No confidence in Arizona after letting a 4th place SEA team score 38 against you at home.

Silly conspiracies aside, wouldn’t a tie end up with Pittsburg and Las Vegas in and the Chargers out?

Nevermind - guess head to head comes before conference record.

Division ties are broken before conference ties. At 9-7-1, the Chargers would have the edge over Las Vegas with a 1-0-1 head-to-head record.

Then the Chargers are compared to Pittsburgh, where the Chargers have the head-to-head advantage. Once the Chargers are placed as the sixth seed, Las Vegas is compared to Pittsburgh, where the Raiders have the head-to-head advantage.

I’m not sure who I have any confidence in after the last few weeks. Green Bay?

I don't know they should have beaten up Detroit, backups or not

Well, on the bright side, the Cards are 3-5 at home and 8-1 on the road. Maybe not winning the division was a good thing.

The difference between 1 and 2 this year seems to be meaningless. The top two players seem to be edge rushers and the top QB is in the teens.

wonder if the Michigan fanbase agrees

I'm with bronconick. I can see why people would want the Lions to draft Hutchinson, but frankly I think it'll end up being better for the franchise. There'd be a lot of pressure on them to pick him if they have the #1 pick ... but what if their evaluation is he isn't the best player? I don't at all think it's a foregone conclusion there.

With no clear #1, it's not even a question to me. Win every game you can.

it's also January, our ability to pinpoint all these things with deep precision weeks before the combine is sketchy at best

everyone has the edge rushers 1-2 now, and presumably they stay that way, but... who knows?

my point is that there is a factor at work for the Lions that's a bit subtle but not to be trifled with... that's a franchise that would love to have some groundswell of excitement behind it from the long suffering fans... winning is the best way to do it, but...

I'm not sure. I haven't seen Thibodeaux, but everything I've read indicates he will have a day-one impact in the NFL. As will Hutchinson. How can anyone without a lot of experience scouting and reviewing tape do anything other than root for the home-town player?

Lots of pressure on the Lions to overdraft a quarterback, too. They seem to struggle making good draft picks no matter who's in charge, so I'm guessing the second DE falls to a very happy Houston.

Looks like no shenanigans for Sunday night - Las Vegas in charge and the missed conversion means the score differential isn't likely to end up in a tie if the Chargers discover a pulse.

This is killing me.

Sit on the ball in OT!

This is wild. Don’t think either team will be taking too many risks in OT.

It seems they found a pulse... 19-play drive, three long fourth-down conversions, those final two plays. Never seen anything like it before.

In all seriousness, your job is to get to the playoffs. A tie guarantees it. It's the equivalent of victory formation.

Best to just rest up and kneel it out.

Chargers offense and Raiders defense must be so gassed.

You play conservative, but you play to win. The players have too much pride, too. It would be bad for everyone, not just Steeler fans.

But let's say hypothetically you get down to the final few minutes and it's tied. Are you going to do anything but run and work the clock? Why would you do anything different?

Edit: And Collinsworth just asked the same thing.

Kick the FG lol

End-game is different. If it qualifies as risk, then it's probably OK.

I wonder if six fourth-down conversions is the NFL record.

Can you imagine what's going through Big Ben's mind the past hour or so?

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a game where my allegiance changes so easily.

And frequently.

OK, time for both teams to pull out the Giants 3rd down wedge formation and trade punts.

It's been such an entertaining game, too. No question everyone's laid it out today. Conservative at this point... absolutely. Anything that requires looking across the field and nodding - that's probably the line you don't cross.

And Raiders playing to win with that first down passing play.

I mean, Raiders have the ball so they have the advantage. If they had been forced to punt, I think both teams call off the dogs and let it end in a tie.

Was really hoping for an incomplete pass on that third down. No one apart from Steeler fans really want to see Pittsburgh-KC next Sunday night, do they?

Chargers aren’t about to call a timeout

Either this is a set up for a TD pass or they're just letting it go

Just Kneel, Baby.

Or they will, with :04 to play on the play clock. They wanted to make sure they had the right defense on the field while running every second off the clock

Geez. This is wild.

I can't believe LA couldn't stop the run and force the tie both teams would have willingly taken.

Why, Chargers. Why.

And Pittsburgh wins....

Can’t wait to hear about that Chargers time out.

Wow. Kudos to the Raiders for playing to win. Football gods will hopefully reward them. Very disappointing that we won't get Hebert in the playoffs.

I don't think Staley trusted the Raiders to run out the clock.

For Las Vegas, at that point, letting the clock run out means going to KC rather than Cincinnati. That made strategic sense once the playoffs were secure.

That timeout was cringe

I’d love to see an anonymous survey of NFL coaches to see what they would have done with those last few plays.

Staley has cost the Chargers multiple games this year. That loss is so typical for this franchise.

The problem was giving up 17 yards on two basic run plays when Las Vegas was clearly running the ball. The time out was late enough on the play clock that it didn't change the scenario at all.

One interesting stat that maybe the Chargers were worried about in that last sequence given that they didn't seem to be playing the run... Kansas City beat the Raiders, 41-14 and 48-9 this season. They only lost 32-13 to the Bengals.

Regarding the tie, Joey Bosa can suck it

The number of heart attacks in Vegas and Pittsburgh must have spiked over the last couple hours. I would say LA too, but we all know the Chargers don't have fans ;)

I agree the TO didn't change the scenario. What changed the scenario was giving up 10 yards to put them in makeable FG range. If they stuff that last run or even give up 2-3 yards, I don't think LV risks a blocked 55 yard FG.