Sunday Slate: Lions defense finally collapses under weight of injury, Seahawks lose Geno and fall back to NFCW Pack

If you’re looking for the Texans game, it is here.

Main screens

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Bills 48 at Lions 42 — The Lions lost Alim McNeill and Carlton Davis, two of their only remaining good players, for what Dan Campbell said could be “season-ending” injuries. (It was a torn ACL for McNeil per Adam Schefter.) So uh, presumed No. 2 coordinator on the head coach market Aaron Glenn? Good luck. The Buffalo Bills did this thing where they punted one time on 12 drives. Two of their drives ended halves, and Tyler Bass missed a 24-yard field goal. Otherwise, well, what are you going to do? This game felt a lot like Rams-Bills last week in that one team simply got enough of a lead in a high-volume scoring game that even fighting back as hard as they did, well, it didn’t mean a lot.

When the Bills hit this on fourth-and-2, beating you with the thing you normally do, and they throw for 10.6 yards per attempt. And they run for 5.8 yards an attempt. You might just be screwed.

I didn’t particularly care for Dan Campbell’s decision to onside kick as soon as he possibly could in the fourth. It felt like an extreme case of coping with what they’d seen so far. But at the same time, having not legitimately stopped the Bills more than once all day, you sort of understand that it didn’t really feel like it mattered.

The defensive injuries are the biggest story for me because the Lions defense has been so, so good this year. But this is now multiple weeks in a row that things have felt like they’re just too much to overcome. The Lions are a scrappy defense with enough variance to win a play here or there even without Aidan Hutchinson and the gang, but the playoffs do not contain many Houston Texans-level offenses. This will be the big boy stuff.

Packers 30 at Seahawks 13

Pretty dull Sunday night game as Jordan Love and company jumped out to a 14-0 lead and were never seriously threatened with a touchdown until the fourth quarter. The big problem was Josh Jacobs. Seattle’s run defense had been on fire of late, but Jacobs got the ball on six of seven touches on the opening drive to carve up Seattle, and then Green Bay used him on a 21-yard catch to open their second scoring drive, one where he also hit a 19-yard run. 26/94/1 may not look sexy in the box score, but 85 of Jacobs’ yards were after contact. He did a lot to make running backs matter, and hilariously when you look at the actual stats (zero rush yards over expected, minus-11.4 EPA) and not watch the game, you can come away from it saying running backs don’t matter.

The major takeaway from this game — as it was in Bills-Lions and as it will be later on — is injuries. Geno Smith left the game with a knee injury. Mike Macdonald said it “structurally” looks okay but they’re doing imaging. Those are not words that portend a short absence.

Sam Howell is not good at NFL football. He took four sacks in 18 dropbacks and averaged 1.7 yards per attempt. Hard to come back from a deficit like that.

The Seahawks suddenly look like a very shaky bet to make the playoffs. Green Bay maintains hold of the No. 6 seed, and while they haven’t officially clinched, they don’t have many paths to being out of the playoffs altogether at this point.

Small screens

Steelers 13 at Eagles 27

The first quarter of this game could not have looked more like a Steelers 2024 game. They recover a punt return fumble, they get another fumble off Jalen Hurts. But the offense finally found a defense that could play with Russell Wilson, and A.J. Brown’s talent started winning the game for Philadelphia:

This is why the Eagles are so dangerous to me: Jalen Hurts is not always good, but on any given play he has the capability of finding a highlight chunk play with his legs or arm. Then you have Saquon Barkley, who the Steelers mostly held in check today. But then, on the third hand, this defense absolutely smothered the Steelers running game. Even beyond the fumble, Najee Harris and company barely got anything going on the ground. They generated down-and-distances for Russell Wilson of: third-and-22, third-and-20, third-and-18, third-and-18, third-and-10, third-and-8, and third-and-7. And the Steelers got just two second-half drives. Wilson is in the rejuvenation machine, but even he’s not going to look good with that slate of third downs.

Worse yet for the Steelers, we’ve got a pending T.J. Watt injury to worry about. He draws so much attention for that defense that potentially losing him is a knockout blow if it keeps him out of the playoffs. Early reports from Ian Rapoport were that it was a low-ankle sprain, so perhaps Watt will suit up sooner rather than later.

Buccaneers 40 at Chargers 17

Another game that sure felt like it was headed in one direction and then swerved hard for the freeway exit. Los Angeles’ defense survived an early Jalen McMillan touchdown, got Justin Herbert going, had a red zone stand and an interception of Baker Mayfield to set the Chargers up near the red zone, and Herbert found Quentin Johnston for a go-ahead touchdown. Another fumble ensued, but the Buccaneers were able to clamp down on Herbert.

Then Liam Coen and Mike Evans got cooking.

For once, Baker Mayfield didn’t get a lot of easy yards in this game — look at the arm angle he has to create to throw this one to Evans with force. The Chargers were disciplined on screens, and Tampa’s running backs only created 13 receiving yards. But Evans went off for 9/159/2 as the Chargers simply don’t have anyone in their secondary capable of cutting him off.

Justin Herbert sure didn’t look like he could deal with blitzes very well, and once his pick in the third quarter led to the second Evans touchdown, the game was all but over. By the middle of the fourth quarter FOX’s announcers were begging the Chargers to get Herbert out of harm’s way. He finished with just three sacks taken, but 10 pressures on 36 dropbacks and he was checking down quite a bit. When he did put it up for grabs:

Herbert looked every bit like a quarterback who spent time on the injury report this week with thigh and ankle listings. The pocket movement was rough. Todd Bowles noticed and blitzed him on 63.9% of his dropbacks.

Tampa ensured they’ll stay in the NFC South lead for another week no matter what happens to the Falcons on Monday, while the Chargers fall to the bottom of the AFC Wild Card heap.

Colts 13 at Broncos 31

We’ll say the Colts were playing with reckless abandon — they turned third down into a running down early, converted a key fourth down, and managed to get out to a 10-0 lead. Meanwhile Bo Nix had his worst game in a month, and after his second interception, Jonathan Taylor’s dumbass moment left the Colts with just a six-point lead despite an incredible run through the Broncos defense:

The Colts defense continued to hold the lead through the middle of the fourth quarter, then a long Marvin Mims punt return brought the Broncos into the red zone, and Nate Adkins found an opening in the Colts defense on a touchdown. The Colts, finally trailing, countered with this play:

I understand that Anthony Richardson wasn’t involved in either of the cataclysmic plays that led to this, but as Adam Archleta intoned after the double pass, “Listen, they had to try something unconventional because they just haven’t been able to get it done.” And it wasn’t like the Colts defense didn’t give them chances to get back into it afterwards, but Richardson threw his second pick, and a Courtland Sutton touchdown catch ended the competitive portion of the game.

The end result is the Broncos leapt up to the No. 6 seed, and the Colts are with the Dolphins and Bengals in the desperation tier begging for a Chargers collapse. Which I guess when you type it out doesn’t sound that unlikely. Also, thanks for handing over the AFC South crown without much of a fight.

Patriots 17 at Cardinals 30

Somehow this game was even less competitive than the score looked, with Kyler Murray’s Cardinals offense somehow allergic to touchdowns in the red zone until the fourth quarter. Arizona’s final series of the half and their drive at the beginning of the second half both ended with deep passes to Marvin Harrison that looked like they had good shots at being touchdowns at the catch point.

Christian Gonzalez is really good, yes. But also if I draft a wideout No. 4 overall I’m hoping he can make one of those a touchdown.

Did you know: The Patriots actually outgained the Cardinals 6.3 yards per play to 6.2? And they only had one turnover, a Drake Maye ball that was deflected at the catch point? How do you suppose that happens?

Call off the search, I’ve figured it out. You can’t go 0-for-6 on third downs and sustain an offense as it turns out. Arizona gains a game on Seattle and now sits one back of the Rams and Seahawks. They get the Panthers next week.

Chiefs 21 at Browns 7

Kansas City’s defense finally came to play, making Entertaining Jameis (complimentary) become Entertaining Jameis (derogatory) as the Chiefs slowly crockpotted the Browns. Nick Chubb broke his foot — this could be his final game as a Brown as he’s a free agent at the end of the season. Winston played so poorly that he may cede rest of season snaps to Dorian Thompson-Robinson as Kevin Stefanski didn’t commit to the veteran after the game.

The big news out of this game is simply: Patrick Mahomes looks to have a high-ankle sprain that may keep him out in the short-term. The Browns, like every other team this year, have been able to bully the Kansas City offensive line. They pressured Mahomes on 17 of 38 dropbacks. The injury occurred on this play:

You never love to see your star quarterback’s body going in disparate directions. The Chiefs host the Texans next week, so they may be able to win that game with Carson Wentz (lmao), but the potential of a bye week now takes on an extra layer of importance as it would give Mahomes another week off his feet. Kansas City has a two-game lead on Buffalo for the No. 1 seed with three to play, while Buffalo has the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Ravens 35 at Giants 14

There are two kinds of Ravens games this year: The ones where they handily dominate an overmatched opponent after a slow start, and the ones where they blow a winnable game. Drawing the Giants meant there was only one potential kind of game that this could become, and even after Lamar Jackson fumbled on the Baltimore’s opening drive, it quickly became What You Would Expect.

Please enjoy the Giants attempting to Tush Push Tommy DeVito for a first down on fourth-and-short, a play I like to call the Crowded Cannoli:

DeVito did not finish this game, as Tim Boyle took over and somehow actually led a touchdown drive. Did the Giants give up?

Yes, yes they did.

The Ravens gain a game on the Steelers ahead of a huge Saturday matchup with them that will decide the future spiciness of the AFC North race. Pittsburgh would essentially lock it up with a win as they’d have a two-game lead and the tiebreaker.

Commanders 20 at Saints 19

An ugly game for two quarters as the Saints anchored themselves to Jake Haener, a mid-game switch to Spencer Rattler got things going and the Commanders left enough meat on the bone that the Saints were able to mount a comeback. It was 17-0 before the Saints went to the pen, and after a missed Greg Joseph field-goal attempt left the Commanders with just a seven-point lead, New Orleans was a failed two-point conversion from another Darren Rizzi win.

There were some wildly impressive plays in this game. Let’s start with Terry McLaurin’s first touchdown:

And let’s end with Alvin Kamara making something out of this Cedrick Wilson pass with just one hand:

It had an ugly score, and there are some glaring Commanders warning signs coming off this one. Jayden Daniels, in his return to Louisiana, was sacked eight times and took 19 pressures on 39 dropbacks. There were some legitimately great individual plays in this one, but the overall product didn’t exactly dissuade the Kliff Kingsbury Fade Thesis Committee from meeting again.

The Commanders stay in sole possession of the final NFC Wild Card spot with the win.

Smallest screens

Bengals 37 at Titans 27 — This game was chaos, with 10 total turnovers and a bunch of extremely stupid plays. Will Levis finally found a way to get benched as the Titans blew a 14-7 lead on the scoreboard and a 1-0 lead in T’Vondre Sweat stiffarms on fumble returns. I will avoid clipping a second fumble-before-end-zone touch down and show you peak Joe Burrow:

Sam Hubbard, a Bengals defender, got called on for a touchdown catch and hurt himself doing it. And that may not have been one of the five stupidest things that happened in this game. Cincinnati’s defense tried to make this game interesting at the end, but couldn’t quite get there. The Bengals by virtue of their win are now “technically alive” for a playoff spot. They aren’t actually alive, but they aren’t actually dead either. Good luck Bengals, we all want to see more of this Burrow.

Cowboys 30 at Panthers 14 — The Cowboys discovered they could throw backshoulder balls to CeeDee Lamb and the Panthers didn’t have much of an answer for it. Dallas’ defense continued their second-half improvement, and the Panthers had no answer for Rico Dowdle. The points scored and game situation do not paint a beautiful picture for the Bryce Young, but he had a few more splash plays and Xavier Legette dropped a few more catchable deep balls. He also had a couple fumble giveaways and could not escape Micah Parsons.

Jets 32 at Jaguars 25 — If Mac Jones were actually good he’d make for a great villain. Nobody in the league has the Duke Basketball energy that he brings:

Thankfully he’s ass. Sassy ass.

Anyway, the Jets finally get a win in a close game as Davante Adams broke a 22-17 Jaguars lead with a 71-yard touchdown catch and the Jets drove down the field to end the game after a tying field goal. It didn’t matter, and arguably hurt their future because it cost them a higher draft pick in a year where it seems like they’re likely to shed their starting quarterback. Brian Thomas Jr. is really good, like maybe the best wideout in this class good.

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