The Bengals Are Legit Super Bowl Contenders

Plus, Nick Bosa on the 49ers’ defense and why it’s more than capable of carrying the team, Josh Allen’s incredible play, Bill Belichick’s praise for the Vikings, and another big win for Geno Smith in this week’s Ten Takeaways.

More MMQB: Scenes From Deshaun Watson’s Long Day in Houston | Six From Saturday: Quentin Johnston Is One of Several TCU Players to Know Before the Draft

Here’s some news—last year’s AFC title game actually wasn’t Chiefs-Bills. That epic was the week before, in the divisional round, and the winner, Kansas City, wound up losing championship weekend. Which left, yes, the Bengals to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.

Not that you would know it from listening to everyone talk over the past nine months.

“We know who we are,” Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow told me early Sunday night when I asked about his team being routinely skipped on lists of contenders. “We don’t worry about what anybody else says. We know exactly what we have here in this locker room. And we’re just going to go show it each week.”

Burrow ran for a touchdown and passed for two others for the Bengals, who are tied atop the AFC North with the Ravens.  :: Joseph Maiorana/USA TODAY Sports

The Bengals are, again, a player in the AFC race, and they outgunned Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, 27–24, on Sunday. It was their fourth consecutive win and sixth victory in seven games. They remain a tough, resourceful, unselfish bunch, which explains how Burrow took down Kansas City for the third straight meeting.

Burrow is obviously indicative of those attributes. But on Sunday, Tee Higgins was just as much so, and that’s according to Burrow himself.

Higgins’s story starts with the Bengals taking the lead for the final time with 8:54 left on a Burrow checkdown to third-down back Chris Evans to cap a 10-play, 53-yard drive. Defensive end Joseph Ossai came through on the following possession to drop Mahomes for a sack, which pushed Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s kick back four yards. Butker then missed the 55-yarder.

And that left Burrow and Higgins to, collectively, throw the knockout blow. The Bengals got the ball back with 3:19 left and, in two plays, churned out a first down that forced the Chiefs to start calling timeouts. Three plays later, it was third-and-5, and Burrow found Ja’Marr Chase in the right flat, hemmed in by the sideline. Chase put his shoulder down and ground out the first down, drawing (and deserving) plenty of praise for it on the broadcast. Hidden in there was Higgins’s role in freeing him up.

“The key was the block outside from Tee, and that’s what I’m talking about, just Tee being such an unselfish player,” Burrow says. “They were doubling Ja’Marr on that play, and Tee was able to seal the edge for him to outrun those two guys to get us a first down.”

That left the Chiefs without a timeout and 2:49 left. One first down would end the game for the Bengals. On first-and-10, Samaje Perine picked up six yards to get Cincinnati closer. But Burrow got caught trying to scramble from the pocket on second-and-4 and was dropped by Chiefs rookie George Karlaftis for a seven-yard loss.

“It was either my read, or I’m going to go try to make a play,” Burrow says, “because I knew, third-and-6, third-and-11, the difference is five yards. But it’s not much of a difference to me.”

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Which would sound like a silly premise, especially if you heard it before you saw what happened next.

Burrow leaned on Higgins again, this time with the ball, rather than for a block. And in doing so, he delivered a strike into his breadbasket. Burrow, as he usually does in these situations, made it look a lot easier than it actually was.

“When it gets into crunch time like that, we’re going to go into the concepts that we know and to the guys that we know are going to make plays,” Burrow says. “Big-time play by Tee. He probably didn’t get as many chances as he would’ve liked throughout the game, but that’s the kind of guy that he is. Unselfishness, going to come down with it when you need it the most.”

Higgins gathered the ball over the middle and lunged over the marker, and the game was effectively over. And so Higgins showed, again, who the Bengals are, in all that he did.

“The organization has done a great job of finding players where it means a lot to ’em—they’re going to work really hard to do whatever they can to help the team get a win,” Burrow says. “And Tee, the last two games, had over 100 yards and several touchdowns, and he came up with key blocks and key catches today, and you can say that for just about every guy in this locker room.”

And a lot of guys were around last year, too, so we probably should’ve seen this coming.

You certainly shouldn’t be surprised anymore.

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The 49ers have the league’s best defense, and we’re gonna find out just how much that matters. San Francisco is 8–4 and coming off its fifth straight game allowing 17 or fewer points. On the offense, the run game is churning, and the skill talent is off the charts.

And now all of this is in the hands of a rookie quarterback.

Jimmy Garoppolo went down on the eighth play from scrimmage of the 49ers’ 33–17 smackdown of the Dolphins on Sunday, being chased from the pocket, then pulled down by Jaelan Phillips and Jerome Baker. The quarterback’s left foot broke under the force of those two, and after the game coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters that the injury is, indeed, severe enough to be season-ending. Which leaves seventh-round pick Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant himself, behind the wheel of this Maserati.

“I mean, Brock’s going to get better every week,” star edge rusher Nick Bosa told me postgame. “He’s a good decision-maker. If he eliminates as many mistakes as he can—and being a rookie, they’re going to happen—we’ll be good. No better team to have his back than us.”

And that’s not Bosa being cocky. After what we saw Sunday in Santa Clara, it looks very much like the truth, and no one exemplifies the message quite like the guy who delivered it.

Bosa registered three sacks and four quarterback hurries while wreaking havoc on what seemed like a down-in and down-out basis. So I figured, to illustrate how he got it done, he could take us through his sacks.

• The first one may as well have been a four-point play, coming on a third-and-1 from the 49ers’ 17 with 11 minutes left in the first half.

“I had been getting cut a ton by their backs and tight ends, so I was kind of getting used to playing it,” Bosa says. “And whenever you put a running back on me, unless I get my knees taken out, I have a pretty good chance of getting through, and I was happy to have that one.”

The play put the Dolphins in fourth-and-9 and forced a field goal attempt that would tie the game at 10.

• The second sack short-circuited Miami’s final possession of the first half, on a third-and-8 from its own 39.

“The second one was a D-line effort,” Bosa says. “One of our games that we run that we really like, and having Arik [Armstead] in there makes a huge difference. They cleared it out for me, and I just wrapped around off the chip and ended up with a sack.”

That teamwork got the ball back for the 49ers with 2:48 left, allowing time for the 11-play, 76-yard drive Purdy piloted just before the break to put San Francisco up 17–10.

• The third sack effectively ended the game, on a first-and-10 from the Dolphins’ 25, with 2:03 left in the game and Miami down 26–17.

“I definitely had some success on that guy [Brandon Shell],” Bosa says. “I played him last year and kind of got a pretty good feel for him. It was the first play of the drive, and yeah, that was more of like a feel rush; it wasn’t like a planned move. And I got in there and I honestly thought—I found out it was Samson [Ebukam]—I thought somebody else knocked the ball out. But it was me.”

Indeed, Bosa beat Shell to the inside, swept Tua Tagovailoa from his feet and jarred the ball loose. Dre Greenlaw picked up the ball and covered the remaining 23 yards for a touchdown to make it a 33–17 final for the Niners.

And when it was over, Bosa was atop the NFL’s sack charts, having notched 14.5 with five games to go and, again, the conversation about San Francisco’s defense was turning to where it might rank among the best defenses of the past few years in the league.

“Yeah, I mean, ’19 was one of them and even ’20 we had some pretty good numbers, but a lot of injuries,” Bosa says. “Just the style we play, we’ve kind of mastered it. And we’ve drafted and signed guys that really buy into the scheme, and we have depth. And whenever our ’backers and our back end can play lights out, it’s going to be really tough for people to keep extra protection in there to deal with us. Today, I think it came together full circle.”

Which is good, because with Garoppolo down, it stands to reason the 49ers will need more games like that from their defense.

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The best play of the whole weekend, going into Monday, still belongs to Josh Allen. If you missed it—and I’m guessing you didn’t—this one came on third-and-goal from the Patriots’ eight-yard line with 5:34 left in the first half on Thursday night, with Buffalo nursing a 10–3 lead over New England. And it was wild enough (see below) that I came up with the idea to show it to Allen’s offensive teammates in the locker room, to get their natural reaction to it.

Allen knew he was about to go out of bounds, so he just got 🆙 @BuffaloBills | @JoshAllenQB#BUFvsNE on Prime Video
Also available on NFL+ https://t.co/bTTcEL41DH pic.twitter.com/48rZqtV2LI

— NFL (@NFL) December 2, 2022

“Jesus,” said center Mitch Morse, as I held my phone up for him to see it. “That was wild. No, it is. It’s reminiscent of last year’s playoff game, right?”

“Josh is going to try to find a way to get somebody open, and win,” says guard Rodger Saffold as the play rolled, before breaking out laughing once Allen left his feet to throw the ball. “I mean, it’s incredible. To be able to make a throw like that across his body while running to the right is just absolutely incredible. … These are all split-second decisions, so hopefully, that arm is feeling a little bit better this week.”

“I mean,” Allen says, a little sheepishly, “it’s nothing we haven’t done before.”

That, of course, doesn’t diminish the degree of difficulty—or importance—of a touchdown throw to Gabe Davis that was worth four points (they didn’t have to settle for a field goal), and gave the Bills a double-digit lead that wouldn’t go back to single digits for the rest of the game. And one that would allow the Bills to manage the second half in a way that helped them get out of their third road game in 12 days in one piece.

So how does a circus act like that come together? Some of it’s improvisation, obviously. But some of it is practiced, and worked on, and set up for a situation like that one.

At the (shotgun) snap, Davis was the outside man in a trips-right set, running an over route. Almost immediately after taking a short drop, Allen sprinted to the sideline to his right. So Davis started running in Allen’s direction to try to get in his vision and give him an outlet. But as Allen approached the sideline, Davis was stuck behind defensive backs Jonathan Jones, Myles Bryant and Kyle Dugger in the end zone. Which is when Davis noticed something about those three.

“They were taking the play off; they thought he was about to run out of bounds, but I knew it’d still be alive,” Davis says. “They’re looking at him; they’re not even looking at me.”

That’s where the unspoken communication between Allen and Davis came into play.

Both guys knew that Davis had run out of real estate going to Allen’s right. So the only way for him to uncover was to run back inside of the coverage, where there’s a lot of open turf for the quarterback to throw the receiver into. Also, since all three Patriot DBs were in front of Davis, they wouldn’t be able to react to his movements—because they, like Allen, couldn’t see him, and, unlike Allen, didn’t even know he’s there.

“Obviously, if I keep going, I’m just going to keep staying covered,” Davis says, “so he just knows to put it backside and I’m going to stop and go behind him. “

Allen adds: “I think it’s an understanding of what’s behind him, and I just kind of peeked back there and there was nothing there, so I knew, if he stops and goes that way, it’s a free throw. But, again, those are the ones that you have to be right on, because if there is somebody back there, it’s an interception and you take points off the board. So, again, just being smart when I do take those chances.”

And as for Allen leaving his feet to throw the ball?

“It’s just being aware of where the sideline was and just trying to put it in a safe spot,” Allen says.

In other words, it’s knowing he had to jump to be inbounds for the throw, with momentum carrying him out of bounds. Yes, the ball landed safely in Davis’s hands.

“A lot of guys can’t do what 17 does,” Davis says.

That’s for sure, and because of it the Bills are back in control of the top seed in the AFC with five weeks left, giving them a chance at a bye and a conference title game at home.

The play itself will be remembered for its spectacle, and rightfully so. But it also could be a difference-maker as to where playoff games are played, and how they’re played, in turning that Thursday game into one Buffalo could control over the last 30 minutes. And that counts for plenty in the grand scheme of things.

(Plus, sure, it was fun to watch.)

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I think the coolest story I heard last week was that Patriots coach Bill Belichick paid Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell a visit after the two squared off on Thanksgiving night. I asked O’Connell about it Sunday night, a few hours after Minnesota outlasted the Jets at home. Suffice it to say, the gesture from Belichick, who drafted O’Connell as a player in 2008 and coached him for a year, meant a whole lot.

“It was special for me, because there’s nobody I respect more in our game than him,” O’Connell says.

And what really flattered O’Connell is how Belichick told him that, when he watched the Vikings’ tape, he could see how the coaches were teaching the players some old Patriot credos, and one in particular—You can’t win until you learn how not to lose—in showing the guys the value of playing complementary football.

A week later, it’s fair to say that those lessons from Belichick, and Josh McDaniels, too, resonated in another Viking win, this one a tight 27–22 affair against the Jets.

To get there Sunday, Minnesota needed its defense to carry an offense faced with the daunting task of going head to head with the Jets’ defense. And a New York defense that would deliver when it was needed most, giving Robert Saleh twin three-and-outs on the Vikings’ final two offensive possessions, with the hosts clinging to a five-point lead.

Because a field goal was out of the question, Vikings defensive coordinator Ed Donatell and his troops were working with some cushion. Which, the coaches thought, played to the strengths of a unit that’s hardly been dominant, but has proved plenty resourceful in key spots. It had to be again Sunday, with Mike White leading both Jets drives into the red zone—the first one got to first-and-goal from the four-yard line, and the second one got to first-and-10 from the 19.

That’s where a defense that yielded nearly 500 yards, finally, made the yards count.

“I will say this much—the end-of-game situations for our defense, you can go back through some of our games and highlight some of those,” O’Connell says. “This team is confident at the end of football games. No matter who’s on the field, we’re going to find a way, and, when it matters the most, we’ll try to play complementary football and see if we can continue stacking these wins.”

In the first case, the Vikings got the Jets into fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line, then got a little lucky—Braxton Berrios dropped a potential go-ahead touchdown in the end zone for the Jets. In the second, second-year safety Camryn Bynum made a play reminiscent of another big one for Minnesota earlier in the year.

“The way we intercepted Josh Allen at the end of the Buffalo game, we kind of put a similar kind of play together,” O’Connell says. “An in-breaking route in a quarter structure, it was a safety stepping in front this time instead of the corner, Pat [Peterson]. But when the field shrinks and we can play and people have to be in that drill mode, where we can play some of our coverage structures and hopefully have the guys up front, [Za’Darius Smith] and Danielle [Hunter] and DT [Dalvin Tomlinson] and some of these guys at least try and make the quarterback uncomfortable.”

Or, to simplify it, O’Connell adds, “Forcing that four-down stop from really the 5-yard-line right there, however we could get it, our defense found a way.”

And, in a certain way, that defense honored O’Connell’s old boss along the way in rising to the moment to get the first-year head coach to 10–2 with five games to go.

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Smith connected with DK Metcalf on an eight-yard touchdown to lift the Seahawks over the Rams. Metcalf had eight catches for 127 yards, while Tyler Lockett had nine catches for 128 yards and a TD :: Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports

That was one big win for the Seahawks. And when I talked to Geno Smith afterward, he acknowledged it by not disagreeing with the idea that the game itself felt like a must-win for everyone involved going in.

It’s really not an overstatement, either, given that the Seahawks, once 5–2, had lost three of four coming in, with the last two of those (against the Buccaneers in Germany and last week against the visiting Raiders) landing in heartbreaking fashion. Plus, the Rams have owned this series over the Sean McVay years, with McVay’s having taken eight of his last 10 over Pete Carroll.

So, then, it also wouldn’t be going too far to say that, when Smith broke the huddle late Sunday afternoon with 2:56 left, down 23–20, ball at his own 25, the Seattle offense approached the line feeling like its season was on the line.

“Yeah, honestly, we gotta get used to that,” Smith says. “That’s what the playoffs are like. That’s what Super Bowl games, that’s how they’re won. All the games in the NFL really come down to either two-minute or four-minute drives. You can count on that. So if you want to go where we intend to go, we gotta win those games like that. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, if we got the ball in our hands with a chance to go win the game, we gotta go win those games. And you’re right, the season is on the line.

“Every game right now is for the season. And it’s one-and-done in the playoffs, so what’s better for us than to get these feelings right now? What’s better than that?”

If they get results like they did in Sunday’s 27–23 win, nothing.

Smith converted a second-and-10 with a 14-yard strike to Noah Fant, and a third-and-10 with 10-yard fastball to Tyler Lockett (Smith told me he heard criticism that Lockett wasn’t giving up his body enough and noted Lockett got his head bent back on that play), while sprinkling shorter throws to DK Metcalf, DeeJay Dallas and Fant in, to get to the Rams’ 25.

“I love how we got everyone involved on that drive,” Smith says.

Next up was Marquise Goodwin, who took a Smith ball over the middle for 17 yards, and then it was time for the quarterback to circle back to his go-to guy with 41 seconds left on a first-and-goal from the eight.

“It was basically just a naked to the right,” Smith says. “I had two options over to the right that I could’ve gone to, and then DK was coming from the backside of the formation, and what happened on that play was he was pressed up, so Jalen [Ramsey] had him pretty much in man coverage. And everyone else was zoned up; that’s kind of how they play some of their quarters coverages. I knew it was going to be a tight-window throw.

“They did a great job of covering the guys on the front side, the two routes we had frontside, and so naturally my eyes work back to the backside of the progression, and here’s DK just ripping across, big body, and I could just tell that, with him, you could just tell, in those moments, just throw him the ball, he gonna catch it. And it was a tight-window throw. NFL, that’s what it’s going to be all the time. And when you got guys like DK, strong hands, big, physical guy, you can trust to fit that ball in that window, and … amazing catch.”

And another box for the resurgent Seahawks to check after those soul-crushing losses to Tampa Bay and Las Vegas.

“To understand that this is what it’s like in those moments in the playoffs and all those big games, in the great words of Santana Moss, man, ‘Big-time players make big plays in big games,’” Smith says. “I always wanted to be that growing up.”

Finally, now, it seems like he’s becoming that.

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The Colts might just be becoming that bad a team, but man, the Cowboys looked impressive Sunday night—and like they have something to sell Odell Beckham Jr. Somehow, 21–19 at the end of three quarters became 54–19 at the end of the Sunday-night game, and Dallas had the whole thing working at the end. It rushed for more than 200 yards, Dak Prescott’s passer rating topped 100 and the defense picked off Matt Ryan three times and scored on a fumble recovery.

And owner Jerry Jones didn’t waste any time putting his recruiting hat on in the aftermath.

“I normally would say that anytime you can create an affirmative commitment, a belief, I think that’s good stuff, yes,” the owner-GM said. “In a business that has a lot of psychology to it, I think that’s the case. I don’t think it’s necessary for us to have success with this team and in the playoffs, but it would be a positive. I want this to work. I want it to work. But that means I’m going to be trying to make it work. So I’m going to be looking for reasons to do, not reasons not to do.”

In other words, he’s telling Beckham that he wants him in the fold but isn’t going to force the fit if it’s not there, with Beckham’s two-day visit getting underway Monday.

What was left unsaid is that the other players have already publicly backed the idea of getting Beckham, making it highly unlikely that the Joneses won’t make a serious run at signing him in the next few days. And since Beckham’s already been wined and dined by the Giants (who have sentimentality going for them) and Bills (who offer the best chance to win and a reunion with Von Miller), there’s a little tension to this thing for all involved.

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Lamar Jackson’s situation is another big one to keep an eye on Monday. Ravens coach John Harbaugh assuaged a lot of fears after Baltimore’s 10–9 win over Denver on Sunday by telling reporters that his quarterback’s injury isn’t season-ending, and it likely will be a matter of weeks, or even days, before Jackson can return at full strength.

The way the knee injury was suffered was a little wonky. On the play, Broncos defensive end Jonathon Cooper rode Jackson to the ground, and Jackson’s knee appeared to bounce off the grass in Baltimore. Jackson left the game and headed to the locker room under his own power.

The good news is if Jackson does miss time, the Ravens’ schedule is relatively workable for the next month, with the next four opponents (at Steelers, at Browns, Falcons, Steelers) all currently under .500. The bad news is this is all happening as the Bengals have caught fire and started to look like the Super Bowl team of a year ago.

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I love the way the Lions are playing. And for all the memes and jokes over the summer, what Dan Campbell is pulling off isn’t easy. In 2021, as a rookie head coach, he went 3-13-1. This year, he started 1–6. Which meant that for every up-down and gasser he made his guys run, the return, through 24 games, was four wins, 19 losses and a tie.

A lot of coaches would get tuned out in that spot. In Detroit, the opposite happened.

The Lions, coming off all that, have won four of five games, with the one loss coming to Buffalo in the final minute of the Thanksgiving game, to get themselves back in the NFC wild-card race. And Sunday’s 40–14 romp over Jacksonville may be a sign that they’ve got another level-up coming.

“It’s the same group of guys that we’ve talked about,” Campbell said postgame. “And it’s the same group that when things didn’t look so good, they put in the same amount of work. And they’d just gone in, and they’d not lost faith, and they’re unbroken, they’re unshaken. They go to work, man. It’s a group of guys that just goes to work. They believe in the game plan and they’ve got a lot of confidence right now. They trust the guy next to them and we’re clicking right now. We’re clicking at the right time.”

Some numbers to illustrate where Detroit was against Jacksonville …

• A 31–14 edge in first downs.

• A 437–266 advantage in scrimmage yards.

• 36:30 in time of possession.

• A 66.7% conversion rate on third down vs. 25% for Jacksonville.

And while we’re there, it’s also worth mentioning how well Jared Goff’s playing for the group. Despite a revolving door at the skill positions, with injuries at running back and receiver, and the trade of T.J. Hockenson, he’s thrown for 3,022 yards, 19 TDs and seven picks. Bottom line, he has been, believe it or not, a godsend for the Brad Holmes–Dan Campbell rebuild, which, at this point, looks like it’s well on its way.

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Brown took apart his former team with eight catches for 119 yards and two touchdowns.  :: Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports

A.J. Brown had a pretty perfect revenge game against the team that traded him. And I don’t even know if calling it that is quite right. But Brown has certainly made Eagles GM Howie Roseman look like a genius in how he’s played this year and with the performance he put on facing off with the Titans, a team he never wanted to leave.

Brown finished with eight catches for 119 yards and two touchdowns, with the second one coming on a throw from Jalen Hurts, where the quarterback simply trusted Brown to find a way to make a play, even though he was covered, and the receiver rewarded that trust with a 29-yard touchdown, caught literally off the back of corner Tre Avery.

“It wasn’t tough for me,” Brown told reporters of facing his old team. “The past couple weeks, I’ve just been removing myself and kind of working on myself. Like I’ve told you through the week, I’m trying to be consistent—that was my focus. It wasn’t about who we were playing. Of course, I wanted to have a good day, but I just kept my emotions down all week and just focused on what I needed to focus on. Today, I ran it out and let it all loose.”

The Eagles are 11–1, four full games better than the Titans.

And to be fair here, the receiver Tennessee wound up taking with the first-rounder it got back in the deal, Treylon Burks, has come on strong of late, too, making a spectacular touchdown catch of his own Sunday.

So I’m not sure this will be a win-win trade on the level of the Stefon Diggs–Justin Jefferson deal of three offseasons ago. But there seems to be a good chance everyone will come out of this one satisfied in the long run.

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Want quick hitters for Week 13? We’ve got quick-hitters for Week 13 …

• Weird tie in New Jersey for the Giants and Commanders. But it does feel like Taylor Heinicke strengthened his hold on the quarterback position for Washington with the eight-play, 90-yard drive he engineered to tie the game and force overtime.

• Terry McLaurin (eight catches, 105 yards, TD) continues to be worth every penny the Commanders paid him.

• Don’t look now, but the Raiders may be turning the corner under McDaniels. That’s three consecutive wins, and Josh Jacobs had another monster game (26 carries, 144 yards, TD), as did Davante Adams (eight catches 177 yards, two TDs).

• I know the Raiders declined Jacobs’s fifth-year option in May, but as we mentioned in last week’s MAQB, that was more a matter of wanting to get to know him and see him work before rewarding him financially. I’d be surprised if he’s not a Raider next year.

• I think Chargers coach Brandon Staley may have to take a hard look at the offensive system and coaching that Justin Herbert’s working with. He still has some spectacular moments. But for all the talent around him, it’s still not consistent enough.

• The Colts are going into a bye, and their game coming out of it, in Minnesota, figures to be a crucial one for Jeff Saturday. Losing like they did Sunday night, and having two weeks to think about it, isn’t ideal—and it’ll test the resolve of the team and Saturday’s ability to harness it.

• The Packers are hitting their bye at 5–8. Romeo Doubs will likely be back thereafter, and Christian Watson is red hot with seven touchdowns in his past four games. Their final four games—Rams, at Dolphins, Vikings, Lions—are manageable. Could they run the table and, if they get in at 9–8, become the proverbial team no one wants to play? Maybe.

• The Broncos are now 3–9, and they’ve scored in the 20s only twice all year.

• Here comes Mike Tomlin, roaring toward 9–8.

• And Kenny Pickett’s getting a lot of good work along the way, including throwing for 197 yards and a score in the 19–16 win over the Falcons.

Three for Monday

1) The Saints have owned the Buccaneers over the years, but Tampa Bay got the first one between these two, and it did it by creating turnovers on three (!) consecutive possessions in the second half and converting those into 17 points. But that was back in September, when Jameis Winston was starting. With Andy Dalton in the lineup for New Orleans, it’d stand to reason that the formula for the Buccaneers will have to be a little different.

2) That brings us to how the Tampa offense struggled in Week 2 at the Superdome—shut out in the first half, with Tom Brady posting a 79.3 passer rating for the afternoon and the team averaging just 2.4 yards per carry on the ground. Obviously, a good chunk of that happened because the Saints were winning up front, and it won’t be any easier for the Buccaneers to even things up in that area with all-world right tackle Tristan Wirfs out with an injury.

3) Over Sean Payton’s 16 years in charge in New Orleans (counting the suspension year in there), his worst 12-game start was 4–8, which happened only once (2015), and those Saints responded by finishing 3–1. These Saints are 4–8, too. So you’ve got a lot of proud players who’ve never really been in this sort of situation this deep into a season, though last year they did rally from 5–7 to finish 9–8. And as such, you’d think it’d be interesting to see how a veteran group handles all of that on a national stage. But then … they’re actually just a game and a half back in the NFC South, so they should have plenty of motivation.

One thing you need to know

The Rams did the right thing by Matthew Stafford. With the team on the ropes, there was absolutely no need for Stafford to push through uncertainty stemming from a concussion. Not at 34 years old. Not 14 years into his NFL career. Not with a Super Bowl ring on his finger. So I’d agree, a million percent, with shutting him down and placing him on injured reserve.

Where this gets interesting from here is what it means for Stafford’s football mortality.

Those who know Stafford well, and know what he’s been through from an injury standpoint, and know who he is, don’t believe he’ll be one of these quarterbacks who hangs around into his 40s. So would he consider walking away after this year?

I don’t think so. But I also am not sure what advice he’s getting from doctors, or others around him, and so I think this is at least worth watching going forward. Most players, in this sort of situation, will say they’ll make the right decision for themselves and their families. If Stafford says it, I’ll believe him.