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Blogging the Boys
Cowboys playoff picture: Dallas picks up some, but not much, help in Week 14
Week 14 sort of stunk for the Dallas Cowboys. There were eight total things we were rooting for relative to the NFC side of things and only three of them went our way.
The bulk of the reason why we were rooting against the teams that we were was to eliminate would-be threats to NFC Wild Card positions so as to open up more opportunity for the Cowboys. It is certainly helpful that both the Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals lost, but Green Bay’s defeat hardly helps in the same way. The Packers seem assured to take home at least one of the top Wild Card spots, if the Cowboys are going to squeeze themselves into this thing it is likely going to be as the final one.
Even though Arizona and Atlanta lost in Week 14 other Wild Card contenders in the Rams, 49ers and (to a lesser degree) the Saints all won. The Cowboys have a chance to pull even with Atlanta, Arizona and San Francisco on Monday night before heading to Carolina next Sunday.
Obviously (as noted) the Cowboys have dug themselves quite the hole to pull themselves out of this season, but if they can continue to stack wins then it is possible that enough chaos will unfold around them to make this a legitimate conversation.
The Cowboys will visit the Panthers next Sunday. It is possible that a week from today we are talking about a .500 football team. There is a bit to go between now and that hypothetical, but again things can happen quickly.
Big Blue View
5 things we learned from the Giants’ 14-11 loss to the Saints
Another “banner” performance at MetLife
There’s a reason Drew Lock is not an NFL starting QB
Lock started two games for the Seattle Seahawks last year. In the first he went 22 of 31 for 269 yards, two TDs, and twoINTs in a loss to a San Francisco team that almost won the Super Bowl. The following week he went 22 of 33 for 208 yards and a TD… at the end of a game-winning drive against Philadelphia. As a sophomore starter in Denver he threw for 2,933 yards and 16 TDs – not starting caliber, but surely good enough to be a backup quarterback. He even looked OK starting for the Giants against Dallas, getting them to within a touchdown of being able to tie the game late in the fourth quarter.
That Drew Lock was nowhere to be seen today. He looked flustered from the opening snap, was inaccurate on most of his passes (21 of 49 with and interception), and made multiple poor decisions, none more blatant than when he took off scrambling on third down, had a lane in front of him to get the first down, and inexplicably veered right after a few yards, right into a cluster of defenders.
The interior defensive line wasn’t awful
No Dexter Lawrence, no Rakeem Nunez-Roches, no D.J. Davidson today on an interior defensive line that wasn’t all that great when they were out there. Instead, it was Elijah Chatman, Jordon Riley, Elijah Garcia, Cory Durden, and Casey Rogers. Oof.
It wasn’t terrible, though. The Saints finished with 92 yards rushing on 33 caries, a 2.8 yards per carry average. The Saints’ longest run of the day was 16 yards. Derek Carr was OK, 20-of-31 for 219 yards and 1 TD, but not great – he’s exceeded that five times this season.
The Giants did not lose this game because they couldn’t stop the Saints’ offense. They lost it because Drew Lock couldn’t move the offense through the air.
Bleeding Green Nation
NFL Week 15 odds: Eagles open as home favorites against Steelers
The Battle of Pennsylvania approaches.
The Philadelphia Eagles opened as 4.5-point home favorites in their Week 15 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, according to FanDuel.
This is a “something’s gotta give” matchup.
Barring a tie, one of the following two things will happen:
1) The Eagles will beat Russell Wilson for the first time EVER (0-6 against him).
2) The Steelers will win in Philadelphia for the first time since 1965.
This figures to be a competitive matchup. The Steelers are 10-3 overall and 6-1 with Wilson under center. The sole Wilson loss was a five-point road defeat to the Cleveland Browns in that snowy Thursday night game.
NFL.com
2024 NFL season, Week 14: What We Learned from Sunday’s games
Saints at Giants
Shorthanded Giants hung tough but offense took too long to get going. Drew Lock rallied the Giants late, scrambling for 59 yards, also throwing for 146 yards in the fourth quarter alone, but their late comeback attempt came up just short, running their losing streak to eight and falling to the bottom of the NFL standings (tied with the Raiders) with two wins. That’s now eight straight losses at MetLife, including all seven this season. Lock struggled early, completing only 6 of 19 passes for 52 yards and a tough intentional grounding flag in the first half. He used his legs well and put the Giants in a position to tie the game late, but Lock also had 28 incompletions. Some of those were dropped passes – at least four on the day – and the pass protection wasn’t great, with Joshua Ezeudu and Evan Neal under fire most of the game. It was a very uneven offensive performance, with the run game slowed down and the Giants committing 12 penalties total, half of them on offense. Two late pre-snap penalties, a delay of game and a false start, derailed two different drives. Lock’s fourth-down pick with less than two minutes to go also killed a great late chance. The Giants came up empty on 11 of their 13 possessions Sunday.
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Raiders QB Aidan O’Connell carted off field in loss to Buccaneers after injuring knee
“It doesn’t look good,” coach Antonio Pierce said after the game of O’Connell’s knee injury.
O’Connell left the game 11-of-19 passing for 104 yards and an interception. Ridder was 12 of 18 for 101 yards and led a field goal drive in relief.
Week 1 starter Gardner Minshew is out for the season after suffering a fractured collarbone last month.
NFL.com
Questions on Kirk Cousins’ future intensify as struggles continue in Falcons’ loss to Minnesota
Cousins returned to Minnesota for the first time and, no, the reunion did not feel so good. Two more interceptions, no touchdown passes, a 42-21 loss for the Falcons, their fourth in a row, which sank them below .500 and out of first place in the NFC South.
It was a raw display of why the Vikings were reluctant to make a longer-term commitment to Cousins, as he was coming off an Achilles tear, last offseason, why they were more comfortable going forward with a one-year flyer on a retread who was teetering dangerously close to journeyman territory. Darnold, with five touchdown passes and a 157.9 quarterback rating, led the Vikings to their sixth straight win, and in the process put on a display of all the things Cousins is not doing, maybe can no longer do, with consistency.
[I]t is…becoming clearer that the Falcons have a Kirk Cousins problem, and part of it is of their own making. As soon as they selected Michael Penix Jr. in the first round – a decision that shocked Cousins and just about everyone outside of the Falcons’ draft room — the questions began about what the Falcons would do if Cousins struggled, not an entirely unexpected possibility considering the severity of his 2023 injury. Well, he is struggling — during the four-game skid, he hasn’t thrown a single touchdown pass but has eight interceptions — and those questions are only getting more pointed and more insistent.
On Sunday, the answer from head coach Raheem Morris was not yet.
Cousins was brought to Atlanta to elevate them, not to need the elevation himself. The question that will hang over the final month of the season is whether that can be reversed, whether he is still capable of that.