Hawks in the NFL: Week 18

Well as you can tell by my tardiness on writing this – not a lot to cover in Week 18. This really wasn’t a fun or exciting final week. Lots of players injured. Lots of teams sitting players – I watched 3 1/2 hours of Los Angeles Chargers back ups against Denver, their playoff seed […]

Well as you can tell by my tardiness on writing this – not a lot to cover in Week 18. This really wasn’t a fun or exciting final week. Lots of players injured. Lots of teams sitting players – I watched 3 1/2 hours of Los Angeles Chargers back ups against Denver, their playoff seed already locked in. Then the games that mattered were all kind of crap outside of Pittsburgh-Baltimore (no Kaleb Johnson in that game. I don’t mean that as he dressed and didn’t play – he was a healthy scratch for a win-or-go-home game; what a mess of a season for him.) Let’s go review the last weekend of the 2025 NFL regular season. Yay.

Dane Belton

Let’s start with Dane. The Giants are a mess – they could have tanked for the top pick but instead won their final two games for…reasons. Belton led the Giants with 13 tackles as they beat the Cowboys, 34-17. Real quick – former Hawkeye Tyrone Tracy finished with 18 carries for 103 yards and chipped in 8 catches for 56 yards and a touchdown. Not a bad day for the former receiver.

Tight Ends

George Kittle returned from a week on the injured list to catch 5 passes for 29 yards. Bad day for the Niners as they lost Saturday night to Seattle, 13-3. Seattle had San Francisco in a headlock all night and grabbed the NFC’s top seed. The loss dropped the Niners from the possible 1-seed themselves to the 6 and a day out in Philly. Yeah.

Noah Fant finished his season with 1 catch for 5 yards in Cincinnati’s loss to Cleveland. Fant also fumbled that one touch. Yikes (Geno Stone finished with 3 tackles for the Bengals.)

No TJ Hockenson for the Vikings, and no Sam LaPorta for the Lions.

Jack Campbell and Tory Taylor

Speaking of the Lions – Lions finished the season at Chicago and won 19-16. Everyone in the NFC North finished above .500. Campbell again led the Lions in tackles with 11. I will have a full season recap on final stats for everyone, but it bears mentioning here – that was good enough to push Campbell to second in the NFL in tackles with 176. Second! What a season for Campbell.

Meanwhile, our punting God Tory Taylor had 4 punts for 178 yards and a long of 54. We get Packers-Bears Round III in Chicago Saturday night and I CAN’T WAIT.

Riley Moss

Your top seed in the AFC – THE DENVER BRONCOS! And wow did they look unimpressive against the Chargers second-string. I don’t know what it is about this Broncos team but they feel so beatable. Everyone has to come through Denver but they’re up-and-down. Whatever. Moss finished Denver’s 19-3 win with 6 tackles and 2 passes defended.

Potpourri across the board this week. BOR-ING.

Category: General Sports