12 Thoughts from Sunday's Week 14 Games
The Cowboys blew out the Eagles 33-13 on Sunday night to move into first place in the NFC East. This was their 8th win by 20 points or more this season. Only 3 other teams have done that in the Super Bowl era. Each reached the Super Bowl.
The 1-man show that is Josh Allen went into Kansas City and got a win against the Chiefs. The Kadarius Toney offsides penalty to call back what would have been the go-ahead touchdown has taken up most of the attention after the game. But the Chiefs’ continued struggles on offense should be the main story. I said a couple of weeks ago that they aren’t a finished product and will continue to get better as January approaches. I don’t know if I can make the same statement now. It’s December. There isn’t much time left in the season. The same issues hurting this team in Week 1 are hurting them in Week 14. Something is off, and the Chiefs are running out of time to fix it.
The Broncos beat the Chargers 24-7 and are now within a game of Kansas City in the AFC West. The Chargers, on the other hand, lost Justin Herbert to a broken finger, which could finish his season. What a disappointing year it’s been for this team top to bottom.
We still have 4 weeks before the playoffs begin, but the Lions have one-and-done written all over them, don’t they? They’ve allowed an average of 30+ points over their last 4 games, and the old Jared Goff has made a few too many appearances. They need to get things corrected during the home stretch here. That won’t be easy as they play 4 teams very much in the playoff hunt.
The Ravens pulled out an exciting 37-31 OT win against the Rams to keep pace at the top of the AFC, but my big takeaway from the game was how well Matthew Stafford played once again. He’s thrown 10 TDs and 1 INT over his last 3 games, and the Rams have scored more than 30 points in all three. The offense is starting to look like it did in 2021. For the sake of exciting football, let’s hope they find a way to sneak into the playoffs.
After a rough first game against the Steelers two weeks ago, the Bengals offense with Jake Browning has looked an awful lot like….the Bengals offense with Joe Burrow. In his last two games, he’s completed over 80% (!) of his passes for 629 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, and a 119.2 QB rating. He’s also rushed for 2 TDs and the Bengals have scored 34 points in both games.
Speaking of back-up AFC North quarterbacks (or 4th string quarterbacks?), how about Joe Flacco? He’s thrown for 5 TDs and 565 yards in 2 games since joining the Browns. I’ve been saying all season that if Cleveland could get anything out of the quarterback position, they could be the team to watch make a surprise run in the playoffs because of that defense. A guy like Flacco (who has a Super Bowl MVP under his belt) can certainly be the catalyst for a run in January.
Just as we all predicted, Zach Wilson out-dueled C.J. Stroud in a battle of #2 overall picks, and the Jets scored 30 points in the second half to beat the Texans by 24. Wilson completed 27 of 36 passes for 301 yards, 2 TDs, and 0 INTs. It was pretty easily his best game as a pro, and it came against a good team in bad weather conditions during a week of turmoil as difficult as any he’s faced in his 3-year career. Maybe he needs a chip on his shoulder to play well? We’ll see if he can build off of this moving forward.
I don’t think the 49ers played a great game against the Seahawks. They weren’t methodical and exacting like they were a week ago in Philadelphia. Their big-play ability more than made up for it, though. San Francisco finished with 4 plays over 40 yards. They can win in so many ways.
In a showdown for temporary first place in the NFC South, the Buccaneers beat the Falcons 29-25 on the strength of a last-second touchdown drive led by Baker Mayfield. Could the 6-7 Buccaneers win the division with a losing record two seasons in a row?
The Saints also moved to 6-7 with a 28-6 win over Carolina. Panthers QB Bryce Young completed just 13 of 36 passes for 137 yards. He needs this season to end in the worst way.
The Vikings won 3-0 over the Raiders. That’s all I have to say about that.