8. Houston Texans
(6-3. Week 10 Bye. Last week: 5)
If you like great young quarterbacks, you’ll want to tune into the Week 11 matchup between the Texans and Ravens, where you’ll see Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson doing their level best to make the opposing defenses look silly. With Watson out on a bye week last week, perhaps we’ve forgotten how impressive he’s been this season, and how he should absolutely be part of any MVP discussion along with Jackson and Russell Wilson. The challenge for Watson in this game will not be to match what Jackson does blow by blow; it will be to continue doing what he does as a passer against a Baltimore secondary that has improved dramatically since the acquisition of cornerback Marcus Peters. If Watson can lead his team to victory through that particular gauntlet, we suspect the MVP noise around his name might get a bit louder.
7. Minnesota Vikings
(7-3. Last week: 11)
The big news in Minnesota’s 28-24 win over the Cowboys on Sunday night was Jason Garrett’s highly questionable play-calling, but throughout most of the game, the real story was running back Dalvin Cook, who sliced through Dallas’ estimable defense for 97 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries, adding a team-high 86 yards on seven catches. This performance put Cook in the league lead with 1,415 yards from scrimmage, and as much as the Vikings are elevated when Kirk Cousins plays well, this team has been sustained this season by Cook’s greatness and consistency. Aside from aberrations against the Eagles and Bears, in which defenses unafraid of Cousins tended to load the box, Cook has gained gained at least 70 rushing yards each week, and he has five games of over 100 rushing yards. This is how Mike Zimmer wants his offense to go, and Cook is ready for all of it.
6. Seattle Seahawks
(8-2. Last week: 6)
Through most of the 2019 season, Seattle’s defense has been an absolute liability, while Russell Wilson has needed to take every game into his command. Against the 49ers in a brutally fought game, that defense finally stepped up, led by edge-rusher Jadeveon Clowney, who finally put together the game he’s been waiting for since the Seahawks traded for him on Sept. 1. The Seahawks had 15 sacks and 29 QB hits coming into this game, and they turned it all around with five sacks and 10 quarterback hits in a 27-24 battle that went to the end of overtime. Clowney ruled the day with five tackles, a strip sack, five quarterback hits and a fumble return for a touchdown. So, on a night when Wilson threw his second interception of the season to keep the 49ers alive, it was atypically the Seattle defense that ended up slamming the door.
5. Green Bay Packers
(8-2. Last week: 10)
One week after a “burn the tape” game in which the Chargers shut the passing game down and ceaselessly harassed Aaron Rodgers, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur wisely went with a reset against Carolina’s defense, which came into this game ranked third in the NFL in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted metrics against the pass, and dead last against the run. Rodgers completed 17 of 29 passes for 233 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions, but in this game, the best thing he did was to hand the ball off to Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams. Both backs had 13 carries each, and both backs made the most of them in a 24-16 win. Jones scored three times to tie Carolina’s Christian McCaffrey for the league lead with 11 rushing touchdowns. That stat may surprise you, but it’s very much in line with LaFleur’s philosophy, which is to integrate the run game cohesively with the aerial attack, and lean on one when the other might not be working optimally. It’s a primary reason the Packers are tied with the Seahawks with the NFC’s second-best record.
4. New Orleans Saints
(7-2. Last week: 3)
No matter how good you are in the NFL, you’re bound to have at least one game in a season where everything just stinks. The Saints improbably experienced this against the Falcons on Sunday in a 26-9 loss to a team that hasn’t fielded a credible defense all year — until this game, when Drew Brees was sacked six times and experienced 11 quarterback hits against a suddenly ravenous Atlanta defensive front. The Falcons had gone five straight games without a sack, and they seemed to want to make it all up at once. Does this game portend larger issues, or was it an anomaly? The Saints have struggled with slow starts this season, and their offensive line is struggling with ineffectiveness, perhaps exacerbated by injuries. The most disconcerting injury right now, though, is the hamstring strain suffered by top cornerback Marshon Lattimore. Lattimore is week to week at this point, and the Saints next face a Buccaneers offense that knows how to exploit weakened secondaries.
3. New England Patriots
(8-1. Week 10 Bye. Last week: 2)
Are we right to be concerned about New England’s defense after what Lamar Jackson and the Ravens did to it in Week 9? Only if there’s a Lamar Jackson equivalent anywhere else in the NFL, which there isn’t. That said, when Bill Belichick’s team gets ready for its matchup against the Eagles after a much-needed bye week, there are (or should be) serious concerns on the other side of the ball. The Patriots are averaging 3.3 yards per rushing attempt this year, which is really weird for a team that averaged a full yard per carry more in 2018 and used that rushing attack to propel yet another Super Bowl win. And Tom Brady is starting to feel the pinch of a depleted receiving corps and marginal offensive line. Brady currently ranks 15th in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted per-play metrics for quarterbacks; he hasn’t ranked that low since 2002 (his second year as a starter), when he was 16th. Philly has presented a get-well defense through most of the season, and this is an offense that needs to get well quickly.
2. San Francisco 49ers
(8-1. Last week: 1)
With receiver Emmanuel Sanders off the field in the first half of San Francisco’s battle with the Seahawks due to a rib injury and tight end George Kittle out of the game entirely with a knee injury, Jimmy Garoppolo was without his two best weapons in the passing game. It showed, as Garoppolo struggled to keep things together, especially as the game veered into overtime. Throughout the fourth and fifth quarters, Garoppolo sailed pass after pass and benefited from several dropped interceptions. San Francisco’s drop from the undefeated isn’t that big a deal in the grand scheme of things — they lost to a very good team playing at its best (especially on defense) and did so seriously shorthanded. Kyle Shanahan’s team will try to get things back together against the Cardinals next week.
1. Baltimore Ravens
(7-2. Last week: 4)
One week after turning the Patriots’ defense into a pumpkin with a commanding performance both as a passer and runner, Lamar Jackson made his 16th career start against the Bengals on Sunday. So, given a full season to evaluate what Jackson has done in those starts, things are looking pretty good.
With his day over, Lamar Jackson has now started 16 regular season games. His stats.
260/413 (63%), 3,150 passing yards, 20 TDs, 8 INTs, 33 sacks (-154 yards), and
197 rush, 1,287 yards (6.53 YPC), 10 TDs
*Excluding kneels.
4,437 yards and 30 TDs in first 16 starts.
— Football Perspective (@fbgchase) November 10, 2019
Per ESPN’s Paul Hembekides, in his first 16 starts, Jackson has done more and better than each of these players in his first 16 starts:
More rushing yards than LaDainian Tomlinson (1,258 to 1,236)
A better passer rating than Tom Brady (94.4 to 90.1)
A better yards-per-attempt rate than Aaron Rodgers (7.6 to 7.5)
A higher completion percentage than Drew Brees (63% to 61%).
In Baltimore’s 49-13 blowout of the Bengals, Jackson completed 15 of 17 passes for 223 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, making him the second quarterback in NFL history to record two games in the same season with a perfect passer rating, following Ben Roethlisberger in 2007.
As Jackson likes to say, not bad for a running back. Though he’s pretty good at the running thing, too. There are all kinds of reasons the Ravens are the new top team in these power rankings, and Jackson is the primary.
LAMAR. JACKSON. @Lj_Era8 TO THE HOUSE ‼️‼️
😱😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/DcR8A7S2Vy
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) November 10, 2019
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”