We all have our complaints about the NFL, some of them centered on owners, players, or Roger Goodell. But as we wrap up Week 11, my main feeling is gratitude for these guys pressing ahead and playing out the season. Obviously it's a plus for me professionally, but personally I'm really glad we've had a bunch of great games each week. The Fall would have been a lot less enjoyable without the NFL.
Bengals at Football Team: Season-ending (according to the quarterback himself, and yes it's a torn ACL) knee injury for Joe Burrow in this game. That was it for the Bengals offense from that point forward. Got some nice numbers from Tyler Boyd, but unlikely we're going to see many touchdowns from Ryan Finley, which is bad news for pretty much everyone connected with the offense. And Joe Mixon on IR. Bengals might be packing up the tents and thinking about 2021, essentially if not literally. Washington, nice game from Antonio Gibson, team very much alive to win the NFC East. More than half of their receiving yards from Terry McLaurin, as is proper.
Falcons at Saints: So nice game for Taysom Hill whether you were starting him as a quarterback or a tight end. And Michael Thomas had his best game of the season. Alvin Kamara had a rushing score, saving him from a terrible day, in which he didn't catch a pass and Hill rushed in two scores. Rough game for Matt Ryan, with Calvin Ridley returning but Julio Jones missing a large chunk of the game due to injury. I'm not exactly sure why Hayden Hurst didn't catch a pass. I saw him running routes at least some, but either Ryan was looking elsewhere, he wasn't separating -- disastrous game. Just one fewer catch than Jared Cook, at least. But nothing doing for the Atlanta offense. As for Hill, kind of looks like he might be starting the rest of the way.
Steelers at Jaguars: Nothing to see here. Steelers all have a good game, frustrating only in the sense that James Conner had a good game but got vultured for a score by Benny Snell, as has happened before. And JuJu Smith-Schuster got left out of the fun, which happens time and time again when you've got three good wide receivers -- someone gets snubbed. Diontae Johnson, yet another good game: if he's healthy, he's been great all along. The Jake Luton era is probably going to come to an end if Gardner Minshew is healthy next week, but let's cut Luton some slack. Tough defense, nothing surprising about him struggling. About the best you could hope for from James Robinson.
Patriots at Texans: Kind of a weird one by the Patriots, with Damien Harris running well early but they got away from it and started passing a ton. Part of it was that they couldn't get any pressure on Deshaun Watson, who was the best player on the field all game. All around good game for Watson and his receivers, Randall Cobb left with an injury. New England ended up with strong passing numbers (Houston's terrible against the run but not much better against the pass), but nobody started Damiere Byrd who led the way. Rex Burkhead left with an injury that appeared to be significant, which propels James White back to more relevance going forward.
Eagles at Browns: Browns defense was the easiest ranking of the week, even after Myles Garrett was ruled out. I'm not sure what is going through Carson Wentz's head on some of these throws, like the floater that went for a Pick Six. He had another pick in the end zone overturned. Nice game, finally, for Dallas Goedert, probably on a lot of benches. Travis Fulgham is fading out of the offense lately, but it's not hard to blame his misfiring quarterback. Miles Sanders also not covering himself in glory: two drops last week, a lost fumble early in this one. Nick Chubb got the yards, Kareem Hunt the touchdown; the score came after a long Chubb run and I think he was just getting a breather for a moment, but disappointing -- a week after he gave up a touchdown, see man you gotta take those when you get them!
Lions at Panthers: Anybody get a license plate from the truck that ran over Detroit. I guess if you take away three of Matthew Stafford's top targets he's not going to do very well. And just maybe the thumb injury on his throwing hand was a factor. Many probably watched and enjoyed P.J. Walker in the XFL last year, so nice to see him do well in his first NFL start. Great for his receivers, all of whom caught 7-8 passes, and also Mike Davis. It wasn't perfect (a couple of end-zone interceptions, including one where the DB looked like the wide receiver -- I have no idea who he was throwing to), but hey, first start coming out of a defunct league, props to the Panthers coaching staff for this one. Not sure he'll be long-lasting (that's a bad Lions defense), but he was impressive. Minimal numbers from the better Lions options (Hockenson, Jones). Poor from Adrian Peterson, with Detroit falling well behind early.
Titans at Ravens: Highlight for Baltimore were Mark Andrews with a strong game, and J.K. Dobbins with featured-back usage, finally. If they send out that three-man backfield with Mark Ingram and Gus Edwards in the next game, I'll give up. Marquise Brown went bust, though he was open for a longer touchdown only to have Lamar Jackson miss him. Great matchup, they couldn't take advantage. Baltimore looked like it might control this game early on, but the Titans hung around, then won in overtime on a Derrick Henry TD run (natch). The A.J. Brown tackle-breaking touchdown catch that gave Tennessee a late lead was one of the cooler plays you'll see, steamrolling defenders on the way into the end zone. Lessens the drama of Steelers-Ravens on Thanksgiving.
Jets at Chargers: Another big game for Justin Herbert and all his receivers. Matchups count for a lot, but it's an incredible rookie season from a guy who wouldn't necessarily have started for several more weeks (or more?) but for a doctor puncturing Tyrod Taylor's lung. I'll spare a moment to discuss Kalen Ballage. Catching 7 passes helps when you don't look good running it. For the Jets, not sure what happened with Jamison Crowder, but with New York having three capable, healthy wideouts and Joe Flacco passing for about 200 yards, that's what you get. So much for featuring Lamical Perine coming out of the bye; Frank Gore had twice as many carries. Jets worked the run for 24 carries in this one, unusual when you're trailing by two scores for most of it.
Dolphins at Broncos: Apparently Tua Tagovailoa was benched; that's the word from Brian Flores. I saw him get crumpled in a sack where his knee and ankle seemed to bend awkwardly, then I saw Ryan Fitzpatrick finish the game out while Tua stood on the sidelines. (Can't they at least get these players masks with team logos on them?) Fitzpatrick didn't make a strong case to start by throwing the game-ending end-zone pick where he didn't see the safety coming across to make a great play, and Flores says Tagovailoa will start next week. Neither quarterback played well; but for a goal-line fumble by Melvin Gordon, Broncos would have won this one fairly easily, which is not a strong endorsement of either, or the Dolphins in general. Flores clearly isn't concerned about his rookie passer's confidence. I don't know, I guess I miss the days of head coaches and their quarterbacks being close, ala Holmgren-Favre or some of the other good pairings over the years. Decent/good games for Parker and Ahmed, big game for Tim Patrick.
Cowboys at Vikings: So the Vikings were my son's Survivor Pool entry. At this point in the season the choices are slimmer (I was able to use the Chargers, he wasn't). We also considered the Browns and Kansas City. But he took the Vikings, and got bounced, along with nearly half the pool. On the bright side, nearly half the pool got knocked out, on the other hand I/we have only one entry. Not surprising this was a back-and-forth game what with neither defense being very good, and that was the Andy Dalton we thought we'd see from the start. Can't write off Dallas (or anyone) in the lowly NFC East. Couple of great touchdown catches in this game by CeeDee Lamb and Adam Thielen (one of two), plus a score for Jefferson and good games from both running backs. Enjoyable game if you didn't care who won I suppose.
Packers at Colts: I like Philip Rivers, so I'm glad to see him win a couple of big games lately after looking totally washed for a lot of the season's first half. I'm sure he'll have a bad game eventually (there was a controversial play where the Packers appeared to score a fumble return touchdown but it was changed to an incomplete pass) and the calls for Jacoby Brissett will start up again, but a nice couple of weeks for Rivers. Cool long touchdown for Michael Pittman, that's a couple of really good weeks in a row there. Nyheim Hines had a touchdown catch wiped out by an iffy holding penalty. Usual good numbers for Davante, touchdown for both Packer running back, and even Robert Tonyan caught back in on the fun. Marquez Valdes-Scantling had a huge play (a deep ball to set up Green Bay's tying field goal in the final seconds) but then lost a fumble, and the game, in overtime. Some weird clock management by both teams at the end of regulation. Bad beat for Packers fans.
Kansas City at Raiders: Major takeaway for me from this one is that the Jon Gruden Raiders are finally legit. Yes, they lost, and their defense is still pretty terrible. But they had the Super Bowl champs on the ropes after winning the earlier meetings. They've got some things to fix still, but kudos to Gruden, Derek Carr and Las Vegas. For Kansas City, really nice game for Clyde Edwards-Helaire, and the obvious ones. I couldn't construct a single-game lineup that featured Mahomes, Kelce and Hill within the salary cap, but that's the way to go more often than not. Solid for Nelson Agholor, as well (just a yard short of a second touchdown at one point).
Monday, Monday: I can't help thinking that Jared Goff is going to have a lot of problems with the Bucs defense tonight. No Andrew Whitworth, and it's a just a fast, dangerous defensive front. I think Sean McVay is going to need to come up with a lot of clever stuff to help Goff and the offense have a good game. Maybe it winds up with some decent scoring, but these are two really good defenses, and I suspect it will be more of that kind of game. Bucs 24, Rams 16.