Things we learned in NFL Week 14
Winners, losers, standouts and more
1. Nice Sunday for the Ravens, who became the first AFC team to sew up a postseason ticket thanks to a hardfought win at Buffalo. Currently on track to claim home-field advantage, the Ravens are riding a franchise-best ninegame winning streak and have set a team record for points (409) in their 24season history.
2. New England saw its 21-game winning streak at Gillette Stadium go by the boards in a 23-16 defeat to the Chiefs, who have won two of their last three visits to Foxborough.
3. Kansas City secured its fourth AFC West crown in a row under Andy Reid.
4. Lamar Jackson joined Michael Vick as the only quarterbacks to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
5. Reminder that the first player the Ravens selected in the 2018 draft wasn’t Jackson. It was TE Hayden Hurst, who had the biggest game of his NFL career Sunday, catching a 61-yard TD on his way to a career-best 73 receiving yards.
6. If last week’s 49ers-Ravens showdown earned national acclaim, perhaps as the preferred Super Bowl LIV preview, was Sunday’s 49ers-Saints throwdown the contest we want repeated in the NFC’s championship round? Robbie Gould’s 30-yard field goal at the gun provided the final trio of the game’s 94 points, capping a 48-46 Niners win.
7. If a prospective rematch goes down in NorCal, maybe the defenses will even show up. San Francisco entered the weekend with the league’s top-ranked D but got torched for more points, yards (465) and first downs (28) than it had been in any other game this season. New Orleans’ eighth-ranked unit also had its worst showing, ceding 516 yards.
8. Saints QB Drew Brees’ first five-TD passing game since 2014 leaves him with 537 TDs, just two shy of matching Peyton Manning’s NFL record.
9. Tom Brady, who threw for his 536th TD, also ripped off a 17-yard run, his longest since 2014.
10. Despite wins, the Jets, Chargers and Buccaneers were eliminated from playoff contention. So were the Jaguars, Panthers and Redskins.
11. Jump on the #MyCauseMyCleats hashtag, one of the NFL’s coolest weeks.
12. Tough loss for Seattle, which lost the NFC West lead, the inside track for a bye and RB Rashaad Penny, who’d played up to his first-round billing recently but suffered a knee injury that will keep him out for the rest of the year.
13. QB Devlin “Duck” Hodges continues to not kill the Steelers, committing just two turnovers in five appearances (four victories).
14. The Cardinals claim to have a #RedSea at home. Sure looked like a #BlackAndGoldSea on Sunday.
15. New Colts K Chase McLaughlin converted two FG attempts Sunday. It was the first time in a decade that someone other than Adam Vinatieri drilled a three-pointer for Indianapolis.
16. Is there a more underrated defender than Vikings DE Danielle Hunter, who had three sacks, giving him 121⁄2.
17. Holy “Lamb-ardi” ... coach Matt LaFleur is the first in Packers history to win 10 games in his debut campaign.
18. Cap tip to Carolina owner David Tepper, who’s revealing the type of culture he wants to imbue within his franchise. His firing of longtimer Ron Rivera was the right (and classy) move given Tepper had determined he was going to take the franchise in a new direction.
19. Meanwhile, while Jerry Jones is confident “Jason Garrett will be coaching in the NFL next year,” we’re all confident someone else will be coaching Jones’ Cowboys in 2020.
20. Then again ... Any Given Sunday? Per Elias Sports Bureau, Dallas’ +67 point differential is the second best in NFL history for a team with a losing record after 13 games.
21. Speaking of Any Given Sunday, the Broncos led the Texans 38-3 in the third quarter before Houston reeled off 21 unanswered to make the result quasicosmetic. But if the Texans take it to the Patriots, then get whupped in that same yard by Denver ... then the Broncos are championship-caliber by virtue of the transitive property, right?
22. But let’s pump the brakes before we anoint Drew Lock as the long-awaited successor to John Elway. Er, Peyton Manning. Er, John Elway ... probably depends on whether you grew up in Denver or not. Granted, nice day for Lock, the first rookie in league history to compile 300 passing yards and three TD passes in his first road start. It’s a lot easier to ambush opponents that don’t have NFL film to study.
23. The Titans might have a nice set of triplets on their hands in QB Ryan Tannehill, RB Derrick Henry and WR A.J. Brown.
24. Cleveland > Cincinnati.
25. But Cleveland QB Baker Mayfield probably suffered another public relations – dare we say, team relations – loss, suggesting after the game that WR Odell Beckham Jr.’s sports hernia “was not handled the right way in our training room.” Ouch. Usually not a bad idea to try to cover for a teammate ... but not when it means flaming your athletic trainers.
26. Adrian Peterson became the sixth player to surpass 14,000 rushing yards.
27. Hello, Olamide Zaccheaus. The Falcons’ receiver hauled in a 93-yard TD Sunday, the longest in league history on a player’s first career catch.
28. The Dolphins were 0-for-6 in the red zone Sunday, and K Jason Sanders accounted for all 21 of their points with seven field goals (one shy of the singlegame mark).
29. In case you hadn’t thought about Lionel “Little Train” James in a minute, he was the last Chargers’ player with 100 yards both rushing and receiving in a game (back in 1985) ... until Austin Ekeler pulled it off Sunday.
30. Heads-up play of the day? CB Tre’Davious White (literally) scooping up intel on the Ravens in windy Buffalo.
31. Coaching call of the day? The Jaguars calling for a (successful) fake punt while trailing 31-3 in the third quarter. It did eventually lead to a touchdown, but still. Hilarious.
32. Congrats to Bucs QB Ryan Griffin. Amazingly, he is a six-year NFL vet but hadn’t played in a regular-season game till Sunday. He completed 2 of 4 passes for 18 yards. Hopefully that’s enough to finally qualify for a varsity letter.