Before the Thanksgiving holiday fades too far away in memory, here are a few things that Philadelphia fans should be thankful for this year:
** Second halves: The Eagles have now trailed at halftime in their last four games, and they have won all four. This team would be 6-5 if the games were only 30 minutes long.
** Jake Elliott: The Eagles kicker isn’t in the top 10 in salaries for kickers this season. Bills K Tyler Bass is fourth in the league. Bass missed two FGs in Sunday’s loss to Philadelphia, one in part because of the driving rain. Elliot hit a 59-yarder in that same weather to send the game into overtime.
** AJ Brown and Devonta Smith: Can you name the Eagles’ starting two wideouts for week 12 in 2020? If you didn’t remember Travis Fulgham and Jalen Reagor, well, you have Brown and Smith to thank for cleansing your brain.
** Late-game pressure: The Eagles have 32 sacks on the year so far. Of those, 19 have come in the third or fourth quarters, when defensive stops are even more critical.
** Jalen Hurts: He’s 27-2 in his last 29 regular season starts. Nick Foles only had 26 regular season wins in his whole Eagles career. Of course, there is one win category where Hurts needs to catch up to Foles…
WR: Zay Flowers, 19.87 pts — on my bench
RB: Kyren Williams, 33.37 pts — started by me
TE: Sam LaPorta, 13.63 pts — started by Mom D
K: Blake Grupe, 19.00 pts — on the wire
DEF: Miami, 22.00 pts — started by Jonathan
D: Rashan Gary, 14.50 pts — on the wire
I’ll be honest, even I’m not sure if Blake Grupe is a real player or someone I made up.
We only had five QBs top 40 fantasy points in a game through the first 11 weeks of the season, so of course we had three this week alone. Combined, they totaled 13 TDs and 870 passing yds. Allen led the pack, bettering Hurts and Dak Prescott each by about three points. Those three are also on the medal stand right now in that order for the most fantasy points scored of any players.
That’s impressive, and even more so when you can’t figure out who the heck they are throwing to. This was the first time all season that zero wideouts cracked the 20-fantasy-points mark. Eleven receivers topped 100 yards, but none had a standout performance of note. Flowers topped the pack in large part thanks to a 37-yard rushing TD, not just his WR work.
“Dallas” edition3rd place: DeeJay Dallas, -0.17 pts — on the wire
2nd place: Mike White, -0.20 pts — on the wire
1st place: Mac Jones, -0.44 pts — on the wire
I just really wanted to have a Dallas somewhere in the worst performers this week.
Patriots QB Mac Jones threw for 316 yards and three TDs against the Eagles in the opener this season, totaling 30.14 fantasy points. This week he threw for 89 yards and two interceptions against the New Jersey Giants before being benched for the second half of the loss. Jones was drafted by the Patriots in 2021 and made the Pro Bowl that year. Now, the 2-9 New England team is likely looking at drafting a new play caller with one of the top picks in next year’s NFL draft.
** Late in that unwatchable Cowboys game on Thanksgiving, Dallas QB Dak Prescott tossed a 34-yard TD pass to WR KaVontae Turpin to put his team up 37-10 and essentially end the game. As part of their end zone celebration, several players ran over to the giant Salvation Army kettle display near the end zone and pulled out a turkey leg, handing it to their QB to get a snack while they danced with glee. CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson immediately chimed in with her … insight.
“I’ve got the full story of how that turkey leg ended up in the bucket. Ahead of the game, TE Jack Ferguson told his teammates ‘hey, we’ve got to put a turkey leg in there for after we score.’ So they did it.”
Wow. There’s so much intrigue and subterfuge there I’m surprised Wolfson could remember all the twists and turns. And it totally cleared up my confusion of whether Prescott was using a prop to celebrate or simply eating trash off the ground because he was so hungry. Solid sideline journalism, as always.
** As part of its pre-game ads for “Black Friday Football” this week, Amazon showed shots of RB Christian McCaffery sprinting out of the locker room, QB Jalen Hurts prepping on the sideline, LB Micah Parsons lining up for a defensive rush, DE Maxx Crosby sacking a QB, WR Chris Olave making a clutch catch and QB Patrick Mahomes celebrating a score, all over the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black.” Then a deep announcer’s voice boomed, “Black Friday is now game day.”
It was, in fact, a game day that featured zero of those players. They didn’t show any Dolphins or Jets until the 30-second mark of the commercial. But, if that’s all I had to sell viewers on, maybe I’d keep the actual teams secret too.
Even though the 1-10 Panthers fired their head coach this week and have been outscored by 119 points this season, they still have a possible path to the playoffs. All they need to do to finish atop the NFC south is:
** Win five of their next six games, finishing with a 6-11 record.
** Have the Falcons lose the rest of their games, finishing at 5-12.
** Have the Saints lose the rest of their games except the one against the Falcons, finishing at 6-11.
** Have the Bucs beat the Falcons and Saints but lose their other 4, finishing at 6-11.
If that happens, the Panthers with a 4-2 record in the division would be crowned champions. And they’d be the #4 seed, hosting a first-round playoff game.
Ridiculous, right? Maybe not. Of their last six games, the Panthers only play one team with a winning record (the Jaguars). And the other teams in the NFC South have a combined 6-16 record outside of the division. Suddenly six wins and playoff dreams sounds at least somewhat plausible.
Speaking of Jake “Turd” Ferguson, he’s done more for the Cowboys this year than hide poultry. The second-year pro is third on the team in receiving yards and has been a key offensive contributor for Dallas. But he’s even more important in the character of the team, helping them establish an identity on and off the field. And when you rearrange the letters in his name, you can see exactly what that identity is:
Dallas Cowboys TE Jake Ferguson
** A jerk. A soft cudgel. Obeys no laws.
The Cowboys haven’t obeyed any laws of humanity in the past, so why start now?
** Finally a good week for Dad, who went 2-1 in the weekly picks and dropped his deficient on the year down to 11. And he did not pick the Jets to win. So progress all around.
** The NFL Hall of Fame on Tuesday announced their semifinalists for the 2024 class and it includes former Eagles CB Eric Allen and former Eagles RB Ricky Watters. But they also eliminated from the ballot K David Akers, QB Randall Cunningham, RB Brian Westbrook, QB Donovan McNabb and CB Troy Vincent. And I get that you have to make cuts, but RB Fred Taylor made it past the first round. Fred Taylor!?! Who was healthy for like 15 minutes over a decade? How is he a potential Hall of Famer and former league MVP Cunningham isn’t?
** For all you ESPN+ fans, Delaware takes on Montana State in the second round of the FCS playoffs at 9pm on Saturday night. To prep for that, you can root against Villanova at noon when they take on Youngstown State.
Week 12 standings
1 — Jalen Ain't Failin (Dad), 1505.86 pts
2 — The Best (Jonathan), 1492.67 pts
3 — Tight Ends for Everyone! (Jo), 1461.77 pts
4 — DeVonta’s Inferno (Mom D), 1444.40 pts
5 — Murder Hornets (Mike), 1378.66 pts
6 — Standard Deviations (Sam), 1365.92 pts
7 — Brotherly Shove Squad (Capt Awesome), 1361.29 pts
8 — No One Likes Us We Don't Care (Bob), 1319.24 pts
9 — Die Hard is a Christmas Movie (Paul), 1283.12 pts
10 — All Rogers No Sauce (Joel), 1178.09 pts
11 — Jabronis (Ant), 1175.22 pts
12 — Blue Collar Killers (Jeff), 1087.52 pts
Our top four teams all had huge weeks again, elevating their tier ahead of the rest of the pack. Dad topped the week with 147.39 pts and tops the standings again, with Jonathan close behind. But Dad has an incredible eight players on a bye this week, meaning he’ll be doing some serious scrambling to stay up there.
Tough week all around — Bob had 116.72 pts this week, and that was only good enough for 8th place over the holiday slate of contests. I thought I was making up ground on the leaders and only finished a point ahead of Bob. Paul’s yippee-ki-yay attitude has him slowly climbing up, but there may not be enough time left to overcome his slow start. Jeff’s team remains dead.
Six teams are on byes this week, including the Ravens and Bills, so that should cause significant heartache for everyone (and not just Dad). Check those rosters early. Only six weeks left in the season…
** Win five of their next six games, finishing with a 6-11 record.
** Have the Falcons lose the rest of their games, finishing at 5-12.
** Have the Saints lose the rest of their games except the one against the Falcons, finishing at 6-11.
** Have the Bucs beat the Falcons and Saints but lose their other 4, finishing at 6-11.
If that happens, the Panthers with a 4-2 record in the division would be crowned champions. And they’d be the #4 seed, hosting a first-round playoff game.
Ridiculous, right? Maybe not. Of their last six games, the Panthers only play one team with a winning record (the Jaguars). And the other teams in the NFC South have a combined 6-16 record outside of the division. Suddenly six wins and playoff dreams sounds at least somewhat plausible.
Speaking of Jake “Turd” Ferguson, he’s done more for the Cowboys this year than hide poultry. The second-year pro is third on the team in receiving yards and has been a key offensive contributor for Dallas. But he’s even more important in the character of the team, helping them establish an identity on and off the field. And when you rearrange the letters in his name, you can see exactly what that identity is: Dallas Cowboys TE Jake Ferguson
** A jerk. A soft cudgel. Obeys no laws.
The Cowboys haven’t obeyed any laws of humanity in the past, so why start now?
** Finally a good week for Dad, who went 2-1 in the weekly picks and dropped his deficient on the year down to 11. And he did not pick the Jets to win. So progress all around. ** The NFL Hall of Fame on Tuesday announced their semifinalists for the 2024 class and it includes former Eagles CB Eric Allen and former Eagles RB Ricky Watters. But they also eliminated from the ballot K David Akers, QB Randall Cunningham, RB Brian Westbrook, QB Donovan McNabb and CB Troy Vincent. And I get that you have to make cuts, but RB Fred Taylor made it past the first round. Fred Taylor!?! Who was healthy for like 15 minutes over a decade? How is he a potential Hall of Famer and former league MVP Cunningham isn’t?
** For all you ESPN+ fans, Delaware takes on Montana State in the second round of the FCS playoffs at 9pm on Saturday night. To prep for that, you can root against Villanova at noon when they take on Youngstown State.
Week 12 standings
1 — Jalen Ain't Failin (Dad), 1505.86 pts
2 — The Best (Jonathan), 1492.67 pts
3 — Tight Ends for Everyone! (Jo), 1461.77 pts
4 — DeVonta’s Inferno (Mom D), 1444.40 pts
5 — Murder Hornets (Mike), 1378.66 pts
6 — Standard Deviations (Sam), 1365.92 pts
7 — Brotherly Shove Squad (Capt Awesome), 1361.29 pts
8 — No One Likes Us We Don't Care (Bob), 1319.24 pts
9 — Die Hard is a Christmas Movie (Paul), 1283.12 pts
10 — All Rogers No Sauce (Joel), 1178.09 pts
11 — Jabronis (Ant), 1175.22 pts
12 — Blue Collar Killers (Jeff), 1087.52 pts
Our top four teams all had huge weeks again, elevating their tier ahead of the rest of the pack. Dad topped the week with 147.39 pts and tops the standings again, with Jonathan close behind. But Dad has an incredible eight players on a bye this week, meaning he’ll be doing some serious scrambling to stay up there.
Tough week all around — Bob had 116.72 pts this week, and that was only good enough for 8th place over the holiday slate of contests. I thought I was making up ground on the leaders and only finished a point ahead of Bob. Paul’s yippee-ki-yay attitude has him slowly climbing up, but there may not be enough time left to overcome his slow start. Jeff’s team remains dead.
Six teams are on byes this week, including the Ravens and Bills, so that should cause significant heartache for everyone (and not just Dad). Check those rosters early. Only six weeks left in the season…
1 comment:
Welcome to the party, pal.
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