The 32 things we learned from Week 16 of the 2021 NFL season:
1. Finally, some semblance of clarity – in the NFC anyway – to what we’ll see in January. Going into Week 16, only the NFC North champion Green Bay Packers had clinched a playoff spot. But five more teams have joined them: the Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
2. No one’s hotter than K.C., which has won a league-best eight in a row. And the story continues to be the Chiefs defense, which has allowed 61 total points over its past six home games. No one should want to go to Arrowhead in January – but it appears the road to Super Bowl 56 will very likely wind through there once again.
3. With the Cowboys taking the NFC East crown before they took the field Sunday night, this division still hasn’t had a repeat winner since the Philadelphia Eagles’ four-year reign ended in 2004.
3a. Dallas CB Trevon Diggs still has a shot at tying the Super Bowl era (since 1966) mark for interceptions after swiping his 11th of the season – more than anyone in the last 40 years. Diggs needs two more to tie Lester Hayes’ modern standard of 13 in 1980 and could still match Dick “Night Train” Lane’s all-time record of 14 in 1952 … though the Hall of Famer managed that in just 12 games.
3b. The Cowboys and Washington have met 124 times in their storied rivalry, but neither had ever scored more than 50 points in the series … until Dallas exploded for 56 Sunday.
4. Rams WR Cooper Kupp upped his league-leading receptions figure to 132 after catching 10 more balls Sunday in Minnesota. With two games left, he has a very good chance at being the first guy to total 150.
5. The surging Indianapolis Colts are 9-0 when RB Jonathan Taylor rushes for 100 yards … and 0-6 when he doesn’t.
6. Amazing performance Sunday by second-year Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow, whose 525 passing yards are the fourth most in a single game (and 29 shy of Norm Van Brocklin’s 70-year-old…
..
