The 15 BEST plays from Week 11! ??? pic.twitter.com/M3Ch5a0gKp
— NFL (@NFL) November 20, 2018
I’ll address the elephant in the room head on – there were a lot of touchdowns scored on Monday Night Football. I won’t be mean towards the fans who need a lot of points to stay interested in a football game. The game matched the hype, but at the same time, I would say that the Los Angeles Rams won because their quarterback didn’t make as many crippling mistakes as the quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs. So yeah: two outstanding records coming in, two offenses going all the way off, close result. Cool. God forbid this is the Super Bowl.
Week 11’s supreme weirdness was capped by Monday night’s game, but in a way, the entire week set up the craziness. 11 games were decided by five points or fewer, which is stressful. Making matters worse for me personally, I only enjoyed the wins by the Seahawks and Texans. The other eight endings were not enjoyable.
There was one game that was not close AT ALL…
Philadelphia's 41-point loss to New Orleans is the largest by a defending Super Bowl champion.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 19, 2018
Yikes. Well, the trolls noticed my MNF cold take, but my trolls are usually quiet for a reason. For the most part, my intel is validated. Sorry, Philadelphia, I tried to warn.
Teams of the Week:
NE, PIT, HOU, DEN
DAL, CHI, NO, LA
Winning units:
SEA run offense (RB Chris Carson)
DAL pass rush (DE Demarcus Lawrence)
BAL run defense (ILB Patrick Onwuasor)
DET pass rush (DE Ezekiel Ansah)
IND pass offense (WR T.Y. Hilton)
PIT pass defense (ILB Vince Williams)
NYG offensive line (QB Eli Manning)
HOU pass defense (FS Justin Reid)
OAK pass defense (SS Karl Joseph)
DEN special teams (K Brandon McManus)
NO pass offense (WR Tre’Quan Smith)
CHI run offense (QB Mitchell Trubisky)
LA offensive line (QB Jared Goff)
Looking ahead to Week 12
Open Dates – Kansas City, Los Angeles Rams
Too much has already been said about these two teams. Thankfully, they’re off this week. Get well soon, Eric Berry and Aqib Talib. And thankfully, there are no more bye weeks for the remainder of the regular season.
Bears at Detroit: Chase Daniel is starting at quarterback for the Bears. Daniel knows the offense, and the Bears just need to minimize mistakes while setting their pass rush up to win the road game.
R******s at Dallas: Washington QB Alex Smith suffered a career-threatening leg injury, so Colt McCoy is the QB now. If something happens to him, newly signed backup QB Mark Sanchez “knows the offense” too. Hopefully we get a tie here, although any Cowboys wins can only help extend Jason Garrett’s tenure (said as someone who is energized by Dallas being as mediocre as possible).
Falcons at New Orleans: Maybe these two teams can score 100 points too!
Packers at Minnesota: As someone who does not mind seeing Green Bay remain mediocre, I would not mind them making a short playoff run just to keep the torturous tenure of Mike McCarthy going for a bit longer. I’m being a masochist this week, I apologize. These teams actually did tie earlier this season, so there’s going to be some serious soul-searching for the loser (which will be Minnesota).
Titans at Houston: Forget 50 points. First to 20 should win this one.