The verdicts of the two games that opened the 18th and final day of the regular season. Chiefs quarterback with all-time rushing record
Jacksonville in the playoffs as Division winners, Kansas City first seed in the AFC, exempt from the first round. These are the verdicts of the two games that opened the 18th and last day of the NFL regular season. All the other verdicts will arrive on American Sunday.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS-TENNESSEE TITANS 20-16
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It was a playoff play-off: it was won by the team in better shape, Jacksonville, with their fifth straight victory, thus winning the Division, the AFC South, and conquering the number 4 seed in the Conference. He will play the first round at home. Tennessee loses for the seventh time in a row, a vertical meltdown. He finds himself playing the season with Joshua Dobbs, a quarterback in his sixth NFL season who has never won a game yet, only in his second starting position and who doesn’t even seem like one of the trade in the second half. He gets an interception and commits a fumble brought back in the end zone by Josh Allen, who with 3′ left to play perfects the definitive overtaking of the home team. The Titans (7-10 record) had set up the game they wanted, always ahead in scoring, dominating the time of possession, over 36′, running for 109 yards with Derrick Henry, but in the NFL you can’t win without an at least presentable quarterback . And after the injury to starter Ryan Tannehill, they discovered that 2022 draft pick Malik Willis wasn’t ready to play at this level, if he ever will be, and they fell back on someone who had been on the team for just 17 days. A design debacle, even before the field. The Jags (9-8 record) were able to straighten a season that started 3-7, thanks to the bad Division. Trevor Lawrence, the cover quarterback, disappoints – a touchdown, but a lost fumble and too many accuracy errors -, but the defense puts us in the patch. The Jags in the playoffs will host Los Angeles Chargers or Baltimore: it will depend on Sunday’s results.
LAS VEGAS RAIDERS-KANSAS CITY CHIEFS 13-31
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The Chiefs (14-3) clear Las Vegas and conquer the first seed in the AFC and therefore the bye to the first round of the playoffs which they will be able to enjoy on television, resting. This by virtue of the controversial decision of the NFL to cancel the Buffalo-Cincinnati game, unable to recover it after the obvious suspension for the dramatic cardiac arrest of Damar Hamlin. However, the Chiefs will not necessarily boast home court advantage throughout the playoffs, up until the eventual Super Bowl. In fact, in the event of the Chiefs-Bills conference final, which by winning the last two games could have overcome Kansas City, it will be played on neutral ground, still to be determined. The league has messed things up, with the Cincinnati Bengals explicitly furious and the Bills having every right to be furious as well.
THE MATCH
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A guest monologue. Patrick Mahomes further strengthens the candidacy as probable MVP, closing the regular season with the primacy of overall yards for a quarterback, first for yards and touchdowns thrown. He adds another 202, plus another try, for Jerrick McKinnon. Three come on the races: by Ronald Jones, Kadarius Toney and Isiah Pacheco. The defense, which complains about Frank Clark’s injury, to be evaluated, plays the part of him by reducing Jarrett Stidham, who made a great impression on his debut as starter, in the fourth year in the NFL, against San Francisco. With the Chiefs instead it goes badly, throwing an interception and suffering 6 sacks, despite the exploits of Hunter Renfrow, who receives the only goal of the Raiders, and Davante Adams. At halftime, on the 24-3 outside, the game was basically already decided. Las Vegas ends a disappointing 6-11 season as a record. He will have to decide which quarterback to start with, it will not be Derek Carr, and whether to renew Josh Jacobs, the best running back for ground yards, and Darren Waller, the talented but fragile tight end.
January 8 – 10:06
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