1 week to go

Week 16 is almost over and there is one week left to go; there's one game left, but the playoff fate for tonight’s two teams has already been determined.

The playoff picture is about the same as I described last week in the NFL Rant blog, but the Jaguars, Steelers, and Giants Fates have been sealed; they are in to the playoffs (or wild-card). The Panthers have no shot as I expected. Things have gotten a little complicated with the Cleveland Browns unexpectedly losing to the Bengals in a rivalry game. They lost, now they need the Titans to lose next week... the Titans are in control; if they lose, they are NOT in the playoffs, and if they win they ARE... that simple. The Browns however, can win or lose, and they have no control over their own destiny, they've royally screwed themselves against a struggling Cincinnati team, but that's the excitement of the playoff picture.

In the NFC, The Redskins now control their destiny as well... Minnesota lost control last night when they were annihilated by the Redskins in what looked pretty pitiful as they couldn't get anything going on the ground or in the air. It looks as though their one sided offense can be stopped pretty easily. The Vikings now have to win with the Redskins loss. The Saints can still get in with a win, and a Vikings and Redskins loss. Things are looking a little bleak, but with the Vikings past performance and their single threat offense, I don't know how great their chances are; luckily, for them they are playing Denver.

Luckily for the Browns and Minnesota, they both have two abysmal teams to defeat... the Browns are playing the 49ers (although showing hope with a 2 game winning streak behind QB Shaun Hill and 3 out of their last 5) and the Broncos are playing against the Vikes, so these should be wins or they don’t really deserve to be in the playoffs anyway. And as long as the Vikes win they don't have to worry about the Saints, and the Redskins are playing the tough Dallas Cowboys who seem to be falling out of their groove in the past few weeks. Even though home field advantage has been locked up for the boys in Dallas, they may play tough against the Redskins to get back into the flow of things before the playoffs since they have a bye that first week. If by chance all the blocks fall into place and the Vikings and Redskins both Lose, the Saints would still have to win against Chicago.

However, for the Browns (win or lose) they have to hope the Titans lose. Luckily for the Browns, the Titans are playing the Indianapolis Colts, but we'll have to see how much of an effort the Colts will actually put in against this team with the bye already locked up for the first week of playoffs. It’s hard to say how hard the Colts will play, but I’m hoping that they understand the importance of playing tough.

Well, good luck to all your favorite teams as mine is out… part of me wants the Browns to make it, and the other part of me wants my 49ers to crush them even though it does no good for my team, but it does stick one to Patriots (who have their first round draft pick due to a trade).

Back to watching the Record Books... Randy Moss and Tom Brady both need two touchdowns a piece to break the single-season records for most TD's in a season. Moss is at 21 Reception TD's and needs 1 to tie Jerry Rice and two to hold the record. Brady is at 48 TD's tying Dan Marino, but needs 1 more to tie Peyton Manning and two to take the Record.