14. Indianapolis Colts
How dare the Seattle Seahawks take this moment away from us? Colts fan or not, the entire NFL world was watching with intrigue as 44-year-old Philip Rivers, on the cusp of probably getting into the Hall of Fame, gave up his headset coaching at the high school level to come and play for the Colts in a playoff run.
I mean, I think Dennis Quaid was brushing up on his football skills to play this role in the movie that’ll certainly be made about it. Philip Rivers was not only back on the field for the Colts, but he actually had them in position to win. And then the Indianapolis defense couldn’t stop the Seahawks from getting into field goal range at the end, and Rivers threw an interception to effectively end the game.
But the season is not over, and there’s plenty of time for more drama. We’ll see if the Colts can bounce back. They face a brutal three-game stretch to end the year against the 49ers, Jaguars, and Texans. Yikes.
13. Detroit Lions
You can’t really fault the Lions too much for going on the road and losing to the Rams, although at this point in the year, can they really afford it?
The NFC is so loaded right now, the Lions wouldn’t even be in the playoffs if the season ended today. They’d be on the outside looking in with three teams making it from the NFC West and two teams from within their own division. That is a brutal reality to be facing with just three games left, because Detroit has been one of the best and most explosive teams in the NFL over the past couple of years offensively.
If they weren’t in the postseason, it would be one of the most shocking storylines of the year.
On Sunday, the Lions couldn’t do two things: They couldn’t stop the Rams’ offense, and they couldn’t get pressure on Matthew Stafford. And those two went hand-in-hand all afternoon. Matthew Stafford threw for 368 yards against the Detroit defense, which allowed 519 yards in total. Yikes. Maybe they’re not playoff-ready anyway.