Tag: NFL Week 11

Where the Bucs rank statistically after Week 11

Here’s where the Bucs measure up to the rest of the league after their game against San Francisco.

Despite a 13-point loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t really move the needle for better or for worse on Sunday.

The Bucs dropped their Week 11 game 27-14, but it was nothing we hadn’t really seen before from the team. The pass defense remains awful, the run game cannot get going and the team’s red zone defense remains bizarrely strong despite everything else going on with the unit. The Bucs will have a good chance to tilt these numbers a bit more in their favor when they face the Indianapolis Colts in Week 12.

Here is where the Bucs stack up statistically, according to Team Rankings:

Social media reaction to the Eagles’ stunning win over the Chiefs on Monday Night Football

Here are some of the best tweets to emerge from the Philadelphia Eagles’ 21-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football.

The Philadelphia Eagles overturned everyone’s power rankings to conclude Week 11.

The Eagles topped the Kansas City Chiefs 21-17 on Monday Night Football at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, and in convincing fashion as Philadelphia’s defense forced Patrick Mahomes and the offense into a turnover on downs.

Philadelphia didn’t play a complete game on offense as Jalen Hurts went 14-of-22 for 150 yards and an interception. Think of how dominating the Eagles could be if the passing game comes online with their ground game.

Social media was full of takes and reactions as the NFL’s leviathans duked it out. Here are some of the best.

Placekicker Brandon Aubrey faces his biggest test yet with Cowboys

A missed extra point essentially ruined the career of a past Cowboys kicker, so how Brandon Aubrey responds to his Week 11 miss is critical. | From @ReidDHanson

Brandon Aubrey has been nothing short of brilliant this season for the Cowboys. The 28-year-old rookie has gone a perfect 21-for-21 this season on field goals, including four from 50+. In Sunday’s 33-10 win over the Panthers, Aubrey set an NFL record for most consecutively made field goals to start an NFL career.

For as impressive as all of that is, it wasn’t the record-breaking kick or the perfect 2023 field goal percentage he’s carrying this season that means the most going into Week 12. It was his missed extra point – or rather, how he responds to the missed extra point.

On the heels of his record setting accomplishment, Aubrey hooked an extra point attempt left. It was his first deviation from flawless in ten weeks and a public test of resiliency and fortitude going forward.

A missed extra point attempt essentially doomed the Cowboys previous placekicker less than a year ago. It was in 2022 when Dallas’ kicker at the time, Brett Maher, was on a similar upward trajectory with the Cowboys.

Like Aubrey, Maher had more doubters than supporters early in the year. Like Aubrey, Maher slowly strung together good kick after good kick and became one of the most accurate kickers of the season. Like Aubrey, he was also one of the most powerful in the sport, residing at the top of the leader board in touchbacks and routinely splitting the uprights from 50+ yards deep. And like Aubrey, a routine missed extra point threatened to ruin it all.

Maher’s missed extra point in Week 18 was easy to laugh off at the time. He had a track record of success by that stage and the miss looked to be nothing more than a hiccup. But that hiccup planted a seed in Maher’s mind and the Cowboys star placekicker went on to miss five of the next six attempts.

It seemed overcoming failure was their kicker’s the biggest obstacle. He was physically capable of being the best in the game but mentally he couldn’t come to grips with the slightest mistake. This highlights arguably the most critical trait of an NFL placekicker: mental resiliency.

Following the missed extra point, Aubrey went on to make a field goal, ending the day on a positive and keeping his field goal steak alive. But Maher’s issue with the extra point “yips” also resided somewhat independently from his field goals.

While Maher only made 14 percent of his extra points to close out the campaign, he went a clean 2-for-2 on field goals through the postseason. For whatever reason, his field goal success didn’t help his confidence in extra points.

This becomes Aubrey’s biggest hurdle going into Week 12.

Aubrey has to simply show the one miss didn’t plant a seed of self-doubt in his head like it did Maher. Luckily for him, it’s a short week. The Cowboys play on Thursday so there’s no time for quiet reflection and midweek ponderings on the matter.

With soccer being the most popular sport on the planet, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people physically capable of being an NFL kicker. But only a handful of them who have the mental capabilities. It’s what sunk Maher in 2022 and it’s what threatens to rerail Aubrey in 2023.

This is all probably making a big deal over nothing, but then again, that’s what last year felt like too. It’s a big week for Aubrey and if he bounces back like many think he will, he’ll be truly battle-tested.

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Bucs Report Card: How we graded Tampa Bay’s loss to San Francisco in Week 11

Here’s how we graded Tampa Bay’s offense, defense, special teams and coaching in Week 11:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers dropped their Week 11 game to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. That was to be expected, but that doesn’t mean that the standard should be lowered for the team itself.

The Bucs tend to underperform when faced with what offensive coordinator Dave Canales called “championship moments”, and this was another example of that. The Bucs dropped their game to the 49ers 27-14 on Sunday, dropping to 4-6. And while they’re still alive in the NFC South race, there are a lot of deep-rooted issues faced by Tampa Bay that don’t look like they’ll get better any time soon.

Here is how we graded all aspects of Tampa Bay’s performance:

Lions best and worst PFF grades from Week 11 win over the Bears

Here are PFF’s highest-rated and lowest-rated players from the Lions comeback win over the Bears

The Pro Football Focus grades for the Detroit Lions in their 31-26 victory over the Chicago Bears were reflective of a team that didn’t perform at its best but still prevailed.

PFF graded out just three Lions players with an overall score above 80, the fewest of any Detroit game this year aside from the 38-6 loss in Baltimore. For team unit grades, the Lions turned in their lowest passing game grade (48.0) and their worst-graded tackling effort since the Week 2 loss to the Seahawks.

However, the special teams (70.3) and pass rush (74.4) grades were the second-best of the season, and the run offense grade of 83.5 is a new season high.

Here are the highest-rated and lowest-rated players from the Lions comeback win.

GALLERY: Shots from Tampa Bay’s Week 11 loss to San Francisco

Check out some of our favorite pictures from Tampa Bay’s time out West in Week 11:

It wasn’t a win, but as always, there were some great action shots, still shots and everything in between from Tampa Bay’s Week 11 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Check out some of Bucs Wire’s favorite pictures from the game down here below:

Texans glad to stack wins, committed to improvement

The Houston Texans are pleased to be winners again, but they have not lost focus on improving the finer aspects of their craft.

HOUSTON — The Houston Texans beat the Arizona Cardinals 21-16 in Week 11 for their third-straight victory, the longest since 2018 when the club won nine straight en route to an AFC South title.

The following season the Texans defended their division crown with a 10-win season. Many believed that the team would continue the momentum of becoming a team to be reckoned with in the AFC, including offensive lineman Tytus Howard, who was Houston’s 2019 first-round draft pick from Alabama State.

Howard, 27, had a valid reason to believe so, given the two-time Pro Bowl quarterback under center and coach Bill O’Brien putting together a roster that looked like it could sustain the test of some of the most formidable opponents in the conference.

No one could foresee what would happen next with the quick downward spiral the team would take over the next couple of seasons. The Texans gave O’Brien general manager duties as well, and then fired him after losing his first four games of the season. The Texans picked associate head coach Romeo Crennel as the interim.

 

The star quarterback became disgruntled with the direction the franchise was headed and would soon find himself in some legal trouble after being accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women. He would eventually be traded after sitting out the entire 2021 season. The tumultuous times would continue for Howard and his teammates as they combined to win 11 total games over the next three seasons after winning 10 in his first season.

It’s funny how a rookie quarterback with veteran tendencies and a head coach who truly believes in his players can turn an organization around and get the players who have been with the Texans over the last three years to buy into what is being built for the future. Only four current players, which include Howard, Laremy Tunsil, Jon Weeks, and Ka’imi Fairbairn, remain from the 2019 team.

Sunday’s victory over the Cardinals was the sixth win of the season and puts Houston just one game out of first place behind their next opponent and AFC South foe, Jacksonville Jaguars.

“It feels good,” said Howard about the team’s success throughout the first 11 weeks of the regular season. “We just have to keep stacking them [wins]. The energy of the crowd is great, but it feels great to be back to winning. We have to keep picking up on the little things we have to fix and keep this thing rolling.”

Howard wasn’t the only one smiling in the locker room on Sunday. Texans wide receiver Nico Collins, who was drafted in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of the University of Michigan, has seen a lot of dark days with the organization with the uncertainty of the direction the team was heading. With two more victories on the season, Collins would have surpassed the seven combined since he was drafted.

“It feels so good because we know the hard work and grind we are putting in that people don’t see,” said Collins, who finished the day with seven catches for 65 yards in the win. “To get this win, it feels good because we really needed it. I feel like it is building momentum for the next game and the game after that.”

“We are just building with each other and building chemistry and just bonding. I feel like that is playing a huge part on the field, and we are just going to continue to grow.”

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Texans RB Devin Singletary heralded for big game against the Cardinals

Houston Texans running back Devin Singletary picked up some praise from NBC Sports’ Peter King for the second straight week.

Devin Singletary’s second straight 100-yard performance looms large, not only for the Houston Texans, but for the rest of the NFL.

According to Peter King from NBC Sports, Singletary’s 22 carries for 112 yards and a touchdown in the 21-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals were worthy enough to qualify for an offensive player of the week slot in King’s “Football Morning in America” column.

Devin Singletary, running back, Houston. For the second straight week, the Buffalo castoff was crucial in a narrow Texans win that kept Houston (6-4) a game behind Jacksonville heading into their showdown for AFC South supremacy next Sunday in Houston. He rushed 22 times for 112 yards and a touchdown. His 11-yard TD score in the second quarter gave the Texans the lead for good. His 262 rushing yards in the last two weeks — in relief of the injured Dameon Pierce — lead all NFL backs over Week 10 and 11.

While Singletary is enjoying the benefits of being the Texans’ feature back, according to offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, Houston still has plans for Pierce as the dominant ball carrier once he returns.

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NFC North roundup: A Week 11 full of thrillers in the division

Sunday was a crazy one in the NFC North, with all four teams having games decided in the final minute

Week 11 proved to be a thrilling Sunday across the NFC North. All three games involving the four teams in the division wound up being decided in the final minutes, with two winners and two losers.

The Lions, of course, eked out a 31-26 win over the Chicago Bear in Ford Field to improve to 8-2. With the rest of the outcomes on Sunday, Detroit holds a three-game lead atop the division entering the final seven weeks of the season.

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Studs and Duds from Tampa Bay’s 27-14 loss to the 49ers

As always, some players showed out and some didn’t show up on Sunday against the 49ers:

While Sunday’s result against the San Francisco 49ers wasn’t exactly unexpected, the amount of chances the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had to stay competitive was — and they were chances that the Bucs often squandered.

Tampa Bay lost to the 49ers 27-14 on Sunday, and the game was closer than many believed it would be for a period of time. The Bucs were down less than a score heading into the second half, but things quickly got out of hand in the third quarter for Tampa Bay. There were still some solid performers from the game, but as always, there were also a few that contributed to the team’s woes.

Here are our studs and duds from Sunday: