Best:
Buffalo Bills
Eighteen years is a long time to be waiting. The Buffalo Bills haven't seen the playoffs since 1999, but this year that drought has come to an end. Thanks to their win, and the loss by Baltimore on Sunday, Buffalo has made the post season for the first time since 1999. Buffalo did what they had to do on Sunday, walking away with a 22-16 win over the Dolphins. Buffalo's defense stepped up huge and stopped the Dolphins cold. It may have come at a cost, because LeSean McCoy suffered a sprained ankle and may not be available for the playoff game next week, so his status is currently up in the air. But just for the fact that the Bills finished the year at 9-7 and got into the playoffs its amazing. Its the 3rd time since 1999 that Buffalo finished a year 9-7, and this year it was good enough to be a playoff team
Worst:
Cleveland Browns
Move over Detroit Lions, you've got company. For only the 2nd time in the history of the NFL, a team has finished the season without winning a game. Cleveland fell to the Steelers 28-24 to finish the year at 0-16, joining the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only teams to do so. Pittsburgh had played most of their backups and the Browns still couldn't even get a victory. DeShone Kizer finished with 314 yards and two touchdowns. He also threw a interception and losing a fumble. Duke Johnson lost a fumble as well on a promising drive. Then at the end of the game when the Browns still had a chance to win Corey Coleman let a perfectly thrown ball go right through his hands, hit him in the facemask and go out of bounds. On fourth-and-2. Seems like this could only happen to the Browns. This is a year that the team would like to forget and hopefully the new guys in charge can get this figured out and actually turn the product on the field around.
Best:
JuJu Smith-Schuster, Wide Receiver Pittsburgh Steelers
Since most of the starters for the Steelers weren't playing on Sunday, you thought it might be a sloppy game for Pittsburgh. Somebody forgot to tell that to JuJu Smith Schuster, who had himself a fantastic day. The rookie had nine catches for 143 yards and a touchdown. He also returned two kickoffs, one of which he took 96 yards to the house. Thanks to his monster game, Smith-Schuster ended up tallying north of 1,000 all-purpose yards this season, becoming the youngest player in league history to hit that mark. This was huge because of not only the significance for the kid on the year, but the Steelers going into the playoffs. It shows that the Steelers can win without their big guns and it got their big guns rested and ready to rock and roll in two weeks when Pittsburgh will step on a field next. Good day on ya JuJu
Worst:
Nick Foles, Quarterback Philadelphia Eagles
Well Eagles fans, this doesn't look good going into the playoffs. Things looked grim when Carson Wentz went down with the knee injury which finished his season. Nick Foles came back in under center and hasn't looked very good. Sunday, in a season end 6-0 loss to the Cowboys, Foles looked flat out horrible. Nick went final line was 4 of 11 for 39 yards when he was pulled in the 2nd quarter. Foles looked pretty good in his first start of the year in week fifteen. His last two starts over the final two games of the season haven't gone very well. If Foles plays the way he did in his first game, then Philly may still have a chance to get back to the big game. Philly fans better hope and prey the good Foles shows up in their first playoff game.
Best:
Frank Gore, Running Back Indianapolis Colts
In what has been a bad year for the Colts this year, Frank Gore didn't need to play in the final game of the season against a bad Texans team. Frank Gore is a professional and decided to suit up and play in the 22-13 win by the Colts. He played pretty well too. He had 24 carries for 100 yards even, a day which pushed him over 14,000 total yards for his career, becoming just the 5th running back in league history to ever rack up that many yards. On the season, Gore finished with 1,206 total yards and four touchdowns and came up 39 yards shy of 1,000 rushing yards on the year, He was doing this all at age 34 and on a bad Colts team nevertheless. Frank Gore will be getting his ticket punched to Canton once his career is over.
Worst:
Bryce Petty, Quarterback New York Jets
At this point, I'm really starting to wonder if Bryce Petty is really going to be the answer for the Jets at Quarterback, either short or long term. New York closed out their regular season with a 26-6 loss to the New England Patriots and Petty really didn't look very good in this game. Petty was frighteningly inaccurate on some of his misses, completing 19-of-32 passes for just 232 yards, much of which was tallied in garbage time. The only reason Petty was getting playing time was because of the injury to Josh McCown. Petty hasn't looked comfortable under center at all this year. Hell, you know it was a rough day for Petty when he forgot he was still wearing his Beanie as he was trying to put his helmet on at one point. There is one thing I have to wonder. If Bryce Petty is this rough, then how bad must Christian Hackenberg be if he can't even get into an NFL game?
Best:
Orleans Darkwa, Running Back New York Giants
Big Blue closed out the worst season in franchise history with a win. New York finished the year with a 3-13 record, capping it off with an 18-10 win over the Redskins. Orleans Darkwa was a huge reason why the Giants came away with the win. Darkwa got the Giants on the board early with a 75 yard dash to the end zone. He ended up with 154 yards rushing on just 20 carries, marking the biggest single game he’s had in his four-year NFL career. It also helped the Giants rack up 260 yards on the ground, which helped them grind out the clock in a game that saw Eli Manning complete just over a third of his passes. There are times this year that Darkwa has seemed almost MIA, and there's times, like in week seventeen, where Darkwa showed up and proved he could be a huge asset to this football team.
Worst:
Kirk Cousins, Quarterback Washington Redskins
Kirk Cousins is going to be going into free agency this offseason, and what happened this week really didn't help his case when it comes to trying to get a contract. Cousins went 20 of 37 for 158 yards no touchdowns and three horrible interceptions. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn against a Giants defense that is easily one of the more beatable in the league. And this coming in a game in which Eli Manning wasn't as good, completing just ten passes total in the game. The door was wide open for the Redskins, but Cousins wasn't able to lead them through it. Now, as Cousins is looking for a new contract coming into next year, he just made it a little bit harder on himself because of that final performance.
Best:
Atlanta Falcons Defense
Atlanta had a big game on Sunday, beating the Panthers 22-10. It was a statement game for the Falcons defense. Cam Newton was held to 14 of 34 passing for 180 yards a touchdown and was picked off three times. As a whole, the Carolina offense was held to ten points in the game, 15 first downs and went 5-of-15 on third downs. Atlanta is looking to return to the big game from a season ago, and with the way the year started it didn't look like Atlanta had a chance. Now, with the way the Falcons defense has been playing over the last couple of weeks, the Falcons look like they are heating up at the right time. Atlanta is going to need more performances like this if they are going to be playing football in the first weekend in February.
Worst:
Chicago Bears Offense
This might not have really been a good time for the Bears offense to totally go missing. Granted, there aren't too many people who could have really seen the Bears actually beating the Vikings. Minnesota rolled to a 23-10 victory over the Bears, as Chicago couldn't find their legs at all in the running game. As a team, Chicago had 15 carries for 30 yards total. You read that right 30 total rushing yards for the Bears on Sunday. Take away a 10-yard dash by Tarik Cohen and it looks even worse. Chicago's passing game wasn't great either, Trubisky finished with just 178 yards passing, was wildly inaccurate in the red zone, too, and the Bears offense just managed just three total points. That's so sad.
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