Rams’ Gurley making big late bid at MVP Award
The penultimate week of the NFL regular season is over, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to exaggerate story lines as the playoff picture continues to settle. Here are three overreactions from Week 16’s slate of games.
MVP awards should be doled out only to quarterbacks
An injury to Carson Wentz, Tom Brady’s streak of throwing an interception in five consecutive games for the first time since 2002 and Russell Wilson’s uneven December have jumbled the race for MVP.
Nine of the last 10 MVP awards have gone to passers, with Adrian Peterson taking the trophy in 2012 being the last time another position claimed it.
In the Rams’ NFC West-clinching victory against the Titans, running back Todd Gurley made his case, posting 276 yards from scrimmage and scoring two more touchdowns.
Gurley now leads the league in rush- ing (1,305 yards), rushing scores (13) and yards from scrimmage (2,093). His 19 touchdowns are seven more than the next closest skill-position player (Alvin Kamara, Mark Ingram, DeAndre Hopkins, Melvin Gordon).
Most impressive has been how strong Gurley has finished. While it’s common for the production of running backs to wane in December, Gurley has turned it on. In his last three games he has totaled 591 yards from scrimmage and eight touchdowns.
A strong season finale against the 49ers might be enough to buck the trend.
Cowboys were a one-year wonder
A 21-12 loss to the Seahawks eliminated Dallas from playoff contention, making last year’s 13-3 record and No. 1 NFC seed seem like the distant past.
Although the Cowboys definitely need tweaks, their roster is talented enough and young enough to compete for playoff spots for years to come.
The best thing Dallas has is its franchise quarterback, Dak Prescott, locked up for the next two seasons on a teamfriendly rookie deal.
What became clear, however, as running back Ezekiel Elliott sat out his sixgame suspension — which ended Sunday against Seattle — was that Dallas needs more from Prescott and the passing game. During Elliott’s absence, Prescott completed 64.1% of his passes for 1,146 yards, five touchdowns and seven interceptions. Even with Elliott against Seattle, it wasn’t much better.
Dallas needs to add a pass-catching tight end to eventually replace Jason Witten and a receiver. The Cowboys need to bolster their defensive line, add a cornerback and beef up the offensive line, especially left guard.
Those additions are necessary, but with key offensive weapons in the fold and defensive pieces such as edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence ascending, the Cowboys can still become a fixture in the NFC East.
The Bills lost because of the overturned touchdown
Buffalo absorbed a gut punch when a nifty toe-tapping touchdown by receiver Kelvin Benjamin just before halftime would’ve given it a lead over the Patriots headed into intermission. The play, though, was overturned upon review.
Benjamin corralled the pass near the back pylon in the right side of the end zone and appeared to drag both feet inbounds. Referee Craig Wrolstad, however, said in a pool report that Benjamin’s “firm control did not occur until after he had one foot off the ground.”
The Bills settled for a field goal that tied the score at 13.
But a troubling pattern continued. Buffalo had scored only six second-half points over its previous four games. Against the Patriots, the Bills were outscored 24-3 in the second half and lost 37-16.
The Bills gained 198 yards in the first half. In the second, they mustered 70 fewer.
They did not turn any of their four red-zone trips into touchdowns.
Worst yet, Buffalo allowed New England to score on each of its four secondhalf possessions, with the exception of the kneel-down series to end the game.