Tag: NFL Week 17

3 Lions players fined for plays in the Week 17 win over the 49ers

3 Lions players fined for plays in the Week 17 win over the 49ers, including two from the same play

The Week 17 win over the San Francisco 49ers hit a few Detroit Lions players hard in the pocketbook. Three Lions earned fines from the NFL for actions in Monday night’s game.

All three are in Detroit’s secondary.

Safety Brian Branch got fined by the league a total of $10,128 for unnecessary roughness (use of helmet).

Safety Kerby Joseph is $7,505 poorer after his fine for unnecessary roughness. He pushed 49ers wideout Jauan Jennings into the crowd after a kerfuffle involving Jennings and Lions CB Terrion Arnold. For his actions in the play, Arnold was levied a fine of $11,817. Jennings was fined the same amount as Arnold.

Once-proud Saints run defense hit a new low vs. Raiders

The New Orleans Saints’ struggles stopping the Las Vegas Raiders’ rushing attack is a perfect depiction of how far their once-proud run defense has fallen:

The New Orleans Saints’ struggles stopping the Las Vegas Raiders’ rush attack is a perfect depiction of how far the Saints run defense has fallen.

New Orleans is a long way from holding on to a yearslong streak of not allowing a 100-yard rusher. Now, they’re allowing Ameer Abdullah to break the century mark for the first time in his 10-year career. Coming into the game, the Las Begas running back had a total of 196 rushing yards and nearly matched that total in a single game against the Saints.

Aidan O’Connell took two kneel downs, and Brock Bowers ran the ball for a loss of one. Even with that, the Raiders averaged 4.1 yards per carry. Abdullah, their lead back, averaged 5.8 per rush. He left the field with 115 rushing yards on the afternoon.

The Saints entered as the third-worst run defense, and the Raiders had the worst run offense in the league. Someone had to break, and that someone was the Saints.

A lot of the issues come down to poor tackling. This has troubled the Saints throughout the year. It’s one thing to be a bad run defense. It’s another thing to be bad against one of the league’s least-productive rushing offenses. Whoever is coaching them in 2025 must make fixing this a top priority.

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Commanders vs. Falcons: Best photos from Week 17

All the best photos from the Commanders’ win over the Falcons.

The Washington Commanders are officially back in the playoffs. The Commanders clinched a playoff berth with a 30-24 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night.

Quarterback Jayden Daniels completed 24 of 36 passes for 227 yards, with three touchdowns and one interception. Daniels also led both teams with 127 rushing yards. His touchdown pass to Zach Ertz in overtime ended the game, giving Washington its fourth consecutive win and 11th of the season.

Now, it’s time to look at some of the best photos from the Commanders’ triumphant night at Northwest Stadium.

Darren Rizzi admits Spencer Rattler did not have enough help in Week 17

Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi on Spencer Rattler’s Week 17 performance: ‘We really didn’t give him much help today’

New Orleans Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi spoke on multiple topics during his postgame media appearance, and one point of discussion was the performance of rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler.

Rattler had a strong first half to the game, and ultimately was forced to make some less than optimal throws down the stretch to try and help a comeback take place, to no avail.

Rizzi had multiple things to say regarding Rattler’s performance, starting with, “I know a lot of people are gonna put it all on the quarterback, but we didn’t give him much help today.”

He continued building off this point later on, when asked about the opposing defensive changes and why the Saints struggled offensively. Rizzi said: “No listen, we didn’t execute. We dropped some passes, we missed on a couple pass protection wise, I felt like Spencer never really got settled in there and he was moving around, and he made some plays moving around to his credit. But like I said, we had some drops, we had some penalties offensively that kind of stalled.”

Rizzi added: “If I’m not mistaken we were over the plus 40-yard line twice, and had penalties that pushed us back into a punt situation, and you know you’re in a game like this you gotta come away with some points when you’re down there. I don’t think there was a schematic thing that they did, as much as it was an execution thing by us.”

Then when asked how he viewed Rattler’s performance directly, he stated, “I feel like it’s a little bit hard to evaluate, to be honest with you. Before I watch the film, just watching with my eyes from the sideline, I didn’t feel like we gave him a chance a lot of times.”

Rizzi clarified that while Rattler had some mistakes, too often the rest of the offense let him down: “You know some of those third downs, he did miss a couple of throws, obviously the throw that he has to I think it was Cedrick (Wilson Jr.) there that got tipped up in the air that gets picked off, and then the pass at the end. I know we had the OPI called on us, it looked like we were gonna be in scoring range there inside the 5-yard line, and then we had the penalty. It’s gonna be a tough evaluation, I think we’re gonna have to take a step back and look at it through a different lens because I feel like there was a lot of times where he wasn’t getting any help.”

Ultimately it is clear that Rizzi believed Rattler was not getting much help out there, and that seems relatively clear from the stat sheet as well. We will see if he is able to get the start in Week 18 or if Derek Carr returns for one more game.

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Social media reacts to Saints’ awful home loss to Raiders

Fans, media, and observers on social media had a lot to say about the New Orleans Saints’ awful home loss to the Las Vegas Raiders:

The New Orleans Saints had one of the worst losses in recent franchise history last week and could have potentially topped it on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders.

While they didn’t get shut out, the Saints did still lose 25-10 at home to a Raiders team that had just three wins entering the day.

It was another hard game to watch and the disgruntled fan base took to social media to express their feelings going through this for a second week in a row.

Here are some of the top social media reactions to Sunday afternoon’s game:

Darren Rizzi short on details in postgame injury report

New Orleans Saints interim coach Darren Rizzi was short on details for injuries to Jaylan Ford, Kendre Miller, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling after Sunday’s game:

The New Orleans Saints picked up some additional injuries during their Week 17 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. During his media availability postgame, interim head coach Darren Rizzi spoke about the three injuries, and what they were for each player.

However, he was definitely short on details at this time, providing minimal context for each one at the moment likely due to evaluations still being ongoing.

Regarding the injuries, Rizzi said: “Unfortunately suffered a couple injuries in the game. Kendre Miller, as you know, went out with a concussion. (Marquez Valdes-Scantling) went out there at the end, he’s getting checked on, really I think it was a re-aggravation of the same (chest) injury he had last week, we’ll see what happens. Jaylan Ford got a lower leg injury there on that punt cover, so we’ll kind of see where he is at.”

Ultimately the details are limited at the moment as players receive their evaluations, so we will see in the coming days who is ready to go for the Week 18 finale and who is unable to suit up.

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Injury update: Kendre Miller (concussion) ruled out vs. Raiders

New Orleans Saints running back Kendre Miller is questionable to return to Week 17’s Raiders game after entering concussion protocol:

The New Orleans Saints may be down another skills position player, as running back Kendre Miller is being evaluated for a concussion after hard contact. He was removed from the game, went to the injury tent, and ultimately went back to the locker room to be evaluated.

The Saints now have two running backs left healthy on the roster, Jamaal Williams and Clyde Edwards-Helaire. They will have to make do with an extremely depleted group of running backs and wide receivers for the remaining game and a half this season, as they continue to try and overcome this deficit. Miller has struggled immensely with injuries to this point in his career, so we will see how the results of the evaluation come back and if he did sustain a concussion.

Update: The Saints announced that Miller’s status was downgraded and he will not return to this game. It’ll be all Edwards-Helaire and Williams through the second half.

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WATCH: Saints use a trick play for their first points of Week 17

From Kendre Miller to Spencer Rattler to Foster Moreau. The Saints got tricky to score their first touchdown against the Raiders:


The New Orleans Saints got on the board early against Las Vegas, and they got creative in the process.

Klint Kubiak doesn’t dig into the trick bag often, but they have done it twice in the last three weeks. Both times they went into that section of the playbook the result was a touchdown.

In the first play of the second quarter, Spencer Rattler tossed the ball to Kendre Miller and gave the look of a generic run play. As Las Vegas sold out for the run, Miller threw the ball backwards to Rattler who found Foster Moreau in the end zone.

This is a role reversal of the last time New Orleans tried trickery. Rattler passed the ball to Cedrick Wilson who then threw the ball to Alvin Kamara for a touchdown score against the Washington Commanders.

Ironically, both of those plays resulted in the first points of the game for the Saints.

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What role will Clyde Edwards-Helaire have in Saints debut?

What does Jordan Mims being inactive mean for Clyde Edwards-Helaire?

Clyde Edwards-Helaire will have the opportunity to play in front of his hometown crowd. It’s the former LSU Tiger’s first game with the New Orleans Saints, and he could have a clear cut role versus the Las Vegas Raiders.

Due to Alvin Kamara’s injury, the Saints rolled out Kendre Miller, Jordan Mims, and Jamaal Williams against the Green Bay Packers. This week, Mims is inactive and Edwards-Helaire is taking his place. Does this mean he will take on Mims’ role as well?

If that’s the case, what would that look like? Mims was prominently featured on Monday Night Football because the Saints were frequently in passing situations. Edwards-Helaire has a skillset that would allow him to excel in this aspect. That’s a good starting point.

NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill expects Edwards-Helaire to have a real role. This suggests the Saints will also heavily use the new addition as a rushing threat next to Miller. Those two players will likely lead the charge for the Saints rushing attack in Week 17.

Saints announce inactive players for Week 17 vs. Las Vegas Raiders

New Orleans Saints inactive players look similar, but the loss of two offensive linemen could hurt Spencer Rattler

With Derek Carr out for another week with a fractured hand, Spencer Rattler will be the New Orleans Saints starting quarterback once again. His flashes against the Green Bay Packers were outweighed by bigger mistakes.

As New Orleans takes on the Las Vegas Raiders, the rookie will walk into a similar situation. Alvin Kamara and Chris Olave are out once again. This time, however, Erik McCoy and Lucas Patrick will join them on the sidelines.

Pressure was a catalyst for some of Rattler’s struggles, so being down two offensive linemen could make things worse.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling was questionable leading up to the game due to a chest injury. His absence was another huge detriment to the passing game a week ago. Nathan Shepherd was also with an eye injury suffered right before last week’s contest.

The Raiders escaped the injury bug. Guard Jordan Meredith was the only player with any injury designation for the road team.

Here are the inactive players for Week 17:

New Orleans Saints inactive players

  • QB Derek Carr (Left Hand)
  • RB Alvin Kamara (Groin)
  • RB Jordan Mims
  • LB Anfernee Orji
  • WR Mason Tipton
  • DT John Ridgeway III
  • DT Khristian Boyd

Las Vegas Raiders inactive players

  • G Jordan Meredith (Ankle)
  • TBD