NFL 2015 schedule and results: Vikings beat Packers in Green Bay to win NFC North

The fifth-year defensive tackle finished with just two sacks in 2015 after racking up 10 sacks the year prior and earning first-team All-Pro honors. Just before the beginning of the season, Dareus signed a six-year, $96 million contract extension with $60 million guaranteed, the highest mark for any NFL player, aside from quarterbacks.

While Dareus said on Instagram that he suffered the injury in the fourth quarter, it appeared to happen with a couple minutes remaining in the third quarter. Dareus jogged off the field before returning to play in the fourth quarter and helped preserve the lead in a 22-17 win for the Bills.

Gilbert has since refuted the report, saying he never refused to go into the game on defense, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Gilbert played just 51 snaps this season going into Sunday’s game. Earlier in the season, there were questions about Gilbert’s desire to improve as a player and his commitment to the NFL, though head coach Mike Pettine gave few reasons for his lack of playing time when asked.

This is the single most terrifying thing you could see as a Patriots fan. Ndamukong Suh lost his footing thanks to a Marcus Cannon facemask and careened into Tom Brady’s legs trying to make a tackle. Suh won’t get the benefit of the doubt based on his history, but there is nothing malicious about this at all.

You can see that the facemask causes him to slip, and that by trying to make a tackle he happened to hit the back of Brady’s legs. Nonetheless, Brady got up limping -- which is terrifying to any Patriots fan watching.

Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams suffered a leg injury on Sunday that sent him to the locker room and the team quickly announced that he was questionable to return with a right ankle injury. He was later downgraded to out, despite jogging back out of the locker room to join the team on the sideline.

Williams suffered a sprained ankle, but whether or not that injury will keep him out of a wild card playoff game is up in the air, according to NFL.com. The injury might be one that would keep him out in the regular season, but all bets are off for the playoffs, per the report.

For the Colts, it would have taken a miraculous scenario of nine games going just right to earn the AFC South crown, and their playoff hopes ended when the Saints beat the Falcons on a last-second field goal. Even though the Colts, led by Josh Freeman and Ryan Lindley, topped the Titans, it wouldn’t have mattered: the Texans’ dominating win over the Jaguars was the exclamation mark on their division title.

Below, we’ve got all of the scores of Week 17.

The Minnesota Vikings held off a frantic comeback attempt by the Green Bay Packers to come away with the 20-13 win and clinch the NFC North. It’s the Vikings’ first division title since 2009.

With the win, the Vikings also lock up the No. 3 seed and will face the Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card round. The Packers drop to No. 5 and will travel to Washington next week.

Cordarrelle Patterson had beaten the entire Packers defense on a kickoff return, and was home free for the end zone. Or at least he thought he was.

But from nowhere, Mason Crosby -- yes, Packers kicker Mason Crosby -- emerged, forcing a pivotal fumble.

Mike Zimmer has been excelling everything he has been doing as of late. His Vikings are in the playoffs, which is a huge change from last season.

His excellence isn’t just limited to football. It also applies to booger blasts. Just look at him eject his snot in one motion! It even looks like he’s aiming for something,

Aaron Rodgers just can’t seem to find anyone open on this drive against the Minnesota Vikings. But wait, someone has it!

That’s Vikings defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd for the reception. He’s out of bounds and wasn’t a part of the play, but let him have his moment. It’s not every day that he gets a pickup for a huge gain like he’s a receiver.

Peyton Manning replaced Brock Osweiler as the Broncos’ quarterback against the Chargers on Sunday. Osweiler started the game 14-for-22 for 232 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions before getting pulled in the third quarter. There has been no indication that he was hurt.

Manning entered the game and played well, going 5-for-9 for 69 yards. Though he didn’t light up the Chargers through the air, he was on the field as the Broncos offense scored its final 20 points in a 27-20 win.

It’s pretty embarrassing when someone messes up a high five, but missing in volume should be considered an outstanding feat.

The Dolphins played the Patriots on Sunday but more importantly, the Dolphins beat the Patriots. This is a call for celebration! Owner Stephen Ross went for his first high five. NOPE. Hey, there’s still an opportunity for a second high five. Nope, that didn’t work.

The Cleveland Browns are “so done” with Johnny Manziel after the quarterback missed a mandatory meeting with team doctors, according to MMQB’s Peter King. Manziel reportedly wants to go to the Dallas Cowboys, and at this point it seems the Browns would be just fine letting the 2014 first-rounder go.

Manziel is in concussion protocol after reporting to practice last Wednesday with concussion symptoms, ending his season. The Browns require that players in concussion protocol meet with a team medic at 9 a.m. on Sundays. When Manziel failed to report, the Browns reportedly tried to contact Manziel by phone and couldn’t reach him.

Going into Sunday night’s game, the Packers have the lead in the NFC North division, but the Vikings have the same record, and whoever wins will take said division. Due to the 9-7 finish by Washington in the NFC East, whoever wins the game will wind up as the No. 3 seed in the conference.

Here are the current standings after the afternoon games on Sunday:

Week 17, the playoffs were out of reach a long time ago, but there came the Rams, charging down the field at Levi’s Stadium on a late overtime drive. They made it all the way to the 49ers’ 30-yard line, one 48-yard field goal away from an 8-8 finish, a record that would have been Jeff Fisher’s best result in four seasons with the Rams.

A long field goal to win a meaningless season finale in overtime. It’s what passes for clutch in Fisher’s current reality. But the league’s living embodiment of 8-8 just can’t quite reach such lofty goals anymore.

Peyton Manning entered to a roaring ovation Sunday. To that point midway through the third quarter, the Broncos were down 13-7 to the Chargers despite outgaining them by 150 yards. They had committed five turnovers, of which quarterback Brock Osweiler committed three -- two interceptions and a fumble.

With Manning in the game, the Broncos quickly took back the lead, going 80 yards for a touchdown. Manning accounted for just 20 of those yards on two completions, but he also checked into the 18-yard C.J. Anderson run that put the Broncos on the goal line. After a couple tries, they finished the drive in the end zone.

That locked the Panthers and Cardinals as No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the NFC.

Here are the current standings after the afternoon games on Sunday:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers wrapped up a disappointing 6-10 season with a 38-10 loss on Sunday and Mike Evans put one heck of an exclamation point on the year. Let’s first start with the aftermath:

That is a whole lot going on. Now, for how we got there.

While Week 17 in the NFL is full of playoff implications, it’s also a big week for incentive bonuses. NFL contracts include a wide array of bonuses tied to incentives. From stat-based accomplishments, to playing time to even being active for games. Sean Lee’s contract includes some major playing time incentives and he willingly gave up $2 million on Sunday.

Lee’s six-year, $42 million contract includes a $2 million bonus if he plays 80 percent of Dallas’ defensive snaps during the season. He was above that mark heading into Week 17, according to Michael Florek of the Dallas Morning News, but ended up below the mark after sitting out with a hamstring injury. Although Lee was injured, he could have hobbled through enough of the game to hit the playing time mark. Instead he made the choice to sit out because he didn’t think it was fair to play injured when he might be a liability to his teammates.

Peyton Manning yelling “Omaha!” never gets old. Add in Emmanuel Sanders taking off like Forrest Gump after he calls it, and it’s pretty dang funny.

Typically, Peyton yells ‘Omaha!’ then another word (like set in this case), in an attempt to pull the defense offside. Well, in this case, he got one of his own.

Things could not be any worse for the Arizona Cardinals against the Seattle Seahawks. The offense isn’t clicking like it typically does, and the slim chances of the Cardinals getting the no. 1 seed in the NFC are all but gone.

In other words, Arizona is playing like—well, we’ll let Richard Sherman sum it up for us.

At the end of a play in Seahawks-Cardinals, Seattle lineman Ahtyba Rubin noticed Arizona wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald had come to a rest on top of him. So Rubin did what any of us would do, and stood up with the 220-pound Pro Bowler on his shoulders.

Rubin was called for unsportsmanlike conduct on the play, even though he seems downright sportsmanlike. Look! Teammate KJ Wright even extends his hand to pick Fitzgerald up after dropping him to the ground. Surely, Rubin could’ve waited for Fitzgerald to reposition himself, but I guess it was more fun to seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to squat with an opposing wide receiver on his shoulders. Who can blame him?

Maclin went to the locker room and then quickly returned to the sideline, where the trainers continued to examine him. We’ll update when there is more information on the injury.

Maclin is the top receiver in Kansas City, and given that the team has clinched a playoff spot and could even host a playoff game, any significant injury to him would be huge. Maclin had three receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown when he exited the game with the injury.

If there’s a play that sums up how great the Carolina Panthers have been doing this season, this is it. No matter how bad things seem, Cam Newton will still be able to pull it off.

Even though he was almost sacked on this play against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he manages to escape. And even though the pass was almost picked off, the ball gets tipped and travels for more yards directly into Devin Funchess’ hands for a 41-yard gain.

Week 17 of the NFL season is a magical wonderland of random players. Whether they’ve already been eliminated or they’ve already clinched playoff spots, NFL teams suit up teams that barely resemble the teams from the first 16 weeks of the year. Some of them are names you’ve forgotten about for years. Some of them are names you’ve just never heard of. They are the NFL’s least valuable players, the guys who can suffer injuries without derailing the franchise.

Although the games may be meaningless in the grand scheme of things, to these players, Week 17 can be a career-defining moment. Here is the story of one of those players,

Since they have been eliminated from the postseason after a loss on Sunday, the Jets don’t have to worry about losing Wilkerson for the playoffs. But now he’ll have to spend a portion of his offseason rehabbing this injury.