NFL News – Another wild week of NFL action drew to a close with more teams ending their playoff bids. Other teams, however, were to able to keep theirs thanks to key losses to their rivals. By the end of Week 16, it was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that became the only to this to clinch a NFL playoff spot.
How They Got Here?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers bulldozed their way past the Detroit Lions thanks to Tom Brady and Mike Evans’ dominant performances. Brady threw for 348 yards for 4 touchdowns while Evans caught for 181 yards and 2 touchdowns as the pair picked apart Detroit’s poor defensive coverages.
The rest of the Buccaneers were able to pick up the scraps as Detroit didn’t put up much of a fight in stopping Tampa Bay from clinching a playoff spot. With the win, the Buccaneers are back in the NFL Playoffs for the first time since 2007.
I believe that Tampa Bay’s best hope is to at least finish in 5th place in the NFC as they look to take on the NFC East division leader in the NFC Wild Card Game. For the time being, the Washington Football Team currently lead the NFC East with one more game left to play.
Road Ahead for Philly, Vegas, and Minnesota
As of Week 16, three more teams are added on to the list of teams that will not play in the NFL Playoffs. These are the Philadelphia Eagles, the Las Vegas Raiders, and the Minnesota Vikings.
The Raiders suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Miami Dolphins on Christmas Day. With the loss, this extends the Raiders’ playoff drought to 4 years in a row. The Eagles and Vikings, meanwhile, get blown out by the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints as they also bid sayonara to their playoff aspirations.
Despite all three having been knocked from playoff contention, the Eagles, Vikings, and Raiders can still end the season on a high. The Eagles though are the only one out of the three that were eliminated who has the chance to play spoiler. And this one will come in the form against Washington for SNF. Vegas and Minnesota will treat their Week 17 games as practice games to prepare themselves for 2021. Hopefully all three teams will have to bank on a successful offseason get them back to being playoff contenders.
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