Five talking points from Week 12

With three games being played early in the week due to Thanksgiving and no teams on a bye, it was a sporadic slate with a lot of football, and a lot of talking points, to get through. No complaints here.

The early results were as expected in terms of wins and losses but there were a few issues regarding how we got there. Few will have expected Detroit to have run the Bills as close as they did, in the Cowboys’ victory over the New York Giants there was a CeeDee Lamb touchdown chalked off controversially, as there was during New England’s defeat at the hands of the Vikings.

Hunter Henry’s catch was ruled incomplete at such a time that the tide could have swung in the Patriots favour. As it was, Minnesota walked away with another check in the win column to move them to 9-2 for the year.

Much has already been said about these games and so I have kept my eyes firmly focused on the weekend games for this week’s iteration of my column. Here are my five talking points from week twelve:

New York’s own Magic Mike

It seems unlikely that Zach Wilson will be getting back his starting job this week after Mike White’s performance against the Chicago Bears.

Wilson was forced to sit on the bench, not even suited up for the game, after being dropped down the depth chart to quarterback no.3 as Joe Flacco played the backup role to White. It would seem as though the Jets really wanted their young QB to soak in the contrast on the team between last week and this.

Despite the torrential downpour during the game, White played excellently in their 31-10 win over the Bears and the offence was a stark contrast to the one that rolled out against New England and only managed to put up three points.

White passed for 315 yards on 22 of 28 attempts with three touchdowns while taking just one sack. He became the only Jets QB to have multiple games with 300-plus pass yards and three-plus pass TDs in the last 30 seasons (also Week 8, 2021), per NFL Research.

The Jets had a season-high 466 yards of offence, more than they’ve produced in any game Wilson has started and managed to score on their opening drive for the first time all season. White was able to find his receivers on the outside with Garrett Wilson recording five catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns, whilst Elijah Moore went two-for-64 and a score.

This could have been luck of the draw for White as he played a short-handed Chicago defence but if he is capable of these sorts of brilliant games, then this is surely an upgrade on Wilson who has never yet been able to reach these heights.

Broncos Country, it’s a terrible ride!

On a day where Russell Wilson scored his 300th career touchdown, there is still little to celebrate for this hapless Denver offence after another frustrating Sunday loss.

Wilson’s Broncos lost 23-10 to the faltering Carolina Panthers led this week by Sam Darnold. This is a team in transition who can’t even decide who their QB1 is going to be from week to week and they still easily outplayed Denver.

As it stands, the Broncos have the number three defence in the league but the worst offence and now the frustrations and possible fractures within the locker room are now spilling out onto the sidelines. At one point Wilson was seen being screamed at by defensive tackle Mike Purcell, who must be tired of his unit keeping their team in games, only to have an ineffective Wilson limit how many points they can score.

It’s not just that things are bad on offence, but they appear to be getting worse. This week they put up a season low 246 total yards, with Wilson dropping back to pass 40 times yet only managed to register 125 net yards equating to 3.56 yards per play, the sixth worst by a team this season. It took until the final play of the game for Wilson to notch his 300th career TD and he’s been on 299 since week ten.

At this point all of the talk will be about the ineptitude and possible axing of first time head coach, Nathaniel Hackett, but it feels too easy to lay the blame solely at his feet. What if Wilson just isn’t the same player any longer? Not only has his play declined but he doesn’t appear to have the respect of his teammates or opponents, who don’t fear playing him like they would have a few years ago.

Denver invested heavily into their new QB but must now be regretting the immediate extension and guarantees that run through until 2024. 

Eagles run amok in Green Bay

Despite the final 40-33 score between Philly and the Packers making it seem like a close fought contest, this game really was anything but as the Eagles ran for 363 yards, the eight most by any team in the Super Bowl era.

Whilst Jalen Hurts (157) led the charge and is first player since at least 1950 with 150-plus rushing yards, 150-plus passing yards and multiple passing touchdowns in a single game since at least 1950, he was far from alone. Miles Sanders recorded 143 yards from 21 carries and scored two TDs, Kenneth Gainwell had eight-for-39 and a TD, while Boston Scott three carries for 24 yards.

The combined 363 total is the most that Green Bay, supposedly one of the league’s better defences, is the most that they have allowed since 1977 and the most for the Eagles franchise since 1948!

Last year the conversation was about whether or not Hurts could cut it in the NFL and if he was to be a placeholder QB until the team could find themselves the right man.

Fast forward and Hurts is now not only leading one of the best teams in the league, but has quickly evolved into one of the best QBs in the league who at 24 years-old, still has years of fine tuning left in him. Scary.

Brissett’s final bow?

He got his first career action during Tom Brady’s Deflategate suspension. A full season as QB1 in Indianapolis when Andrew Luck suddenly retired weeks before the start of the season. And this year, he’s been the starter for Cleveland during the 11-game suspension of Deshaun Watson. This is the weird and wonderful career so far of Jacoby Brissett.

With the inevitable return of the aforementioned Watson, Sunday looks to have been Brissett’s final start of the season and if so, what a way to go out as he led the Browns to a 23-17 overtime victory over his old teammate Tom Brady and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Few have doubted the commitment of Brissett toward the Browns, he has played his role admirably and only served to enhance his reputation should he hit the market next offseason. Any that did though were silenced when he turned blocker in the first quarter, laying Bucs safety Antoine Winfield Jr flat out as Anthony Schwartz ran in for a TD.

Brissett completed 23 of 37 passes for the day for 210 yards, one touchdown and a meaningless interception at the end of the first half. He’s far from elite, but there are clearly quite a few worse QBs starting in the league.

Cleveland’s QB will change from a man who’s teammates have been quoted as saying “everybody loves him”, to a guy who will be undoubtedly hated (we don’t need to go into why right now) throughout the league. Even if they end up winning more games, the good feelings towards this team are over with the benching of Brissett.

Houston, you are the problem

I don’t want to watch them, neutrals don’t want to watch them, heck, I’d bet their own fans don’t really want watch them at this point. Things in Houston are ugly right now and sadly for us all, they still have six meaningless games to go.

This week Kyle Allen took to the field in place of the benched Davis Mills in what must now be a battle for who will be the backup next season. Sadly, things did not fare any better than they have done already throughout this season and the offence remained a lacklustre unit that was only able to generate three first-downs in the first half of the game against Miami. Allen threw two horrible interceptions and was sacked five times. There was a three-play stretch in the second quarter that encapsulated the Texans’ offence: Screen pass nearly intercepted, strip-sack (Houston recovery), fumble returned for TD. No wonder the Dolphins were able to sit some of their starters, come the second half.

The Texans are the worst team in the NFL by a country mile with a 1-9-1 record and a minus-86 scoring margin. They’re poorly run both on and off the field. With head coach Lovie Smith likely going one and done, this the questions should be being asked, should General Manager Nick Caserio be allowed to hire his third HC in three years?

Should the worst team in the league just get it over with and fire Smith, so that this organisation can get a head start on the rest of the NFL in the attempt to get its next HC hire right? Even if they did, would you trust them to do it?

With the number one pick nearly secured, a new QB will undoubtedly be under centre in Houston in 2023. Does this solve all of the team’s issues? I highly doubt it and owner Cal McNair might need to rip it all apart and start again long before the draft comes around.