Wrapping Up: NFL Week 11
The NFL never disappoints. Week 11 of the NFL season was slated to be full of games nobody cared about for a variety of different reasons. The primary one being that the gap between the good and bad teams is as big as it has ever been, with just a few teams stuck in that mediocre purgatory. We had a slate that involved only five games where both teams had a winning record, yet the week was still as exciting as it always is. Football truly is undefeated.
Thursday Night
Seattle Seahawks 28 - Arizona Cardinals 21
A strange way to start the week. The game was decided by one score, it was relatively back and forth, and yet I really can’t decide if it was a good game or not. The Seahawks continued to look like the very flawed yet dangerous team they have appeared to be all season. The Cardinals on the other hand looked like the highly talented, yet young and raw team that they have looked like all season. The biggest long term implication deduced from this game was that neither of these two men will be winning the MVP award this season.
Sunday Morning
Washington Football Team 20 - Cincinnati Bengals 9
SAVE JOE BURROW. Also the NFC East sucks more than most things that exist.
New Orleans Saints 24 - Atlanta Falcons 9
It clearly was not just Dan Quinn. The Atlanta Falcons do not have any semblance of offense if Julio Jones is out of the game. They are a broken team. Maybe the Saints are just that good but I doubt it. Taysom Hill had a nice debut performance but this Atlanta defense isn’t exactly making anyone run scared. It remains to be seen if the Saints are actually an elite team, and if Taysom is a long term solution at quarterback.
Jacksonville Jaguars 3 - Pittsburgh Steelers 27
How else was this game going to go? The Steelers look like the second best team in the NFL right now and the Jaguars are bad at everything relating to the game of football. The score very accurately reflects the level of dominance that took place in this game. It may even be an understatement.
Houston Texans 27 - New England Patriots 20
Both of these teams were in the playoffs last year. Weirdly enough if you watched this game and by some miracle did not know the respective records of each team, you may even believe they were playoff teams this year as well. Both Cam Newton and Deshaun Watson looked like the QBs we have expected them to be all season. Unfortunately for the Patriots, this is seemingly where their playoff hopes died. There are just too many good teams in the AFC, and they don’t have the juice to make a run. Houston is a train wreck in its own right.
Cleveland Browns 22 - Philadelphia Eagles 17
This was not a five point game. The Browns dominated the vast majority of this game with little to no fanfare. Carson Wentz and the Eagles continue to look like an absolute nightmare of a team. They cannot score on offense, the defense is atrocious, and Doug Pederson consistently looks incompetant as a head coach of an NFL team. I have really tried to be on Carson’s side but it is just too difficult at this point. He is the new Jay Cutler, plain and simple. The NFC East just continues to be worse than most things that exist.
Carolina Panthers 20 - Detroit Lions 0
Oddly enough this score is worse than it looks. Detroit got absolutely smashed by the Panthers, who in general are the better team, but it had more to do with the Lions missing every single one of their key offensive weapons due to injury or Covid. The Lions didn’t stand a chance in this game and they absolutely looked the part.
Baltimore Ravens 24 - Tennessee Titans 30
The first of two overtime games, this was a weird one. Neither team looked great. The Ravens started off looking dominant then quickly faded as the game wore on. Meanwhile the Titans struggled to start with but picked up steam as the game continued. Lamar Jackson looks like a shell of his 2019 self, and Marquise Brown is in absolute shambles. Derrick Henry did what he does and got better as the game went along, including a very impressive 20+ yard run to score the game-winning touchdown in overtime. Both of these teams are kind of all over the place but if you make me pick which team I expect to go further come January, right now I would pick the Titans.
Indianapolis Colts 34 - Green Bay Packers 31
Aaron Rodgers will also not be winning MVP this season, despite his relatively strong early season case for it. The Packers are a Jekyll and Hyde team, in that they have these moments and games where they look primed to win the Super Bowl, and others where they look utterly inept. You kind of know what the Colts are going to give you on a night in night out basis, and there’s something to be said for that. The AFC South race is going to be very interesting as the season winds down. As for the NFC North, well that looks locked up no matter how shaky the Packers look night in, night out.
Sunday Afternoon
Denver Broncos 20 - Miami Dolphins 13
So after weeks of national praise for this up and coming Dolphins team, this is how they treat us? Tua Tagovailoa truly looked like a rookie starting his third game in the NFL, and the defense didn’t have the bite it normally does. Credit where credit is due, the Broncos and Vic Fangio came out with a defensive game plan that absolutely brutalized the rookie QB. Miami is better than this and Denver really is not this good. This is just one of those Any Given Sunday types of games.
Minnesota Vikings 28 - Dallas Cowboys 31
Cee Dee Lamb is a very good wide receiver. These are all of the positive things I have to say about the Dallas Cowboys. This game really is more of an indictment on the poor defense and decent QB play of the Vikings. Kirk Cousins had quite the good game statistically, and so did Dalvin Cook. The Vikings defense is truly that bad though. They gave up 180 yards on the ground and when you allow Andy Dalton to throw for three touchdowns, unless your offense is perfect you aren’t going to win that game. The Vikings won’t be sniffing the playoffs this year. The Cowboys are however, half a game out of the division lead in a three way tie for second place. Have I mentioned that the NFC East is one of the absolute worst things that exists in the known universe?
Los Angeles Chargers 34 - New York Jets 28
Justin Herbert is really good at football. Other than that, who cared about this game? The Chargers have exactly 127 fans in Los Angeles and the New York Jets are the worst team in football. Someone please save Trevor Lawrence from that nightmare of a situation.
Sunday Night
Las Vegas Raiders 31 - Kansas City Chiefs 35
The Raiders are a very good team this year. They have played the Chiefs harder than anyone has all season, twice. Unfortunately the upcoming MVP of the 2020 NFL season, Patrick Mahomes, was upset about that earlier match-up and felt justice had to be served. Derek Carr performed admirably and I do believe the Raiders will be a playoff team, but the Chiefs are the best team in football. I would bet the house on them to repeat as champions this year.
Monday Night
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24 - Los Angeles Rams 27
Tom Brady is very much over the hill. Anyone who watched him play consistently last year could have told you that. But some of these throws he is making are completely different. They are bad throws on poor decisions in crunch time. We have never really seen that from Tom Brady. The Los Angeles Rams however continue to stay hot. They have looked very good since the loss to the Miami Dolphins and in my opinion they look like the favorites to win the NFC West. Either way, three teams from that division are going to the playoffs, and the Rams will be one of them.