NFL’S Week 15 winners, losers
The final stretch of the NFL season is upon us, and it’s crunchtime for teams looking to clinch playoff berths.
After Monday night’s game between the Steelers and Bengals, each franchise will have two games left to make their case. Six teams (the Chiefs, Steelers and Bills in the AFC and the Packers, Saints and Seahawks in the NFC) have already claimed their spots, leaving eight up for grabs.
It’s also time for players to wrap up their arguments for individual awards, with some of the tighter races in recent memory possible in the MVP battle and defensive rookie of the year.
Here are the Week 15 winners and losers.
Winners
Jacksonville Jaguars: On a day in which they got pasted by the Ravens 4014, arguably no team might have won bigger than Jacksonville, which may have secured the No. 1 overall draft selection.
That’s because the Jets pulled off the upset of the year, stunning the nine-win Rams 23-20. Because of a strength of schedule tiebreaker, the Jaguars, who are tied with New York at 1-13, now slide into that top spot, for the time being, in the draft order.
The Jaguars have to play the Bears (7-7) and the Colts (10-4). The Jets have the Browns (10-4) and the Patriots (6-8), so this can still change. But Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence is widely viewed as a generational, franchise-altering type of quarterback who is the presumptive No. 1 pick.
Dallas Cowboys: It has been a rare occurrence to see the Cowboys on this side of this list, but after topping the 49ers 41-33 to earn their second consecutive victory, Dallas is one game back of first place in the NFC East. The Cowboys have won three of their last five games and their defensive improvement has been a big reason.
To be fair, the unit still allows too many big plays and a ton of points. But there are two specific areas that should give Cowboys fans optimism for an improbable but potential trip to the playoffs. First, the Cowboys are forcing turnovers.
In its last three games Dallas has forced eight.
Dolphins’ O-line and rushing game: This was a Miami offensive line that, because of injuries, started three rookies.
Yet despite it being a statistical flaw for this team, the Dolphins rode their rushing game to a 22-12 victory against the Patriots that ended New England’s 11year streak of playoff trips. The Dolphins entered Sunday ranked 27th in rushing offense, picking up 95.2 rushing yards per game and dead last in yards per carry (3.63).
They mauled the Patriots’ front seven to the tune of 250 rushing yards and 6 yards per carry. That helped keep third downs to a manageable distance and Miami capitalized, converting 7 of 12 (58.3%) tries.
Matt Nagy and Mitchell Trubisky: The Chicago Bears have won two in a row, their latest a 33-27 victory against the NFC North rival Minnesota Vikings, and coach Matt Nagy and quarterback Mitchell Trubisky might be doing just enough to save their jobs.
While the performances haven’t been entirely clean, they allowed Chicago to surge past Minnesota in the playoff picture, where the Bears are now the first team out of the postseason in the NFC.
Trubisky has completed 72.2% of his passes for 469 yards with four touchdowns and one interception in his last two games.
Losers
The Saints as a juggernaut: New Orleans lost to the Chiefs by three points in what many had been billing as a potential Super Bowl preview, but this defeat felt far more lopsided than the box score indicated.
Quarterback Drew Brees, while he should be given a bit of the benefit of the doubt as he’s clearly still recovering from broken ribs and a punctured lung, put up a mixed performance. He started the game with six incompletions, including an interception, and didn’t connect on a pass until midway through the second quarter.
He would help bring New Orleans back in it late, but the slow start was too much to overcome. With receiver Michael Thomas now on injured reserve, there are more questions about how New Orleans will sustain drives.
Against the Chiefs, the Saints converted just one of their 11 third-down attempts. On the other side of the ball, New Orleans’ defense – a unit that had been excelling as of late – gave up 179 rushing yards and allowed 9 of 18 third-down conversions.
Buccaneers’ slow starts: Yes, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers erased a 17-point deficit and won their game against a division opponent, keeping their standing in the wild-card picture.
So Sunday, on the whole, was a good day for the Bucs. But in their 31-27 victory against the Falcons, there were some signs of concern. Atlanta came into Sunday with the 28th-ranked total defense, one that had allowed 390.6 yards per game. At the end of the first half, the Buccaneers had been shut out, gained just 60 and faced that 17-point hole.
The second half was a different story. Tampa Bay gained 356 yards after intermission and quarterback Tom Brady completed 21 of 29 passes for 320 yards and two scores in the final two periods. Slow starts have been a recurring issue for Tampa Bay.
Carson Wentz: It’s becoming pretty clear that, barring any injury issues, Wentz has almost certainly played his last down for the Eagles this season. Though Philadelphia lost to the Cardinals 33-26, quarterback Jalen Hurts again showed that the Eagles’ offense is far better with the rookie under center than it is with Wentz. Hurts accounted for 401 total yards and four total touchdowns in the loss and had Philadelphia in position to tie the score late.
New York Giants: With the Washington Football Team’s loss, the Giants had the chance to sneak back into first place in the NFC East, via a tiebreaker of headto-head victories. Instead, the Giants fell to the Browns 20-6 in a game in which they were overmatched. That allowed Washington to hold on to the lead in the division and helped bring the Cowboys within striking distance.
New York has lost two in a row, erasing the momentum of a four-game winning streak.