Packers finally can McCarthy after Week 13 loss to Cardinals

The 32 things we learned from Week 13 of the 2018 NFL season: 1. To borrow a favorite expression from teens and the Twitterati, “smh.” The NFL just slogged through its worst week of 2018. However, unlike bad pub incurred from the national anthem controversy and/or exacerbated by one POTUS, the league’s issues of the moment are completely self-inflicted and utterly regrettable. Nothing like derailing what had been a feel-good season previously highlighted by bushels of points, resurgent TV ratings and emergent stars.

2. On one hand, at least many (maybe most) teams – specifically the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers – internalized some important lessons in the wake of the 2014 Ray Rice domestic violence incident.

3. I’m also so damn tired of the NFL pretending like it’s the industry leader in player safety while it fails again, and again AND AGAIN to adhere to its own rules – set forth in grandstanding manner in the name of protecting the men who play the game. How many times have you seen helmet-to-helmet hits in the open field – any player, offense or defense, initiating such contact is supposed to be flagged – go unpenalized? I specifically wrote about Hunt spearing Broncos S Justin Simmons earlier this season. I did so again when Patriots rookie Sony Michel lowered the boom on Colts S Clayton Geathers in Week 5, knocking him from the game with a neck injury. After Thursday’s Saints-Cowboys game, after which Dallas LB Jaylon Smith touted football as “the last gladiator sport” after his illegal but unflagged helmet-to-helmet shot on New Orleans RB Alvin Kamara.

4. Rant over. The NFL is a great league with plenty of great people from its headquarters to team rosters to unsung support staffers in every city. Football also teaches great lessons, and the NFL can have immensely positive impacts in its communities. But no blind eye in this space, usually reserved for celebrating accomplishments on the field.

5. The NFL can also be a cruel business. Just ask now former Packers coach Mike McCarthy, canned Sunday afternoon after Green Bay somehow lost to the Cardinals. McCarthy leaves having led this franchise to postseason in nine of his 13 seasons while capturing the Super Bowl XLV title following the 2010 campaign.

6. Per @NFLResearch, the last time the Cardinals won in Wisconsin, 1949, they were the Chicago Cardinals. Lambeau Field had not yet been built at the time.

7. Drew Brees’ worst game of the season made the MVP race a packed field once again. His pursuit of single-season records for completion percentage and passer rating also suffered. Amazingly, the Saints star has never won MVP honors.

8. But it’s not as if Patrick Mahomes was fading from the MVP debate. The Chiefs quarterback hung four more TD passes on the Raiders, giving him an NFL-best 41 in just 12 games. As much as Hunt’s on-field absence could hinder Kansas City, it could wind up bolstering the MVP résumé for Mahomes, who also led the team with 52 rushing yards against Oakland.

9. Also still in the MVP conversation: Rams Todd Gurley (165 total yards 2 TDs on Sunday) and Aaron Donald (2 more sacks, 4 tackles for loss) as their team wrapped up the NFC West.

10. Finally, don’t discount Brees’ former understudy, Philip Rivers, as a bona fide MVP contender. Rivers, who’s never won the elusive hardware, either, had another big night (299 yards, 2 TD passes) as the Chargers upset the Steelers — they’re offsides again — in Pittsburgh. And congratulations on news that you’ve got another child (their ninth) on the way. Like Brees, your wife is a saint.

11. Happy homecoming: Rams DL Ndamukong Suh had six tackles – and one surely satisfying lick on Detroit QB Matthew Stafford.

12. Unhappy homecoming: 49ers CB Richard Sherman was a non-factor in his return to Seattle, where his team got embarrassed by the Seahawks.

13. Miami’s Xavien Howard has intercepted four passes over the past two weeks. He now has a pair of INTs in three separate games this year and leads the league with seven overall.

14. All four NFC North teams lost Sunday. Black-and-blue division indeed.

15. Kudos to the Houston Texans for officially becoming the league’s hottest team with their ninth straight win even as they cope with the recent loss of owner Bob McNair and Friday’s death of their No. 1 fan, President George H. W. Bush.

16. Airtight Case? QB Case Keenum was picked off in each of Denver’s first eight games, and the Broncos went 3-5. But he hasn’t committed a turnover in his last four outings, three of those wins, and his team is now a game back of the AFC’s final wildcard spot.

17. Jameis Winston threw a pair of TD passes in Sunday’s upset of Carolina. His 81 career touchdown throws make him the franchise’s all-time leader after he overtook Josh Freeman. (Bucs QB history pretty much in a nutshell, no?)

18. The Buccaneers gave away free tickets Sunday, boosting their paid attendance to 52,568 – an increase of better than 10K over last week.

19. Related (but unrelated), as my valued colleague Mike Middlehurst-Schwartz so succinctly pointed out Sunday: “The one throw that the Bills pay Josh Allen to make ...”

20. Week 13’s top rushers were both rookies: Undrafted Broncos RB Phillip Lindsay (157 yards) and Allen (135).

21. Kansas City’s Travis Kelce joined Greg Olsen as the only tight end in NFL history with three consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons.

22. Rams WR Brandin Cooks became the first man in league history to register 1,000-yard receiving seasons in three consecutive years with three different clubs. Somewhere, Brandon Marshall is sooo jealous.

23. DT Akiem Hicks became the first Bears defensive player to rush for a TD since... William “Refrigerator” Perry infamously stole Walter Payton’s thunder in Super Bowl XX.

24. The Jets blocked a PAT and a punt Sunday. They also remained blocked from the win column after coughing up a 16-0 first-half lead to the Titans.

25. Prior to Sunday, Falcons WR Mohamed Sanu (a high school quarterback and Wildcat threat at Rutgers) had a perfect 158.3 passer rating over the course of his seven-year NFL career – a stretch that included completions on all six of his throws, which produced three TDs and 228 yards.

25a. But that ended when Sanu misfired in Atlanta’s loss to Baltimore.

26. Giants WR Odell Beckham has a perfect 158.3 passer rating this season. His two throws have produced 57- and 49-yard TD passes.

27. Congrats to Tom Brady. TB12 reached #TB1K, becoming the oldest player, at 41, to reach 1,000 career rushing yards since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

28. Congrats to Bill Belichick. He reached #BB250 – OK, that’s not really a thing... I checked. But Belichick does now have 250 wins, including playoffs, as New England’s coach.

29. Circling back to NFL problems, the league better hope China didn’t tune in to Colts-Jaguars. Jacksonville’s 6-0 win tied for the lowest-scoring game in the past dozen years... and probably set the league back 12 years.

30. In that vein, China, you might want to skip Jags-Titans on Thursday night – advice we might all be wise to heed.

31. We share your outrage, @ BortlesFacts... Cody Kessler and 211 yards of offense was no upgrade in Jacksonville.

32. Dearest mother – @ CaptAndrewLuck and his battalion were ambushed by the “Jungle Cat men.” Shockingly, his sidearm did not unleash a triumvirate of TD salvos and, instead, he was thrice overrun by the “Jungle Cat men.” Simply stunning. He was even snookered at one point by that devious malcontent, Corporal Ramsey.