NFL Overreaction Week 13
USAT’s Prince Grimes provides a quick Thanksgiving recap and highlights the best games from Week 13 in the NFL.
take sports seriously
- The New England Patriots defeated the New York Giants 33-15, extending their winning streak to 10 games.
- Patriots quarterback Drake Maye passed for 274 yards and two touchdowns.
FOXBORO, Mass. — Time is a flat circle.
The New England Patriots have one of the best quarterbacks in the league and are at the top of the AFC. The era of dynasties is in the rearview mirror, but a new era of Patriot supremacy could be dawning.
Perhaps that’s an overreaction to the Pats’ 33-15 crushing of the New York Giants on Monday Night Football. In the Finals, the Patriots’ winning streak increased to 10, while the Giants’ losing streak also extended to 7. Of course, there are winners and losers beyond the box score. Let’s take a closer look at everything.
winner
drake may
The second-year quarterback has such an effortless performance that it makes everything look easier than it actually is. The middle ball has feathers. There is a suitable amount for items that require zips. It looks simple but impressive.
In the first half, Maye was 16-of-20 for 208 passing yards and two touchdowns, averaging 10.4 yards per attempt. He completed 24 of 31 for 274 yards (despite his dynamite season, he has yet to pass for more than 300 yards).
After 13 weeks, Maye leads the league in completion percentage and ranks third in passing yards per game.
Mike Vrabel (and mustache)
The mustachioed head coach of the Patriots led his team to 10 straight wins in his first season in New England. They are the No. 1 seed in the AFC and will face two teams in the 2024 playoffs (Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens) with a bye before games against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.
marcus jones
If Jones hasn’t earned the status of the league’s most feared return man at this point, maybe it’s time for him to start being talked about as such. Jones returned a punt 93 yards up the left sideline with 5:17 left in the first quarter, eluding Giants punter Jamie Gillan’s futile attempt to push him wide, scoring his first touchdown of the night and his second punt return TD of the year.
According to ESPN, this was Jones’ 75th career punt return, making him eligible for entry into the NFL’s official record book. Coming into the game, his average career punt return was 13.6, which was already the best in NFL history even before the long comebacks began.
Christian Ellis
The Patriots linebacker had two big hits worthy of the retired “Jack Up!” ESPN segment. The first game was against Dart. Dart was running up the right sideline, but didn’t go out of bounds. So Ellis loaded the young man, and the blow was so powerful that the dart was almost level.
During the second quarter kickoff, Ellis took a (legal?) bullet at Gunner Olszewski, whose helmet had paint flying off.
jackson dart
The rookie signal-caller doesn’t get much to work with, but his two-point conversion toss to Darius Slayton is an example of how talented he is. He threw for 139 yards and did not turn the ball over in his first game back after missing two games with a concussion.
Joe Buck
The MNF play-by-play announcer did double duty, serving as a guest host on Good Morning America and traveling from New York to the Boston suburbs for the Pats vs. Giants game. That’s what we call versatility.
loser
giants special teams
As if giving up a long punt return for a touchdown wasn’t bad enough, that was just the beginning of New York’s special teams gaffes. Kicker Younghoe Koo made perhaps the biggest mistake of the entire NFL season when he attempted a 47-yard field goal in the second quarter. Koo tripped and got his right foot caught in the Gillette Stadium turf, turning the attempt from routine to lowlight reel-worthy. To be fair to Koo, neither the snap nor the hold were crisp.
Olszewski faltered on a kickoff return in the second quarter, fumbled the ball back to the Patriots. He left the game with a concussion.
mike kafka
The interim head coach benched Abdul Carter and had to deal with abysmal special teams play. But Devin Singletary’s 22-yard touchdown call from the Wildcats was creative and admirable, comparable to Jameis Winston’s blitzing touchdown against the Detroit Lions last Sunday. But punting midway through the fourth quarter when they were leading by two points was inconsistent with going for two points after Singletary’s score. It was also unwise to leave Darts in the game when he had already lost. He has yet to make it through the audition for Brian Daboll’s previous job.
Abdul Carter
Carter was making his second start in three games and missed the first quarter for disciplinary reasons. It’s a bad look for Carter, who missed the team walkthrough, leading to him missing the first series against the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 16. The rookie clearly needs someone to set things right in the locker room. These are not the types of stories the team that drafted him No. 3 overall seven months ago wants to deal with.
self preservation
Dart running up the sideline and being kicked by Ellis with such force that he was horizontal was probably all too typical of a rookie who hasn’t yet learned his lesson. This is a player who has entered the concussion protocol four times and missed the past two games with a head injury. Someone has to get that message across to the 22-year-old.
Joe Sean
Whoever the coach was, his roster turned out to be completely uncompetitive. Is the Giants owner really happy with him leading the search for New York’s next sideline leader?
denver broncos
It was an entertaining 24 hours for Sean Payton’s team as the No. 1 seed in the AFC, but the Pats’ 11-2 record vaulted New England back into first place in the conference.
The Patriots enter the bye week with a 2.5-game lead over the Bills in divisional contention, making Buffalo’s quest for home-field advantage in the playoffs even more difficult.
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