If you’ve been looking at the Week 9 NFL scoreboard, you might have noticed that four of the league’s 13 games ended with the exact same final score.
The Chiefs, Vikings, Jets and Chargers all won 20-17 on Sunday, which is notable as it is the FIRST TIME in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) that four games have ended in the same end result in same week.
The crazy thing about any game is that the team that won was behind in the second half. Let’s take a quick look at how each game ended 20-17:
Chargers 20-17 via Falcons. The Chargers won that game, but only because the Falcons threw it away. With the game tied at 17, Austin Ekeler fumbled with less than a minute left and the Falcons rallied, which seemed to set the stage for a win in Atlanta. However, in most Falcons moves of all time, they fumbled away fumble recovery.
The Chargers kicked a field goal three games later for the win. That game included a missed field goal by the Falcons that likely would have prevented the final score from being 20-17.
Jets 20-17 via Bills. In the biggest upset of the day, the Jets got a 28-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein with 1:43 left that put them 20-17, and then they held for their lives. The Jets were actually down 14-10 at halftime and at that point it definitely didn’t look like a game they were going to win. As with the Falcons, there was a missed field goal (by the Bills) in this game that likely would have prevented the final score from being 20-17.
Vikings 20-17 over Commanders. With eleven minutes remaining, the Vikings were trailing 17-7 before making a wild comeback in the fourth quarter. The win was capped off by a 28-yard field goal from Greg Josephy with just 12 seconds to play.
Chiefs 20-17 over Titans (OT). The Chiefs were actually down 17-9 in the fourth quarter but turned that into a 20-17 win thanks to Patrick Mahomes, who scored another Mahomesian comeback. Mahomes scored a rushing touchdown with 2:56 left and then leveled the game by coming in on two-point conversion. The Chiefs got the ball OT first and a TD would have won the game, but the Titans limited them to a field goal to preserve the 20-17 result.
If there’s a bottom line played four times in a week, it definitely makes sense that it’s 20-17. According to the Pro Football Reference, this happens to be the most common bottom line in NFL history. It has happened a total of 281 times, which is insane considering no other final score has even happened 230 times.
If you’re wondering what the rarest Week 9 result was, that would be Detroit’s 15-9 win over the Packers. Including this game, that final score has only happened four times in NFL history. The craziest thing about this fact is that the Lions have now been the winning team in two of those four games.