The NFL is Poop - Week 17

The Fickle Field Goal of Fate
With the collapse of the Miami Dolphins and the Baltimore Ravens, the San Diego Chargers controlled their own future. Beat the Chiefs, make the playoffs, lose and the 8-8 Steelers get in. Oh yeah, the Chiefs were also sitting many of their starters.
But that might have actually worked against San Diego, as motivated KC backups, Chase Daniel and Knile Davis, led the Chiefs to a 24-14 4th quarter lead.
The Chargers bounced back from that to tie the game but Daniel led a great drive to get KC into position for a 41-yard field goal attempt from Ryan Succop. A very makeable field goal, with two teams' playoffs hopes on the line.
And he missed.

But here's the rub: the NFL admits the referees missed a penalty on the Chargers on that play. It should have been an illegal procedure penalty for lining up 7 men on one side of the formation.
So they played on and the Chargers starter OT with a 9 and a half minute possession ending in a field goal. The Chiefs couldn't match it and the game was over. But we'll see these two teams again this week.

The Refs Almost Blew This One Too
With the Eagles lead 24-16 and the Cowboys driving to tie it up late in the 4th quarter the refs made an error even more egregious. After a 33-yard catch and run Jason Witten was tackled in the middle of the field, the play clock was somehow only reset to 25 seconds, instead of 40. The Cowboys couldn't get off the play in time and were penalized 15 yards. Thankfully this mistake didn't change the game too much, because the Cowboys scored anyway (on a 4th and 9 play). But they missed the 2-point conversion attempt. hey did get another chance but Kyle Orton did his best Tony Romo impression and threw an interception on the first pass of what could have been the drive to make the playoffs.
So the Eagles go to the playoffs, the Cowboys go home, but this time they don't have Tony Romo to blame. At least not for this loss.

Game of the Week
Green Bay Packers 33 Chicago Bears 28
How did he get so open? That's the question every Bears fan is asking after a sure victory and home playoff game was ripped from their hands. 4th and 8, 46 seconds left, 28-27 lead for the Bears, Aaron Rodgers scrambles, buys some time, and Randall Cobb sneaks away from the Bears secondary, Rodgers fires one, and its a 48-yard touchdown pass for the win.
I actually think there may be some karmic justice in this one as the Bears played horribly at times this season and probably didn't deserve his spot, with the stinker they put up last week in Philadelphia.
The Packers on the other hand were 5-2 when Rodgers got hurt, and went 0-4-1 in the first 5 games without him (including the game he got injured in, because he threw only 2 passes). So I'm a little more excited to watch them, even at 8-7-1 then I would be watching another lackluster Cutler performance.

Game of Next Week
Kansas City Chiefs at Indianapolis Colts
All four games this week are actually pretty interesting, but I favor this one because it's a rematch of a Colts blowout win from a weeks ago. I think the Chiefs will get their revenge.

A Brief Rant About the Redskins
Mike Shanahan deserved to be fired. I don't think he is a horrible coach but I know his son is. Kyle Shanahan's play-calling was a big reason for RGIII's regression this season. And the Redskins weren't only bad on offense.
They gave up 478 points, only Minnesota's 480 was worse. They had a historically bad special teams, 3rd worst in history covering punt returns, and 3 touchdowns among all that return yardage. Plus they turned it over 34 times. Shanahan blamed his poor performance (double digit losses in 3 of 4 seasons) on the salary cap penalties the Redskins were hit with.
Hopefully his replacement will be the beneficiary of salary cap space, a healthy quarterback and a good offensive coordinator.
He will not however reap the benefit of the 2nd pick in the draft which will go to the Rams as part of the RGIII trade.

Black Monday
Four other coaches were fired in the NFL's annual season-ending purge.
Leslie Frazier is a horrible coach but I don't think his team, with those lousy quarterbacks, would have done any better with Vince Lombardi.
Greg Schiano is a college coach whose micro-managing control everything nature was never going to work in the NFL. Jim Schwartz is another moron, but he may have been done in by talented players who just didn't play smart at the key times. Maybe the next coach can reach these guys.
If any fired coach deserved to keep his job it was probably Rob Chudzinski who wasn't given enough time (about 355 days) to build something in Cleveland.
I have no problem with Rex Ryan and Mike Smith keeping their jobs based on past success, but what has Jason Garrett ever done?

Picture of the Week
San Francisco 49ers linebakcer Dan Skuta rips off Andre Ellington's shoe and sock while trying to make a tackle.

If the Super Bowl Were Played Today
Denver Broncos 34 Seattle Seahawks 21
After everything has shaken out during the regular season these two teams are clearly the best.