On Sunday, while the Carolina Panthers cruised to 13-0 and solidified their status as the best team in the NFC, affairs at the top of the AFC were only getting cloudier. No team’s fortunes changed more drastically than those of the Cincinnati Bengals, who began the day at top of the AFC standings and ended up experiencing what may have been their worst case scenario.
The Bengals’ day, and perhaps season, turned in the first half of their game against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers. Dalton threw a red zone interception and then fractured a thumb while attempting to make the post-pick tackle. Dalton would not return. Already down to Pittsburgh, the Bengals had to turn to untested backup AJ McCarron. The Steelers beat the Bengals 33-20, dropping Cincinnati’s record to 10-3.
Andy Dalton threw an INT to a defensive lineman, but made up for it with the tackle. https://t.co/CCIzUTjj60 pic.twitter.com/8w9BLfAEaw
— SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) December 13, 2015
It was bad enough that the defeat caused the Bengals to lose their position as the AFC’s top seed, but losing Dalton for an extended period of time could be a killer. Dalton’s already been ruled out for next week’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, but the full extent of the damage won’t be known until after he’s examined on Monday. Early reports suggest that the earliest Dalton will be able to return would be sometime during the postseason.
No official timetable on Andy Dalton's thumb fracture until Monday, but the feeling in the locker room is that it's likely a season-ender.
— bob holtzman (@BobHoltzmanESPN) December 13, 2015
And Cincinnati will desperately need Dalton if they want to go deep into the postseason. It’s easy to joke that it won’t make a difference because McCarron has as many playoff wins as Dalton, who is winless in four postseason starts. That’s fine as a one-liner, but it doesn’t reflect how big of a blow this could be. While Dalton will never be one of the league’s top quarterbacks, he was having the best year of his career coming into week 14, holding the NFL’s best passer rating (107.4) while throwing for 25 touchdowns. Perhaps more crucially, this Bengals team was built around Dalton’s strengths. Now they will have to slot in the untested McCarron right when the pressure to win is at its highest.
By beating the Bengals, the Steelers have put themselves into a position to take advantage of Dalton’s injury. Pittsburgh is now 8-5, two wins behind Cincinnati with three games remaining on the schedule, giving them a slimmest window to take the AFC North if they can win the rest of their games and hope that the Bengals stumble under their rookie QB. It’s not out of question, the Steelers have won four of their last five games and have played as well as any team in the AFC. If they make the postseason, who knows how far they could go.
One team that couldn’t capitalize on the Bengals’ loss were the Denver Broncos, who had a chance to seize the top seed with a win. Instead the Oakland Raiders beat them 15-12 in a thoroughly ugly offensive game, dropping Denver’s record to 10-3. While the Denver defense is championship caliber, it’s not clear that quarterback Brock Osweiler, who was sacked five times by Oakland’s Khalil Mack, can carry this team deep into the playoffs. (If only there were a future Hall of Fame quarterback on the roster who could potentially return to lead this team.)
Typically, all of this worked out perfectly for the New England Patriots, who lost two straight games after a perfect start to their season. Practically handed the top seed, the Patriots completed the deal by knocking out the Houston Texans 27-6 and improved their record to 11-2. Once again, the Patriots, who also clinched a playoff spot in the win, took command of the conference, but they shouldn’t get comfortable – opposing defenses are still getting to Tom Brady far too often and players on offense continue to fall. It was LeGarrette Blount’s turn to suffer on Sunday: he left the game with a hip injury.
Quote of the week
Chip can’t say shit to me. There’s nothing for us to talk about.
- Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy rejecting Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly’s offer to shake his hand.
Kelly traded McCoy away during the offseason, a decision which led to McCoy suggesting that the move might have been racially motivated. McCoy clearly continues to cling to his grievances as he reportedly also hung up on Kelly earlier in the week. On the field on Sunday, Kelly’s team won the apparently one-sided grudge match, as the Eagles beat the Bills 23-20. McCoy did not talk to reporters after the game, although he directed at least one choice word to the locker room walls.
LeSean McCoy ran off the field, first one in the locker room, slammed his helmet against a wall and screamed "F*ck! F*ck" #Bills
— Joe Buscaglia (@JoeBuscaglia) December 13, 2015
Stat of the week
312. That’s the number of consecutive passes thrown by Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith without an interception until the pick he threw in the second quarter of his team’s 10-3 win over the San Diego Chargers. Only the Patriots’ Tom Brady has a longer streak. The sequence was basically the Good Alex Smith version of his much more dubious record of 594 days in-between touchdown passes to a wide receiver.
Fantasy player of the week
Russell Wilson. The Seattle Seahawks quarterback threw five TDs, completed 23 of 32 passes and racked up 292 yards in a 35-6 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Wilson’s had a passing rating of at least 138.5 for four straight games, a NFL record, and the Seahawks have won all four of them, so his numbers are helping both fantasy teams and his actual team make playoff pushes.
How did the New England Patriots cheat this week?
Wait, how did New England tight end Rob Gronkowski return in time for the Patriots’ win over the Houston Texans after suffering what looked like a season-ending injury just two weeks ago?
There are whispers around the MIT area of Cambridge that head coach Bill Belichick has set up a top secret project to clone his offense’s not-so-secret weapon. According to these completely fictional sources, the Gronkowski who had played all year is indeed sidelined indefinitely. He was not recovering in these past two weeks, that was just the time needed to finalize the the production of the first of what could be many Gronk clones. Now these clones could end up being deficient shadows of the original a la Multiplicity, but even so, they will be far more reliable targets than Brandon LaFell.
Gif of the week
Cam threaded the needle on this pass, inches from hitting two helmets, great grab by Ed Dickson pic.twitter.com/F4trzPiu85
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) December 13, 2015
If anyone tries to tell you that the Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton is not the MVP front runner, just force them to watch this impossible pass over and over again Clockwork Orange style until they can fully grasp its beauty and accept that this is Newton’s year. Oh, and Newton also threw three touchdown passes and the Panthers clinched a first round bye after they steamrolled the Atlanta Falcons 38-0.
Elsewhere around the league
• The playoff picture is starting to come into focus. The Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, San Diego Chargers, Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens have all been knocked out of playoff contention this week. Congratulations guys, you all lasted longer than the Cleveland Browns at least. Meanwhile, the Arizona Cardinals secured a playoff appearance with their 23-20 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday.
• A 28-7 loss to the NFC North leading Green Bay Packers put the Dallas Cowboys record at 4-9, which would normally be bad enough to put them on the above list of dead teams walking. Since they’re in the NFC East, however, that just means the Cowboys are two games out of first place.
• With nothing left to lose, figuratively speaking, the Browns put Johnny Manziel back in the quarterback position and the results looked better on the field than on the sidelines. The Browns defeated the San Francisco 49ers 24-10, but the lasting image of the game was Manziel taking out his frustrations on a poor, innocent Microsoft Surface tablet. Microsoft’s deal with the NFL is starting to backfire in a comically viral manner, as Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers abused his own version in a very similar way last month.
In other news Johnny Manziel is beating himself up with a tablet. #BrownsDoingBrownsThings. https://t.co/UduWYFyWLA
— Blitzburgh (@Steel_Curtain4) December 13, 2015
• Who came up with the abhorrent nickname “FitzMagic”? Are they the same people who popularized “Linsanity”? Well, if Ryan Fitzpatrick keeps the New York Jets winning, we’ll all be forced to overlook the fact that “magic” and “Patrick” don’t really rhyme and just deal with it. This week, the 8-5 Jets easily handled the Titans, defeating them 30-8, keeping pace in the AFC Wild Card race.
• Games So Bad They Could Have Been Played In London Department: The Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Indianapolis Colts 51-16. Combined with the Houston Texans’ prime time loss and the merciful elimination of the Titans, this marks the day when the AFC South rebranded itself as “the NFC East, except not even the entertaining kind of bad football.”
