December 23, 2025
Week 16 of the NFL season is in the books. There were crazy games that could decide the winners of the NFC North and NFC West, and in turn, the top two seeds in the NFC playoffs. Meanwhile, we saw the first repeat NFC East champs clinch the division for the first time in over 20 years, and a first-place flip in the NFC South.
There are no new obituaries this week.
9) Buccaneers (7-8): The Bucs have lost three straight, one at a time to each of their three divisional rivals. At yet, at 7-8, with six losses in their last seven games, they still "control their own destiny" for another NFC South title if they can find a way to win their final two games. That's kind of pathetic.
Last week: 9
8) Panthers (8-7): I've probably said like five times already this season that "The Panthers' win over (fill in whoever they just beat) was probably their biggest win in 8 years."
The 2025 season is the first time they have won at least 8 games since 2017. Their last 8 seasons (2025 included):
• 2018: 7-9
• 2019: 5-11
• 2020: 5-11
• 2021: 5-12
• 2022: 7-10
• 2023: 2-15
• 2024: 5-12
• 2025: 8-7
Those above records are pretty bad, right? Well...
Panthers since 2018: 44-87 (0.336)
Giants since 2018: 39-91-1 (0.302)
Last week: 8
7) Lions (8-7): Lions fans are upset that their team lost as a result of a pair of offensive pass interference penalties that wiped out touchdowns. On the first one, Isaac TeSlaa was called for an illegal pick:
Uhhh, that's OPI all day.
The second one was this blatant pushoff by Amon-Ra St. Brown:
Generally speaking, NFL officiating isn't great, but there's nothing to complain about here. You can't just run up to a DB, flat out shove him, and then come back to the football.
Last week: 7
6) Packers (9-5-1): After losing their last two games in heartbreaking fashion, the Packers are now just 14 percent likely to win the NFC North, per Inpredictable. And if indeed they don't win the division and get into the playoffs as a wildcard, they'll either be the 6 seed or the 7 seed (likely the 7 seed), meaning that they'll have to win three road games to get to the Super Bowl.
That's going to be tough, considering that three of their final four games during the regular season were on the road:
• Week 15: At Broncos (L)
• Week 16: At Bears (L)
• Week 17: Ravens
• Week 18: At Vikings
So, you know, six out of seven weeks on the road to the Super Bowl. Not happening.
Last week: 6
5) Eagles (10-5): The Eagles' defense has been on fire of late, the offense has been better, and they'll be getting Lane Johnson and Jalen Carter back from injuries. Nobody is talking about the Eagles as Super Bowl favorites anymore, and for good reason since their offense went into hibernation for a month-plus, but they can beat anyone.
Last week: 5
4) 49ers (10-4): I was kind of in awe when they said during the Monday Night Football telecast that the 49ers haven't punted yet in December. That is absolutely nuts. The Eagles punted twice while I typed this sentence.
Last week: 4
3) Bears (11-4): If Romeo Doubs cleanly fields a Bears onsides kick, we're talking about the Bears possibly not even getting into the playoffs. But... he didn't, and Bears magic ensued.
2) Rams (11-4): The Rams and Seahawks played the best game of the 2025 season on Thursday night, with the Rams blowing a 30-14 lead. The Rams ran 25 more plays, they outgained the Seahawks by 166 yards, they held the ball longer than Seattle by more than 14 minutes of game time, and on the eye test Matthew Stafford looked the part of a quarterback ready to win another Super Bowl, while Sam Darnold... didn't.
And yet, the Rams walk away with a loss, mainly because of an issue that has plagued them this season, their special teams.
There were so many huge plays in that game, but in my opinion, that one 👆 was by far the biggest. It didn't help that K Harrison Mevis missed a 48-yard FG that would have given the Rams a lead with about 2 minutes to go.
If you'll recall, the Rams lost a game to the Eagles earlier this season on a blocked field goal that was returned for a TD.
Because of their crappy special teams, the Rams are now a lot more likely to be a wildcard team than the 1 seed. That means (again, as noted above) they'll very likely have to win three road games to get to the Super Bowl instead of two home games (against the lowest remaining seeds). Pretty big difference.
Also, man, we need to talk about Kirk Herbstreit. I'm sure he's a great guy, but this dude kills me with something objectively wrong or annoying every single week. In Thursday night's game, it was the numerous references to Sean McVay being "an aggressive coach" on fourth downs. He's been better this year, mainly because his kickers have sucked, but he has infamously been an incredibly cowardly coach on fourth downs throughout his career.
On Thursday night, he kicked a field goal on 4th and Goal from the 5, and 4th and 2 from the Seattle 5. And those were on the Rams' first two drives of the game!
(McVay's cowardice was another reason they lost this game, too.)
One last thing: It's a rare feat to catch 12 passes for 225 yards and 2 TDs and still manage to look like a loser, but Puka Nacua pulled it off. He complained about officiating earlier in the week, and then again after the game.
Puka Nacua just tweeted this immediately after the game: pic.twitter.com/RvfQgvla5E
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 19, 2025
I don't even know what he could be referring to. That game seemed well officiated.
Last week: 1
1) Seahawks (12-3): Sam Darnold threw two really bad INTs in the Seahawks' win over the Rams. On the first one, he didn't see Josh Wallace in the slot, and Wallace returned it for a near pick-six. I don't love the tackle effort by Darnold on the return here either:
On his second INT, he didn't see Kobie Turner dropping into coverage on zone blitz:
He also threw a lateral off of a defender's head, but the ball bounced into the end zone, where Zach Charbonnet casually picked it just to be a nice guy and hand it to the ref, and it wound up being a successful two-point conversion, lol.
He was also sacked four times, at least a couple of which he had plenty of time to get rid of the ball.
One such occasion was when the Seahawks got the ball back with about two minutes to go after Harrison Mevis' missed field goal. The Seahawks had a chance to execute a 25-yard drive to get comfortably into Jason Myers' field goal range, but he took a bad sack on 2nd and 8 and that was basically the end of the threat.
Make no mistake, Darnold did not look good for four quarters during this game.
BUT THEN... in overtime... He was 5 of 6 for 49 yards, a TD, and then a pass for a 2-point conversion for the win. And that's all most people will remember.
Credit Darnold for continuing to battle and coming up big in the game's biggest moment. But also... 😬.
Last week: 2
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