The Tigers’ 22-18 win over the Patriots was definitely one of the craziest games in Week 16. Not only does it provide us with a lot of drama, but it also gives us a scrigami, a game that ends with a final score that has never happened in NFL history.
The Bengals led 22-0 at halftime and appeared to be in complete control, but then the Patriots got back into the game with three touchdowns in the second half. New England actually had a chance to win in the closing minutes, but Rhamondre Stevenson fumbled the ball inside the Bengals’ 5-yard line with less than a minute left to give Cincinnati the win.
Had the Patriots scored on their final drive, the game would have likely ended with a final score of 25-22, and it wouldn’t have been a scrigami, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the Tigers won 22-18, marking the first time in NFL history that a game ended with a precise final score.
As you can see above, this is the 1,075th unique final score in NFL history.
The Bengals’ win marks the third scrigami of the 2022 season. The first game of the year returned in Week 4, when the Seahawks beat the Lions 48-45. The second came in Week 13, when the Cowboys beat the Colts 54-19.
In the 2021 season, there will be a total of 6 scrigamis, but obviously as more final points are eliminated, scrigamis will be harder to come by, which is probably a big reason we haven’t seen that happen a lot this year.
This scrigami barely happened, and it definitely wouldn’t have happened had it not been for a day off for both teams of kickers. At the Patriots’ end, Nick Folk missed two extra runs, and had he hit one — or both — we probably wouldn’t have had a scrigami. As for the Bengals, Evan McPherson also missed two shots — a bonus and a field goal — and again, if he hit either of those, we probably wouldn’t get a scrigami.
If the kicker kicks, or if Stevenson doesn’t make a mistake in the last minute, the scrigami will almost certainly not happen, but the football gods want to see a Christmas miracle in the form of a scrigami, so that’s what we got.
For the Patriots, it was their first score since a 43-40 win over the Chiefs in Week 6 of the 2018 season. As for the Bengals, it’s been nearly a decade since they’ve been involved in scrigami. The last time Cincinnati scored was in a 37-37 tie with the Panthers in 2014.