Week 14 Thoughts

The Minnesota Vikings entered their Week 13 game against the Carolina Panthers riding an eight-game win streak. They hit that eight game total by playing smart football. They just didn't make mistakes. The defense kept opposing offenses from doing what they wanted. They kept opposing offenses from converting third downs. The offense kept possession of the football. They didn't turn the ball over. The receivers caught everything thrown their way. They converted third downs. Sound, smart football. Yesterday, the Vikings didn't really do any of the things that had them sitting pretty at 10-2. They lost to the Panthers in Carolina 31-24.

Some talking heads have often said that it can be good to lose a game when things are going well at this point in the season. They say that a loss can serve as a reset or something like that. I don't really buy that sort of thinking as I don't think that a loss is ever a good thing. At least the Vikings went down with a fight yesterday. They made mistakes throughout the game but they rallied. They forced the Panthers to do something at the end to earn the win. And they did.

Through 12 games, Vikings pass catchers had dropped only five passes. They dropped five in this game. Two of those drops were in the end zone. Instead of touchdowns, the Vikings had to settle for field goals. That works out to a giveaway of eight points. They could've used those eight points in a game that was decided by seven. The Vikings turned the ball over three times. Two of those set the Panthers up for 10 points. The other took away a Vikings scoring opportunity when a pass through the hands and off the helmet of Stefon Diggs landed in the hands of Panthers corner James Bradberry near the Panthers 20-yard line.

The Vikings offensive line had done a terrific job of protecting quarterback Case Keenum all season. Keenum's movement in the pocket helped but the line has played well. Their performance has been one of the main reasons for the team's offensive efficiency. The play of rookie center Pat Elflein is a big reason. It was a major concern when he was declared inactive for this game. That forced a shuffling of the interior line. Left guard Nick Easton was moved to center and Jeremiah Sirles stepped into Easton's spot. One injury forced adjustments at two positions. That's never a good thing for any game. It's a terrible thing when the game is against the likes of the Panthers' excellent pair of defensive tackles, Kawann Short and Star Lotulelei. Short simply wrecked things with two sacks and two tackles for loss. Those stats don't account for the nuisance that he was for nearly every play in between. And that's just the interior of the Panthers defensive line. They have Julius Peppers and Mario Addison rushing from the outside. The Panthers sacked Keenum six times. To make matters worse, Vikings left tackle Riley Reiff left with an apparent ankle injury in the fourth quarter. Keenum was under pretty consistent pressure up until then. He was often running for his life after Reiff left. The Vikings can't afford to lose any lineman, especially Rieff.

Despite all the things that didn't go right the Vikings fought their way back into the game. The Panthers seemed to have the game in hand when Keenum threw that pass through Diggs' hands and into those of Bradberry. The Vikings were down 24-13 with 8:54 to play following the failed scoring opportunity. A long touchdown pass to Adam Thielen and an interception by Andrew Sendejo that led to a field goal and the Vikings had a 24-24 tie with three minutes to play. All they had to do was stop the Panthers offense. That's when Cam Newton took over.

On a designed run, Newton had Sendejo diving for air and was in the clear. 62 yards later he had his team in control again at the Vikings 8-yard line with two minutes to play. Three plays later Jonathan Stewart had his third touchdown of the game and the Panthers had a 31-24 lead.

The Vikings still had a shot with 1:47 to play but the Panthers blitz-aided rush simply overwhelmed a makeshift offensive line. Game over.

The Vikings had managed a pretty good running game with Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon during the eight-game win streak. Murray has had the hot hand in recent weeks. It looked like McKinnon had the hot hand in the first half yesterday. Seven carries for 46 yards. It was surprising that he had no touches in the second half. He was seen on the sideline getting a neck rub late in the first half. Maybe an injury concern kept McKinnon on the sideline in the second half.

As a Vikings fan, it's real easy to bellyache over a game like this. If they hadn't made frequent mistakes (drops, turnovers, settling for field goals inside the ten-yard line) and simply played as they had in the previous eight games they walk away with this game. They had opportunities and they simply didn't take advantage of them. They didn't do the football basics. Catching the football, in particular. Credit has to be given to the Panthers. They took advantage of their opportunities. Scoring touchdowns rather than field goals in the red zone, in particular.

The loss drops the Vikings to 10-3. The win bumps the Panthers to 9-4. The Vikings hold a three-game lead over the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions in the NFC North with three games to play. The Panthers are in a brawl for the NFC South title with the New Orleans Saints (9-4) and Atlanta Falcons (8-5).

The NFL hasn't made a lot of great decisions in recent years but they made one last week. Each team's nominees for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award the league was announced on Thursday. With that announcement the league announced that each past winner of the award will wear a patch on their jersey and each nominee will wear a sticker on their helmet. For the Vikings-Panthers game, Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis was sporting a fine-looking patch and tight ends Kyle Rudolph and Greg Olsen were sporting the sticker on their helmets. Very nice.

For most of the game it looked like the Green Bay Packers were going to serve up the first win of the year to the Cleveland Browns. The Packers were trailing 21-7 when they entered the fourth quarter. They scored their 14th point of the final quarter with seven seconds to play. Browns quarterback DeShone Kizer essentially gifted the overtime win to the Packers with a ridiculous interception. Sooner after that the Browns had their thirteenth loss of the season and the Packers stayed alive in the playoff race.

The Packers scratched out their second consecutive win in overtime. Neither win was pretty and both probably should've gone down as losses in regulation but the Packers are alive and they might be getting Aaron Rodgers back for the final three games.

The Indianapolis Colts-Buffalo Bills game was played in Buffalo under a thick sheet of snow. For all of regulation and most of overtime it looked like neither team was going to win. 7-7 after four quarters. 7-7 with 1:33 to play in overtime. LeSean McCoy put an end to the game with a 21-yard run. 13-7 Bills.

Hey, how about that? The Kansas City Chiefs finally won a game. After an impressive 5-0 start to the season, the Chiefs have gone 1-6 in the seven games since. They managed a win against the Oakland Raiders yesterday, 25-16.

The San Francisco 49ers are undefeated with Jimmy Garoppolo starting at quarterback. They took care of the Houston Texans 26-16. It's remarkable, unbelievable really, that a team can find their franchise quarterback at the season's trade deadline.

Texans quarterback Tom Savage whacked his head on the turf after taking a hit, rolled on his side, and his hands appeared to be twitching in an unnerving manner. Some amateur doctors labeled it a seizure. Somehow the Texans allowed him to return to the game on the next series. How does that happen? It simply shouldn't happen. Savage was eventually removed from the game but a bunch of idiots on the Texans sideline (league specialists? included) have some explaining to do.

Over the past two seasons the Detroit Lions have made it routine to pull games out in the fourth quarter. It was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that did most of the rallying yesterday. They put up 14 fourth quarter points to tie the game at 21. The Lions still did their late game thing with a game-winning Matt Prater field goal with 20 seconds to play. 24-21 Lions.

There was a big game in Los Angeles. It's been decades since that was the case. 10-2 Philadelphia Eagles vs 9-3 Los Angeles Rams. It was a high-scoring affair with the Eagles pulling out a 43-35 win. An Eagles defensive touchdown on the final, desperation, (attempted) lateral play by the Rams made the final score look less close than it was. The Rams seemed to have control of the game but some stunning, mental mistakes gave the Eagles extra opportunities.

This could be a very costly win for the Eagles. Quarterback Carson Wentz left with a knee injury. It doesn't sound good for Wentz and Philadelphia. Nick Foles stepped in and played well but filling in for Wentz long term is a whole other story.

The Seattle Seahawks-Jacksonville Jaguars could've been fun game. Maybe it was fun for some people but the classless ending from players on the field and fans in the stands took all of the fun out of the game. The Jaguars won the game 30-24.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens capped the day with a high-scoring, back-and-forth fight. This rivalry usually treats us to defensive gems. This one was a offensive shootout with both offenses taking advantage of worn-out defenses. 39-38 Steelers.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw the ball often and he threw it all over the field. He had 44 completions on 66 attempts for 506 yards and two touchdowns (20,1). Both touchdowns went to Le'Veon Bell. Receiver Antonio Brown caught a quarter of the passes thrown by Roethlisberger. 11 catches for 213 yards. With Roethlisberger, Bell, and Brown pacing the offense it feels like any game against any defense is within reach of the Steelers. They face their toughest test of the season next week. The New England Patriots.

It might be a stretch but the Ravens lost this game on their second to last possession. The Steelers had just scored a touchdown to cut the Ravens lead to 38-36 with 3:29 to play. All the Ravens needed to do was force the Steelers to use their timeouts and take as much time off the clock as possible. With the way that Alex Collins was running the ball (18 carries for 120 yards) and a gassed Steelers defense in front of them it was set up for the Raven to do just that. On first down, Joe Flacco threw incomplete. That's a nice gift for the Steelers. On second down, Collins runs for seven yards. That's more like it. On third down, Flacco throws incomplete again. Another nice gift. The Ravens punted the ball without forcing the Steelers to take a single timeout and and they took only a 1:04 off of the clock. It was a puzzling sequence that might've cost the Ravens the game.

The New England Patriots visit the Miami Dolphins tonight to cap Week 13.