With all but the Monday night game between the Saints and Colts to be decided, here are nine things we learned from Week 15 of the 2019 NFL season.
The Black Hole went out not with a bang, but with a lot of boos
The Raiders started playing in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseumin 1966, played there until the 1982 season when they moved to Los Angeles, and returned to Oakland and their old home in 1995. The Coliseum has seen some of the greatest moments in NFL history, and some of the league’s worst football in the last days of Al Davis.
Sunday’s game against the Jaguars marked the final home game for the Oakland Raiders, who will become the Las Vegas Raiders next season. In the first half, the home team put up a 16-3 lead on the Jags, and it looked for a while as if Jon Gruden’s team would at least leave the crazies in the Black Hole with a few lovely parting memories.
Then, the Raiders’ defense did what it tends to do, and Jacksonville rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew threw two touhdown passes in the final 5:15 of the game. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr tried a miracle finish, but it didn’t work out.
And then, the inevitable booing and nacho-throwing in the wake of a 20-16 loss.
— Shayna Rubin (@ShaynaRubin) December 16, 2019
It’s sad that football in Oakland is coming to an end.
The Chiefs’ offense is back, and their defense is for real
Patrick Mahomes has struggled through injuries most of the season, and outside of a few old-school performances, the reigning NFL MVP hasn’t been at his best. In the Chiefs’ three games prior to their Week 15 game in Denver, Mahomes had completed just 59.4% of his passes for 640 yards, 6.3 yards per attempt, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. However, the Chiefs won all three of those games and took their fourth straight AFC West crown due primarily to a defense under Steve Spagnuolo that has finally stepped up after a rough start to the season.
You wouldn’t have thought that Mahomes would turn it around in the Mile High City with a snow blizzard on tap, but that’s what happened. Against Vic Fangio’s generally solid pass defense, Mahomes completed 27 of 34 passes for 340 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in a 23-3 win that put Kansas City at 10-4 on the season. That stout defense kept up the pressure, and if Mahomes really is back on the attack, the rest of the NFL had better take notice.
Jameis Winston is the NFL’s best bad quarterback
There are quarterbacks who will perform above and beyond the efforts of those around them, bringing wins to a franchise that never would have happened with a league-average signal-caller. And there are quarterbacks who will do the inverse for however many unfortunate teams willing to select them in the draft, sign them as free agents, or trade for their services.
More rarely, you get the kind of quarterback who maddeningly resides in the middle — the guy who will lose you games you should win, win you games you should lose, and give you absolutely no indication from one week to the next when you’re going to get.
Jameis Winston is unquestionably one of those “in the middle” guys. Winston threw an interception on Tampa Bay’s first drive of the game Sunday against the Lions, and it was the fifth time this season he’s done that. Winston’s 24 interceptions lead the league, and you’d think his coaches and teammates are tired of their quarterback putting them in the lurch so often.
Except what Winston tends to do when he gets those early picks out of the way. In a 38-17 win over Detroit, Winston completed 28 of 42 passes for 458 yards, four touchdowns, and that one interception. With that, Winston became the first quarterback in NFL history with two straight games with more than 450 passing yards — he threw for 456 yards in Week 14 against the Colts in a 38-35 win. In that game, Winston threw two picks to Indianapolis linebacker Darious Leonard — one on the first drive (of course), and one later in the game that was returned 80 yards for a touchdown.
Winston also threw for 400 yards against the Panthers in Week 6. That was a 37-26 loss in which Winston threw an interception on his first pass of the day, and threw four more in the game. making him once again of the most prolific passers in NFL history… if you can stand the bad side.
Stephon Gilmore might be the Patriots’ best route-runner
Though the 2019 season, Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore has not allowed a single touchdown any any of his targets. Gilmore is the best cornerback in the game, the probable Defensive Player of the Year, and a big reason New England is competing for another Super Bowl berth despite an offense that has been dysfunctional all season. While Gilmore hasn’t allowed a touchdown, he now has two on the season from pick-sixes — one against the Dolphins in Week 2, and this great play in which he jumped the route run by Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd from the right slot on a throw from quarterback Andy Dalton:
Gilmore had two picks on the day, bringing his season total to six, and this was one of many examples you can pull up in which Gilmore will run the receiver’s route better than the receiver does. Should Bill Belichick move Gilmore to the other side of the ball for a few offensive plays in the playoffs? We can think of crazier ideas.
If Gilmore isn’t the NFL’s best cornerback, it’s only because Tre’Davious White is
Like Gilmore against the Bengals, White was just as likely to pick off a pass (he picked off two in Buffalo’s Sunday night 17-10 win over the Steelers that clinched a playoff berth for the Bills) as he was to allow a catch. White suffered a shoulder injury on Sunday night, but came back in the game and continued to prove that throwing the ball anywhere near his vicinity is generally a mistake.
White’s two picks allowed him to match Gilmore with six picks on the season, and at this point, you’d be hard-pressed to put one player ahead of the other.
Atlanta’s shocker over the 49ers turned the NFC playoff race upside down
With five seconds left in their Week 15 game against the 49ers’ top defense, the Falcons were down, 22-17, and they’d just had a touchdown pass from Matt Ryan to tight end Austin Hooper overruled. One would think that a team with a lost season like Dan Quinn’s would give up, but that’s not what happened. On the next play from the San Francisco five-yard line, with five seconds left, Ryan hit Julio Jones for the touchdown that put the Falcons ahead, 23-22.
And then, on the subsequent kickoff following Atlanta’s unsuccessful two-point conversion, the 49ers tried to get all tricky with a bunch of laterals — which led to this fumble recovery for a touchdown by rookie receiver Olamide Zaccheaus. It’s been a nice week for the undrafted Virginia alum — last Sunday in a 40-20 win over the Panthers, Zaccheaus caught a 93-yard touchdown pass, the longest of Ryan’s career.
The 49ers have now lost two of their last three games, and this stunner dropped them from the first seed in the NFC to the fifth. They’ll have to win out against the Rams and Seahawks if they want to get back on top.
That said… George Kittle is the next Gronk
If you thought it would be a while before we’d see a tight end with the combination of consistent production and blocking ability that Rob Gronkowski possessed until his retirement following Super Bowl LIII, think again. San Francisco’s George Kittle is putting up some crazy stats this season — he had 13 catches for 134 yards in the 49ers’ loss to Atlanta which put him at 73 catches for 888 yards and four touchdowns on the season despite the fact that he’s been dealing with an ankle injury. This after a 2018 season in which he set a single-season record for receiving yardage from a tight end with 1,377.
As for his blocking ability. something that always set Gronk apart… well, there’s this.
NFL officials remain unmoved by events on the field
Another week, another officiating controversy. Not this call by Bill Vinovich’s crew in Houston’s 24-21 win over the Titans, though this was pretty bad:
No, we’re talking about referee Walt Anderson, and his apparent inability to hear the word “defer.” When Dak Prescott said in the opening coin toss in the Cowboys’ game against the Rams that he wanted his team to kick, and then he mentioned the word “defer,” he had done what was required for his team to avoid the penalty the Cowboys would have incurred had Prescott not mentioned the word — in that case, Dallas would forfeit the ability to decide for possession to start the second half, and could cede a turnover to the Rams.
It took a halftime conversation between Anderson and the league office to figure it out, despite the fact that it was obvious what Prescott said from the television feed.
Then, there was this call from Tony Corrente’s crew in the Steelers-Bills game on Sunday night. You tell us where anybody grabbed the face mask of Steelers running back Kerrith Whyte.
Which leads us to what happened on the next play…
Teams really need to stop running Wildcat plays
Yeah, this direct snap to running back James Conner didn’t go so well. A muffed snap by center Maurkice Pouncey, a botched handoff to receiver Diontae Johnson, Johnson throws it goodness knows where, and a recovery by safety Jordan Poyer. Less than optimal.
Are you among the annoyed when the Saints take Drew Brees off the field so Taysom Hill can take a direct snap and run the ball right into a wall of defenders because the chances are he’s not going to throw it? So are we. Are you among the quizzical every time any NFL coach calls a direct snap to a running back, only to see that back run the ball right into a wall of defenders because the chances are he’s not going to throw it? We’re right there with you. Are you among those amazed when skill position players who aren’t used to taking snaps, take snaps, and bad things happen? Preach on.
Aditi Kinkhabwala of the NFL Network probably put it best.
