Vincent Verhei's blog

The L.A. Rams are a great team, but they're not perfect. What weaknesses were exposed in their worst games this year, and how will New England be able to attack those flaws in the Super Bowl?

The Patriots' path to the Super Bowl was paved by a trio of running backs -- none of whom was particularly good when you account for the terrible quality of Kansas City's defense. Plus, updated weighted DVOA points to the closest Super Bowl matchup we've ever seen.

There were not a lot of close games this weekend, but a trio of running backs had notable performances -- two really good, one really bad.

Our look at the best passers, runners, and receivers of the wild-card games focuses on Marlon Mack, who did things to the Houston Texans defense that nobody else had done all year long.

Josh "Air Yards" Hermsmeyer wrote this piece for FiveThirtyEight showing that play-action passes do not lose their effectiveness the more often teams call them in a game. What's more interesting than the conclusion is Hermsmeyer's methodology -- using the NFL's Next Gen tracking data, he followed middle linebackers and tracked how far they moved in pursuit of running backs who they thought had the ball. It's cutting-edge analysis that looks not just at how play-action works, but why.

The most statistically notable players of 2018 included a trio of first-year starters at quarterback, a running back who is currently unemployed, and a receiver who was literally perfect.

Our look at the best players of Week 17 includes a quarterback you may have never heard of. Our look back at the year's most notable games includes several of the worst wide receiver games on record.

There's a lot on the line in the season's final Sunday. In the NFC, the Rams, Bears, and Seahawks are all fighting for positioning, while the Vikings and Eagles are just hoping to qualify for the postseason. The AFC field is crazy -- four teams have clinched playoff berths, but nobody has clinched any specific seed or bye, and four teams are still battling for the final two spots. It all ends on Sunday night when Andrew Luck and the Colts play the Titans in a winner-gets-in, loser-goes-home playoff qualifier. Use this thread to discuss them all.

Our look at the best passers, runners, and receivers of Week 16 starts with the NFL's all-time leading passer guiding the Saints to the NFC's top seed.

After a nice, relaxing, football-free Thursday, the NFL returns on Saturday with a pair of games featuring playoff-contending teams: Washington (7-7) at Tennessee (8-6) and Baltimore (8-6) at the Chargers (11-3). Big games on Sunday include Houston (10-4) at Philadelphia (7-7), Pittsburgh (8-5-1) at New Orleans (12-2), and Kansas City (11-3) at Seattle (8-6). And then on Christmas Eve there's a game between Denver and Oakland that nobody is going to watch. Use this thread to discuss them all!