Week 14 NFL Observations (2018)

EJ gives his biggest takeaways from Week 14 in the NFL. 

•The New England Patriots really screwed themselves in more ways than one. Because of their miraculous loss couple with the Kansas City Chiefs gutsy overtime win vs. the gritty Baltimore Ravens, essentially may have cost the Patriots that ever so important #1 seed in the AFC Playoffs. There are only three weeks ago and yes, New England does own the tiebreaker should both teams end up even after Week 17.
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New England has to win out the remainder of the season. They close out with the following:

Week 15: @Pittsburgh
Week 16: Buffalo
Week 17: NY Jets

Kansas City meanwhile closes the season with:

Week 15: LA Chargers
Week 16: @Seattle
Week 17: Oakland

The Chiefs are not completely out the woods yet but they increased their margin of error a bit.

•The Carolina Panthers are done. 5 game losing streak. An atrocious defense. I can’t even place blame on Cam Newton either although he will get a lion share of it. Now we wait and see if Head Coach Ron Rivera’s job is actually safe now. This is a bad meltdown of epic proportions.

•I do not give a shit if it was against the injury plagued Washington Redskins, it is nice seeing the New York Giants fight to the end after a 1-7 start to the season. They have won 4 of their last 5 games and are mathematically still alive to make the playoffs. Though we all know they have no shot. But for now they still have a chance.

•Dominant defensive performance by the Bears on Sunday Night Football over the Rams. Yet I cannot help but wonder if that game was played in slightly warmer conditions whether the same result occurs. Defense does travel. Chicago will likely host a home game Wildcard weekend but beyond that does anyone see ‘Da Bears even getting past Divisional Weekend in the NFC playoffs with limited Mitchell Trubiski at quarterback? Yeah I thought so.

•People talk about Lamar Jackson running too much. Bills QB Josh Allen is just as, if not even more of a volume runner. It’s the new NFL but I’d like to see a healthy balance of run/pass for both quarterbacks. The league would be better for it.

•If you go back to the game where the Steelers lucked out a last second win in Jacksonville, Pittsburgh should be riding a 4 game losing streak. They are lucky Baltimore lost in Kansas City. However it’s likely a first round bye will not be in the cards for them especially with pissed off New England coming to town this week.

•The Broncos blew a golden opportunity to really make some serious ground in the AFC Wildcard race especially given their “easy schedule”. Guess San Francisco wasn’t so easy huh? Goes to show you the NFL is a Any Given Sunday league.

•Remember when the Dallas Cowboys were stupid for giving up a future first-rounder to Oakland for Amari Cooper? Yeah, that trade may have saved the Cowboys season and propelled them to the eventual NFC East title.

•359 straight passes without an interception? Your team might been absolute garbage this season but I still salute you, Aaron Rodgers.

•So check out these numbers:

TOTAL YARDS
Dallas: 576
Philadelphia: 256

3rd DOWN EFFICIENCY
Dallas: 10-19
Philadelphia: 1-9

Yet it took nearly all overtime for the Cowboys to finally put the Eagles to sleep. Not necessarily knocking Dallas either for a job well done but it should be equally cause for pause.

•Again, this play never gets old.

​That’s it for now. Three more weeks of regular season football. See ya Week 15.