It's hilarious how close their stats are that they ended up both with a 157.2 passer rating, basically each one incompletion away from a perfect 158.3 (Love had that before he was inserted back in). What's more crazy is how each got there so easily, blending hitting wide open guys (because their coaches did an amazing job scheming) and hitting some absolute dimes of the highest order of difficulty. Seriously, throws into tight windows, throwing guys open, hitting them perfectly in stride. All of it was just so commanding. Yes, the defenses gave them all the openings (more on that in a second), but these two guys cemented their place among the game's best young stars.
Runner-Up: Lavonte David (LB, TB) & Vita Vea (DT, TB)
I could give this to many players on the Bucs defense, but let me give it to of the longer tenured guys, the guys that made the Super Bowl winning team churn, and came back to life here. David has been doing it for years that he's probably working up a reasonable HOF Case by now, and he was so spry, tackling perfectly, running through gaps, and generally ruin any plans the Eagles had at running the ball. Of course, if David didn't, than Vita Vea did as well. The giant man was every bit as big and brilliant as he was at his peak. The offense gets the headlines, and because the Eagles offense has been in a mess for weeks it's easy to overlook the Bucs defense holding them to 42 yards rushing and basically making them fully one dimensional from the first drive. That's a way to make a lasting statement.
Goat of the Week: All the Cowboys
I wanted to like this Dallas team. I predicted preseason for them to make the Super Bowl. They dominated so many (admittedly bad) teams throughout the season. But the signs were there. Granted, I don't think anyone would've predicted an embarrassment of the highest order but Jesus that is what we got to a tee. Not even sure which side of the ball I want to place more blame on, the high performing defense that looked like it had never played a Lafleur defense before, or the offense that was so explosive needing to grind every yard against a generally bad offense. All of it was just disastrous for what almost certainly will end the Mike McCarthy era - an era I always thought was being too harshly criticized, but alas in the end all of those other people were absolutely right.
Runner-Up: Jim Schwartz
For the Cowboys, everything went wrong. For the Browns - while Flacco and his pick-sixes certainly didn't help, it was the defense that was so surprisingly awful in that game. Seriously, what the hell was that by Schwartz. I get that he never wants to really alter his scheme, but he seemed to have zero answers when his superior talent had a surprisingly quiet game. Garrett was locked up. The secondary was mostly useless. The secondary pass rushers were quiet. I feel bad I guess singularly putting this on Schwartz, but so much of that defense is based on the attitude of him and his coordinatorisms. That was just all so absent.
Surprise of the Week: Chiefs OL
The Chiefs win was so boringly dominant from teh get-go it was hard to really pinpoint any one area to focus on - but it did jump out to me over time how quiet Sieler and Wilkins were on the Dolphins front. They are nominally the strength of that defense (with Chubb and Phillips out) and were quiet. It's because the Chiefs much maligned OL came to play in style. The middle guys of Humphrey, Thuney and Trey Smith were all brilliant. Both in opening up lanes for Pacheco and keeping Mahomes relatively clean. The receivers still messed up, but in reality the biggest difference between the 2022 Chiefs and 2023 Chiefs in terms of output is their dropoff of the OL. This was a great sign, my only caveat being the Dolphins more or less decided not to show up.
Runner-Up: Lions Red Zone Defense
The offense went 3-3 on TDs in the Red Zone. The Rams offense went 0-3. That's the game right there. The Lions defense was the more surprising of the two easily - this is a below average red zone defense all year that got all up in its business in this one. The Rams run game did nothing in the red zone. They got pressure on Stafford at crucial times. Their much maligned secondary got hands on balls, contested fades and made life tough. It was a great performance by that unit where even one of those field goals becoming TDs could have swung that game fully.
Disappointment of the Week: Mike McDaniel's Creativity
I don't want to kick him too much. That team was so injured it was always going to be uphill. But Jesus I've never seen such a fold down by a dynamic coaching style than that one. Just not challenging deep at all. So many third downs where msot routes were well behind the yard to gain. Just a fallow, flaccid performance by an offense that lit the world on fire. I genuinely like Mike McDaniel and wish him long success as a coach, so I'm truly hoping that this wassn't a season long culmination of people figuring his stuff out. I still think the future is bright, but that was just a disaster of a game playcalling wise as much as execution.
Runner-Up: Eagles Offensive Adjustments
The only reason this isn't a full on disappointment is I think we all saw this coming for a while, but it was still startling to see the Eagles have no adjustments, no plan, no well... just... anything. No answers for the blitz, no sensible hot routes, no in breakers, no anything of all the things that so many other teams have started doing. It was all just pathetic, and showcased nothing of the ingenuity of the team from last year. I guess it is just may come down to Steichen and Gannon secretly being geniuses and the brain drain being too tough to overcome.
Team Performance of the Week: Packers Skill Position Guys
It wasn't all Jordan Love on that one, or even Lafleur. It was a team wide domination and every skill position player got in on the fun, from Romeo Doubs to Wicks to the two great young TEs and of course to the brilliance that was Aaron Jones. The Packers skill position players, Jones aside, are all super young and really untested. They grew along with Love all season long, and we saw it all in full degree in that one. Just an incredible performance from first drive to last by the Packers receivers and running backs. 500 yards of offense against a supposedly great defense. Pure domination.
Runner-Up: Bills OL
Allen was great, Cook was great, but the OL was even better for the Bills. Grading space for Cook to run through time and time again. Did well to keep Allen clean basically all night as well. Yes, the Steelers were missing Watt which was a problem, but Heyward, Highsmith and others got nothing further as well. Ahead of what is going to be a far trickier challenge in the Chiefs front, this was a really encouraging sign.
Team Laydown of the Week: Eagles Tackling
We can blame Matt Patricia for many things, and I think we all should blame Matt Patricia for many things. The defense got worse after he took over - for reasons that still haven't really been adequately explained (around why exactly we needed a DC change to begin with). But you can't blame Patricia for the ridiculous amount of missed tackling, bad angles and just general sense of "we don't want to be here." Even in the second half, when the DL showed some life with the three sacks and kept the Eagles somewhat in the game, the linebackers and secondary were just awful. The worst part is the countless times they tackled Bucs guys forwards, giving them an extra 1-3 yards consistently. Pathetic performance.
Runner-Up: Rams Secondary
I feel a bit bad since they're definitely undermanned and were very outgunned against the Lions receivers, but man were the Rams secondary players just useless. Bad in man coverage, bad in zone, bad on tackling especially in run support. The Lions offense had everything going early on. Even in the second half when the Rams were slowed down, it was the pass rush rediscovering a bit of life and getting on Goff a little bit more than anything the secondary did. Brutal performance by what is the clear weakness of the 2023 Rams.
Storyline of the Week that will be Beaten Into the Ground: Chiefs @ Bills, Pt. 3
Yes, we get it. These two teams played an instant classic two years ago. These two teams played in the AFC Title Game the year before that. They've played in teh regular season three straight seasons, with the Bills winning each of those. But this game is so different than those others. First off, it is in Buffalo, rather than Kansas City. Secondly this Chiefs team is so different than the ones from 2020 and 2021. This is an offense getting buy on one guy's signature brilliance, but more than anything the Chiefs are a defense first team. It really will come down who wins that Spags vs. Allen/Brady matchup. Forget the Allen and Mahomes stuff.
Runner-Up: The rise of the Texans & Packers
I get it, both of the young QBs guys are on epic heaters. Stroud had one of the more impressive rookie seasons ever. Love is having a 11-game run that evokes Rodgers. They also are on teams that lost a bunch of suspect games. Stroud was great against teh Colts in Week 18, but they were a terrible drop away from potentially losing their playoff spot to a Gardner Minshew led team. The Packers were 9-8, including barely beating Carolina. The teams aren't that great yet. The QBs are. The playcallers are excellent, but more than likely that was just two amazing games, and not some re-set of the entire NFL axis. Of course, what I love is both play their conference's #1 seed, giving me a chance to look really right, or just stupid, in five days time.
Storyline that Should be Beaten Into the Ground: Packers @ 49ers Redux?
In teh Aaron Rodgers era, despite the 49ers famously passing on him in 2005, the 49ers owned the Packers, beating them in the playoffs in 2012, 2013, 2019 and 2021 - and a slew of other times in the regular season. If anything is going to cement that this is a new era of Packers football under Jordan Love, delinking itself from Aaron Rodgers, it is making this game even competitive. And the Packers have some of the pieces to do it. Namely, they have an offense with a bunch of movement, with an OL playing well, and a run game that can potentially do to the 49ers a bit of what the Ravens did. Let's not talk about the other side of the ball, but Rodgers rarely got to 20+ against the 49ers (garbage time aside), and here they should do at least that.
Runner-Up: Detroit, Sweet Detroit
What a perfect rebuild. 3-14 in year 1. 8-9 in year 2, including a hot end to the season, including knocking the Packers out of the playoffs in Green Bay. And then 12-5 in year 3, with home playoff games. This team jsut did it all right. And then after they get screwed out of the #2 seed on the eligible receiver nonsense, they get the Divisional Round game at home, getting the benefit of the first #7 over #2. And not only that they get what looks to be on paper the easier matchup. The Lions earned this. Jared Goff earned it. Dan Campbell, a coach so many mocked early on, earned this. They have a genuinely good team with a great unit (offense). They have great fans that didn't see a home playoff game for 32 years. It's all different now. It's all special now. Soak it up for seven more days, Detroit.
