NFL scores, Week 17: Live coverage, highlights and more

Arizona running back David Johnson suffered a knee injury in the first quarter of the Cardinals’ Week 17 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. Johnson had to be carted off of the field, and he did not return to the game.

Luckily, the injury wasn’t as bad as it initially appeared. On Monday, Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians said that Johnson sprained his MCL and won’t need surgery:

Just one season removed from leading the Denver Broncos to a Super Bowl 50 win, head coach Gary Kubiak has decided to retire from coaching, he announced Monday.

“I’ve had my routine for a long time,” Kubiak said. “I’ve always taken a lot of pride that I could coach a football team, be there for the players, be there for the coaches, be there for the organization, do a gameplan, call plays on Sunday. I’ve always taken a lot of pride in the fact that I could do all those things.

Matt Ryan has been a major factor in the MVP race over the past few weeks, thanks to his role in the Falcons becoming the top-scoring offense in the NFL this season. In the Atlanta Falcons’ 38-32 win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Ryan made a compelling case for his candidacy.

In the first quarter, Ryan posted a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3. In the first half alone, Ryan completed 17 of 19 passes for 235 yards and four touchdowns, to four different receivers. Ryan finished the game 27 of 36 passing for 331 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions.

Before the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers kicked off Sunday Night Football, we knew both teams were headed to the postseason courtesy of a Washington loss. What remained to be seen was which team would secure the top spot in the NFC North. With a 31-24 win over the Lions, the Green Bay Packers locked up the division.

This was a hard-fought game from the start, and early on, the Lions had the advantage. Detroit took a 14-10 lead into the half, but Green Bay turned it on beginning in the third quarter. The Lions, for the 15th time this season, found themselves trailing in the fourth quarter after the Packers took a 23-14 lead.

In a scary moment during the third quarter of the Sunday Night Football matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, Packers cornerback Quinten Rollins sustained a neck injury. He was immobilized on a backboard, carted from the field, and taken immediately to a local hospital for evaluation.

During the fourth quarter of the game, the Packers shared a promising update on Rollins’ status.

Packers wide receiver Davante Adams scored a touchdown to give Green Bay a 17-14 lead over the Detroit Lions in the third quarter of Sunday Night Football. It was an important score in a game that will decide the winner of the NFC North, and Adams was obviously pleased.

Adams celebrated, of course. He celebrated by dunking on the goalpost.

The Oakland Raiders were already without quarterback Derek Carr, who broke his fibula in Week 16. Now, they’re missing backup Matt McGloin, who started in Carr’s place against the Denver Broncos in Week 17. McGloin was replaced by rookie quarterback Connor Cook, who is seeing his first NFL action of the season.

Cook was drafted by the Raiders in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft out of Michigan State University. Sunday marks the first time he’s played in a game for Oakland since the final week of the preseason.

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Mike Mitchell was unhappy when refs flagged him for facemask against Cleveland Browns wide receiver Corey Coleman. You see, Coleman also grabbed Mitchell’s facemask.

Mitchell was adamant that the refs should have flagged Coleman, also. He made his frustration known.

Dallas was up 20-7 on Washington in the second quarter of a game that doesn’t mean a whole ton. This is not a scenario you normally run an onside kick. But out of the sheer desire to make Washington’s season end as miserably as possible, ONSIDE KICK TIME:

Trenton Robinson tried his best against a squad of Dallas players who were actually expecting the football, but couldn’t come up with it. DeMarco Murray would score a TD on the drive, so it’s now 27-7.

The NFL announced its players of the week for the final week of the regular season. The top honors in the NFC went to two of the best players in the league, while the AFC had a couple of surprising performances from players that earned them the award.

• Could Peyton Manning lose his single-season yardage record?

And so we come to the last Post-Mortem of the regular season. So many of these carcasses -- Houston, Atlanta, Washington, Tampa -- seem thoroughly picked over at this point, but they still found ways to lose yet again. Maybe one day we’ll live in a just world, where once an NFL team loses 10 games it just gets to be done for the year. (The owners will still charge fans for the full season, of course, because the owners hate you and want you to be poor forever.)

Time of Death: The Falcons had the ball at their own 43 with 35 seconds left, looking very capable of driving far enough to give Matt Bryant a chance to win the game. And then they got REAL Atlanta with it. (Don’t ever get REAL Atlanta, unless you’re looking to rob a weave store. Then go as Atlanta as you can.)

The wait is a long one if you’re a fan of one of the 20 NFL teams eliminated from the playoffs. That pain can be eased a little with the best GIFs in the NFL from Week 17, and there were some good ones.

We love a good underdog story, unless you live in Chicago. There’s something pure about watching a team fight back that was close to being dead a buried.

But that game probably shouldn’t have gone to extra time at all, as it happens. Jim Daopoulos, a former NFL referee and supervisor, took to Twitter to say that the Chargers were in an illegal formation on a Kansas City field goal try. That field goal attempt happened to be the miss that would have sealed the game for Kansas City at the end of regulation.

According to Daopoulos, the Chargers had seven players to one side of the center, which is against the rules of overloading on these formations. The folks over at Arrowhead Pride noted this as well, and have a link to the picture near the bottom of the post.

Here is the final seeding for the NFC:

3. Philadelphia Eagles (10-6)

Dallas fought back, and after a technical error with the game clock, seemed to be out of it before the aforementioned deep pass to Bryant that went for a 32-yard touchdown. The Cowboys couldn’t convert for two points, though. After stopping Philadelphia on the following drive, Orton’s interception sealed it, as the Eagles were able to kill the clock on the second attempt.

If you stretched your fantasy season to its limit, there were definitely some performances worth noting in this one. Eagles running back LeSean McCoy had 27 carries for 131 yards and one receiving touchdown. Dallas tight end Jason Witten had 12 receptions for 135 yards, while Eagles tight end Brent Celek managed three receptions for 71 yards and a touchdown.

Update: The Eagles topped the Cowboys to win the NFC East and the third seed in the NFC playoffs.

Here’s the schedule the NFL announced at halftime (all times Eastern):

Clay Wendler [11:27 PM]:

Clay Wendler [11:24 PM]:

The first 10 picks of the draft are loaded with teams needing quarterbacks. It wouldn’t be a surprise if eight of the teams in the top 10 add new starting quarterbacks this offseason.

If the Rams stick with Bradford, who is under contract two more seasons, their pick could be on the market. With so many teams needing quarterbacks, St. Louis could again get a big return for the second overall pick.

San Francisco improves to 12-4 and they will be the number five seed in the AFC, and will face the Green Bay Packers in the wild card round.

San Francisco is headed to the playoffs for the third time under Jim Harbaugh in three years. For the Cardinals’ Bruce Arians, he’ll have to wait at least one more year to do that with Arizona, but it was a very valiant effort.

Fantasy Studs and Duds

Did They Cover?

UPDATE, (10:20 p.m. ET): The 2014 NFL playoff schedule and bracket has been set.

Here is your complete playoff picture for both conferences.

• NFL Week 17: Scores, GIFs, live updates | Latest playoff picture

• Texans secure No. 1 pick

The Seahawks were 12.5-point favorites, according to OddsShark, so they covered the spread.

Seattle awaits the lowest-seeded winner of the Wild Card round. St. Louis finishes 7-9 and now looks toward the draft.

It is the second time Rodgers has connected with Cobb for a touchdown today.

The Chiefs’ starters are out, meaning the San Diego Chargers are playing for their playoff lives against Chase Daniel and Knile Davis instead of Alex Smith and Jamaal Charles. It’s a pretty lucky break.

Also trying to help out the Chargers: the sun.