depleted secondary. i look for, you know, the home team, green bay, to be strong and win it. no lock at all against the giants. and seattle, the same way. they will be favored. they play well at home. they have the crowd noise. they have the home field advantage. but they have not been playing good football. struggled today against san francisco. lost at home last week. and lost the chance for the number two seed. they're not playing great. detroit can win that game. but it's going to be a struggle. seattle has that playoff experience there, as well. >> al: >> a mix of rain and snow for that game in seattle. miami has to go to pittsburgh. 30 degrees or so. miami playing in the cold weather in pittsburgh. your thoughts on that game and the other match-up in the afc that will start the playoffs with houston hosting oakland. >> of all the teams playing on wild card weekend, i like the steelers and where they are.

they are playing balanced football on offense. their defense has come along. we had the steelers on thanksgiving night on nbc. i talked to mike tomlin that night. and he said, this year, anybody can win this thing. anybody can get hot. he liked where his health of his team was. he liked where they were playing. and i think, you know, aaron rodgers talked about running the table. pittsburgh has a team capable of running the table. i like them in that cold weather against miami. the other game, oakland and houston, we don't know what to expect. you got quarterback problems on both teams. and i really think oakland has a better team. but they've got to get used to playing that kind of smash mouth, ugly type football, with the backup quarterback. we had them on thursday night also, a couple of weeks ago, in kansas city. donald penn, their outstanding offensive tackle told us before the game, we can win games by running the ball. that's not the personality.

i like them to win that game. >> penn got hurt late in the raiders' game, as did matt mcgloin, the quarterback. a lot to digest when the playoffs get started. tony, thank you. the other side of the coin are the changes this time in the league. san diego's mike mccoy, and chip kelly, fired earlier this evening. and you reported that the broncos coach, gary kubiak, told his players he would retire. what's next for those three teams? >> i start with the 49ers. i'm told that the first order of business is to hire a general manager to replace trent baalke. and that gm will decide who the next coach is going to be. a process, two big steps for the 49ers. in san diego, now that we know coach mike mccoy is out, the next question, and arguably the bigger question, where will the chargers be in 2017? they have until january 15 to exercise an option to move to los angeles. important to know your coaching

candidates know what city they will be living and working on. they need to get that squared away. could be, that the chargers and the rams may be targeting some of the candidates. for the denver broncos, when gary kubiak was hired, he was the clear leader. this time around, i was told there's not a clear leader at the outset. and don't be surprised they try to find a coach that will keep in place a good defensive staff, including defensive coordinator, wade phillips, whose contract is expiring, mike. >> half dozen opening. who knows if there's another surprise down the line. busy night, packers win the division. 31-24. coming down to detroit, meeting the lions. al and cris will wrap things up from detroit after this. >> everybody, congratulations. nfc north champions, five times in the last six years. okay? that says a lot. eighth time in the playoffs, so forth and so forth. i can't tell you enough about that fourth quarter reminded me

so much of our season. so, outstanding. cross the first threshold. now, we're in the tournament. okay? congratulations. [ cheers and applause ] >> with good reason to celebrate for the packers, it will be a happy trip back. and the guys will get to seattle. seattle after this. zero really can be a hero. get zero down, zero deposit, zero due at signing, and zero first month's payment on select volkswagen models. right now at the volkswagen sign then drive event. not everyone speaks sriracha. sree-ra- cha? but when a fan says sriracha they want a sriracha chicken sandwich with sriracha jack cheese

sriracha infused aioli and a sriracha bun. wendy's spicy sriracha chicken sandwich, for a limited time. heineken has been family owned they know about family tradition.. my favorite family tradition? exchanging gifts. it allows me to showcase my tremendous range as an actor. ♪ what could this be? aww you shouldn't have ♪ i love it! ♪ i actually brought these myself. this guy's...is guy? been through a lot. dogs bring out the good in us. pedigree brings out the good in them. feed the good. i really did save hundreds on my car insurance with geico. i should take a closer look at geico...

geico has a long history of great savings and great service. over seventy-five years. wait. seventy-five years? that is great. speaking of great, check out these hot riffs. you like smash mouth? uh, yeah i have an early day tomorrow so... wait. almost there. goodnight, bruce. gotta tune the "a." (humming) take a closer look at geico. great savings. and a whole lot more. welcome back to "the volkswagen golf alltrack postgame report." here, now, al michaels and cris collinsworth. >> the packers win. they get the giants. detroit has to g on the road because they're the number six seed. a big mountain to climb, starting with mt. rainier, next week at seattle. the last time detroit won a playoff game was in the '91 season. that's when jimmy johnson had taken over in dallas. that was dallas' first time they had gotten into the playoffs in that era.

and detroit won the game. i think 38-6. lost eight playoff games in a row now. they go to seattle. what do you think? >> i don't know what to think anymore. neither one of these two teams are playing as well as they have at some point in the season. your natural thought is, in seattle, we know how tough that is. russell wilson has taken this team and won a super bowl championship, back to another one. but you just don't know. this is a detroit team that i think had a very tough assignment here tonight because of the fact they played on monday night, a tough loss there. got back tuesday morning. 6:00 in the morning, against a team that had a long week. now, they play across the country and play on saturday night. it wasn't get a lot easier. but that's a team that's shown a lot of heart all season. they have to show it again. >> and seattle, and tony was talking with mike a minute ago. about the fact they're not playing particularly well.

they had all they could handle to beat san francisco in santa clara today. appear to be more vulnerable than in the past couple of seasons. >> there were glimpses, tonight, of what i thought the lions' offense could be. when they got in the hurry-up offense right before the half and went right down the field, you know, because the one key for seattle is always the pass rush. and if you can get them trapped out on the field for a period of time and take advantage of that, like they did for that one moment here, maybe they have a shot to get a win. >> off we go. we will see you all from seattle, century link field, from detroit and seattle. final score here, 31, detroit 24. and that will wrap up the 2016 regular season. happy new year from detroit. al michaels, cris collinsworth, michele tafoya. our entire gang and all of the boys and girls of "sunday night football," saying good night from detroit.

the raiders are heading to

the playoffs as they lose the regular cease san finale to denver. oakland drops to the fifth seed in the afc and opens up against the houston texans in the wildcard round in houston on saturday at 1:30 california time. much more on the raiders much later in the show. welcome to xfinity sports sunday. i'm dave feldman. first, we start in santa clara where there's been a major shake-up. the gm and head coach are gone, fired today. chip kelly, out, relieved of his duties. balke joined in 2005. kelly just concluded his first year of a $24 million contract. the 9ers finished 2-14.

49ers ceo released the following statement. "i have informed trent and chip of my decision to pursue new leadership for our football team. these types of conversations are never easy, especially when you respect them personally and professionally. trent gave this organization every ounce of effort he had over the last 12 years and his contributions i will forever be grateful and his friendship to me and my family. i wish trent and his family the best future. chip has my gratitude for the job he did this year, navigating the team through adverse circumstances. i look forward to watch his career continue to unfold and wish him and jill great success in life. i felt the decision to change our football leadership was absolutely necessary. the performance of this team had not lived up to my expectations or those of our fans.

and that is truly disappointing. we all expected to see this team progress and develop as the season went on. but unfortunately, that did not happen. that is why now is the time to find a new direction for this team." joined by my co-host dennis brown, chip kelly, 2-14. they lost great players. there was a quarterback controversy. did he deserve to get fired? >> 2-14 as a head coach, that's what you put forward for the fans, for your owners, for your boss, yeah, i mean, he had an opportunity. he knew it was a tough deal when he came into it. he wasn't able to turn this team around. he brought in an offense that was very specific to what he needed as far as players, a quarterback, receivers. he didn't have it. was he given a fair shake? not really, but he knew it was tough going into it and he

didn't produce. and at the end of the day, it means not for long. if you cannot produce, you cannot produce. i assume he put his best foot forward. he was given a fair shake. the change had to come. you know, his roster was depleted, yes. he lost a lot of leadership on this football team, yes, but still it was two football games that he can only win this season, yes, it was time to make a change. >> what do you want to see happen next? >> well, i want to see the 49ers take their time. don't make a haste decision. don't just grab the first name you can get. take some time, do some research, get your head coach and two guys working for one common goal that he is to win football games. get an identity on this football team. get a direction, understand identity. get a head coach, get a general manager working together. >> thank you, dennis. >> you're welcome.

>> 49ers end the season 2-14, tied for worst franchise in history. it was 1970 that they had a season that bad. it was not as bad as the cleveland browns. they lost to the pittsburgh steelers which means they finished the team 1-14 which earns them the number one pick in the upcoming nfl drive. up next, bill will join me and we move to the raiders who are literally limping their way into the playoffs after a season-ending loss in denver. we've got all of the details. plus -- i'm peggy bunker. how 49ers fans are reacting to the firing of chip kelly and

trent balke. and the new year is proving to be dangerous. how a good samaritan helped save a life. that's next on nbc bay area news. with the xfinity tv app, anything with a screen is a tv. stream 130 live channels. plus 40,000 on demand tv shows and movies, all on the go.

you can even download from your x1 dvr and watch it offline. only xfinity gives you more to stream to any screen. download the xfinity tv app today.

welcome back. happy new year, bill. >> thank you. >> the raiders lost last week and this week was not very friendly either. raiders taking on the broncos. bill, he way overthrew it. >> yeah, he was a little strong here. he had him wide open, guaranteed touchdown. too bad he wasn't able to make that throw. >> and thing, bang, knocked out

of the game by that hit by jared. under two minutes left on the first half on the 3rd and 18th. the raiders cannot make a tackle 43 yards. >> that was the play to make right there at the line of scrimmage when he caught the ball. wasn't able to make it. ran for a touchdown. >> most of the action from the raiders in the first half was about michael crabtree going after it. he whips off the gold chain at one point. yikes. second half, insert connor cook, a rookie making his debut. not a great debut as he cost us the football. it led to another broncos score. because trevor finds a wide-open virgil green. late third quarter, cook bounces

back with his third career touchdown pass and finds cooper in the end zone. a nice job finding the pile-on. >> it was also a great throw for him to be able to get this ball, hit the pile-on. unbelievable play. we need more of these. >> cook's final line, 154 yards of touchdown and overthrowing michael rivera. three turnovers for the raiders and they lose the regular season finale, 24-6. with the raiders loss and the chiefs win, oakland plays houston at 1:30 california time on saturday. the raiders did beat houston earlier in the season in mexico city. bill, can the raiders, with or without cook advance in the playoffs? >> it's going to be tough but if you're going to do it, houston

would be a team you would want to play. you know, it was a tough game in mexico city. they were able to get the win but they had derek carr. and we don't know if they are going to have matt. if you go in with a rookie quarterback playoff game, you don't know what you're going to get. >> so the dropoff is substantial? >> absolutely. the only time this guy gets reffed is when there's a card in practice that says, okay, you're running a set. the receiver is going to run, hit the tight end on the seam. that's as much as he gets. so the drop in carr is not as severe to cook? >> absolutely. and on top of that, he's a rookie. >> raiders beat the texans in

mexico. we said that, 27-20 was the final score. how do these teams match up? >> what you have is you have a really strong defense in houston and you have maybe a not so strong defense with us but you have a strong offense if you have your top quarterbacks. but without the top quarterback, it's going to be a hard-fought game. we may have to change what we do and be a running football team. >> the coach del rio said we earned a spot in the playoff but didn't earn a bye and didn't earn a higher seed. this is one of the best teams they've had in quite some time and now may be down to their second, third, fourth string quarterback. >> the mind set is, everybody has to take care of their job going into the game and

everybody's got to be at their best. if you're going in with a rookie quarterback, then everybody has to raise their level, you know, across the board. it's just the way it goes. you're not going to have a rookie quarterback be able to come out and perform like a derek carr or matt. if you tone down the playbook, run the football, let them run a little play action, maybe you could put together, you know, an abbreviated game plan that will work for connor cook. >> anyway, cook just surprises everybody and has some crazy type of outstanding performance. can that happen from a rookie quarterback? >> i thought that was going to happen with matt. wishful thinking. so if it's connor cook, then connor cook is going to have to have a game of his life because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. >> and it's one and done.

you lose, you're out. time for our dodge player of the day brought to you by the dodge challenger. this car was made for driving. visit californiadodge.com to learn more. our head coach today is gary kubiak. he's retiring as a super bowl champion. the nfc playoff matchups are set and we'll look at the best, best plays, including frank gore. do you remember frank gore, bill? he's still playing. he's like 90 years old.

back to xfinity sports sunday. our play of the day brought to you by california water service.

frank gore is 33 years old. 33 years old. he's the oldest player to rush for a thousand yards in the season since 1984. frank gore can still play, still getting it done. congrats to him. all right. our play of the day, vikings and bears. zach dives and makes a catch in the end zone and gives it to the angel's outfielder. the eagles are winners. 27-13. vikings and bears, second quarter, third and goal with a trick play. wide receiver cameron meredith throws and finds a touchdown catch. his first career touchdown catch. i should hope so. but the bears lose 38-10. bills kicking off with the jets but for some reason, noah loses the football.

it's live and it's recovered for the touchdown. that summed up this game. jets win 30-10. bill, we have about a minute remaining. if oakland is to win at houston on saturday, what has to happen? >> well, they have to run for at least 200 yards. so they need to power running game with their three running backs to be clicking on all cylinders. the strength of this football team is their offensive line. they need to come through big. >> and if you were a gambling man and we were going to vegas, is the rookie quarterback going to get it done if he gets the nod? >> if billy musgraves really tones down the playbook, i think we will be fine. >> thank you, bill. happy new year. >> you got it. tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., a press conference talking about the general manager and head coach. thank you for watching. happy new year.