Pigskin Papers Take 2: 2022 Week 10
The Catch of the Year; The Game of the Year
(Published November 15, 2022)
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Welcome to another edition of “Take Two”. Most weeks, I’m giving you 2 or 3 big takeaways from that week’s NFL action, and noting any related fantasy impact. This week, I’m going to try something different. I’ve got a series of quick takeaways and observations from an action-packed Week 10, followed by another edition of Fun Stats of the Week. Here we go!
*****See the Week 11 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Column Here: https://www.thepigskinpapers.com/posts-1/pigskin-papers-2022-waiver-wire-week-11
Down Goes Philly!
The Takeaways:
The Vikings-Bills OT thriller was easily the best game of the season, so far. The final 3 minutes of regulation was the craziest finish since another insane game that the Bills lost in overtime, to KC in the 2021 playoffs. The Jefferson catch on 4th and 18? Unbelievable. It’s an overused word but in this case I think it fits. The Bills and Vikings are a combined 0-8 in Super Bowls. Maybe we’ll get a rematch of this game in February, with one fan base finally seeing the top of the mountain.
If the season ended today, my top 5 MVP candidates would be: 1. Mahomes, 2. Hurts, 3. Josh Allen, 4. Tyreek Hill, 5. Tua. Yup, Tua. 71% completions, 17-3 TD-INT ratio, #1 in Total QBR, and most importantly, his team is undefeated in games he has started, and finished, Of course, the season doesn’t end today, but Mahomes has the inside track after 10 weeks.
Speaking of Josh Allen, I don’t know how bad his elbow injury is, but he played with his usual aggressive running style, taking on tacklers rather than trying to avoid contact. Allen has been off his usual game the past 2 weeks, both Bills losses.
I get the RTP flag on Brandon Graham, which was warranted under the rule, but he was trying to let up when Heinicke abruptly gave himself up. I hate that games end on these RTP calls. I really wanted to see if Hurts could engineer a game winning drive with no timeouts.
That said - It might be good for the Eagles, long-term, that they picked up a loss now. Enjoy your champagne, ‘72 Dolphins. Who did the Dolphins beat in the SB in their perfect season? The team from D.C., of course (same team, different name).
Brilliant move by new Indy interim coach Jeff Saturday (I’ve started calling him “Jeff Sunday”), starting Matt Ryan instead of presumed starter Sam Ehlinger. Vegas couldn‘t have been happy with the surprise - and by Vegas I mean both the Raiders and the Sports Books.
Not so fast on pouring shovelfuls of dirt on Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, everyone. Both QBs came up big on Sunday, in games their teams needed badly.
It’s ironic - Mike McCarthy was often criticized for NOT going for it on 4th down in Lambeau Field. My criticism - if you know you aren’t trying a FG from there, then your third down play call needs to make 4th down more manageable.
Dameon Pierce runs angry, and so does Brian Robinson, Jr. Both are tough to tackle. Robinson’s TD on Monday night was pure willpower, and his story this year is a great one.
Coaches rarely get fired after one season, but Josh McDaniels and Nathaniel Hackett are off to disastrous starts and could be in danger of a quick hook over the winter if things don’t improve.
On the flip side, a few of the first year coaches are leading big turnarounds, led by Kevin O’Connell, whose Vikings are 8-1, and Brian Daboll, whose Giants are 7-2.
Justin Fields is playing out of his mind. He is must-see TV. How did it take the Bears a season and a third to figure out what he’s good at?
The last-place Rams are in huge trouble and real danger of being a Super Bowl champ that misses the playoffs the next season. No Cooper Kupp (high ankle sprain) means no offense, and they were struggling with him healthy.
I’m already tired of the “where will OBJ go” circus - maybe because it also happened last season. As a reminder, he tore his ACL in February. I’m not sure he’ll be heathy enough to help a team that much down the stretch of this season, but stranger things have happened. My money is on Dallas.
The Best in the Business Keeps on Rolling
FUN FACTS OF THE WEEK:
Patrick Mahomes has now won 24 straight starts in the months of November and December.
Mahomes has thrown 4+ TDs in 22.2% of his starts, the highest % in NFL history. Second on the list is Aaron Rodgers, at approximately 15%.
The Bears are the first team in NFL history with 5 consecutive games of 225+ rushing yards.
Tua has won 8 straight starts at home.
The Dolphins are 7-0 this season in games Tua has started and finished.
Tua joined Dan Marino as the only Dolphin QBs to have 3+ TD passes in at least 3 straight games.
Every team in the AFC East is over .500, and has a positive point differential.
Nobody in the NFC South is over .500.
Nobody in the NFC East is under .500.
The front flip: Two years ago, the NFC East was a collective 10-26-1 after Week 10. This season, those same 4 teams are a collective 26-11 after Week 10.
The only team in the AFC South with a positive point differential is the 3-7 Jaguars.
The Lions just won back-to-back games for the first time since October, 2020.
The Raiders are 0-6 in 1 score games.
The Vikings are 7-0 in 1 score games.
The Vikings have won 5 games this season where they trailed inside the final 3 minutes of regulation.
Since 1991, only 2 teams have won a game after turning the ball over on downs in a goal-to-go situation with under 2 minutes remaining, and both of these occurrences came in the last 2 weeks (Bucs, Week 9, and Vikings, Week 10).
Justin Fields has 325 rushing yards in his last 2 games. I’ll repeat that: 325.
Over the last 5 weeks, Fields has the most rushing yards by a QB in a 5 game span in the Super Bowl era.
Fields has a 60+ yard TD run in each of his last 2 games - he’s the first QB to have 2 such TD runs in the same season.
Tariq Woolen has 5 INTs in his first 10 career games.
Since trading away CMC after Week 6, the Panthers are averaging 70 MORE rushing yards per game as a team. Also, the team had 3 rushing TDs before the trade, and has 7 rushing TDs since.
In Week 9, NFL QBs ran for a combined 801 yards, the most in a single week in NFL history.
Ron Rivera is the first NFL Coach to beat 2 teams that were 8-0 (or better) on the road, in his career. The other win came 2 years ago, against the 11-0 Steelers, also on a Monday night. Ron is a sleeper candidate for Miami’s Ring of Honor.
I wrote about the crazy Week 9 Sunday night game in last week’s column. Patrick Mahomes completed 43 passes while his counterpart Malik Willis completed 5. That gap of 38 completions is the most in the Super Bowl era.
The Eagles had not trailed at any time in the second half this season, before the start of the second half on Monday night, vs. the Commanders.
Tom Brady has now won NFL games in 4 countries: the US, the UK, Mexico, and Germany.
Brady came within 3 pass attempts of tying the record for most consecutive pass attempts without an INT (402, Aaron Rodgers)…The streak ended at 399 when he threw a late pick in the Munich game.
The Vikings’ fumble recovery TD in the final minute of regulation against the Bills was the first go-ahead, non-offensive TD scored by a trailing team in the final minute since 1986.
Justin Jefferson has the most 100 yard games (20) in the first 3 years of a career. He was tied with Randy Moss and OBJ, before Sunday.
Josh Allen threw a total of 2 red zone INTs in all of 2021, including playoffs. He threw 2 on Sunday vs. the Vikings, both to Patrick Peterson, and has 4 in 9 games this season.
Geno Smith has 8 games this season with multiple passing TDs. Before this season, he had 7 such games in his entire career.
Matt Ryan has led 5 game-winning 4th quarter drives this year.
The Steelers longest TD play this season is 8 yards. 8!!! The longest TD of the season (98 yards) was scored by the Bills, against the Steelers.
And…CUT!
DH
Fields Carves up Another Defense
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