NFL Week 18 Star Performers
And there it is, the 2022 regular season – all finished. A few dead rubbers on the cards this week and plenty of first-string players were rested. Yet there was just about enough talent on display to make my list. Here’s my final star performers of the regular season:
Nyheim Hines
RB, Buffalo Bills, W 35-23 vs Patriots
After a tough week for the Bills following Damar Hamlin‘s cardiac arrest and the cancellation of their MNF game versus the Bengals, what physically better way can you start the next game by running back 96 yards for a kick-off return? You can’t. It’s a rhetorical question. How do you make it better? Run another for 102 yards later in the game. Unsure if that was rhetorical or not but it was incredible to watch.
The energy in Orchard Park was absolutely nuts with a tremendous display of solidarity by the Bills team and fans alike and Hines effort will be remembered forever following on from his exploits becoming only the 11th man in NFL history to complete such a remarkable occurrence.
He also helped the Bill secure the No 2 seed and homefield advantage for the divisional round, assuming they turn the Dolphins into some sort of fishy paste next week.
J.J. Watt
DE, Arizona Cardinals, L 13-38 @ 49ers
I was going to go for a Steeler here and Cam Heyward who crushed an up-and-down Browns O-Line and would have had three sacks if it hadn’t had been for a ludicrous roughing the passer call on his last one.
Then I was going to pick Chris Jones who absolutely obliterated the Raiders all night on Saturday. But I’ve decided to go for a sure fire first ballot Canton-bound man. J.J. Watt has been one of the most disruptive men in league history, never mind the period in which he has played where his work-rate has been biblical.
His Cardinals team were given a lesson by Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers but Watt still managed a brace of sacks, two QB hits and three tackles for loss in Sunday’s contest. He takes his career sack total (regular and post season) to 120.5 over his 12 season career and rightly received a standing ovation from the crowd as he departed the field for (probably) the final time before retirement.
Brock Purdy
QB, San Francisco 49ers, W 38-13 vs Cardinals
I can’t keep writing his performances off as luck or a feel-good story. The guy came to the league to play. Whilst he only threw 20 times on Sunday night, he rocked a solid 75% completion rate and fired off for a modest 178 yards but that included three TDs.
Maybe Week 18 wasn’t his most astonishing showing but perhaps I’m giving him this one for an accumulation of impressive performances to date. He hasn’t got the cannon of the league’s biggest arms, he hasn’t got the agility and size of the ‘new age’ of QB dual threat players, but he has got a calm head on young shoulders, an eye for a killer pass, an ability to take accurate shots from the pocket, one hell of a line-up around him (Deebo and Mitchell due back in full flow soon too) and a coach that clearly believes in him.
A week to forget for… Dak Prescott
I’m not sure what the Dallas signal-caller was up to on Sunday night, he just seemed off the boil. To be honest, the whole team looked like it was suffering with a two day hangover and I’m just picking on Dak because he posted career low numbers. 14 out of 37 attempts completed, only 128 yards of gain and a single touchdown.
Add that to the ghastly pick-six he threw, and one has to hope this was the stinker that he just needed to get out of the way before the playoffs started. For Jerry Jones’ hearts sake, I hope that’s true.
