What did we learn from Week 12? Hell, what did we learn from Monday night’s football game?
The Browns. My God, the Browns
With last night’s devastating last-second loss to the Baltimore Ravens on a blocked game-winning field goal returned for a touchdown, the Browns have officially secured a losing season and are the second team, after the Tennessee Titans, to do so.
Here’s a video of what happened.
https://vine.co/v/iBVPTKQOw11
Opps. That’s not it. Here it is.
The Browns have had some devastating losses, but last night’s was one of the worst: https://t.co/Q7IkzwUpjS pic.twitter.com/8SfqqfzfUe
— SB Nation (@SBNation) December 1, 2015
This poor fan was trying to record his reaction to the Browns’ game-winning field goal when, well….
https://twitter.com/malberson6/status/671552028020084736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
And that pretty much sums up the ending right there. Of all the Cleveland Browns in the world, you’re the Cleveland Brown-iest.
Speaking of the Browns
Regardless of his slide in-bounds that wasn’t really that bad to begin with, the Cleveland Browns may have seen a glimpse of the best quarterback on their roster Monday night when Austin Davis got in the game. Davis led the Browns on a go-ahead touchdown and into range for the game-winning field goal before something Cleveland Brown-y happened to ruin it. All the talk about McCown and Manziel leading into that game and even the season and Davis has looked better than both.
Now, granted, that was the fourth quarter against a decimated Ravens team but Davis won games with the St. Louis Rams last year and has proven he can play in the NFL. He can make all the reads and all the throws, just has a knack for turning the ball over at key times, especially in the red zone. But that’s decision-making, not talent. And that can be fixed by a real coach, something Davis hasn’t had with the Rams or the Browns.
Still, I wouldn’t be so quick to go back to Manziel after what Davis has shown over the last two seasons. Roll with him a game and see what you’ve got. What’s the worst that could happen? You lose? You’re the Browns. That’s what you’re supposed to do.
The Patriots may have dodged a bullet… maybe
The word out of New England is that All-Planet tight end Rob Gronkowski didn’t tear an MCL or ACL in his knee when it was injured late in their Sunday night loss to the Denver Broncos. Supposedly it’s a bone bruise that has Gronkowski week-to-week, which usually means he’ll miss two-to-three games, only today this happened.
Gronk and #Patriots take the unusual step of releasing a joint statement about his knee injury pic.twitter.com/Y9guEW4id2
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) December 1, 2015
What the hell was that? Since when does a team and the “family” of an injured player release a statement about his playing status? I can’t say I’ve ever seen it before and it makes me wonder if there’s not something more than a “bone bruise” wrong with Gronk, but something he’s willing to try to play through and then get surgically fixed in the offseason. Like a partially torn ACL/MCL for instance. It wouldn’t be the first time a player has tried to play through that kind of injury. Phillip Rivers played on a torn up knee in the AFC Championship game against the Patriots back in 2008. Jack Youngblood played in the 1980 Super Bowl for the Rams with a broken leg. Gronk may be trying to do the same kind of thing.
If the playoffs started today…
Did the week’s action cause any shake ups in our playoff spots? We have five games to go so looking at this gets more important each week.
In the AFC the New England Patriots remain the No. 1 seed, the Cincinnati Bengals the No.2, the Denver Broncos the No. 3 and the Indianapolis Colts the No. 4. There are four teams in legitimate contention for the two wild card spots, all with identical 6-5 records. As of right now, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans would be the wild cards, with the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets left out. At 5-6 the Buffalo Bills and the Oakland Raiders are still in it too.
In the NFC the Carolina Panthers are running away with it as the No. 1 seed. The Arizona Cardinals are the No. 2, the Minnesota Vikings are back as the No. 3 and the Washington Redskins are, as of this week (only, most likely) the No. 4. Your wild card teams are the Green Bay Packers and now the Seattle Seahawks, with the Atlanta Falcons fading fast after a hot start. The New York Giants, Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are all still in it at 5-6 and the Giants cane (and will) still win the NFC East outright and host a first-round game.
