The Thursday Night Football schedule is into Week 17 of the season and that means no game tonight and the final game on TNF on the NFL Network this season came a couple weeks ago with Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos losing to the San Diego Chargers and now both teams could end up in the playoffs, as the AFC has one spot left open for the postseason and Sunday will shake out final seeding and that last berth.
The AFC is a crazy mess now with four teams alive for the playoffs and none of the four teams control their own destiny, as the Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens and San Diego Chargers all need to win their final games combined with something else to clinch the final spot in the AFC. The Steelers need everyone to lose to win the tiebreaker, while the other teams need things to shake out differently to come out on top of their tiebreakers and it won't all be set until the Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs finish their game in the afternoon. Week 17 has some great matchups and some big ones for playoff positions in the NFC and AFC, as the Seattle Seahawks still need to lock up their division and number one seed against the St. Louis Rams, while the Carolina Panthers can with the south division with a victory against the Atlanta Falcons on the road.
The first Thursday night matchup of the season had the Denver Broncos hosting the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens and Peyton Manning had seven touchdowns in that game to start off his record breaking season and he now has the single season passing TD record and he likely will win the MVP award as well. The Broncos put up nearly 50 points in that game after the performance from Manning and it kicked off the season before the first actual Thursday Night Football presentation the following week with the New York Jets and New England Patriots and that kicked off a nice stretch of games during the season in 2013.
The Thursday game in Week 3 saw Andy Reid return to Philly to play the Eagles with his new team in the Kansas City Chiefs and now KC is into the playoffs and the Eagles might be joining them there as well and the game after the PHI-KC matchup had the San Francisco 49ers and the St. Louis Rams in one of the many division games on TNF and the Niners won that game and they are still alive for the division and have clinched a playoff berth. The Cleveland Browns defeated the Bills in the next game and then the Oakland Raiders won a divisional game against the Chargers and that came before a great matchup on paper with the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants. Eli Manning and the G-Men were winless at the time and had the chance to pull off a game winning drive at the end of the game, but in Giants fashion this season, Eli tossed a pick and the game was over and now the Bears are in position to make the playoffs.
This weekend there is still plenty at stake in the NFL with playoff position and seeding up in the air and the Panthers can end up in a number of places and the Seahawks amazingly can end up as the number five seed after being number one for the entire season and the Niners, Patriots, Broncos, Chiefs, Eagles, Cowboys and Bears all have something to play for, as do the Packers against Chicago and they can win a division title with a victory on Sunday. The playoffs could be great this season and in Week 17 there will be no Thursday night game to shake it all out.
