Welcome to the Week 16 grades!
For the first 15 weeks of the season, the NFL didn't play a single Saturday game, but that changed this week with a Saturday doubleheader that featured four of the top teams in the AFC.
In Saturday's first game, the Kansas City Chiefs improved to 14-1 by beating the Houston Texans, 27-19. The Chiefs have now tied their franchise record for most wins in a single season, and they can break the record by winning at least one of their final two games. The Chiefs also took one step closer to clinching the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC. They could clinch the top seed as soon as Wednesday with a win on Christmas over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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Speaking of the Steelers (10-5), they were involved in Saturday's second game and they could have clinched the AFC North title with a win, but that didn't happen. Lamar Jackson threw three touchdown passes as Baltimore rolled past Pittsburgh, 34-17. With the win, not only did the Ravens (10-5) officially clinch a playoff berth, but they're now tied with the Steelers atop the AFC North with two games left to play.
Kansas City 27-19 over Houston
| B- | |
| It's tough to grade the Texans here because the offense absolutely fell apart after losing Tank Dell to a devastating knee injury in the third quarter. Before the injury, the Texans piled up 16 points and 273 yards in less than two and a half quarters of action. After the injury, the Texans were only able to muster 38 yards. Dell was a key part of the offense in this game, catching six passes for 98 yards and a touchdown. Losing Dell will definitely be a blow to Houston's offense moving forward. C.J. Stroud was sharp for most of the day, but he did throw two interceptions in the first half that led to 10 points for the Chiefs. Stroud is going to have to cut down on the turnovers if the Texans want to make any noise in the playoffs. The Texans will also need better play from their defense, which gave up 375 yards to the Chiefs. | |
| B+ | |
| Patrick Mahomes went into this game with an injured ankle, but you wouldn't have known it based on how he played. The ankle clearly wasn't bothering Mahomes, who not only threw for 260 yards and a touchdown, but also RAN the ball for 33 yards and a score. The Chiefs offense got a boost this week from the debut of Hollywood Brown, who caught five passes for 45 yards in his first game of the season. Mahomes also got Xavier Worthy involved early and often: The rookie caught seven passes for 65 yards and a touchdown, and he's suddenly emerged as one of Mahomes' favorite targets over the past few weeks. The defense struggled at times against the Texans, but they clamped down in the second half, holding Houston to just 98 yards of total offense. This was a solid win over a playoff team, and with the offense now looking dangerous, they feel like a serious threat to make NFL history by winning their third straight Super Bowl. | |
Baltimore 34-17 over Pittsburgh
| C- | |
| After starting the season 10-3, the Steelers are suddenly falling apart -- and that's mostly because of their offense. After scoring just 13 points against the Eagles in Week 15, the Steelers weren't much better this time around. Russell Wilson threw two touchdown passes, but he also made the two biggest mistakes of the game with a fourth-quarter pick-six and a lost fumble that came after he had scrambled all the way down to Baltimore's 4-yard line in the second quarter. The Steelers will now be hoping that the eventual return of George Pickens will spark the offense, because with the way they're currently playing, they likely won't last long in the playoffs. The more surprising part for the Steelers was that they struggled on defense. They couldn't stop Lamar Jackson and they couldn't stop Derrick Henry, and if you can't stop those two, you're not going to beat the Ravens. Pittsburgh has now lost its lead in the AFC North, and with the Chiefs coming up on Christmas Day, the Steelers, who have already clinched a playoff berth, might have to end up settling for a wild-card spot. | |
| A | |
| Don't give Josh Allen that MVP trophy just yet. Lamar Jackson is having arguably the best season of his career, and that continued Saturday. The Ravens QB threw for 207 yards and three touchdowns as the Ravens topped the 20-point mark against the Steelers for the first time since November 2020. Jackson also got some big help from Derrick Henry, who plowed his way through the Steelers defense for 162 yards on the ground. As good as Baltimore was on offense, the defense might have actually been better. Marlon Humphrey iced the win with a pick-six in the fourth quarter that put Baltimore up 31-17. The Ravens have now put themselves in a position to steal the AFC North, and if this teams keeps playing like they did Saturday, they'll have a strong chance of making a deep postseason run. | |
L.A. Chargers 34-27 over Denver (Thursday)
| B- | |
| The Broncos came out on fire during a first half where they jumped out to a 21-10 lead. Not only did they run the ball well, but Bo Nix was sharp in the first two quarters, throwing for 155 yards and two touchdowns. But in the second half, the wheels fell off the wagon on both sides of the ball. Denver's rushing attack totaled just 21 yards in the final two quarters, which put all of the offensive pressure on Nix. He certainly could have played better in the second half -- on one long throw, he missed a wide-open Marvin Mims for what would have been an easy TD -- but it's hard to pin all the blame on a rookie QB who got almost no help in the second half. The Broncos defense also had a big letdown in the second half with the Chargers putting together three TD drives of at least 70 yards on their first four possessions of the half. The Broncos had a chance to clinch their first playoff berth since 2015, but they choked away that chance by blowing a 24-13 lead in the second half. Now, things could get dicey down the stretch. | |
| B+ | |
| Justin Herbert has played some great games this year, but this might have been his best one. The Chargers quarterback was nearly perfect, completing 74.2% of his passes for 284 yards and two touchdowns. Every time the Chargers needed a big play, Herbert came up with it, including a wild 19-yard TD pass to Derius Davis in the fourth quarter that put the Chargers up for good (you can see the play here). The unsung hero of this game might have been Gus Edwards, who kept the offense rolling by rushing for 41 yards in the fourth quarter on a night where he totaled 68 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. As for the defense, whatever Jim Harbaugh said to his unit at halftime definitely worked, because the Chargers looked like a completely different team in the second half. After getting gashed up for 89 yards on the ground in the first half, the Chargers limited the Broncos to just 21 yards in the second half. Since the Broncos couldn't run the ball, they put the game in the hands of Bo Nix, who was no match for an experienced Chargers defense. This was a solid all-around win that included Cameron Dicker hitting the NFL's first fair-catch free kick since 1976. The Chargers are now on the cusp of clinching just their third playoff berth over the past seven years. | |