Week 15 was a great one for the Seattle Seahawks (11-3). They won their game against the Carolina Panthers (5-9) while the San Francisco 49ers (11-3) and Los Angeles Rams (8-6) lost their respective contests. The Arizona Cardinals (4-9-1) won their game, but they are already eliminated from postseason contention. Here are more in-depth summaries of how Seattle’s rivals did in Week 15.
Atlanta Falcons 29 – San Francisco 49ers 22
The 49ers suffered a stunning upset defeat at home against the Falcons on a last-second touchdown to Julio Jones. San Francisco started slow and it came back to bite the 49ers in the end. With the exception of tight end George Kittle, who finished with 13 catches for 134 yards, their receivers struggled to get open, combining for four receptions for 49 yards. Kittle himself had a costly fumble on a third-down catch on a screen pass that could have netted the 49ers a first down if he did not lose the ball before reaching the marker. Kittle recovered the ball and touched out of bounds one yard short of the sticks. San Francisco settled for a field goal to take a 22-17 lead, giving Atlanta the ball with 1:48 left.
The Falcons made their way down the field and Matt Ryan threw the aforementioned TD to Jones with two seconds left. The 49ers were missing several key pieces in their secondary in Richard Sherman, K’Waun Williams and Jaquiski Tartt, and it showed. Jones had a field day matching Kittle’s production but adding two TDs to his box score. Atlanta also scored a touchdown on San Francisco’s desperate final play, making the final score 29-22. The 49ers still control their own destiny, but the Seahawks take the NFC West lead for now.
Dallas Cowboys 44 – Los Angeles Rams 21
This game was not even a contest. The Cowboys obtained the lead early and never relinquished it. The Rams got on the board early in the second quarter with a touchdown pass to Todd Gurley to tie the game at 7-7, but then the wheels fell off. The Rams defense proceeded to surrender three unanswered touchdowns to Dallas for the rest of said quarter, although one was assisted by an interception that Jared Goff threw to Sean Lee. The Cowboys would build up a total of 30 unanswered points before the Rams scored again with a touchdown run by Gurley with 3:17 left in the fourth quarter. They would proceed to give up another score before their offense tacked on another garbage time TD for a final score of 44-21.
Goff struggled, recording only 158 passing yards prior to the two garbage-time drives, but his offensive line did not do him any favors. In addition to their struggles in pass protection, the offensive line could not create much running room for Gurley, furthering the offense’s issues. However, tight end Tyler Higbee had a productive game with 12 receptions for 111 yards. The Rams’ playoff hopes are on life support, as they need to win out and have the Minnesota Vikings (10-4) lose out. This is extremely unlikely and the Rams will most likely miss the postseason for the first time in three seasons under Sean McVay.
Arizona Cardinals 38 – Cleveland Browns 24
The Cardinals had nothing to play for, but they dominated the Browns to break their six-game winning streak. Kenyan Drake had a career performance with 137 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Kyler Murray completed 19 of his 25 passes (76%) for a touchdown and an interception for a 98.6 passer rating. He also avoided sacks all day and rushed for 56 additional yards. As a team, Arizona totaled 226 rushing yards against Cleveland’s fragile run defense.
Arizona’s defense struggled against current NFL rushing leader Nick Chubb, who had 127 rushing yards and a touchdown, but they held up enough as a unit. Too little too late for this season, but the Cardinals could have a promising future as they continue to build around Murray.
