Avoiding the Week 17 Trap in the NFL

Week 17 in the NFL can be a trap for teams that are headed to the postseason dance.

Maybe you relax a little after throwing on that division-champs hat in the locker room the previous Sunday or you expect the below-.500 ballclub on the schedule in the final week of the season to simply pack it in.

Yeah, there are teams in Week 17 that are thinking about offseason vacations while the cars are running in the players' parking lot. I’ve played on those teams that just ride out the schedule. Get it over with. Turn in the gear on Monday and head home for the winter.

The game prep, the practice environment throughout the last week and the film study? Well, that slips a little. Mentally, those teams have a tendency to check out. And that starts to show up about the third quarter on the final day of the regular season, when the wheels fall off the bus.

However, those teams are still dangerous if you let them hang around or play poorly on special teams, turn the ball over and give them some hope.

And that can derail a team’s path to a Super Bowl.

Back in 2002, I was playing on a very good Green Bay Packers team heading into the final week of the season. Brett Favre, Ahman Green, Donald Driver, a defense that created turnovers, etc.

Donald Miralle/Getty Images

We were a 12-3 club. A Super Bowl-caliber team.

All we had to do was beat Chad Pennington and the New York Jets in Week 17 at the Meadowlands to lock up the No. 1 seed in the NFC and home-field advantage at Lambeau Field throughout the tournament.

The Jets? They were a decent team. But they needed help—a Dolphins loss, plus a win over us to get into the playoffs.

With a late-afternoon kickoff, we expected to roll into New York, scoop up the win and then take a week off before getting back on the field in the divisional round.

Instead, the Jets whipped our butt.

42-17. Pounded.

The Jets saw an opportunity to grab one of those postseason tickets. And when they announced the score of the Dolphins game at the stadium—a Miami loss—Herm Edwards' team poured it on.

That No. 1 seed? Gone. Forget about it.

We ended up going back home to play just six days later versus a young Michael Vick and the Atlanta Falcons in the Wild Card Round.

Under the lights at Lambeau, in the snow, Vick tore us up. I mean, he gashed us. And it looked like we were playing on skates when he broke containment to run all over our defense.

27-7. Season over. That’s it.

DARREN HAUCK/Associated Press

It can happen that quickly in this league. And, suddenly, instead of talking about the Super Bowl, rings and new contracts, you are home on the couch watching the playoffs like every one else.

With the New England Patriots having already locked up the No. 1 seed in the AFC this season, and the Seattle Seahawks playing the St. Louis Rams on Sunday, I don’t expect that same situation to go down this year.

Pete Carroll will have his team ready to play, and the Seahawks look like champs again. The road to the Super Bowl should go through Seattle in the NFC.

But nothing is guaranteed in the NFL on the final day of the regular season. Whether we are talking about home-field advantage or the difference between hosting a playoff game and going on the road, you still have to finish.

And there could be some teams that blow an opportunity to set the stage for a possible playoff run by failing to close out the regular season this Sunday.

Don’t get caught in the trap.

Seven-year NFL veteran Matt Bowen is an NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. 

Follow @MattBowen41