Clinching The North

If you had the Cincinnati Bengals winning the AFC North division this year, even if you are a Bengals fan, you’re lying. I had them finishing dead last in the division this year. Granted I expected them to be improved should they protect their quarterback Joe Burrow. Turns out they were good enough to win the division and in convincing fashion beating the Kansas City Chiefs who were atop the AFC heading down the stretch toward the playoffs. The Bengals were down 28-17 at halftime, but had a resurgence in the second half as the offense clicked and the defense held firm against the Chiefs vaunted offense. Cincinnati will now host a Wild Card game and has an outside chance of clinching the number one seed, but that’s highly unlikely. I’m going to withhold from calling them the ‘Bungals’ until further notice.

An Unexpected Number One Seed

Thanks to the Kansas City Chiefs losing in Cincinnati, Tennessee took possession of the number one seed with their blowout win against the Miami Dolphins. It’s unexpected in the sense that their running back Derrick Henry has been absent for about half the season. He will be returning when the playoffs start, but I didn’t think they would be in this position with him returning. They would be a playoff team barring a catastrophic collapse, but playing in a terrible division has its advantages. This could be a different year for this franchise as last year the defense was woefully underwhelming and the offense fell flat at the wrong time. The offense is getting a needed pick me up with the return of their best receiver in A.J. Brown and now with Henry coming back watch out. The Titans will not be an easy team to beat if they clinch that number one seed.

Winner Take All Scenario

The Las Vegas Raiders and the Los Angeles Chargers are heading towards a winner take all scenario to finish the regular season in Week 18. With the Raiders victory in Indianapolis and the Chargers taking care of business at home against Denver, this is what football fans want to see. What we also want to see and expect is one of these teams to have an epic collapse during this game. Vegas has had some bad losses this year and the Chargers certainly have had their fair share. Two division rivals duking it out for the final playoff spot. When the NFL made the scheduling change a decade ago to make division rivals play each other during the final week, this right here is why I was singing their praises for it. Get ready for some entertaining football.