{"id":93876,"date":"2025-12-23T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T16:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=93876"},"modified":"2025-12-25T13:56:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T20:56:55","slug":"nfl-notes-numbers-week-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=93876","title":{"rendered":"NFL Notes & Numbers: Week 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Tim Byrnes<\/p>\n

Going into Thursday night with identical records, control of the Division, and the Conference Bye in the playoffs was on the line for the Rams and Seahawks. The winner would lead the NFC, while the loser dropped as far as the 6th-seed. Week 16 began in Seattle:<\/p>\n

Thursday Night:<\/strong>
\nLos Angeles Rams (11-3) @ Seattle (11-3): Seattle 38-37 OT<\/p>\n

For three quarters, the Rams cruised through the Seahawks defense with one extended drive after another building a 30-14 lead.<\/p>\n

Rashid Shaheed returned a punt 58-yards for a touchdown, and with the first of three 2-point conversions, Seattle was within eight points. Bad play on kicks was the likely reason Rams Special Teams Coordinator Chase Blackburn has since been fired.<\/p>\n

Sam Darnold (270 yards, 2 TD \/ 2 Int) hit AJ Barner for a 26-yard score and at first, the 2-point attempt was called incomplete, then a controversial backward pass that was picked up by Zach Charbonnet and called the tying score.<\/p>\n

Matthew Stafford (457 yds-3 TD), who had a monster game, did his part in overtime by marching the Rams 80 yards and hitting Puka Nacua (12-225-2 TD) for a 41-yard score.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t enough as Darnold responded by going 6-of-7 for 49 yards on the final drive, throwing a 4-yard touchdown to Jaxson Smith-Njigba (8-96-2 TD), and the game-winning 2-point conversion to a wide-open Eric Saubert.<\/p>\n

Saturday:<\/strong>
\nGreen Bay (9-4-1) @ Chicago (10-4): Chicago 22-16 OT
\nDown 16-6 with under two minutes remaining, Chicago’s Caleb Williams (250 yards passing-2 TD \/ 30 rushing) took over the game, going 8-for-12 for 75 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for 21 more, tying the game with :24 remaining.<\/p>\n

Green Bay fumbled their overtime-possession, leaving Williams to play hero, and he didn\u2019t disappoint., throwing a 46-yard game-winning strike to DJ Moore.<\/p>\n

Packers quarterback Jordan Love was replaced by Malik Willis (121 yards passing-TD \/ 44 rushing) after a vicious helmet-to-helmet sack from the Bears Austin Booker for which he was penalized.
\nRomeo Doubs led the Packers with 84 yards and a touchdown and Emanuel Wilson ran an additional 82 yards in the loss.<\/p>\n

Sunday:<\/strong>
\nDenver (12-2) @ Jacksonville (10-4): Jax 34-20
\nThe Trevor Lawrence the NFL has been waiting for, has finally arrived. Lawrence (279 yards-3 TDs\/ 20 rushing-TD) accounted for four touchdowns, scorching the Top-5 defense of the Broncos. Wide receiver Parker Washington had the game of his career, as well, with six catches for 145 yards and a score.
\nDenver’s Bo Nix (352 yards-TD) was able to move the team, but it was his key fumble, and later a fourth-quarter interception that sealed it for the Jaguars. At 11-4, Jacksonville has beaten over half the teams currently fighting for the playoffs and can no longer be taken lightly.<\/p>\n

Other Games:<\/strong>
\nPhi 29 – Was 18 (Sa)
\nNO 29 – NYJ 6
\nBuf 23 – Cle 20
\nTen 26 – KC 9
\nLAC 34 – Dal 17
\nMin 16 – NYG 13
\nCar 23 – TB 20
\nCin 45 – Mia 21
\nAtl 26 – Ari 19
\nHou 23 – LV 21
\nPit 29 – Det 24
\nNE 28 – Bal 24<\/p>\n

Monday Night:<\/strong>
\nSan Francisco (10-4) @ Indianapolis (8-6): SF 48-27
\nThe NFC Champion will likely come from the NFC-st and the 49ers are saying \u201cDon\u2019t count us out!\u201d Who doesn\u2019t love watching Christian McCaffrey play? He rushed for 117 yards, caught six passes for 29 more, and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n

It’s been said Kyle Shanahan\u2019s eyeing Mac Jones, but Brock Purdy (295 yards-5 TDs\/1 Int) put that to rest with a dominating performance. Primary target George Kittle (7-115-TD) had his first 100-yard game of the season in a year that has been disappointing.<\/p>\n

Playing their fourth playoff-bound team, and all losses, was a dagger in the in the playoff hopes for Indianapolis. Philip Rivers threw for 277 yards and 2 touchdowns but his interception that turned into a pick six late in the game iced it for the 49ers. Philips seemed to tire in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Byrnes Picks:<\/strong>
\nWeek 16 Results:
\n(10-6) (152-87-1)<\/p>\n

Week 17 Picks:<\/strong>
\nDallas over Washington
\nDetroit over Minnesota
\nDenver over Kansas City
\nHouston over LA Chargers
\nGreen Bay over Baltimore
\nPittsburgh over Cleveland
\nNew England over NY Jets
\nNew Orleans over Tennessee
\nJacksonville over Indianapolis
\nTampa Bay over Miami
\nSeattle over Carolina
\nCincinnati over Arizona
\nNY Giants over Las Vegas
\nBuffalo over Philadelphia
\nChicago over San Francisco
\nLA Rams over Atlanta<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Byrnes Going into Thursday night with identical records, control of the Division, and the Conference Bye in the playoffs was on the line for the Rams and Seahawks. The winner would lead the NFC, while the loser dropped as far as the 6th-seed. Week 16 began in Seattle:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-news-notes-around-professional-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93883,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93876\/revisions\/93883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}