Notes From NFL RedZone: Week 12
The majority of the NFL has a 5–6 record or worse after 12 weeks of the 2017 season. Of the 15 teams on the winning spectrum, the New England Patriots (9–2), Philadelphia Eagles (10–1), Pittsburgh Steelers (9–2), and the Minnesota Vikings (9–2) continue turbulent winning streaks; it’s getting easier to see this group as the final four come January. Five regular season games remain, and each of these four teams have one particularly interesting match up. Take a look:
— Patriots vs. Steelers, Dec. 17, 4:25 p.m.
— Eagles vs. Rams, Dec. 10, 4:25 p.m.
— Vikings vs. Falcons, Dec. 3, 1:00 p.m.
As cool as it would be to have New England, Philly, Pittsburgh, and Minnesota finish with at least 14 wins each, it’s unlikely. The Vikings probably have the hardest track — a date on the road with the surging Falcons (7–4), another road game against the Panthers (8–3), and then they’re home for the Bengals (5–6), which has the best red zone defense in the league. Minnesota might lose two of three, or all three. Aside from playing at the Steelers — OH GOOD GOLLY — the Patriots play the three other teams in the AFC East, including the Bills twice; New England rarely falters against division foes. If the Eagles weren’t so damn awesome, they would be underdogs over the next two weeks at the Seahawks (7–4) and at the Rams (8–3). Leading the league in points with 351, Philadelphia has 185 more points than Cleveland (0–11). The Steelers are blowing minds, not scoring a bunch, but not really giving up much. Antonio Brown — 80 catches and 1,195 yards — is at the climax of his career. Check it out:
Name a defensive back that can keep Brown in check and I’ll cook you dinner. Anyway, Aqib Talib acted childish once again. He has no business ripping personal hardware off anyone’s neck, especially someone (Michael Crabtree) who is trying to do work and catch the football. I don’t support the brawl — not professional — but Talib has been messing with Crabtree for while now, and Crabtree lost it. We all lose control sometimes. One game suspensions for both, and I wish Talib would just leave the NFL; he’s not cool.
Week 12 may not have been as crazy as Week 11, but RedZone is always exciting. We’re never going to get sick of football. Here’s the important stuff from last Sunday. All times Eastern.
(1:00 p.m.): Since Deflate Gate, Tom Brady has 50 touchdowns and four interceptions. “Light my fire,” Jimi Hendrix once sang.
Seven games: Buccaneers-Falcons, Browns-Bengals, Dolphins-Patriots, Panthers-Jets, Bears-Eagles, Chiefs-Bills, and Titans-Colts.
(1:06 p.m.): Greg Olsen (Panthers) is back in the line up; makes a first down catch. The Patriots go with a fourth-and-nine fake punt in their own territory — Nate Ebner goes 14 yards. Brandin Cooks (Patriots) down to the seven-yard line. Browns — running from Isaiah Crowell — inside the 10. Rex Burkhead (Patriots) wedges in for a short touchdown run. Tampa Bay kicks a field goal in Atlanta.
(1:18 p.m.): Ebner, who conquered the fake punt for New England, will not return due to a knee injury. Next man up. The Jets can beat the Panthers if the defense — ranked middle of the road — gets up in Cam Newton’s grill.
(1:26 p.m.): Rob Gronkowski (Patriots) touchdown — all hands. New England ahead 14-to-0 already, and have won its last two games by 25 or more points; haven’t won three straight by 25 or more in history. Malcom Jenkins (Eagles) interception, then fumbles; the ball was behind his back when he lost it. Weird. Chicago ball, down by seven points.
(1:30 p.m.): Ryan Succop (Titans) has two field goals today; he’s the 13th kicker in league history with 200 made field goals. Zane Gonzalez (Browns) misses the kick wide left; Gonzalez has missed five field goals this season, all wide left. LeGarrette Blount (Eagles) has a 40-yard run, but the Bears’ tacklers cause him to fumble. Chicago ball.
(1:37 p.m.): Missed field goals continue — Cairo Santos misses for the Bears, which can’t do anything with turnovers, apparently. Philadelphia is trying to give the game to Chicago, but to no avail. Tyrod Taylor (Bills) to Zay Jones, who ran all the way across the end zone, open, catching the touchdown.
(1:40 p.m.): New England has 14 points as these seven games enter the second quarter. Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Philadelphia have seven points. Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Carolina, and the New York Jets have three points. Miami, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Chicago all have zero.
(1:44 p.m.): RED ALERT — Mohamed Sanu (Falcons) takes the snap and connects with Julio Jones for a 50-yard touchdown. Tom Brady fumbles the snap, and Reshad Jones (Dolphins) scoops up the football for the score. Sanu lost control of the ball after receiving the snap — popped up — before he threw it.
(1:51 p.m.): Adam “Pacman” Jones (Bengals) has a 55-yard punt return…nope…block in the back. Classic. Would have been Jones’ sixth punt return touchdown of his career, good enough for ninth all time. Most block-in-the-back penalties are garbage.
(1:56 p.m.): Burkhead (Patriots) is stopped short, preventing his second rushing touchdown of the afternoon, so, Brady decides to flank Burkhead out to the right as a receiver on the next play, jab step, and a short receiving touchdown for Burkhead. Brady is the GOAT, of course. Julio Jones has two touchdowns today after scoring just once in 11 weeks. On this play, Jones tip-toes near the sideline, dives full extension as the tip of the football hits the pylon. Jones has 66 catches for 1,039 yards this season.
(2:30 p.m.): With five games in halftime and two about to be there, New England, unsurprisingly, is the highest scoring team (21 points). Atlanta has 20 points, leading by 14 over Tampa Bay. Scratch that, Philadelphia has 24 points as Alshon Jeffery catches a touchdown pass; 24 to 0 over Chicago, Jeffery’s old team. The Eagles are the best in the NFC, the Patriots are the best in the AFC. How about a Super Bowl rematch? New England won in 2004. The Bengals have 16 points, leading by 10 over the Browns. The Colts and the Bills both have 13 points, both with the lead. The Panthers have 12 points in New York, ahead by two. The Buccaneers, Browns, and Titans all have six points; all three are losing. The Bears are the only scoreless team, another NFC North team that is struggling on offense. The Packers got shut out last week.
(2:46 p.m.): The Titans haven’t won in Indianapolis in 10 years, according to Scott Hanson, our beloved host of NFL RedZone. Man, that was back when Vince Young was quarterback; he threw for 2,546 yards in 2007, but threw only nine touchdowns. And it was a 10-to-6 win at the Colts in the last week of that season. Young last wore an NFL uniform in 2014 with the Browns; he was released 13 days after being signed. Meanwhile, just two catches for Travis Kelce in Kansas City. The Buccaneers are in trouble at the Falcons, 27 to 6, and I never had much faith in that team anyway. At the beginning of the season, Randy Moss said that Jameis Winston was a better quarterback than Cam Newton, which is a bastardist (made that word up?) theory. The Chiefs get to within three points of the Bills. Neither team can afford to lose this game, but a team has to lose in a football game; that’s life.
(3:21 p.m.): QUAD BOX with…damn…it cut to Bills-Chiefs before we could even get the full sensory experience. 16 to 10, Bills, early fourth quarter. Haven’t seen many boxes today. Also, Julio Jones is on fire, over 200 yards for the third time in his career; he had a 300-yard game last year. Antonio Brown is probably the best receiver in the league, but Julio though?
(3:27 p.m.): Spilled my beer — a Lizard King Pale Ale — everywhere. Literally, batted the can over with my left hand while talking. It’s like $3.50 per 16 oz. can. It deserved better.
(3:35 p.m.): Double Box with Colts-Titans and Falcons-Buccaneers. Neither the Titans nor Bucs score during the sequence. Maybe Derrick Henry (Titans) scored, not sure. An offensive lineman put his hands in the air — RedZone hasn’t gone back to confirm. Cut to the Dolphins scoring, still further than a mile from the Patriots…Jets-Panthers in New York, one-point game; Carolina, 18 to 17. The Jets have first-and-goal from the one-yard line; Josh McCown throws the ball away. Next play, jump ball to Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who secures the ball as he hits the turf toward the back of the end zone. The play is under review; Seferian-Jenkins can’t buy a touchdown this season. The score is over-turned, refs said he bobbled it. Remember the Jets-Patriots game from Week 6? The refs just don’t want Seferian-Jenkins scoring touchdowns at home.
(3:46 p.m.): Cincinnati has 30 points, but against Cleveland, so we cannot assume anything about the Bengals.
(3:49 p.m.): Alex Smith (Chiefs) is always running in comeback situations, recently. Carbon-copy of last week, but it’s against the Bills instead of the Giants. And further from the end zone. (Kansas City is rolling down the hill of nothingness).
(3:53 p.m.): The Jets are blowing the home game. Luke Kuechly (Panthers) is running the other way with the football for a defensive score; he has three interceptions this season. Not sure if someone fumbled or if Kuechly picked it off; RedZone just cut to him running with no one in front of him. New York has won more games (4) than experts expected.
(3:58 p.m.): Tre’Davious White (Bills) intercepts Alex Smith; Buffalo is going to win the game. The Chiefs have lost five of six, but they’re still in first place; their divisional opposition is not well. Kaelin Clay (Panthers) with a punt return for a touchdown — spin move broke the play open. Carolina looks to be victorious for the fourth game in a row.
(4:12 p.m.): The N.Y. Jets are within a touchdown of Carolina now, but the Panthers are too good to blow this game. Another victory for New England, although not by 25 points or more.
Stat Breakdown: The Patriots are 210–73 in the regular season since 2000, a 74% winning percentage. The Browns are 86–197 since 2000, a 30 % winning percentage. Stupid.
(4:28 p.m.): As the Jets try for a miracle, I am not taken aback by any outcomes from the seven 1 o’clock games, except maybe the Chiefs losing at home to the Bills. Redemption for Buffalo, which started Taylor at quarterback, and should keep him as the starter. No more experiments.
(4:37 p.m.): Aqib Talib (Broncos) and Michael Crabtree (Raiders) are fighting, and of course everyone else is getting involved as madness ensues. This stems from bad history between rivals — Talib has a thing for snatching jewelry — and frustration with a losing season. Denver has lost six games in a row (now seven). Oakland is 2–3 over the last five (now 3–3). Talib and Crabtree are ejected; a referee was also abused during the brawl. This reflects very poorly on the league. Stop being so dramatic.
(4:56 p.m.): Alvin Kamara (188 total yards and two touchdowns against the Rams) is doing amazing stuff for the Saints. Where is he from? What are his hobbies? Kamara is averaging 7.1 yards per carry, which 1.5 yards more than the player in second place (Cam Newton).
(5:13 p.m.): It took Oakland 12 weeks to get an interception on defense, and it’s off a fluke pinball bounce in the end zone. One interception? Atlanta is second-worst with three.
(5:27 p.m.): Arizona is a tough place for Jacksonville to play, and the Jaguars are down by 13 points. Three shutouts happening in four games. Denver, Jacksonville, and San Francisco have zero; the 49ers always have nothing.
(6:41 p.m.): Jared Goff (Rams) has a 300-yard game (his fourth of the season) and a 10-point lead over the Saints as L.A. tries to get even with New Orleans at 8–3. Goff is on par with Drew Brees this season; today might be a playoff preview.
(7:09 p.m.): Heard something about Calais Campbell (Jaguars), the former Cardinal, from upstairs. He made some sort of defensive play for a score? Upon return to the television, it’s the Cardinals that find the end zone and follow-up with a two-point conversion to go ahead by seven points. Jimmy Garoppolo makes his 49ers debut at quarterback and runs for a first down.
(7:16 p.m.): Blake Bortles (Jaguars) ran for 17 yards for his second rushing touchdown of the day; looked like a designed play. Jacksonville and Arizona are tied, 24 to 24, with seven minutes remaining.
(7:23 p.m.): The Jaguars made a pick; best defense in the league, and for several weeks now. Jacksonville is giving up 15.3 points per game, and leads in all team defense categories except rushing, where they are middle of the pack. It’s up to Blake Bortles, who ends up throwing an interception. Who wants this game? Tennessee is breathing down Jacksonville’s neck in the AFC South.
(7:32 p.m.): Jacksonville has the ball with 1:14 left after a defensive stop. It’s up to Blake Bortles. And he didn’t do it. Content with overtime? “Nothing clear and obvious” about the review of D.J. Foster’s (Cardinals) catch on the sideline? The ball hit the ground! While out of bounds! Phil Dawson kicks a 57-yard field goal to oust Jacksonville. Foster didn’t catch that ball. Bye.
