NFL: 5 Week 11 Thoughts

 I gotta say, after watching the Raptors deliver a signature victory last night, it's kind of hard to jump back into football. I kid, third win of the season it's been rough so far but as I've pointed out many times I think it's still been a fairly positive season despite the record. That's not why we're here, what a great week of football with some huge marquee matchups to digest! As usual, I have thought 5 things about it and here they are: 

Josh Allen is our Hero

I could watch that highlight of Josh Allen, a QB, rumbling down the field and dropping his shoulder into DBs for a long rushing TD to ice the game against the once undefeated Chiefs a million times and never get bored. That was obviously the highlight play, but Allen turned out a remarkably clutch performance to beat a team that hadn't been beaten since Christmas of 2023. With about 4 minutes to go, The Bills had the ball near mid field up 23-21 and were forced into a 3rd and 9. Josh Allen delivered a dart to Khalil Shakir for a 10 yard game to extend the drive. The Bills were able to chew 2 more minutes of clock to set up a 4th and 2 at the 26 yard line. People who know me know that I am a big believer in kicking the field goal and taking the points, but the situation matters here. Up 2 points against the boogeyman Patrick Mahomes with 2 minutes left, kicking the field goal keeps it a 1 possession game. Bills fans have seen that movie against the Chiefs far too many times, don't give Mahomes a chance to kill you. Still, risky play call deciding to go for it on 4th and 2 but oh boy did it ever work out. As said above, Josh Allen ends up rumbling for a 26 yard run to the house to all but ice the game. 

I understand that the numbers right now, even after a stinker from Lamar on Sunday, say that Lamar Jackson has been having a better season than Josh Allen. But I think this game from Allen might have pushed him slightly ahead in the MVP race. Allen gives Buffalo what they need week in and week out. Coming into the season analysts were calling this a retooling year for the Bills where they might be decent but not great. Allen has taken it upon himself to blow through those expectations and drag this Bills team to 9-2, defeating the defending champs in the process. Allen has had great playoff performances only to be met by even better performances by Mahomes when the lights are brightest. Could this be a preview of the AFC championship game? Could Allen finally bring this team over the hump? My heart after this one is saying yes.

Are the Bengals the Milwaukee Bucks of Football?

Early in the NBA season but fun parallel to draw. I mentioned Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen as MVP candidates now late in the NFL season, but Joe Burrow's numbers are better than either of those guys, he just isn't winning. Similarly in the NBA, Giannis Antentokoumpo leads the league in scoring on insane efficiency, yet the Bucks are just 5-9. Both teams can light it up with their high end talent on offense, both teams give it all back with their limited talent on defense. Both teams came into the season with title aspirations and both teams now are reconsidering their season goals. Ok it's too early to burry the Bucks, but still. Anyway, the Bengals lost yet another game where Joe Burrow was amazing. After getting down 21 points early, the Bengals came storming back to tie the game at 27 a piece behind remarkable performances from Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. Late in the fourth quarter, Burrow set the Bengals up beautifully not once but twice for potential go ahead field goals, both were missed by their kicker McPherson. Ultimately, Justin Herbert was able to clinch the game in the dying seconds with a great sideline completion setting up a long game winning TD run to ice the Bengals playoff hopes once and for all. 

As a Steelers fan, I am a noted Bengals hater, but this is just getting sad. They finally have a franchise QB, playing absolutely out of his mind, and they can't put together a defense and coaching staff that will lead him to victories. Casual fans will be piling on Burrow for this disaster of a Bengals season but I think that's totally unfair. As we've seen with their fire power, despite their record they can hang with any team in the league. Luckily for me, we won't have to watch that come January. See ya Bengals!

The 49ers are in Trouble

Hi Quin. The San Francisco 49ers just dropped another massive game to a division rival to drop them to 5-5 on the season. This one was massively important for both teams, and even more so for Seattle who needed a victory to keep their season alive. The Seahawks hadn't beat the 49ers since 2021 and coming into the Bay wasn't going to be an easy task. With just over 2 minutes to play, the Seahawks got the ball back on their own 20 yard line down 4  points. Geno Smith managed to march them down the field in an 11 play drive and scored the winning TD with his legs with time expiring, essentially saving the Seahawks season. The big turning point in this one was Bosa exiting the game after the first half with a hip pointer. This got the Seahawks offense going and they scored their only 2 TDs in the second half with the star pass rusher sidelined. Unfortunately, this has been pretty much the story of the 49ers seasons, tons of talented players dropping like flies every game. 

The 49ers aren't dead yet, they still are talented and have McCaffrey back in the backfield which should help a lot. The division isn't out of reach too with the 6-4 Cardinals currently sitting at the top well within striking distance. Still, going now 1-3 in the division is a big hole to climb out of in what is now looking like a tight race. The 49ers have some big tests now too going on the road to face the Packers and Bills in the next 2 weeks. If they drop either one of those, this is the type of game you look back on at the start of the season and kick yourself for dropping it. 

Is Anthony Richardson Back? 

Or are the Jets just a joke? I have mentioned on this blog before that the Jets are in fact a joke, but I don't think that should takeaway from a huge bounce back performance from the young QB. After being benched for Joe Flacco the last 2 weeks due to poor performance, Richardson reclaimed his starting role this week and did so with a bang. Richardson ended up with 272 yards on 20/30 with 3 total TDs, an elite performance. Most importantly, with around 2 minutes to go and the Colts down 5 Richardson led his team on a 70 yard drive capped by his second rushing TD of the day to put the Colts on top and ultimately win them the game. Really rough start for Anthony Richardson this season, it's good to see him shake it off and deliver his team a victory, even if it's against the Jets. 

On the other hand, holy smokes the Jets stink. After signing Aaron Rodgers fans thought things would be different. It turns out, you can put anyone you want in a Jets jersey at the end of the day they're still the Jets. Ultimately this game was probably between 2 teams that don't have many playoff hopes, but if you're a Colts fan you're happy to see some flashes of a potential franchise QB after being demoralized for most of the season. 

Fine, I'll Talk About the Lions Again

I am really trying to not talk about the same teams every week, but it seems like I've kind of narrowed down the teams I enjoy and the teams I enjoy hating. The Lions definitely fall into the former category, they just delivered an absolute whooping of the Jags to move to 9-1 on the season. Not much to takeaway from the game itself, name a Lion and he went crazy, but I wanted to talk about the team as a whole this season. So far the Lions lead the NFL in point differential sitting at a massive +159. That would mean that on average, the Lions beat their opponents by nearly 16 points per game! The largest point differential in NFL history was set by the undefeated Patriots in 2007 at +315 in just a 16 game season. This is going to be hard to catch even with the extra game, but if the Lions can turn out another performance like this or two we might be needing to have the conversation. 

Through 11 weeks, the Lions are now first in total points, despite playing 1 fewer game than second place Baltimore. They are 4th in points against (behind my Steelers at 2nd lets go) and 4th in takeaways. In every aspect of the game the Lions are killing it. Until last year there's never been a good Lions team in my lifetime, and this one is looking like it might be the best team in football. The playoffs are a different animal, but the Lions have shown this season that they can win in any way you can imagine. If the Steelers don't win it all this year, I would want nothing more than to see the Lions at the top of the mountain. 

And that is week 11! Season is just flying by. I never get to mention the Steelers in these because I always do a recap the day before, but if we're being real, the Steelers are also one of the best teams in football. We get to see them early this week in the Thursday nighter against the Browns. Shall I rearrange my usual schedule and write a recap on Friday? Time will tell. Go Steelers, go Raptors.