Five talking points from Week Eleven

This was a weird weekend of football. If last week fans were blessed with one of the greatest regular season games of all time, then this week we were cursed to watch some of the most boring and mundane.

In the games between the Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens, as well as the New York Jets and New England Patriots we saw a solitary offensive touchdown. One! I mean it was an incredible punt return, but still…

In the two games combined, that’s 120 minutes of football, there were only two TDs overall, both of which were scored in the fourth quarter. Even rewatching the highlights feels like a slog.

As we near Thanksgiving there are just 17 teams with a better than 30 percent chance to make the postseason according to FiveThirtyEight’s 2022 playoff model, whilst the rest of the league is left holding onto their smaller slice of hope.

With a lot left to play for week to week, let’s hope for a more lively slate of games in week 13. For now though, here are my five talking points from week 11:

Tony Pollard runs over Vikings

If the Minnesota Vikings were drunk on success after their hard fought win over the Bills a week ago, then against Dallas on Sunday they must have been playing with the mother of all hangovers.

After last week’s chest beating win, I don’t envision the locker room being quite as lively in Minnesota this week. Both their offence and defence failed to show up against a Dallas team looking to get back to winning ways after a disappointing defeat to Green Bay the week before.

Throughout this season, Tony Pollard has seized his opportunity to gain the lead role within Dallas’ backfield, because despite whatever Jerry Jones says, he’s now simply just more dangerous than Ezekial Elliott. To that point, Pollard this week became the first Cowboys running back with at least 100 receiving yards and 50 rushing yards in the same game since Emmitt Smith in 1993.

With the game tied at 3 – 3 Pollard helped to fuel a touchdown drive with back-to-back runs of 18 and 20-yards and was just getting warmed up. In the second quarter he carried a simple dump-off 30-yards untouched into the end zone to extend Dallas’ lead 20 – 3.

The running backs highlight play of the day came early in the third quarter though. A 68-yard touchdown catch saw Pollard put Vikings linebacker Jordan Hicks in a spin, whilst capitalising on some strong blocking from teammate Dalton Schultz, as he strolled into the end zone.

It’s pretty clear who the Cowboys’ best running back is now – and maybe has been for a while.

King Kelce reigns supreme in LA

When Rob Gronkowski retired (for now) last offseason, he was regarded by many as the king of tight ends and probably the greatest of all time. Unfortunately for him his reign will come to an end once Kansas City’s Travis Kelce decides to call time on his own illustrious career.

Against the LA Chargers on Sunday evening, Kelce’s three-touchdown performance was stellar. He now leads the NFL in receiving touchdowns with 11; he’s hoping to be the first tight end to lead the NFL in that category since 2013. It was his 33rd career 100-yard receiving game, which breaks his tie with Gronkowski for the most by a tight end.

Kelce, a seven-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro, scored a 17-yard touchdown (his second of the night) in the fourth quarter which moved him past the century mark. Whilst his third not only sealed a personal record, but also secured the Kansas City Chiefs a 30-27 walk-off victory.

It certainly helps to be catching passes from a player as mercurial as Patrick Mahomes, but game recognises game and after the win the quarterback had high praise for his teammate. “Travis, I mean, it’s Travis, greatest tight end of all time, he makes plays like that to win games,” Mahomes said.

Kelce has enjoyed playing against the Chargers since their move to SoFi Stadium, having scored seven touchdowns against them, six to tie games or take the lead. He even pulled out the Chargers’ legendary running back LaDanian Tomlinson’s famous high-step and finger-roll celebration as he gave his team a 13-10 lead in the second quarter. Was Kelce paying homage or taunting? Only he knows for sure. But he clearly wasn’t going to let his opportunity pass when it arrived.

Cordarrelle Patterson to the Hall of Fame?

To make the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a true returner is a big ask and most who make it have had to do something else at a fairly high level to cement their place, but Patterson has a pretty strong case.

Earlier this year, Atlanta’s Cordarrelle Patterson said if he were to break the NFL record for career kickoff return TDs, he’d stop handling kicks. On Sunday against the Chicago Bears, he scored his ninth career kickoff return, carrying the ball 103-yards for the touchdown, to help his team to a 27-24 win. But will it be his last?

Patterson actually tied for the record with Josh Cribs and Leon Washington two years ago whilst playing for the Bears and in that time it’s not as though he’s been trying hard to break the record. Atlanta weren’t letting him return kicks for the most part. This year, before Sunday’s game, Patterson had attempted just four returns and only 21 the season before. Why, Arthur Smith, were you denying us this joy?

Having been originally drafted by Minnesota as a wide receiver, he struggled to take to the role and was subsequently moved on to Oakland and then New England. Whilst his special team’s ability was appreciated by Bill Belichick, his lack of diversity on the field saw him moved to Chicago where he enjoyed more success as a running back. Not enough to keep him from being moved on once again though, which is where we now find him with the Falcons where he has been arguably their best player last year.

During the offseason, Patterson told the media that he had been bugging Falcons special teams coordinator Marquice Williams. He said. He understood that he was a big-time starting running back, but he wanted glory. “I’ve got a record to break, man. I need one more before I can hang it up being back there, man. If I get one more, I’ll stop doing it.” If this is the last time we see him return a kickoff in the NFL then we need to appreciate the man who turned a simple job into an art form.

Jamaal Williams = TDs

Jamaal Williams is the first player to score multiple rushing touchdowns in at least five of his team’s first 10 games since the aforementioned LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006, when he set the single-season TD record with 31.

There wasn’t a lot to know about Williams before this season and those who were familiar with him probably only knew about his humorous quotes and rousing team talks from HBO’s Hard Knocks. He wasn’t even considered to be RB1 for the Lions this year, that role was D’Andre Swifts. The running back only had 13 rushing touchdowns in his first five NFL seasons and now he has 12 this year alone, including three on Sunday in the Lions’ third straight win.

Detroit’s offence has, surprisingly to many, reached goal-to-go situations 23 times (third-most in the NFL) and scored touchdowns in them at an 87-percent rate.

That’s a high level of efficiency and the reason behind it is mostly to do with Williams. He might not be as good of a runner as Swift but he is more powerful and the Lions have utilised his brute strength effectively when they get to the 1-yard line.

With seven games remaining in the regular season, Williams is only four touchdowns short of tying the Lions’ single-season record of 16 rushing touchdowns, set by Hall of Famer Barry Sanders in 1991.

Buffalo win for the fans

Success on the field carries into its community but the Bills win on Sunday in Detroit was not just for the fans, it was only possible because of their fans.

Late last week, 77 inches of snow fell in Orchard Park, New York, home of the Buffalo Bills and so their game against the Cleveland Browns was moved to Detroit. Photos and videos posted to social media showed the “Bills Mafia” — the nickname given to the team’s loyal fanbase — shovelling out players in an effort to get them to the airport on time to travel for the game. Unless it was for a Super Bowl, I’m guessing there’s not another fan base that would go to these lengths for their team.

Western New York is still under a travel ban in some parts – including Buffalo – and there’s a state of emergency in place as roads are covered in snow and more is on the way.

In a video posted to Instagram, Bills backup quarterback Case Keenum gave a “huge shout out” to neighbours who used snowblowers to clear his driveway. 

With neighbours also using their snowblowers to help clear the driveway of Bills offensive tackle Spencer Brown.

The official attendance for the game was 52,146 and there appeared to be more Bills fans at the game than Browns fans. That’s despite Buffalo being twice as far away from Detroit than Cleveland. Perhaps the feeling of home-field advantage helped the Bills get over the line in their 31-23 win, or maybe they felt as though they owed it to their city for simply getting them to the game.

Either way, the city of Buffalo has a very apt nickname: “The City of Good Neighbors” and after this week’s mammoth snowstorm the players and coaching staff of the Bills were witness to that first hand.