Twitter was rooting for Las Vegas to end its 2021 regular season on Sunday with a quarterback kneel and tie, but the Raiders had a business decision to make: Tie, and open the playoffs against the No. 2 seed Kansas City Chiefs, who’ve outscored them 89-23 this season? Or win and face the No. 4 […]
Advanced football analysis indicates that it’s difficult to make the playoffs while allowing more points than you score. Prior to this year, 564 teams had made the playoffs since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, and just 46 (8.2 percent) did it with a negative point differential. Of those, just 10 allowed regular-season opponents to outscore […]
After an exhilarating week of games closed out the NFL’s extra-long 2021 regular season, the playoff bracket could deliver another helping of chaos. Most (though not all) of the teams left standing have a decent shot at the Super Bowl, and everyone but the respective No. 1 seeds in each conference will be in action […]
sara.ziegler (Sara Ziegler, sports editor): The NFL’s 2021 season brought us pure, beautiful chaos from start to finish, and we concluded Sunday night with more of the same. We were on the cusp of the most amazing result in NFL history, in the win-and-you’re-in, tie-and-you’re-also-in matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders. […]
sara.ziegler (Sara Ziegler, sports editor): It’s so strange that 17 weeks of play are in the books and we’re not yet done with the regular season, but the NFL clearly has a lot more to give us this year. Week 17 saw entertaining playoff runs for Miami and Atlanta come to an end, Ben Roethlisberger […]