We all sat back on Thanksgiving preparing for what looked to be a holiday filled with great football games. Unfortunately, we got three one-sided matchups instead.
From Detroit’s blowout win over Jay Cutler and the Bears to the San Francisco 49ers putting up their worst single-game performance since the Mike Singletary era, there didn’t seem to be much intrigue in Thursday’s slate of games.
There are, however, two things we can take out of the action. The Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks put themselves firmly in the conversation with the top teams in the NFL. Meanwhile, the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys took major hits as it relates to their playoff hopes.
Here are five takeaways from Thursday’s NFL action.
1. Detroit Lions Will Make the Playoffs by Beating Bad Teams
Matthew Stafford may be 0-16 in his career when playing on the road against winning teams, but he sure knows how to win against bad teams. This was on full display Thursday against the Chicago Bears. Stafford completed for 390 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions in a 34-17 victory. With this win, Stafford and the Lions are 8-4 on the season and clearly in line for one of the two wild card spots in the NFC.
And while Stafford has struggled against winning teams throughout his career, three of Detroit’s final four games are against teams currently under .500. With wins against those squads (Tampa Bay, Minnesota and Chicago), the Lions will find themselves in the postseason for the first time since 2011.
2. Dallas Cowboys May be in Trouble
Following a 33-10 home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, these Cowboys are one game back in the NFC East and currently in a tie with Detroit for the first wild card spot. From the start, it was complete and utter domination from Chip Kelly’s Eagles. Tony Romo was intercepted twice, Dallas turned the ball over a total of three times and DeMarco Murray put up a substandard 73 yards on 20 attempts.
Defensively, Dallas was able to tighten up in the red zone, but that doesn’t change the fact that this unit gave up 26 first downs and nearly 500 yards of total offense. That’s just not acceptable for a defense that was playing excellent football in the first half of the season.
Now a full game behind Philadelphia with another road outing remaining against the division leaders, Dallas might have to really start turning its attention to the wild card. Thankfully for Romo and Co., they hold the tiebreaker over the eight-win Seattle Seahawks and have two games remaining against opponents currently under .500. With that said, Dallas is nowhere near the lock to make the playoffs that it was just a few short weeks ago.
3. No Worries in Philadelphia as Eagles Inch Closer to the Playoffs
Two more wins will probably get the Eagles into the playoffs after they manhandled the Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving. And with games coming up against Washington and the Giants to close the season, this seems like a real likelihood.
The larger question moving forward will be whether Mark Sanchez can be the guy to lead Philadelphia to the Super Bowl. If the Eagles don’t think so, will they turn to Nick Foles once he returns from injury? For his part, Sanchez has played pretty well in Foles’ stead, including an outstanding performance against Dallas on Thursday.
4. Trouble by the Bay
The San Francisco 49ers are in real trouble. A full game out of the playoffs with four remaining and coming off the worst performance of the Jim Harbaugh era, there is a real chance that this team doesn’t even make it to the postseason.
Colin Kaepernick absolutely stunk it up throughout the night, finishing with 121 yards and two interceptions (both to Richard Sherman) in the 19-3 loss. But that really doesn’t even begin to tell his story. For one night, Kaepernick regressed to the point where he looked like a rookie signal caller out there. And if the 49ers want to have a chance at earning a playoff spot, he needs to pick his game up big time.
With that said, it’s so much more than Kaepernick. The 49ers don’t have an identity on offense, the play-calling is absurdly bad, and the frustration appears to be boiling over. Simply put, the 49ers are not a playoff team right now. And in reality, that could cost some people their jobs. 49ers owner Jed York apologized to the team’s fan base after the humiliating defeat, and he had every right to. This isn’t the standard of football that Jim Harbaugh set when he took over as the head coach in 2011.
5. The Seattle Seahawks are Back
I was having a conversation with a Seahawks fan for a bit during the game on Thursday night. He didn’t know what the team could take out of this performance because of how bad San Francisco played. I will tell him (and other Seahawks fans out there), they can take a whole heck of a lot out of this performance. After all, there is a reason why the 49ers looked so bad.
Moving forward and after two solid performances, Seattle may be on the verge of calling itself the top contender to get back to the Super Bowl. Its defense has been downright filthy since a Week 11 loss to Kansas City, allowing a total of six points in two games.
No matter how much Seattle’s offense might struggle moving forward, its defense is more than capable of picking up the slack. Over the past two weeks, this is a team that is playing Super Bowl-caliber defense. And that might be what it takes to come out of the NFC this year.
Photo: USA Today