24. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
(3-6. Last week: 24)
“I’m just really elated that we finished. That was a really, really ugly win.”
Well, Jameis Winston was right about that. Tampa Bay’s 30-27 win over the Cardinals had a lot of the Bucs’ primary characteristics throughout the season. Winston threw two interceptions, pushing his league-leading total to 14 (the same number of picks he threw in all of last season), and Todd Bowles’ secondary continued to frustrate, as Kyler Murray completed 27 passes in 44 attempts for 324 yards, with three touchdowns and one pick. But that interception — thrown to cornerback Jamel Dean with 3:47 left in the game — gave Dean a measure of recompense after allowing three touchdowns against the Seahawks the week before. It’s been a rough go for Bruce Arians’ team, which had its first home game since Sept. 22 and went 1-4 in that five-game stretch, but this at least gives the Bucs a bit of a breather before they face a Saints team next week looking to bounce back following its shocking upset loss to the Falcons.
23. Detroit Lions
(3-5-1. Last week: 20)
It’s going to be easy to blame Matthew Stafford’s back injury for Detroit’s 20-13 loss to the Bears, as Stafford had to sit while backup Jeff Driskel took the field. But Driskel wasn’t horrible; he completed 27 passes in 46 attempts for 269 yards, with one touchdown and one interception against one of the NFL’s most formidable defenses. When assigning blame for this loss, and for the collapse that has seen the Lions lose five of their past six games, one must look squarely at a defense that allowed four touchdowns to Oakland rookies in Week 9 and followed that up by making things all too easy for Mitchell Trubisky on his three touchdown passes. This looked like one of the NFL’s better pass defenses at times early in the season, but that narrative has completely fallen apart. Per Pro Football Focus, Detroit’s secondary has allowed 15 touchdowns to just three interceptions this season. No team is going to win that way consistently, no matter who their quarterback is.
22. Los Angeles Chargers
(4-6. Last week: 22)
Last Thursday night, Oakland rookie Josh Jacobs’ 18-yard touchdown run with 1:02 left in the game gave the Raiders a 26-24 lead over the Chargers. The Raiders then kicked off to the Chargers, who gave the ball to Philip Rivers in the hope that he could engineer a crucial win. What resulted was probably the worst drive of Rivers’ career. The veteran shot-putted the ball all over the field, and only one of his seven passes didn’t fall incomplete — his last pass of the night, which was caught by Oakland safety Karl Joseph.
Philip Rivers' two-minute drill to end the night. Not pretty! pic.twitter.com/x1zFPLPWcy
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq) November 8, 2019
Rivers started the last drive at 71% completion rate for the game and ended it at 55%
— Seth Galina (@SethGalina) November 8, 2019
Every incomplete pass has its own story, and it’s not always the quarterback’s fault. But this was mostly on Rivers, and the pass to Joseph was one of three interceptions on the night. Rivers is an immobile quarterback behind a patchwork offensive line, and that’s a lot of the problem. But as idiosyncratic as his throwing motion always has been, something appears wrong with the way he’s throwing the ball these days. In any event, if Rivers can’t turn that around, the Chargers are going nowhere but home once the playoffs come around.
21. Chicago Bears
(4-5. Last week: 23)
Hey, remember when Mitchell Trubisky threw five touchdown passes in one half of football against the Buccaneers on Sept. 30, 2018? It’s more a “Believe it or Not” story at this point, given the extent to which Trubisky has played poorly since that outlier performance. But in Chicago’s 20-13 win over the Lions on Sunday, Trubisky at least tried to resemble the guy who the Bears traded up to take with the second pick in the 2017 draft. Not that his stats were mind-blowing — 16 completions in 23 attempts for 173 yards — but he stayed within himself, let the route combinations come to him, and threw one outstanding deep touchdown to tight end Ben Braunecker …
First career TD catch for Ben Braunecker is a pretty one.#DETvsCHI | #Bears100 pic.twitter.com/3AwLvdI8E2
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 10, 2019
… and another one to wide receiver Taylor Gabriel.
The pass.
The TD catch.
*chef's kiss*@TGdadon1 | #DETvsCHI pic.twitter.com/YHPOyxZ8gZ— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 10, 2019
He also threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to running back Tarik Cohen. There’s no real way of knowing whether Trubisky can build on this game — we’ve been fooled before. But for at least one game, there were enough positive elements to think that maybe, just maybe, there’s something there after all.
20. Jacksonville Jaguars
(4-5. Week 10 Bye. Last week: 19)
The decision to go back to Nick Foles instead of Gardner Minshew was made easier by Minshew’s performance against the Texans in Week 9, when the sixth-round rookie completed just 27 of 47 passes, and gave up two picks with no touchdowns. But unless Foles performs at a level commensurate with the four-year, $88 million contract Jacksonville gave him this past offseason, it might be just as easy to give the ball back to Minshew. Pressed into service after Foles broke his collarbone in Week 1, Minshew transformed himself almost overnight into someone who could handle an NFL offense, read to all areas of the field, and uncork some spectacular deep throws. At the very least, Minshew gives the Jaguars the NFL’s best backup quarterback situation outside of New Orleans, and over time, there could be a lot more to his story.
19. Arizona Cardinals
(3-6-1. Last week: 17)
The good news for the Cardinals on Sunday was that rookie quarterback Kyler Murray continued to find his targets for good, hitting Christian Kirk for three touchdowns and throwing for 324 yards overall. The bad news? Well, Murray’s record-setting streak of 211 passes without an interception ended with a late pick by Buccaneers safety Jamel Dean in a 30-27 loss at Tampa Bay. Kliff Kingsbury benched David Johnson in favor of Kenyan Drake, which makes Johnson’s future with the Cardinals an interesting topic of conversation. And a defense that has struggled through most of the season gave Jameis Winston far too many opportunities for positive plays, though with two picks, Winston was just as willing to give the ball away. Such inconsistencies are common among young teams looking to rebuild, and the Cardinals do have a lot of explosive potential among the short-term frustrations.
18. Los Angeles Rams
(5-4. Last week: 16)
After the Rams went 13-3 and reached the Super Bowl last season, head coach Sean McVay was the toast of the league. What a difference a year can make, and not in a good way. In a 17-12 loss to the Steelers on Sunday, McVay’s offense converted just one of its 14 third-down attempts. The Rams’ drives: Punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, fumble, punt, missed field goal, interception, interception, field goal, punt, punt, downs, interception. At one point, McVay pulled Jared Goff from the game, installed backup quarterback Blake Bortles, and then tried a fourth-down pass from punter Johnny Hekker, which was intercepted by safety Terrell Edmunds. Goff completed 22 of 41 passes for 243 yards, no touchdowns, and two picks of his own. Goff has a completion rate below 60% in each of his last five games, nobody seems to know why Todd Gurley isn’t getting the ball, and Cooper Kupp didn’t catch a single pass on a season-low four targets. The league may have figured out McVay and Goff, but McVay and Goff are helping their opponents with some truly ugly football.
17. Pittsburgh Steelers
(5-4. Last week: 18)
In Sunday’s 17-12 win over the Rams that put Pittsburgh over the .500 mark for the first time this season, the Steelers overcame a pedestrian offense with an opportunistic and aggressive defensive performance for a franchise long known for such things. The trade for defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick, who has become the NFL’s best deep safety, was a huge part of this. But it was also due to a fine defensive line, led by Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt, and that unit was all over Jared Goff on Sunday. It’s estimated that running back James Conner will return to action in Thursday’s game against the Browns, which will give Mike Tomlin and his staff some level of assurance that offensive consistency without Ben Roethlisberger is possible.