Steve Brownlee

While I was watching the Sugar Bowl on Thursday — the College Football Playoff game played in New Orleans that had to be delayed a day due to the terrorist truck attack on New Year’s morning — I saw Notre Dame’s quarterback on the field.

I thought, “Wait a minute! That looks like a young Brett Favre!” At the end of the game with his helmet off, that QB and game MVP Will Leonard didn’t quite look so much like the ex-Packer signal caller from the 1990s, but what the heck?

He’ll be playing again in the next week when the Fighting Irish advance to the CFP semifinals.

So going back to last weekend, I was dumbfounded at poor clock management again displayed by an NFL team.

I mean, these are organizations worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars playing in a a multi-billion-dollar league.

Sure, some decisions, like many of Detroit’s Dan Campbell, are a matter of confidence or strategy or offensive philosophy or whatever else it is that makes you question what some people do.

But this situation was a slam-dunk for Cincy, which was in a tie game with just about 90 seconds left in the fourth quarter and down on the Denver 3-yard line. No matter what the Bengals’ offense did, short of turning the ball over, was going to result in no worse than a chip-shot field goal attempt and the lead in the game.

They were on either first or second down and the Broncos had one timeout left.

Cincy could’ve taken a knee for two plays, either nearly running the clock out completely, or more likely, forcing Denver to use its lone timeout and still running off a good 45 seconds — half the time remaining — before kicking what would’ve been no more than a 25-yard field goal.

Instead, Joe Burrow snuck the ball over the goal line on the next play, which with the extra point gave the Bengals a seven-point lead, but left Denver with just short of 90 seconds AND a timeout remaining.

It was even more inexplicable that all the Cincy players and staff were congratulating themselves for this stupid move.

Whatever.

Denver took the ball and, even with rookie QB Bo Nix under center, moved it downfield against the Bengals’ defense, probably the worst in the league, to tie the game and force overtime.

Sure, Cincy ended up winning it then, but no thanks to this boneheaded strategy at the end of the fourth quarter.

Now onto the final weekend of the regular season, where all games are intra-divisional — for instance Chicago at Green Bay and Minnesota at Detroit — and none of the game times were decided until this past Sunday:

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Today, 4:30 p.m.

Cleveland at Baltimore — Today is AFC North day, and the fact that Baltimore can clinch the division title with a win is enough for me. Ravens, 30-23.

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Today, 8 p.m.

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh — By the time this game starts, the Steelers should know they’re stuck with a wild card spot, only affecting if they’re a No. 5, No. 6 or No. 7 seed in the AFC, depending on tiebreakers.

Meanwhile, Cincy must win to have any chance to stay alive in the playoffs, which will at least feel realistic as all of the other teams involved in their playoff scenarios don’t play until Sunday. Bengals, 41-37.

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Sunday, 1 p.m.

Carolina at Atlanta — The Falcons still have a chance to win the NFC South, though Tampa playing at the same time could dash those hopes late in this game. But by then, the home fans will have their “Dirty Birds” — a 25-year-old nickname for the Atlanta team — in a frenzy to win this. Falcons, 33-27.

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Washington at Dallas — Only playing for a No. 6 or No. 7 seed in the NFC, I don’t see the Commanders standing up to the Dallas players, who have often played inspired ball even since they’ve been eliminated from the playoffs. Cowboys, 28-20.

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Chicago at Green Bay — With Green Bay in the same situation as Washington — either a No. 6 or No. 7 playoff seed in the NFC — I see too many dumb plays by the Bears costing them. Packers, 27-19.

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Jacksonville at Indianapolis — Gotta employ reverse momentum here for two teams way out of the playoffs. That gives the edge to Indy, which embarrassingly allowed 45 points in a loss to the Giants over the weekend, over the Jaguars, who have to feel good after beating another division foe, Tennessee, last Sunday. Colts, 24-17.

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Buffalo at New England — The only team with any motivation here is the Patriots, who are in a four-way tie for the “lead” for worst record in the NFL and the overall No. 1 draft pick next spring. The Bills are two games clear of anyone both behind them and in front of them, so there’s not even a tiebreaker they have to worry about.

But led by first-year head coach Jerod Mayo, the New England coaching staff may feel some urgency about keeping their jobs — it doesn’t look good “winning” the worst record in the NFL in your only year. So I’ll take the Patriots, 22-16.

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New York Giants at Philadelphia — The Giants made their season — or ruined their chances for the No. 1 draft pick — by beating Indy last weekend, while the Eagles are resting a lot of players. However, when you’re as good as Philly, and unlike the Lions have been relatively healthy, there should be some backups who are chomping — or is it champing? — at the bit to show their stuff. Whatever the correct term is, give me the Eagles, 29-24.

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New Orleans at Tampa Bay — The Bucs got a great Christmas gift last Sunday when Atlanta lost and gave control of the AFC South to the Bucs. Don’t expect Tampa to take it back to Macy’s for store credit or whatever they do nowadays after the holidays. Buccaneers, 34-24.

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Houston at Tennessee — Because they play in such a crummy division, the AFC South, the Texans are now the only team guaranteed a playoff spot despite not having 10 wins. Facing one of their crummy competitors, expect Houston to get win No. 10. Texans, 23-15.

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Sunday, 4:25 p.m.

Miami at New York Jets — This is the only East Coast game being played in the late-afternoon time slot, since the Dolphins aren’t competitive within their own division, but instead against Cincinnati and Denver for the last AFC wild card spot.

The weather looks dry, in the mid-30s and a bit of a breeze, but considering Miami was able to win in Cleveland last Sunday without QB Tua Tagovailoa, I’ll take the motivated Dolphins, 20-13.

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Kansas City at Denver — Speaking of motivation — and non-motivation — the Broncos will feel like they can win the Super Bowl after guaranteeing their wild-card spot vs. a KC team resting most everybody. Broncos, 33-21.

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Seattle at Los Angeles Rams — Jimmy Garoppolo is supposed to start at QB to give “old man” Matthew Stafford a rest for the Rams. With that attitude and the fact this Los Angeles team has wrapped up its playoff spot, I’ll take the Seahawks, 27-20.

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Los Angeles Chargers at Las Vegas — The Chargers could be a No. 5, 6 or 7 wild card team, the No. 5 important as they would draw Houston instead of

Buffalo or Baltimore in the first round of the playoffs. Chargers, 23-16.

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San Francisco at Arizona — Good chance Brock Purdy won’t play as this is a nonplayoff game, so I’ll take a flier on Arizona at home. Cardinals, 27-23.

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Minnesota at Detroit — As a lifelong fan of this Detroit team that had a total of one playoff win in my lifetime until 51 weeks ago, I definitely see all the good work going down in flames in one bad outing to have to take the No. 5 NFC seed and road games from the outset of the playoffs.

Then I think about how these Lions have been so resilient, for instance, last week figuring out a way to force turnovers by a defense that couldn’t stop the 49ers any other way. Somehow, I see safety Kerby Joseph making some more interceptions against occasionally wild Vikings QB Sam Darnold, possibly endangering his future in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Lions, 37-31.

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Last week — 11-5, 69 percent. Season — 171-85, 67 percent.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 552. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.