NFL 2024 Season - Week 17
Picksfootball
 

Headline Play

Articles published multiple times per week, offering insights and picks on upcoming games.
 
SEASON:

Article Archive

Week 17
Pleading for the Fifth
Need over Nothing
Christmas Grinch
Week 16
Numbers, Numbers, Numbers
Vintage 2018
Penix Debut
Dog Day
Playoff Position
Rest of the Story
Different Sundays
Run Some Tests
Without and With
Week 15
Two Tonight
Playoff Chances
Wild Card Challenge
Best of the Best
Next
Dire Straits
And It's Good
Bloated Lines
Week 14
Running up the Score
Challenge Me
Finding Reasons to Win
Crab Feed
Week Off
Good Enough
Buyers Regret
Pulled the Rug
Week 13
Mile High Hopes
Top and Bottom
Fourth Time the Charm
Bounce Back
Engage Spark
Line Up
Out in the Cold
Thanksgiving Visitors
Good Enough
Motivation on Steroids
Week 12
Second Best
Heavyweight Bout
QB's Ins and Outs
Everybody In
Too Easy
Walk the Plank
Hot to Trot
Try, Try, Try, Try, Try Again
Week 11
Mouse Trap
Must Game
Malfunction
Easy Does It
Old Foes
Falcons Fly into Mile High
Matter of Time
Improv
To the Brink
Week 10
Odd Man Out
Lions come Calling
Rookie versus Veteran
Call to Action
Full Reverse
When 8-0 is 4-4
Game of Contradictions
NFC West Bunch
Early Boarding
Week 9
Not Enough, Too Much
Real or Imposters
Groin Shot
Best Show
Saddle Up
Dull Edges
Telling Actions
Annihilation Formula
Week 8
No and No
Old Glory
Rookie Face Off
Adding it Up
Holding On
Jets Down
Unload and Reload
No Surprise
Career Paths
It Hurts
Week 7
Harbaugh Monday
Kids Camp
Barkley Back
Bird Battle
Mouse Time
Too Many?
Gone Shopping
Not Bad
40 for 3
Week 6
Try New
Night Vision
Trap Door
Looking Up
Wake Up Call
All Good Things
Bad Idea
Unexpected
Fire One
Week 5
Yes & Yes
Old Rivals
Rookie Sensation
So Close
Lunch in Seattle
Wake the Roosters
No Respect
Too Sweet
Turtle Flip
Week 4
Landmine
Bottoms Up
Winners and Losers
Call Me
Short Line
Reality Bites
Like Tonight
Uptick
Challenge Generates Performance
Week 3
Two Times
Reduced Value
Stars Down
The Other 21
Opportunity Knocks
Lots of Questions
Move Along People
Times Up
Week 2
Confidence Game
First and Second Picked QB's
Avoiding the Donut
Do or Die
One for the Road
Likewise
Adjustment Bureau
Down ... Not Out
Week 1
Time Marches On
Cashing the Trade
Start Here
Say What
Quick Up, Quick Down
Brazil Play Date
Top Two Open
Super Bowl Pick
Season Win Totals
Moving on Up
Breakout to Breakdown
Preseason 4
Preseason Wrap
Rookie Playoff Run
Preseason 3
Short Memory
Two In, One Up
Eagles Hunt
Winning Formula
Preseason 2
Quarterback Shuffle
One Two, or Two One
Starters Sit
Remote Control
Money be Damned
Preseason 1
One Season to the Next
Public Shift
Comets in the Night
Offseason
Mahomes Chasing History
All's Well that Ends Well
Ups and Downs
     
 
Frozen Tundra
by Dennis Ranahan

You think the weather was bad in Kansas City last night when the Chiefs hosted the Miami Dolphins? The weather in Buffalo today is worse, bad enough to prompt the National Football League powers to shift the scheduled playoff game between the Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers from this morning to tomorrow afternoon.

Two Wild Card games will be played today, while the Steelers and Bills will join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Philadelphia Eagles in Monday contests. The first game on today’s revised schedule will begin at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time when the Dallas Cowboys host the Green Bay Packers. The late game today will pit the Los Angeles Rams in Detroit against the Lions.

The Rams and Lions matchup has high drama in that Detroit is hosting their first playoff game in 30 years and looking for their first postseason win since the 1991 NFL season. And, the Lions get this rare shot at a postseason win for their home fans against the quarterback they traded to the Rams two years ago in the blockbuster exchange that brought Jared Goff and a number of high draft choices to the Lions.

Detroit has spent those draft picks well, everyone of them is currently on the Lions roster and making a major contribution to Dan Campbell’s success as a head coach in Detroit. Pause on that for a moment; because success and head coach in Detroit is akin to oil and water. They just haven’t gone together for a long, long, long, long time.

Since Joe Schmidt enjoyed moderate success from 1967 to 1972, compiling a winning mark of 43-35-7, sixteen sideline mentors have rolled through the Motor City and 14 of them left town with a losing record. And one of the winning records was a 4-3 mark gained by Interim Head Coach Gary Moeller who took over after Bobby Ross was fired mid-season. The only other coach to compile a winning record on the Lions sideline was Jim Caldwell, who in a four year stint that began in 2014 was released with a record of 36-30.

Even Dan Campbell, who has guided the Lions for three seasons, still hasn’t advanced his record in Detroit to positive numbers. Since 2021, Campbell has a won/loss mark of 24-26-1 including this season’s playoff earning record of 12-5.

So, Goff gets to battle the man he was traded for when the Rams determined they needed a more consistent signal caller serving as their field general. The trade worked for Los Angeles, they won Super Bowl LVI over the Cincinnati Bengals in Stafford’s first year with the team.

The trade has also paid off for the Lions who have added a number of top notch players through the draft picks gained in the trade, and just importantly the development of Goff into a much more competent quarterback than he was in Los Angeles. Now, if this trade really pays off for the Lions, it will shine today when Goff beats his old team.

Which, by the way, I think he will.

In the afternoon contest today, we get a battle between a pair of teams that are nearly as common in the playoffs as Santa Claus is on Christmas. The Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers both have rich NFL histories that include multiple Super Bowl wins. This weekend, which has seen severe cold weather at two NFL sites, brings to mind a game known as the “Ice Bowl.” In that 1967 NFL Championship Game, Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers beat Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys on a frozen Lambeau Field with temperatures of 13 below zero. The Cowboys and Packers have met eight previous times in the postseason, with each team winning four games.

So, today is the rubber match between these two longtime NFL powers. The Cowboys are favored in this one, but our numbers offer a clear indication that the touchdown underdog Packers are going to upset Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys and move onto the Divisional Round.

Qoxhi Picks: Green Bay Packers (+7) over Dallas Cowboys