In pure box score terms, the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens will be the winners on Christmas Day, while the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans will be the losers. But after the league’s first Wednesday afternoon game, we also want to take a look at some of the bigger winners and losers.
Winner: Kansas City offense
Just like last year, the Chiefs seem to be gearing up at just the right time. Just like last year, their rookie wide receiver (Xavier Worthy) will come into his own and become a major part of the offense towards the end of the season. Just like last year, Travis Kelce shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Just like last year, the rest of the league should be very concerned about what this means for their chances of making the playoffs. It was his third victory in 11 days. Secured the No. 1 seed and home field advantage through the AFC playoffs.. With 24 days until meaningful games, there’s plenty of time to get Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones healthy enough for a third straight Super Bowl appearance. This is very bad news for anyone else hoping to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in February.
The regression in Wilson’s performance in Pittsburgh’s last few games can be attributed, at least in part, to the absence of George Pickens, the team’s primary (and often only) deep threat. However, Wilson put Pickens back on the field Wednesday and had one of his worst games of the season, continuing a recent trend of poor games. He went 23 of 37 for 205 yards (5.5 yards per attempt) and one interception, and also had five sacks. And much of that production also occurred in garbage time. He ran for 55 yards and a score, but the limits of a Pittsburgh offense that showed no enthusiasm for completing moonballs to Pickens continued to show. Pittsburgh’s offensive success rate was only 26th in the league, tied with the last-place Giants.
Winner: Travis Kelsey
We’ve already covered Kansas City’s offense as a whole, but it would be remiss of us not to mention Kelce specifically. Chiefs’ all-time leader in touchdown catchesbreaking a tie with Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez.
It was Kelce’s 77th regular-season touchdown in his illustrious career and his 54th from Patrick Mahomes.
Loser: Steelers pass rush
Mahomes was sacked exactly zero times in the game and seemed to feel little pressure from the Steelers. TJ Watt and others, who need to dominate games if the Steelers want to seriously make the playoffs, were unfazed.
Here’s what we wrote a few weeks ago about Lamar’s chances (within the odds) of reversing the odds and winning his second consecutive Most Valuable Player trophy.
Jackson is the player in the best position to take the award out of Allen’s hands. It helps that his numbers are already better than Allen’s. He leads the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns, fewer interceptions, more rushing yards, and EPA per play, according to True Media. But Allen is winning the perception game thanks to his alien talent, Buffalo record and recent heroics on national television.
The schedule is actually working in Jackson’s favor here. Over the next two weeks, he will face two very tough opponents, both of which are island games on days when the NFL doesn’t normally play games. They play the Steelers this Saturday, then play the Texans in a Christmas game on Wednesday afternoon. These two teams, especially Pittsburgh, also have great defense. If Jackson hits the ball and leads the Ravens to two wins and finishes the game in style against the Browns, he definitely has a chance to win.
Mission accomplished. In those two games, Jackson went 25-of-38 for 375 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception, and added 109 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. Meanwhile, Allen had a more subdued performance in Buffalo’s Week 16 win over the Patriots. He clearly has two more chances to make it, but Jackson likely would have closed the gap.
Loser: Texans offense
We knew this could be a struggle after Houston lost Tank Dell to a serious injury last week. We knew we might struggle, especially given the way Baltimore’s defense has played lately. But this was ugly for the Texans. CJ Stroud missed most of the game, going 17-of-31 for 185 yards with one interception and five sacks. Joe Mixon was running in the mud all night. It wasn’t an encouraging performance in the weeks before Houston was set to once again face tough defenses (Pittsburgh, Denver, Los Angeles) in the first round of the playoffs.
Loser: Bengals/Dolphins/Colts
With Kansas City clinching the No. 1 seed, the Chiefs will likely start in their Week 18 game against the Broncos. If Denver wins that game, the slim playoff hopes of these three teams disappear.
