Five things we liked and didn't like in NFL Week 17, including Vikings keep foot on gas, Colts 's--t the bed'

By the final weeks of the regular season, there are battles everywhere. Battles for playoff positioning, yes, but battles for jobs, battles for future jobs, battles to simply keep trying as another lost season comes to a close -- the Jets seemingly lost that battle Sunday -- and individual battles as well.

The best individual battle we have is Lamar Jackson vs. Josh Allen for MVP. Maybe you could throw Joe Burrow in there, too, but those first two seem to have separated themselves. MVP races haven't been very close recently so having Jackson and Allen battle it out, one-upping each other seemingly every week, is a refreshing change of pace. We like what both of these players have done this year, and we like that we'll get to see Jackson one more time. Perhaps he'll wrest it away from Allen, who may not play and certainly won't play much considering the Bills have their No. 2 seed locked up. Whatever the case, it's been a heck of a battle.

Here's what else we liked in Week 17, followed by what we didn't like.

Five things we liked

1. Vikings close things out through the air

There was a time when teams primarily ran the ball and leaned on their defense. Woody Hayes and Darrell Royal famously believed that three things could happen when their team passed, and two of them were bad. Even as offensive philosophy emerged out of the dark ages, there was a general consensus that when your team got up, it could just run the ball, drain the clock and win.

The Vikings are eschewing that set of beliefs to great success, and their strategy worked once again in their biggest game of the season, Sunday against the Packers. Green Bay had cut Minnesota's lead to 27-25 with 2:18 left. Even now, many teams would elect to run at least once before daring to throw the ball.

And this is exactly why the 14-2 Vikings are not "most teams." On Minnesota's very first play of what turned out to be the final drive of the game, they brought out two running backs and a blocking tight end ... and completed a 13-yard pass from Sam Darnold to C.J. Ham off play-action. It looked like a run based on personnel and dropback. It wasn't.

After the two-minute warning, the Vikings lost a yard on a run before another play-action pass, this one 9 yards from Darnold to Justin Jefferson. And finally, on third-and-2, Minnesota clinched it on this excellent Cam Akers catch.

This is nothing new for the Vikings. Minnesota throws the ball at the second-highest rate over expected in the NFL when leading by one possession in the fourth quarter. They're now 9-1 in one-score games this season, and a big part of that is not only Kevin O'Connell's willingness to keep throwing the ball, but his ability to make opponents anticipate run based on time left, personnel and play design, too.

2. Rams' homegrown defensive line

There was also a time when the Rams were trading away draft picks like there was no tomorrow. And, to be fair, there wasn't much of a tomorrow. Matt Stafford and co. were in win-now mode, and thanks to GM Les Snead's infamous/hilarious "F--- them picks" mantra, they did indeed win it all

Then they paid the pied piper. They went 5-12 the year after the Super Bowl, and Sean McVay considered retirement. It was bad.

Then, like any good organization, they evolved. Snead learned to embrace them picks and hit on them, too, especially on the defensive line. That much was very clear in Los Angeles' 13-9 win over the Cardinals on Saturday:

• Braden Fiske (2024 second-round pick) had five pressures and two sacks. He has eight sacks this season, tied for the team high.
• Byron Young (2023 third-round pick) had another five pressures and a sack. He has seven sacks this season.
• Kobie Turner (2023 third-round pick) had a crucial fourth-quarter sack where he beat a double team. He also has eight sacks this season.
• Jared Verse (2024 first-round pick) didn't have a sack, but he had a team-high six pressures. His 16.7% pressure rate this season is ninth among 261 players with at least 100 pass rush snaps, meaning more sacks are likely on the way.

When you have a talented, aging and expensive roster, you have to hit on draft picks. It's a huge reason the Chiefs are so good, year-in, year-out. Yes, they have Patrick Mahomes, but they have nailed defenders and offensive linemen in the draft. The Rams are getting similar results on the defensive line, a huge reason they're headed back to the postseason.

3. Don't sleep on Tyrone Tracy

Listen, I get it, Giants fans. I get that falling from first to fourth in the draft order makes the win over the Colts frustrating. I get that the chances of getting your guy at quarterback without having to pay a massive price took a big hit.

But whoever that quarterback is, he should be very happy to land with Malik Nabers. But Nabers has gotten a lot of love all year, and his seven-catch, 171-yard, two-touchdown performance will only add to that.

Let's focus on Tyrone Tracy Jr. Twenty-two touches for 73 yards doesn't look like much, but it's tough sledding in the Giants' offense, and Tracy also ripped off a really impressive 40-yarder.

Tracy and Nabers are just the third rookie duo to both have 1,000 total yards in a season. And while both will improve, there's reason to believe especially big leaps are coming from Tracy, who played wide receiver in college. The wide-receiver-to-running-back transition is usually more hype than results, but Tracy has shown the vision and athleticism of a good back; he has the smoothness and acceleration of some of the league's best runners, but he also has the herky-jerky, stop-and-start abilities that receivers show when running routes. He's a diamond in the rough that's only going to get more polished.

4. Kerby Joseph, playmaker extraordinaire

The injury-ravaged Lions defense is not the force it once was. It's not close. Since Week 14, Detroit has allowed at least 30 points three times in four games, including 34 to the skeleton crew 49ers in Week 17. The Lions didn't allow 30 points once in the first 13 weeks.

From Weeks 1-13, Detroit was sixth in defensive success rate. Since Week 14, they are 29th. Only the bottom-feeding Patriots, Jets and Panthers are worse.

There are two ways to be an effective defense. One is to be really good down-to-down, meaning a high success rate. The other is to create havoc -- negative plays, turnovers, etc. Splash plays that can bail you out when you're struggling down-to-down.

Kerby Joseph helped the Lions be the latter Monday night, with the game completely turning on its head thanks to two Joseph interceptions.

Joseph has a league-high nine interceptions this year, the most by a Lion since Jimmy Allen in 1981. The first one was catching practice, but the second was a really great, aggressive play. He is helping hold things together on the back end.

5. Bryce Young drops it in the bucket

It's been a strange year for Bryce Young: awful start, benched, reinserted, resurgence and then ... some bumps to finish. Sunday wasn't his best, but this throw was.

A very deserving "highlight of the week."

Five things we didn't like

1. Colts 's--t the bed'

Apologies for the language, but that's what DeForest Buckner said Monday, and he's not wrong. The Colts' 45-33 loss to the Giants that knocked Indianapolis out of playoff contention was an unmitigated disaster all around.

• Joe Flacco, starting in place of the injured-again Anthony Richardson, had three turnovers.
• The Colts had 10 missed tackles (a generous number) and one drop (an extremely generous number) per Pro Football Focus.
• Indianapolis opted to kick a 54-yard field goal on fourth-and-3 (Matt Gay missed, and New York scored five plays later) and also allowed a kickoff return touchdown to open the second half.

Drew Lock looked like prime Peyton Manning ... if Peyton Manning could also run. He went 17 for 23 for 309 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, and he ran for a touchdown. Lock had 1.18 expected points added per dropback, which basically means every time he dropped back, the Giants were scoring over a point. It's not only the best game this year, but the seventh-best game this millennium. The only names ahead of him are Manning, Philip Rivers, Lamar Jackson twice and Carson Palmer twice.

This was against the Giants, who had lost 10 straight. They had scored over 22 points (half of what they scored Sunday) just once. New York had four touchdowns of 30+ yards in the same game for the first time since 1963, when Y.A. Tittle and Frank Gifford were the stars.

This was an awful performance that falls on everyone involved: players, coaches, front office, ownership. Everyone.

2. Raheem Morris bungles clock management ... twice

The Falcons offense was a tale of two halves in their devastating 30-24 overtime loss to the Commanders. In the first half, it looked like they couldn't be stopped. In the second half, it looked like they couldn't get started ... until they did. One thing remained the same, though: Raheem Morris' shoddy clock management cost them dearly.

In the first half, Atlanta got the ball back with 1:53 before halftime and all three timeouts -- more than enough time for a complete drive. Bijan Robinson ran for 9 yards. No timeout. On the next play, snapped with 1:18 left after a huddle, Robinson ran for 10 yards. Still no timeout. Then came a 17-yard pass from Michael Penix Jr. to Drake London, who got out of bounds with 46 seconds left at Washington's 47-yard line. Still plenty of time and timeouts, even if we would have preferred a timeout or at least more urgency.

Then Penix found Darnell Mooney for 12 yards to the Washington 24. Still no timeout. Penix found Kyle Pitts for 3 on the next play. He got out of bounds with 16 seconds left. Over the course of 30 seconds, the Falcons ran two plays. They could have easily doubled that. Then came two incompletions and a field goal. Atlanta went into halftime with all three timeouts left.

After Penix found Pitts for a remarkable game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter, Washington went three and out. So with 40 seconds left and two timeouts, Atlanta needed just a field goal to win. Penix to Mooney for 25 yards. They're at their own 44-yard line with 33 seconds and two timeouts left. Still no timeout! By the time Penix threw incomplete on the next play, there were just 12 seconds left -- roughly 20 seconds wasted. Eventually, Atlanta had to settle for a 56-yard field goal try that was woefully short. And they left yet another timeout on the table.

I thought Bill Barnwell summed this up perfectly:

I also thought Tom Brady, broadcasting an earlier game Sunday, had a great explanation. In general, he said, he wants his team to have three timeouts left between one minute and 1:30 remaining, two timeouts left between 30 seconds and a minute remaining, and one timeout left when under 30 seconds. Tom Brady knew how to manage the clock as well as anyone, ever. Raheem Morris does not.

3. Patriots have no pass rush

It can be a slow, painful end to the season for bad teams. Lots of backups, lots of young guys, lots of uncertainty ahead. That all applied to the Patriots in their 40-7 loss to the Chargers. While Drake Maye provides plenty to be excited about, there is a long, long way to go.

There are some premier non-quarterback positions in the NFL -- offensive tackle, wide receiver, cornerback, pass rusher -- and the Patriots need all of them. But pass rush was arguably the most glaring Saturday. New England had zero sacks and just eight pressures on 43 Chargers dropbacks. The 18.6% pressure rate was New England's lowest all season. When the Patriots blitzed, they somehow had an even lower pressure rate of 16.7%, tied for a season worst.

The Patriots are last in sacks and sack rate and second-to-last in pressure rate this season. With the No. 1 pick currently in hand, they have plenty of options. Whatever they do, they have to hit on some of those premier non-quarterback positions, either in the draft or free agency.

4. Pittsburgh's offensive line crumbles

The Steelers allowed five sacks and 20 pressures against the Chiefs on Christmas, a very unwelcome present for Russell Wilson. Both figures were Pittsburgh's worst with Wilson as starter, and it was as ugly as it looked. The film shows guys getting beat all over the place and Wilson in the pocket for too long. And this was against just a so-so Kansas City pass rush.

Things are trending in the wrong direction in this area, too. In Week 16, the Ravens had a 45.9% pressure rate, the second-highest Pittsburgh has allowed with Wilson. Over the past three weeks, the Steelers have one regularly used offensive linemen ranked in PFF's top 100, and it's Mason McCormick at ... 100th. Offensive line play can be hard to grade, yes, but the results are reflective of those numbers.

5. What even is the Texans offense?

The Texans offense did not score on Christmas against the Ravens. I've tried and tried and tried to figure out why C.J. Stroud seems to have taken a significant step back, and some of it was he was never going to duplicate his sensational rookie year. But it shouldn't be this bad, and Week 17 was unsightly.

Here are some things I think I can point to:

• Stroud takes way too many sacks (only Caleb Williams has taken more), and he takes way too many bad sacks (only Williams has lost more expected points on sacks).
• The protection has way too many breakdowns. Of the five sacks Stroud took against Baltimore, two were by untouched rushers (one off a basic stunt, one off a blitz Joe Mixon was late picking up), and another was on Nnamdi Madubuike overpowering Kendrick Green.
• The Texans are dead last in first-down rushing success rate this season. If you're constantly in bad down-and-distances and have a struggling offensive line and a quarterback who takes too many sacks, you're in a tough spot. Against the Ravens, the Texans had eight first-down rushes for 21 yards and a 25% success rate, somehow even lower than their rate on the season as a whole.