With week sixteen of the NFL season in the books; the playoff picture is basically set. Meanwhile, the NFL has cancelled the final Sunday night game of the season because it falls on New Year's Eve a night when historically few Americans watch television. The games all had a likelihood of being dull or having no playoff implications anyway. As a result, the NFL moved the Bengals-Ravens game and several others from 1 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. to lessen the possibility of matchups becoming meaningless as the day wears on, a fact John Harbaugh did not appreciate, even if he understands the reasoning. “I don’t think the NFL did us any favors by moving it back, but they don’t care about us,” the coach said, referring to the notion that ticket-holders who had New Year’s Eve plans now must choose between football and dinner reservations.
The last time the NFL held a Sunday night football game on New Year's Eve was in 2006, when the Chicago Bears hosted the Green Bay Packers. It was quarterback Brett Favre's last game with the Packers (and widely expected to be his last game ever). Still, only 13.4 million people watched that game, about a quarter fewer than the average Sunday Night Football game that season.
Here are the week’s results:
Saturday Games:
Indianapolis Colts 16 @ Baltimore Ravens 23
Minnesota Vikings 16 @ Green Bay Packers 0
Sunday Games:
Los Angeles Rams 27 @ Tennessee Titans 23
Buffalo Bills 16 @ New England Patriots 37
Cleveland Browns 3 @ Chicago Bears 20
Atlanta Falcons 13 @ New Orleans Saints 23
Detroit Lions 17 @ Cincinnati Bengals 26
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 19 @ Carolina Panthers 22
Miami Dolphins 13 @ Kansas City Chiefs 29
Denver Broncos 11 @ Washington Redskins 27
Los Angeles Chargers 14 @ New York Jets 7
Jacksonville Jaguars 33 @ San Francisco 49ers 44
Seattle Seahawks 21 @ Dallas Cowboys 12
New York Giants 0 @ Arizona Cardinals 23
Monday Games:
Pittsburg Steelers 34 @ Houston Texans 6
Oakland Raiders 10 @ Philadelphia Eagles 19
