NFL Week 14 Recap
The Cowboys are making the playoffs
With their 41-28 victory over the Bears last Thursday, the Cowboys (9-4) ensured not only their first winning season since 2009, but are primed for their first playoff run since that same year. Presently Dallas is tied with the Eagles (9-4) atop the NFC East and control their own destiny. The Cowboys and Philly face off Sunday night in what has turned out to be a title match. The Eagles have already beaten Dallas once two weeks ago, 33-10 on Thanksgiving. Both teams are 3-2 in their last five games, with Philadelphia coming off a 24-14 loss to Seattle Sunday night.
For the first time in that five-year playoff drought, the Cowboys aren’t counting on Tony Romo to try to win every game while he wrestles with his own hands around his throat. With the team using DeMarco Murray correctly, the running back is threatening Eric Dickerson’s now 30-year old rushing record (2,105 yards) and Romo is having the best season of his career.
Jeff Fisher will keep his job. So will Gregg Williams
The whispers were starting in St. Louis about changes, and I’m not talking about the Rams moving to Los Angeles. Through the first four weeks of the season the Rams defense was atrocious, recording only one sack as a team and that was from rookie defensive tackle Aaron Donald. Regardless of the Rams’ QB situation, the defense was supposed to be one of the best in the league and it’s early-season stumble had Jeff Fisher’s coaching seat warm and Gregg Williams all but packed up and ran out of town.
Fortunes have changed over the last month and a half and the defensive unit has become what the Rams hoped and what opposing team’s feared, recording the first back-to-back shutouts since 1945 and holding the Peyton Manning-led Broncos to just seven points on Nov. 16. Fisher and Williams are now perfectly safe, regardless of the Rams’ final record and part of the country they’ll be playing in next season.
A team from the NFC will make the playoffs with a losing record
After a humiliating 41-10 defeat by the Panthers (4-8-1) at home, the Saints (5-8) all but guaranteed that a team with a losing record will win the NFC South. That is unless they, or the 5-8 Atlanta Falcons, can string off three wins in a row to end the season.
Currently the Falcons, Panthers and Saints are all still alive for the division lead and the only reason I’m confident that any of them will win another game is that in the final two weeks of the season all three teams will get at least one game against each other.
The Falcons now play the Steelers (8-5) before they match up with the Saints on Dec. 21 and the Panthers on Dec. 28. The best they can hope for is 7-9.
The Saints are in better shape to at least finish .500, with the Bears this week, then the Falcons and then the Bucs. The Panthers have already ensured they’ll have a losing season so that means they’ll probably win out (Bucs, Browns then Falcons)
The 49ers may not win another game
Colin Kaepernick Colin Kaepernicked his team right out of the playoff race Sunday with a 24-13 loss to a hapless Raiders team that couldn’t score a point on the Rams a week before. As teams continue to take away Kaepernick’s run options, he and the 49ers have to rely more and more on his decision making in the pocket. Also known as Kaepernick Kryptonite.
San Francisco (7-6) plays at Seattle (9-4) Sunday, then hosts San Diego (8-5) then finishes up against NFC West-leading Arizona (10-3). The 49ers will be lucky to win one of the three. But they won’t.
Teddy Bridgewater was the best of the 2014 QB class
A funny thing happened on the way to the 2014 NFL Draft. Bridgewater, who was considered the best draft-eligible QB in the country during the 2013 season, somehow found himself sliding down draft charts after doing nothing but make play after play.
All last spring, it seemed that scouts and draft experts did their best to talk themselves out of picking Bridgewater, the most pro-ready QB in the draft over his flashier and bigger-armed counterparts. Bridgewater has won more games and thrown less picks than Blake Bortles in Jacksonville, and the only thing Johnny Manziel has been working on in Cleveland is his Tinder profile.
The Browns really don’t want Johnny Manziel to play
Speaking of Manziel, after Brian Hoyer’s 31.7 passer-rating stinker against the Colts Sunday, you’d think that Cleveland (7-6) would look over at their bench, knock the cell phone out of Johnny Benchwarmer’s hands and shove him out on the field to see what they have. The problem is, the Browns probably know what they have. And it isn’t good.
Manziel has always been 50 percent hype and hype does not win you football games. The fact that Hoyer hasn’t played himself out of a job yet, even though he has played poorly, shows you what Cleveland thinks it has in the future Canadian Football League MVP.
The Patriots are still the best team in the AFC
No one is more disappointed about this than me, but the proof is in the game tape. While the Patriots (10-3) fell to Green Bay last week, they’ve looked nothing short of dominant against their AFC counterparts, including every team they’ll face in the playoffs. That means you too, Broncos.
With the Dolphins, Jets and Bills all that’s left on their schedule, New England should walk into the AFC playoffs as the No. 1 seed. You’d think that Circuit City going out of business would have put a dent in the Patriots win-loss record, but I guess Bill Bellichick just started ordering all his spytech out of the SkyMall catalog.
