Week 17 had everything. Records being broken, viral moments and Tom Brady leading a game-winning 93 yard drive in less than two minutes. Oh yeah, other stuff happened in the 15 other games the NFL treated us to on Sunday as well.
With just one week left in the regular season, the playoff field has taken shape with just three spots left for the taken and only a handful of teams still eligible to qualify. Here's a look at some of the most notable performances of Week 17:
Overachieving Team of the Week: Los Angeles Rams
2021 was supposed to be the year of Matthew Stafford. After a dozen years of hell in Detroit, Stafford was finally free and for eight weeks, he looked like an MVP candidate as the Rams raced out to a 7-1 start.
But since November, Stafford and the Rams offense has struggled, posting 20 or fewer points four times and turning the ball over multiple times in five games.
Against the Ravens on Sunday, Los Angeles managed to score just once on their first eight possessions before a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns gave them a one-point lead over a Tyler Huntley-led offense. And while Odell Beckham Jr. is seemingly enjoying a revival, scoring touchdowns in five of his last six games, his yards per route run rank 44th among NFL receivers.
Struggling late in seasons is nothing new for the Sean McVay Rams, since their three-point outburst in Super Bowl 53, the Rams are 11-8 in post-Thanksgiving games, compared to 17-7 in the first eight weeks of the season.
Now, an optimist can certainly look at the Rams' five-game winning streak and point out they're still racking up wins despite not playing at their peak. And the 35 players who have cycled through the reserve/COVID-19 list has certainly made things difficult.
The defense has played well since allowing 36 points in their last loss, but the negative EPA posted by the offense now in back-to-back weeks is something to be concerned about for a coach and a quarterback who don’t have reputations for success late in the season. Make no mistake, the Rams will go as far as Stafford takes them and right now, he doesn't look like a quarterback capable of a push into late January.
Underachieving Team of the Week: New York Giants
Even by Giants standards, Sunday's performance was a let-down. Certainly hopes weren't high, hell, only one wide receiver was healthy, (Kenny Golladay: one target, zero catches), but if you're shopping at a used car lot, you don't expect to stumble upon a Jaguar.
But things didn't just go poorly for the Giants on Sunday, oh no, things went from bad to historically bad as Joe Judge's team threw the ball just 11 times with Mike Glennon and finished the game with -10 net passing yards.
Statistically, it was the worst passing performance the NFL has seen since Ryan Leaf went 1-15 against the Chiefs in 1998, San Diego had -19 passing yards, but did at least score a garbage time touchdown on a 72-yard run from Natrone Means.
Things didn't get better after the game either, with Joe Judge proclaiming he has former players calling him and begging to come back to the Giants in an effort to prove what he's done with this once-proud franchise is working.
The Giants are rumored to be keeping Judge around for next year, but it's hard to imagine things getting much worse than what we saw on Sunday.
Overachieving Player of the Week: Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase
Ja'Marr Chase seemed to hit the proverbial “rookie wall” after his last 200-yard performance. Following that eight-catch, 201-yard outburst, Chase averaged just 40 yards per game and 5.6 yards per target in his next seven appearances.
The Bengals went 3-4 in those games and their early-season success seemed to be fading. That is, of course, until Ja'Marr Chase started to do Ja'Marr Chase things again. He broke out of his slump last week with 125 yards and became the first rookie receiver in NFL history to have two 200+ yard games with 266 yards and three touchdowns on 11 catches against the Chiefs.
In one afternoon, Chase tore up the record books and rewrote it, breaking the single-game mark for most receiving yards as a rookie, the single-game mark for most receiving yards by a Bengal and the rookie record for receiving yards as well.
The Bengals locked up the AFC North behind Chase and Joe Burrow for the first time since 2015 and will attempt to win the franchise's first playoff game since 1990, over a decade before Chase was even born.
Underachieving Player of the Week: Colts QB Carson Wentz
For the first time this season, the Colts failed to win a game in which Jonathan Taylor rushed for 100 yards. Taylor did find the end zone late in the second quarter, but the Colts offense grinded to a halt in the fourth quarter, averaging just 3.5 yards per play despite tying the game on a 41-yard field goal.
This leads us to Carson Wentz, who didn't complete a pass until nearly 20 minutes into the game when the Colts were already trailing by two possessions. Wentz recovered to throw for 148 yards on 27 attempts and didn't turn the ball over.
Taylor was efficient on Sunday, averaging over five yards per carry, but he hand three carries over 10 yards and the Colts struggled on third down, going 3-11 and picking up just six first downs through the air. The Colts have now rushed for under 125 yards in back-to-back games for the first time since their 0-3 start.
With only Jacksonville standing in the way of Indy qualifying for the postseason, the Colts are a near-lock to be playing on Wild Card weekend, but the Colts will have to keep the ball out of Wentz's hands if they want to win. Unfortunately, if Taylor can't break off 70-yard runs, it could make things easy for competent offenses.
Consider this: Wentz and the Colts are just 3-6 when he has thrown 30 passes this season with those wins coming over the Jets, Jaguars, and Dolphins. He is at his best when he is asked to do the least and unfortunately with teams figuring out how to at least contain Taylor, Wentz might not be enough for the Colts to be true contenders.
Bad Beat: Antonio Brown longest reception over 21.5 yards
Antonio Brown will be the main talking point on Monday morning and throughout the rest of the week after his bizarre, and frankly scary, exit from the Buccaneers win over the Jets on Sunday. But from a betting perspective, Brown was expected to be a huge part of the Buccaneers offense, with his receiving yards prop sitting north of 70 in most books.
The former Steeler (and Raider and Patriot and Buccaneer) earned just five targets before his theatrics, giving him little-to-no shot of hitting that lofty number. However, he did have a chance to at least hit his longest reception prop which was 21.5 yards, Brown had at least one catch of 22 yards in six of his last regular season games, dating back to 2020.
However, his 21-yard catch in the second quarter represented his longest play of the day. Falling just a yard short and earning just five more yards on his other four targets.