Drama came to define what we saw around the NFL world as the final quarter of the season kicked off Sunday. From the Cleveland Browns blowing their first real chance at a win this year to Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers coming through big time, we witnessed some tremendous games.
Blizzard-like conditions in Western New York couldn’t stop the Bills from remaining alive in the AFC Playoff race. And in sunny Southern California, two surprise playoff contenders did their best to keep up their strong performances. Meanwhile, a top MVP candidate fell victim to this season’s widespread injury bug.
These are among the top takeaways from Sunday’s Week 14 NFL action.
White Christmas in Buffalo
The scene at New Era Park in Western New York Sunday afternoon was seemingly out of this world. Snow everywhere to be found. Lake effect snow. Lights on at the stadium in the middle of the day. It really was something to behold.
But for the Bills, it was all about winning a game to remain alive in the AFC Playoff race. Tyrod Taylor was inactive with an injury. Rookie back Nathan Peterman suffered an injury himself. This forced Buffalo to rely on former wide receiver Joe Webb to move the ball in blizzard-like conditions against a last-place Colts team.
Riding the brilliant play of LeSean McCoy and one shady call from the officials on hand, Buffalo came away with a 13-7 overtime win to move to 7-6 on the season and remain alive in the playoff race. It was a winter wonderland, and the Bills found themselves gifted an amazing Christmas present as they look to earn their first playoff appearance since Bill Clinton was hanging in the White House.
Lewis’ Bengals meow in the face of a Bear
We’re not going to focus too much on how Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis should be fired. It’s like a broken record that’s been repeated over and over again in recent seasons. There’s really no reason outside of Lewis having compromising photos of the Bengals’ brass that he’s still the head coach.
Sunday’s 33-7 blowout home loss against a last-place Bears team has to be the final icing on the cake for both Lewis and quarterback Andy Dalton. Cincinnati found itself down just 12-7 at the half before Chicago outscored this team 21-0 in the final two quarters. It was just a disastrous overall scene at Paul Brown Stadium.
Those final two quarters saw Cincinnati out-gained 222-138. The Bengals’ possessions after halftime resulted in the following: Punt, interception, fumble, two turnovers on downs and end of game. This came against a Bears squad that had lost five consecutive games heading into Sunday’s action. That’s just embarrassing.
Raiders stumble to irrelevance
Oakland had an opportunity to move to 7-6 and remain in first place in the AFC West Sunday on the road against Kansas City. Instead of taking advantage of this opportunity, Jack Del Rio and Co. laid a complete egg.
Oakland racked up less than 100 total yards in the first half en route to falling down 16 points at intermission. Kansas City added 10 more points in the third to take a 26-0 lead heading into the fourth. And despite two garbage-time touchdowns to make the final score look respectable, the Raiders proved to the world what they were. Frauds.
It was a lack of any real substance on either side of the ball that did Oakland in here. Derek Carr put up 211 yards and two interceptions on 41 pass attempts. And the Raiders’ defense gave up north of 400 yards to Alex Smith and Co.
Technically, Oakland might still be alive in the AFC West race. Sunday’s loss equates to a season split with a Chiefs team the Raiders are now one game behind in the division. But the reality of the situation is much more bleak here. Oakland is not a contender. Del Rio himself has to be on the hot seat. And there’s definitely renewed questions about Carr’s ability to be a franchise quarterback.
How about them ‘Boys?
For the first three games of Ezekiel Elliott’s suspension, it sure looked like the Cowboys’ playoff hopes were a thing of the past. The team put up 22 total points during a three-game losing streak that threatened to define Dallas’ season.
Then, last week against a struggling Washington Redskins team, everything seemed to come together. Dak Prescott and Alfred Morris did damage on offense while the Cowboys’ defense forced four turnovers in a season-saving 38-14 win over Washington.
This week was going to be a bit different. While the Cowboys were again playing a lackluster division foe, most figured the New York Giants would be pumped up for this game after former head coach Ben McAdoo was fired and quarterback Eli Manning was reinserted into the lineup. That didn’t take hold.
With the game tied at 10 heading into the final stanza, Dallas woke up big time. It scored three unanswered touchdowns, two of which came on Prescott passes. Meanwhile, unheralded running back Rod Smith put up 160 total yards and two scores in a career-best performance. Now at 7-6 on the season and with just one more game to play without Elliott, the Cowboys’ playoff hopes are alive. Sunday’s 30-10 win over the hapless Giants guaranteed this.
Your first place Jacksonville Jaguars
Now, with three weeks remaining in the regular season, Jacksonville is alone in first place in the AFC South with a 9-4 record. It didn’t come without some drama and one ugly late-game scene, but these Jags clawed their way to a 30-24 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday afternoon in Duval.
More than anything, it was the league’s best defense that showed up big time here. Having thrown eight interceptions all season, Russell Wilson was picked off three times in the first three quarters. Two of those picks came deep in Jacksonville’s territory, likely taking points off the board in what ended up being a one-score Jaguars win.
Not to be outdone, Blake Bortles actually outplayed his counterpart in a big way here. Including a 75-yard touchdown pass to Keelan Cole, Bortles completed 18-of-25 passses for 268 yards and two scores in a mistake-free game from the always embattled signal caller. Now at 9-4, Jacksonville isn’t just a threat to win the AFC South, it really is a conference title contender. What a difference one season makes.
Steelers ride huge performances from stars to division title
Up 14-0 in the first quarter at home and in the midst of a seven-game winning streak, Pittsburgh had an opportunity to clinch the AFC North Sunday night. Then, the bad version of this previously inconsistent team came out in droves.
Whether it was the six penalties Pittsburgh committed for 101 yards or the 120 yards it allowed to Alex Collins on the ground, a whole heck of a lot went wrong here. Sure the officiating was questionable. But the Steelers’ lack of consistency showed up early and often here.
That’s when future Hall of Famers Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown put Pittsburgh on their backs to pull out an improbable 39-38 victory. Big Ben completed 44-of-66 passes for 506 yards and two scores. Brown himself caught 11 passes for 213 yards in what was an out of this world performance.
For Roethlisberger, he became the first quarterback in the Super Bowl era to cross the 500-yard threshold three different times. He did so while facing the real possibility of Pittsburgh choking away an opportunity to win the division Sunday night. Now by virtue of this win, the Steelers head into next week’s game against New England will a real opportunity to earn the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Oh, and they are now officially division champs.
Jimmy Garoppolo has the 49ers on a roll
It didn’t start out too great for the 49ers on Sunday in Houston. Making his second start as a member of the team, Garoppolo threw a first quarter interception and led his team to 63 total yards in its first four drives.
That’s when the 49ers and their new franchise quarterback got hot. San Francisco would ultimately score on its next five possessions to take a 23-16 lead into the final stanza. For his part, Garoppolo finished the day having completed 20-of-33 passes for 334 yards with a touchdown en route to helping the 49ers rack up 416 total yards in a 10-point win.
For the first time since midway through the 2014 season, San Francisco has won two consecutive games — both coming on the road with the team averaging north of 400 total yards per outing. It’s now about as apparent as it can be that Garoppolo is the franchise quarterback in San Francisco. That didn’t take too long.
Taking sadness to a new level
Sashi Brown wasn’t the bad luck charm for Cleveland after all. Holding a two touchdown lead in the fourth quarter at home on Sunday, the Browns let an Aaron Rodgers-less Packers team right back in the game. Ultimately, Green Bay scored two unanswered touchdowns to force overtime.
And in that extra stanza, Browns rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer threw an inexcusable interception to gift Green Bay the win. It was bad. Really, really bad. Check it out here. The loss — Cleveland’s 13th consecutive to open the season — set a new benchmark for futility around the NFL. It also came mere days after the Browns cleaned house by firing their former executive VP and replacing with a candidate from outside of the organization.
Not that it really matters. Sure Josh Gordon made a couple highlight-feel plays here. But the Browns now find themselves at 1-28 since Hue Jackson took over as head coach last season. At the very least, those fans of this factory of sadness can look forward to Hue manning the sidelines once again in 2018. Whether that comes following a winless 2017 campaign is the only thing even remotely interesting in Cleveland right now.
These Bolts are real
Who would have thought? After starting the season with four consecutive losses, the Chargers now enter the final three weeks tied with Kansas City for the top spot in the AFC West.
That was made possible Sunday after Los Angeles absolutely embarrassed Washington at home. The game really wasn’t close from the beginning, with the Chargers opening up a 13-0 first quarter lead. Continuing his dominating recent play, Philip Rivers threw for north of 250 yards in the first half alone, toying with Washington’s defense in the process (watch here).
When all was said and done, Los Angeles came out on top by the score of 30-13 for its seventh win in the past nine games and fourth consecutive victory. Not only are the Chargers legit playoff contenders, they could be extremely dangerous when the calendar flips to January.
Texans need to be investigated by the NFL
The NFL has a reputation for a reason. Too often, we’ve seen players remain in a game after seemingly suffering a concussion. Sunday against San Francisco, this was most definitely the case for Texans quarterback Tom Savage.
Here, you will see 49ers pass rusher Elvis Dumervil absolutely drill Savage in the first half of a game that ultimately ended in a San Francisco win. But the outcome of the game isn’t what we’re talking about. Instead, it’s the fact that Savage returned to the field mere minutes after there were obvious issues with his physical functions.
Savage would be ruled out for the remainder of the game after playing another possession. Even then, something is really fishy here. And it’s not like there isn’t a history with the Texans and concussions. Here’s more of a look at what went down Sunday in Houston with multiple previous incidents surrounding Savage included.
Uneven Panthers pull off huge win
It wasn’t the greatest all-around performance for Carolina. Cam Newton made one brutal mistake. He was hit four times and under pressure from the Vikings’ defense throughout the game. But at the end of the day, Carolina pulled off an absolutely monumental home win against a Minnesota squad that entered Sunday’s action with the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Riding a career-best three-touchdown performance from Jonathan Stewart and some ball-hawking defense, Carolina came out on top by the score of 31-24. The Panthers intercepted a previously red hot Case Keenum two times, held Vikings running backs to 60 rushing yards on 16 attempts and pretty much avoided the big play that had defined Minnesota’s eight-game winning streak heading into Week 14.
Now at 9-4 and following New Orleans’ loss to Atlanta on Thursday, the Panthers find themselves tied for first place in the NFC South once again. This seemed improbable, at best, mere weeks ago.
Eagles’ division title marred by Carson Wentz injury
This MVP front runner had thrown four touchdowns in less than three quarters of action against the Rams on Sunday. This enabled the second-year signal caller to break the Eagles’ single-season touchdown mark with 33. And all seemed to be right as the Eagles looked to win for the 10th time in 11 games, culminating in an NFC East title and a likely first-round playoff bye.
That’s when things went awry. Late in the third quarter, Wentz left the game with what was initially called a knee injury after this play. He was immediately ruled out for the remainder of the afternoon. And once the game came to an end with Nick Foles leading the division-clinching comeback, reports surfaced that the Eagles feared Wentz did in fact suffer a torn ACL.
While Philadelphia does find itself at 11-2 and favorites to land the first seed in the NFC, there’s no real reason to believe Foles can lead this team to Minnesota and Super Bowl LII. It’s just a devastating blow in a season that’s been full of devastating blows around the NFL.