 13-9 and was in the thick of the playoff race; since then, it’s gone 1-9.
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It appears that all three international wunderkinds — Joel Embiid, Kristaps Porzingis, and Ben Simmons — will play, despite Embiid and Porzingis recently missing games due to injury. Their minutes could be reduced in efforts to bring them back responsibly. This may be much of the casual fandom’s introduction to Simmons, the rookie Australian maestro. What a treat for them!
Michael Beasley, maybe the most Knicksian player of our time, has been particularly electric on national TV this year. Watch out for him.
18 in the 4th. A season-high 32 pts & 12 rebs. B-EASY Beeeeasssssley pic.twitter.com/4EdnieYgVW — NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) December 22, 2017
4. Timberwolves at Lakers, 10:30 p.m. ET, TNT
This would be a dynamite option if the Wolves weren’t so joyless in being the NBA’s most improved team. Really, the Lakers are hoping to follow Minnesota’s blueprint: add a big name veteran this summer and flip that plus the rising youth into a rising power next year. Jimmy Butler’s off the table, but perhaps Paul George or DeMarcus Cousins (or even LeBron James) is in the cards.
In the meantime, Lonzo Ball is slowly coming along (though he’ll miss this game with a shoulder sprain), Kyle Kuzma is an immaculate rookie, Brandon Ingram has shaken off the bust tags, and the Lakers are darn frisky. The Wolves are grinders who succeed on offense despite failing to play a beautiful style; defense and fourth quarters are their weakness. They also tend to play slow; we’ll see if the Lakers, who have the fastest pace in the league, can speed them up.
Kyle Kuzma finishes in transition with his back to the basket! #LakeShow ( : ESPN) pic.twitter.com/UIaZMZPYC2 — Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 23, 2017
One other entertainment note on this game: TNT’s Inside the NBA crew — Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaq — will be calling the game. That should be, uh, interesting.
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3. Wizards at Celtics, 5:30 p.m. ET, ABC
All of these games have the potential to be the best, most compelling contest of the day. That’s the beauty of the NBA: amazing lurks within all, poised to show itself at a moment’s notice. Wizards-Celtics has high potential for some of that amazing.
Bradley Beal has had himself a season, both with John Wall beside him and while Wall has recovered from injury. The Wizards have been inconsistent (owing to injury and depth issues) and are mired in an extremely tight race for the No. 4 seed. Washington is the most talented, accomplished team of the bunch, and ought to start showing it.
Boston, meanwhile, has been excellent despite losing Gordon Hayward minutes into the NBA season. While the long winning streak that carried the Celtics through November is but a memory, Jayson Tatum has continued to be a giant. Kyrie Irving is still weird as hell and the best ballhandler on this plane of existence or any other. Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Al Horford, Terry Rozier: all of them do what they do to great effect. It’s a shockingly fun team.
This should be a good game if everyone shows up to battle.
2. Rockets at Thunder, 8 p.m. ET, ABC
The Thunder are figuring things out. That it involves Russell Westbrook deciding to rekindle his MVP exploits — even at the expense of his teammates’ touches — is hardly a surprise. Oklahoma City is 10-3 in December and has won four straight, albeit against a fairly weak schedule.
The Rockets, meanwhile, have lost two straight — both with James Harden scoring 51, both without Chris Paul for at least part of the game. Houston’s now in a virtual tie with Golden State for the No. 1 seed. CP3 sat out on Friday and is a question mark for this game. The Rockets haven’t lost this season when Paul has played and finished.
This is a must-watch to find out if the Thunder are really getting there, and to see if the Rockets are really levels better than anyone but Golden State.
Related The Warriors remain the calm center of the NBA universe
1. Cavaliers at Warriors, 3 p.m. ET, ABC
Stephen Curry is out. Draymond Green is a question mark. After all the NBA Finals battles, this regular season matchup won’t actually mean anything in the grand scheme.
However, a counterpoint: LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant.
Yes. Yes. That’ll do.
Appreciate one of the greatest ever in his prime. Appreciate what the Warriors would look like as Durant’s team. Appreciate Jordan Bell.
Appreciate a preview of June.
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