NFL Week 13 Recap
Culture Glaze Recaps Week 13 in the NFL!
Week 13: Thanksgiving Edition
Forget the Turkey. Forget the stuffing and the Thanksgiving Day parades. Forget that awkward conversation with a family member who still doesn’t know what you do for a living and can’t believe you aren’t dating someone yet. Thanksgiving is all about football. Week 13 saw some key matches that have allowed for some teams to break first-place ties that were held in their division. For other teams without playoff hopes, they turned to their future hoping for a spark and some good vibes to end the season. Below is the Culture Glaze Week 13 NFL recap…enjoy!
Thanksgiving Day Games
Chicago Bears 17 — Detroit Lions 34
This was the first meeting between these two NFC North foes on Thanksgiving Day since 1999. This was a pivotal game with playoff implications for both. For Detroit, it would keep them close with Green Bay atop the NFC North but also for the NFC Wild Card. For the Bears, this was a “Win Or Consider Yourselves Eliminated (Even Though Mathematically You Are Still In It)” game. But it was the Lions who came out the victor in this one. The Bears put up a fight in the first quarter, jumping out to a 14–3 lead thanks to two Jay Cutler to Alshon Jeffery touchdowns. On a personal note, this was the only quarter where watching football with my family was tolerable, because everything was downhill after the first for the Bears. Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson proved that the Bears weren’t the only QB/WR duo who could reach the end zone twice in one quarter. Joique Bell had a TD sandwiched in-between the two Megatron touchdowns and the Lions scored 21 unanswered points and didn’t look back. The Lions moved to 8–4 and have a home game next week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before facing divisional foes Minnesota (home), the Bears (away), and the Packers (away) to finish out the season.
Philadelphia Eagles 33 — Dallas Cowboys 10
There are many things that I don’t understand in life: the economy, women, Koko the gorilla and the Dallas Cowboys. You want to have faith in the Cowboys, especially after their six game winning streak earlier this season. But since then, you don’t know which team will show up. The team that lost to the Cardinals? The team that thrashed the Jags? Or a mediocre team in the middle like the one that narrowly beat the NY Giants? This Thanksgiving it was whichever team was saddest. Backup Eagles QB Mark Sanchez led the Eagles to two long drives for touchdowns in the first quarter setting up a big lead that they did not give up. The Cowboys, led on the ground by DeMarco Murray, looked to make a quick turnaround as they started to drive at the end of the 1st and scored in the first minute of the 2nd quarter. But momentum stayed with the Eagles and they added on three more field goals off the leg of Cody Parker before the half. McCoy put the nail in the coffin halfway through the third with a dazzling 38-yard run in to the end zone. Cowboys coach Jason Garrett summed it up nicely after the game saying “We didn’t respond as well as we needed to when we were on offense. We were never able to kind of keep ourselves in this game and certainly that’s a disappointment.” This win broke the 1st place tie between the two teams that sat atop the NFC East. The Eagles now move a game ahead before they face the Seattle Seahawks. The Cowboys won’t have to wait long to try and gain this ground back as they face the Eagles (in Philadelphia) on December 14th.
Seattle Seahawks 19 — San Francisco 49ers 3
In a game that mirrored the game that preceded it, the Seahawks and the 49ers found themselves tied for 2nd place in their division heading into this week. Both were looking for this win to be part of a winning streak that would push them past the Arizona Cardinals and into first place. In the first rematch between the rivals since they played each other in the NFC Championship game, it was once again the Seahawks who came out on top in large part to Richard Sherman and the rest of their defense. The Seahawks made life miserable for the 49ers and Colin Kaepernick as they held him to just 16 completions and 121 yards through the air while throwing two interceptions and being sacked 4 times. Both of those interceptions came at the hands of Richard Sherman. After the game Sherman said, “He (Kaepernick) said he was throwing to the open man; he didn’t care who was out there…I was the open man.” The Seahawks offense only found the back of the end zone once and relied on the leg of Steven Hauschka the rest of the way. Hauschka went 4–4 during the game and slowly put the game out of reach for the struggling 49ers. These two will meet again shortly on December 14th and the 49ers hope that they can find someone other than Sherman open for them down the field.
Sunday Games
Tennessee Titans 21 — Houston Texans 45
Ryan Fitzpatrick sits on my fantasy football team. Most games, I don’t mind him sitting on the bench. Many times I wonder why I even have him on my roster. Week 13 was a week that I really, and I mean REALLY wished that I played him. Fitzpatrick threw six touchdowns in the game. Two of his touchdowns came to DeAndre Hopkins who torched the Titans defense for 238 receiving yards. Another of the six touchdowns went to Defensive End turned Offensive Juggernaut J.J. Watt. On defense, Watt had two sacks, six QB hits, six tackles, a strip, and a fumble recovery. Take a look at this great article from the Deadspin/Regressing team on just how much Watt influenced the game on Sunday. In bad news for the Titans, rookie QB Zach Mettenberger injured his right shoulder midway through the 3rd quarter. Jack Locker came into the game but the uphill battle was too much for a depleted Titans team and they fell to the Texans 21–45.
Cleveland Browns 10 — Buffalo Bills 26
Will we look back on this game as the “Money” Manziel game? Johnny Manziel was a college stud but up to this point he’s been nothing more than a rookie watching from the sidelines…until Sunday when the planets aligned for for the rookie to get into the game and show the Browns management that he is ready to take over the starting role from Brian Hoyer. Cleveland got off to a hot start, largely in part to some surprisingly solid play with Hoyer. Everyone knew at the beginning of the season that Hoyer was just a place holder until Manziel was ready to take on NFL defenses, but Hoyer has made the decision a lot tougher than Browns management thought and probably wanted it to be. But over the last few weeks, Hoyer hasn’t had much of an impact. In the month of November, Hoyer threw just 3 touchdowns compared to eight interceptions and completed less than 60% of his passes. After getting knocked around in this game against Buffalo, a game the Browns believed they should be winning, Coach Mike Pettine decided that it was time for Manziel to get some action.On his first drive in the 3rd quarter, he led the Browns on an 80-yard drive, capped off by a 10-yard dash into the end zone. It wasn’t as pretty after that as the Bills defense flustered the Browns offensive line and stopped any subsequent drives, but the writing was on the wall that “this kid could play.” “I’m not going to put it all on Brian,” Pettine said. “Sometimes you just need change for the sake of change. We’ll scope it out to a staff decision, and we’ll make the evaluation.” Hoyer meanwhile still believes that the team should be his and he gives them the best chance to win now. After the last few weeks though, he may be the only one with that thought.
San Diego Chargers 34 — Baltimore Ravens 33
The Chargers and Ravens both entered this game knowing that the winner was going to have just a little more breathing room than the other when looking at the playoff standings. Each team was looking for big games from their quarterbacks and hoping that their defenses showed up. Well their quarterbacks had those big games and the defenses were there, but they gave up points. On their first drive of the game, the Ravens marched 61 yards and saw Joe Flacco connect with Torrey Smith for a 16-yard touchdown. The Ravens took the lead, and would hold it until halfway through the 59th minute of the game. The Chargers and Ravens traded blow after blow throughout the rest of the game. Nick Novak of the Chargers started off the scoring bonanza in the 2nd half with a field goal five minutes in. From there on, it was “you score, I score.” After the Chargers field goal, Flacco and Smith decided to meet in the end zone one more time. At the start of the fourth, Ryan Matthews decided to run one in for the Chargers. Flacco must have been jealous and wanted a rushing touchdown of his own because he snuck one in from the one-yard line on the next Baltimore series to give the Ravens a 30–20 lead. Flacco had a good game throwing for 225 yards with two touchdowns to Smith and his one rush. Most Ravens fans will tell you that if he does that, the Ravens defense will take over from there and that should be more than enough to win. But Philip Rivers wasn’t having any of that. With just over six minutes left to play, he marched his team down the field and hit Keenan Allen on a 23-yard pass to bring the game to within a field goal. The Ravens had the ball with just about three and a half minutes left, but couldn’t drag out the clock as long as they would have liked. Nevertheless, they settled for a field goal and took a six point lead with under two and a half to go. The Chargers would have to score a touchdown if they wanted to come out on top. Rivers was up to that challenge and took the Chargers from their own 20-yard line all the way to the Baltimore one-yard line and he found Eddie Royal for the Chargers first lead of the game and the win with under 30 seconds left. This was an exciting back and forth game that my recap just can’t give enough credit too. The Chargers take this win and now find themselves sitting in a wild card spot while the Ravens are a team looking in from the outside.
New York Giants 24 — Jacksonville Jaguars 25
Another close game that came down to a last second score with under 30 seconds to go to win the game, but playoff implications were not on the line here, just pride. The New York Giants have been a shell of their former selves this year, and the Jacksonville Jaguars have been…well… the Jacksonville Jaguars. But the Giants seemed to have a little bit of that old magic early on in the game, and by magic I mean not falling to a team with just one win three quarters through the season. Thanks in large part to Rashad Jennings and his two touchdowns, the Giants found themselves up 21–3 at the half. But those mighty mighty Jags just don’t say no and came out with some impressive play in the 3rd quarter. Their defense was stingy and caused an Eli Manning fumble that J.T. Thomas recovered in the end zone for the first points of the day for Jacksonville. It wasn’t pretty for either side after that. On their next drive, the Giants only managed one yard and were forced to punt. The Jags on their turn, ended up with -9 yards after the Giants sacked Blake Bortles three times! But the Giants offense couldn’t capitalize on the momentum their defense was trying to give them. Andre Williams had a decent 11 yard run to start the drive, but a couple incomplete passes later, the Giants found themselves looking to add 3 more points to their 21–10 lead, but Josh Brown was wide right on his 43-yard field goal. The next series the Jags made the Giants pay. Bortles in a hurried up offense connected with Marqise Lee for 30 yards and a touchdown. The Jags went for two, but failed. In the 4th, Giants TE Larry Donnell fumbled and Jags rookie Aaron Colvin scooped it up and ran it in 41 yards for a touchdown to give the Jags the 22 to 21 lead. The Giants added a field goal late in the fourth, but Bortles took over with under three and a half to go and got the Jags in field goal range. Josh Scobee connected on a 43-yard field goal with under 30 seconds left and gave the Jags the 25–24 lead. The Giants had some time on the clock but made nothing of it as the Jags defense sacked Manning and caused his second lost fumble of the day. The Jags haven’t been able to hang their hat on much this season, but there are parts there that look promising and they have shown they haven’t given up on this season yet.
Cincinnati Bengals 14 — Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13
Every way you look at it, this was an ugly game. Both teams had less than 300 yards of offense, Bengals QB Andy Dalton was sick as a dog and threw three interceptions, and the Bucs couldn’t capitalize on the field position that was given to them by their defense. Dalton didn’t have his best game, but he’s the reason as to why they were able to put 14 points on the board. He faked a hand off and ran it in himself for a five-yard touchdown near the end of the 2nd quarter. At the end of the third, he found his safety blanket A.J. Green for a 13-yard pass that gave the Bengals the lead and the eventual win. The Bengals have now won three games in a row and will hope that Dalton gets plenty of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup before taking on division rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers, next week at home. The Bengals lead the Steelers (and the Ravens) by one game. They hold the tie breaker over the Ravens, but this is just the first time they’ll meet the Steelers this season thanks to some dramatic scheduling by the NFL, they’ll also close out the season at Pittsburgh. Tampa Bay meanwhile continues to flounder and only have two wins on this season. Lovie Smith continues to play perennial backup Josh McCown at the QB spot in favor of sophomore,and heir apparent to the QB role, Mike Glennon. The Bucs defense hasn’t been that bad this season, but their offense has only scored more than 20 points just once in the last eight games. The Bucs aren’t playing for the now, they are playing for the future, and you’d think they’d like to get Glennon some reps and experience before they enter next season.
Oakland Raiders 0 — St. Louis Rams 52
No one but the players on the field and the coaching staff on the sidelines will be remembering the score of this game. It was a blowout and the Rams just whollooped (not a word but I think it accurately describes the score) a hapless Raiders team. The rest of the nation will be remembering Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin, Jared Cook, Chris Givens, and Kenny Brit’s entrance on to the field as they came out with a the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” pose made famous by Ferguson protesters after the shooting of Michael Brown.I could wade into this, but I’d rather you watch Stephen Colbert’s terrific reaction instead. I can’t wait to see him on the Late Show, but I’ll miss that we won’t get to see “topical” Stephen on a nightly basis.
New Orleans Saints 35 — Pittsburgh Steelers 32
This was the Drew Brees that we were waiting to see all season. Against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, he threw for five touchdowns and 257 yards while not throwing any picks and was only sacked once (my fantasy football team thanks him for this). The Saints needed every one of these touchdowns as the Steelers weren’t looking to back down. Ben Roethlisberger had his own monster game, connecting on 32 of his 58(!) pass attempts for 435 yards and two touchdowns, but he also threw two interceptions. Both of those INTs led to a short field for Brees and Co. and he found the end zone shortly after. The Saints at only 5–7 are sitting in first place in the NFC South along with the Atlanta Falcons. The Saints will face the Panthers, the Bears, and then the Falcons in Week 16. They close out the season at Tampa Bay. All of these are winnable games for a Saints team that normally has risen to the occasion for these big games, especially at home, which is where they’ll face the Falcons which could possibly decide the division champ and who will be playing past Week 17. The Steelers are behind both the Bengals and the Ravens in the AFC North, but have two games left against the Bengals (this upcoming game and the last one of the season) where they hope to make up that ground and take over first place and march into the playoffs on a winning streak.
Carolina Panthers 13 — Minnesota Vikings 31
Special Teams was the name of the game for the Minnesota Vikings. They returned not one, but TWO blocked punts for touchdowns in Sunday’s showdown against the Carolina Panthers. Those two special teams scores alone were more than what the sputtering Panthers offense could put up. In the middle of the first quarter, special teamer Adam Thielen not only blocked the punt, but had the wherewithal to scoop it up and run forward 30 yards to give the Vikings a 14 point lead. In the 3rd, defensive end Everson Griffen picked up a 43 yard punt and ran it all the way to the end zone. Giffen also added two sacks on the day to bring his season total to double digits (11). After the game, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said “I don’t know about demoralizing the other team, but I do know that when you score on defense or you score on special teams, your odds of winning a football game go way up, and I tell the team that.” Cam Newton just couldn’t overcome the deficits as he went 18/35 for only 194 yards. He had one touchdown to Philly Brown in the 3rd quarter, but also threw an interception and was sacked four times. The Panthers play in the worst division in football and even after this loss, at 3–8–1, they still find themselves technically in the hunt for a playoff spot if they take care of divisional foes the New Orleans Saints in Week 14 and the Atlanta Falcons in Week 17. But Panthers Tight End Greg Olson said it best in a locker room interview, “All that other stuff, playoff talk, that’s irrelevant. We’ve just got to win a game.”
Washington 27 — Indianapolis Colts 49
Headlines in the D.C. area must have read “Colt Can’t Beat Colts”. Robert Griffin III has missed more than his share of games for Washington, but most of those were because of injury. Sunday’s game marked what many knew would eventually happen, a benching that will probably lead to his departure from the DC area. Coach Jay Gruden knew that it just wasn’t working and word around the league was that if it had truly been up to him, RG III would have been benched a few games ago but owner Dan Snyder wouldn’t have it. But as losses piled up, Gruden got his way and was able to give the starting job to fifth-year quarterback Colt McCoy who saw the field for the first time since Washington’s overtime win against the Cowboys at the end of October. McCoy had a great game stats wise, throwing for just under 400 yards on 31 completions and 3 touchdowns without throwing an interception. But he was sacked 6 times for a loss of 51 yards and that hurt many of Washington’s drives. On the other hand, Andrew Luck and the Colts could seemingly do no wrong. Luck threw for five touchdowns and had just one interception on the day. Coby Fleener and Donte Moncrief each had over 125 receiving yards while Daniel Herron had a 49-yard run for a touchdown. The offense scored and the defense made plays. When the Colts play up to the talent they have on the field, they are hard to beat. The Colts find themselves two games up on the Houston Texans in the AFC South with just four games left to play. The second of those games will be against the Texans in a game that could help clinch them the division. Washington meanwhile has to continue to move forward and decide if Colt McCoy is their guy and what to do with RG III, the former #2 pick who they traded three first-round picks for.
Arizona Cardinals 18 — Atlanta Falcons 29
The Arizona Cardinals were riding high on top of the NFC standings for the large majority of this year. The Atlanta Falcons were sitting at the bottom and wondering, “How did we get here?” Now led by Drew Stanton after Carson Palmer’s season-ending injury, the Cardinals found themselves not on a winning streak since week seven. The Falcons meanwhile were looking to right the proverbial ship after suffering a tough loss to the Cleveland Browns at home the week before. But the Falcons would be doing it without one of their major offensive weapons as Roddy White sat out the game with an ankle injury. But that just meant that others would have to step up and three guys got the message: Julio Jones (189 yards receiving), Harry Douglas (116 yards receiving), and Stephen Jackson (101 yards rushing) all had superb games on the offensive side of the ball as they gave Matt Ryan (361 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception) many options. On the defensive side, Dwight Lowery and Josh Wilson each had interceptions that led to Falcons putting points on the board once the offense took the field. Matt Bryant also contributed 15 points as he connected on five field goals for the Falcons. For the Cardinals, they could look to Rashad Johnson’s 88-yard interception as the lone bright spot. It stopped the Cardinals from adding on more points early and it put points on the board. Running Back Andre Ellington is said to not be practicing this week after suffering from a severe hip pointer during the game. This would be a big loss for the Cardinals as Ellington, according to ESPN, has accounted for 30% of the Cardinals offense in 2014.
New England Patriots 21 — Green Bay Packers 26
Many were hoping that this game would be an offensive slug fest with each team throwing 50-yard bombs from their Hall of Fame Quarterbacks to their All Pro Wide Receivers (or in the Patriots’ case, All Pro Tight End). While there was some scoring, it wasn’t the offensive battle that fans were hoping for. Green Bay jumped to a half time lead of 23–14 thanks to two under 50-yard bombs for touchdowns, one to Richard Rogers and one to Jordy Nelson. For the Packers, Eddie Lacey kept the ball moving and the clock ticking as he rushed for 98 yards on 21 carries and helped the Packers control the clock, 36:35 compared to the Patriots with the ball for only 23:25. The Patriots made the game interesting early in the 4th as Brandon LaFell caught a 15-yard pass from Tom Brady sparking what many thought would be another 4th Quarter led comeback by Brady and his boys. But Packers weren’t having any of it. In the next series, the Packers held onto to the ball for over 5 minutes which led to a Mason Crosby 28-yard field goal to give the Packers a 5 point cushion. Brady and the Patriots marched right back though as he targeted favorites Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman all across the field while LeGarrette Blount had three rushes for 16 yards. On a 3rd and 9 at the Green Bay 20, Brady was sacked by Mike Daniels and Mike Neal for a loss of 9 yards. This led to a 43-yard field goal attempt by Stephen Gostowksi that went wide right and missed. Rodgers and the Packers were able to run the clock down and seal the victory as they moved to 9–3 to stay one game ahead of the Detroit Lions. The Packers have played some great football this year and even with the Patriots threatening, you just kind of knew that they’d bounce back and win this. If Brady hadn’t been sacked and the Patriots had thrown a touchdown to take the lead, it wouldn’t have surprised anyone if on the first play of the Packer’s next possession Rodgers threw an 80-yard pass to a wide open Jordy Nelson to take that lead right back.
Sunday Night
Denver Broncos 29 — Kansas City Chiefs 16
When you see that the Denver Broncos score almost 30 points in a win, you automatically think that Peyton Manning had himself a pretty good game. You’d be right in this case as he went 17–34 for 179-yards and two touchdowns (both in the first quarter), but where did the other 15 points come from you may be asking? Look no further than Connor Barth, a journeyman kicker who was playing in his first game for the Broncos. The kicking game has been an issue most of this year for the Broncos. They started the season with Pro Bowl kicker Matt Prater serving a four game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy during the off-season. The Broncos cut him after the suspension was up, opting to stick with his replacement Brandon McManus who was cut after Week 12 following some spotty performances in the week prior. Denver’s defense also came up big as they held Jamaal Charles to just 35-yards rushing on 10 carries, his lowest total since Week 2. The Broncos moved to 9–3 and still sit atop the AFC West with a one game cushion between them and the Chargers. They meet the Chargers in San Diego in Week 15 in what could either be a signature, division clinching victory for the Broncos or a takeover the top of the division win for the Chargers. The Chiefs meanwhile fell to 3rd in the division at 7–5 and would need a lot of things to go their way in order to sneak into the playoffs.
Monday Night Football
Miami Dolphins 16 — New York Jets 13
In what kept with a tradition this year of not very exciting Monday Night Football games, the Miami Dolphins beat the New York Jets thanks to Lamar Miller’s run to tie it early in the 4th quarter and a field goal from Caleb Sturgis with under two minutes left to give the Dolphins the win and keep their playoff hopes alive. The Jets started Geno Smith again after benching him after some disastrous performances in favor of Michael Vick. The Jets must have realized that Vick wasn’t that much better and definitely doesn’t fit into their long term plans and they had to keep giving Geno some chances. While he got to start the game, they didn’t really give him the chance to prove himself. He only attempted 13 passes and completed just 7 of them for 65 total yards. The Jets turned to the run game and had 277 yards on the ground, 105 of them thanks to Chris Johnson. The Jets fell to 2–10 and play 3 of their last 4 games on the road, the last one being against these Dolphins. The Dolphins went to 7–5 and will face the Baltimore Ravens in Week 14 and the New England Patriots in Week 15. How they play in these two games may be the key to if they play into January.
The Week Ahead
- The Cowboys and the Bears meet in Chicago in Thursday Night Football.
- Pittsburgh and Cincinatti will battle for the top spot in the AFC North early Sunday afternoon in what should be a must watch game.
- J.J. Watt will hope to have a big game against the hapless Jacksonville Jaguars to solidify his campaign to be the first defensive player to win the MVP award since LT in the 80s.
- The Seattle Seahawks will fly into Philadelphia to take on the Eagles. These two teams could be meeting now and also in a month come playoff time.
- The Patriots will try to avoid the Bieber curse as they take on the Chargers on Sunday Night.
The NFL Playoff Picture as of the end of Week 13 via CBS Sports.
