I don’t know if it’s the 17-game season, but wasn’t this past Sunday rather underwhelming?
Instead of seeing teams fight for seeding, we were treated to “Understudy Day” around the NFL, with Philadelphia electing to play its backups against Washington despite a No. 2 seed out there for the taking (and a matchup against a Green Bay team that hadn’t won since Dec. 7).
And the Commanders, instead of securing a top-five pick in the upcoming draft, elected to rally in the fourth quarter to lose two spots.
First down: Washington’s 24-17 win saw journeyman quarterback Josh Johnson run and throw for second-half touchdowns to drop the Eagles into a wild-card weekend matchup with a San Francisco team that was playing for home-field advantage in Week 18. The win also drops Washington two spots in the draft order, from fifth to seventh, in the first round this April.
Players such as star tackle Penei Sewell and reigning MVP Josh Allen have been taken at that spot recently, but the seventh pick has also produced the likes of wide receiver Kevin White (28 catches in 30 career games played due to various injuries). They have five other picks, but just one other pick inside the top 140, in April’s draft.
And while the Josh Johnson story was nice, why not give practice squad quarterback Sam Hartman a possession or two on a day where many teams were playing the back end of their rosters? That might be a bigger statement about Hartman than Johnson.
Second down: Did anyone want to win the NFC South? The Carolina Panthers (8-9) take the division despite losing their last two games of the season, while Tampa Bay had to watch Atlanta bounce the Buccaneers with the Falcons’ 19-17 win over New Orleans. But that division’s 30-38 combined record was still better than the NFC East’s 27-40-1.
The best quartet? The NFC West posted a 41-27 composite mark. The game of the week saw Pittsburgh end Baltimore’s season with a 26-24 victory as the Ravens missed a game-winning 44-yard field goal as time expired, setting up a Monday night game with Houston that will be the Texans’ first-ever wild-card game outside the Saturday 4:30 p.m. window.
Third down: Washington moved the chains on 6-11 attempts, with Johnson completing 3-7 passes with three conversions. He also scrambled twice on the game-winning drive, once for a first down and once for a touchdown.
His top target? Treylon Burks saw four passes (one incompletion was wiped out because of defensive pass interference), making one catch for a conversion. Chris Rodriguez moved the marker on one of his two third-down carries.
Yardage breakdown: 3-4 on short-yardage, 1-2 when needing four to six yards, 2-5 on third and long.
Flag on the play: Four penalties accepted on six whistles (a defensive hold and facemask were upset by an Eagles infraction. The three offensive penalties were all false starts, and the team’s 33 on the season was the most in the NFL.
Ben Sinnott had a pair to be the lone multiple infraction culprit of the week, but Josh Conerly’s nine penalties remain the most for anyone on the team. The most costly penalty was the lone accepted defensive infraction: Drake Jackson’s offside turned a third-and-5 at the Washington 49 into a second-and-1 from the 45, and Philly would drive to the Washington six.
Fourth down: We were treated to CBS’ No. 3 play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan with Ross Tucker, instead of Harlan’s usual partner Trent Green. It was both announcers’ first broadcast of the Burgundy and Gold this year. With the network’s flipping conference games, many of the announcers were getting their first looks at the teams they were covering in Week 18.
Washington had 11 different teams calling their games this fall (Ian Eagle announced one on CBS with J.J. Watt and another on Netflix with Matt Ryan and Nate Burleson), with Kevin Burkhardt/Tom Brady and Kenny Albert/Jonathan Vilma each announcing three. Depending on how things fare this offseason, one can expect to see more of the likes of Kevin Kugler/Daryl Johnston and Spero Dedes/Adam Archuleta next fall.
After the possession: NFL rankings at the end of the regular season.
- Scoring offense: 22nd
- Scoring defense: 27th
- Total offense: 22nd
- Total defense: 32nd
- Rushing offense: 4th
- Rushing defense: 30th
- Passing offense: 24th
- Passing defense: 28th
- Offensive passing efficiency: 27th
- Defensive passing efficiency: 29th
- Sacks allowed: 15th
- Sacks made: T12th
- Third down efficiency: 21st
- Third down defense: 23rd
- Turnover margin: 31st
