Welcome to a rare Saturday edition of the Week 16 grades. The NFL was kind enough to give everyone an early Christmas gift in the form of a holiday doubleheader consisting of Bengals-Steelers and Bills-Chargers.
Each of these games carry a significant impact on the AFC playoff picture as the wild card picture is as close and jumbled as it has ever been. The Steelers were able to keep their hopes of making it into the postseason alive with a blowout win over the Bengals.
The Bills, who traveled to Los Angeles, still hold out hope of winning the AFC East, but will need to win out in order for that to even be possible.
We'll cover both of these games with our grades for both Saturday contests below.
Pittsburgh 34, Cincinnati 11
| F |  |
| Cincinnati didn't look a team that was fighting for its playoff lives. The Bengals gave up way too many big plays on defense and self-destructed several times in the red zone. In fact, Cincinnati was 0 of 3 in the red zone compared to Pittsburgh going 2 of 3. Jake Browning, who played extremely well the previous three weeks, looked overwhelmed en route to throwing three picks. | |
| A |  |
| The Steelers dominated from start to finish while putting their three-game losing streak in the rearview mirror. Pittsburgh was aggressive on both sides of the ball, as backup Mason Rudolph fired touchdown passes of 86 and 66 yards to George Pickens. Defensively, Pittsburgh forced three turnovers that the offense turned into 17 points. | |
Bengals-Steelers grades by Bryan DeArdo
Buffalo at Los Angeles (TBD)
| C- |  |
| The Bills got the win, which is what matters, but they didn't look great in Week 16. Buffalo quickly went down 10-0 to the lowly Chargers, turned the ball over three times and needed a game-winning drive to defeat Easton Stick as double-digit favorites. The secondary allowed Stick to create multiple splash plays while the offense was inconsistent at large. Allen had a couple of perfect drives, but also missed some easy throws while James Cook fumbled twice. | |
| C+ |  |
L.A. was right in the mix until the very end. Easton Stick threw for 210 yards and rushed for a touchdown while L.A. forced three turnovers. What ultimately did the Chargers in was going 4-for-14 on third downs and 1 of 3 in the red zone. Then, the defense couldn't stop Buffalo's offense on what was the game-winning possession. A much, much better performance compared to what we witnessed last Thursday. | |
Bills-Chargers grades by Jordan Dajani (Love the grades? Hate the grades? Let him know on Twitter.)
