Tag: Offensive player of the week

Drew Brees is NFC Offensive Player of the Week, up for other awards

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees earned recognition as NFC Offensive Player of the Week after breaking records in prime-time.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees turned in a stunning performance in prime-time against the Indianapolis Colts, and his efforts earned recognition as the NFC Offensive Player of the Week.

Brees passed several milestones during Monday night’s game, including the all-time career touchdown passes record and the single-game completion percentage record. He completed 29 of 30 passes (96.7%) for 307 yards through the air, scoring four touchdowns along the way and raising his career total to 541. If those sky-high numbers for both efficiency and volume don’t encapsulate everything that makes Brees great, nothing will.

It’s the 25th time Brees has received this award. His Saints teammates have been recognized for these weekly awards on five different occasions in 2019:

  • Week 1: Wil Lutz, Special Teams Player of the Week
  • Week 3: Thomas Morstead, Special Teams Player of the Week
  • Week 6: Thomas Morstead, Special Teams Player of the Week
  • Week 13: Cameron Jordan, Defensive Player of the Week
  • Week 15: Drew Brees, Offensive Player of the Week

Additionally, Brees is up for consideration in the fan voting for the FedEx Air and Ground Awards. He’s up against some quality competition, with quarterbacks who either threw more touchdown passes (Lamar Jackson) or passed for more yards (Jameis Winston) crowding the Week 15 ballot. Saints fans can vote for Brees on NFL.com at this link.

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Player’s Club: Prescott wins NFC Offensive weekly award for 2nd time

The Dallas quarterback’s 400-yard day earned him honors for the second time in 2019; he’s the fifth Cowboy to win it in the past 17 weeks.

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Things can change in a hurry in the National Football League. Last week, the Cowboys were still reeling from a gut-punch loss to Minnesota. They suffered an added indignity when Vikings running back Dalvin Cook was named the NFC’s Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against them. It was the third time in six weeks that the Dallas defense allowed an opposing player to earn that honor.

But Week 11’s win over Detroit has brought redemption, in more ways than one. The seat under coach Jason Garrett cooled slightly, the team’s playoff chances improved incrementally, and the league’s Player of the Week announcement stung a whole lot less. Ladies and gentlemen of Cowboys Nation, your NFC Offensive Player of the Week is none other than Rayne Dakota Prescott.

Prescott had a big day in the Motor City, tossing three touchdowns and finishing the afternoon with a 116.6 passer rating in the club’s 35-27 win. His 444 air yards led all quarterbacks for the week, and put Prescott in elite company, even within a franchise that has had more than its share of legendary passers.

This is not Prescott’s first time earning Player of the Week accolades. The fourth-year signal caller started the 2019 campaign with 405 passing yards and four touchdowns against the Giants in the season opener. He went 25-of-32 that day, amassing a perfect passer rating of 158.3.

This most recent honor for Prescott caps a notably successful run for the Cowboys, as far as that particular award goes.

Dallas will be hard-pressed to make it consecutive weeks for offensive fireworks. The defense belonging to their Week 12 opponent, the New England Patriots, rank tops in the NFL in average yards per game allowed as well as average points per game scored.

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Players of Week 10 awards hit Cowboys with disheartening double-whammy

The Dallas defense has, for the third time in five games, allowed an opponent to collect Offensive Player of the Week honors.

It’s happened again. For the third time in ten weeks of regular season play, an opponent of the Dallas Cowboys has been named their conference’s offensive Player of the Week. This time, it’s Vikings running back Dalvin Cook, who compiled 97 ground yards and a rushing touchdown on Sunday night in Arlington, and then added 86 receiving yards for good measure.

Cook was his team’s leading rusher as well as its primary receiver; his 183 scrimmage yards on 33 touches accounted for over half of Minnesota’s total offensive output for the game.

Cook, in his third season after being drafted in the second round out of Florida State, is currently the league’s top runner with 991 ground yards after 10 games. Despite a reputation across his first two pro seasons for being injury-prone, Cook is suddenly on pace for a monster year in 2019 that could net him more than just the rushing title.

Cook is just the latest to have a breakout performance against a Cowboys defense that is proving to be barely a shadow of the unit that fans were promised coming into the regular season. Week 5’s loss to Green Bay resulted in NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors for Packers running back Aaron Jones, the first rusher to ever score four touchdowns against a Dallas squad in a single game. Jets quarterback Sam Darnold won AFC honors a week later, returning from mononucleosis to torch the Cowboys’ secondary in Week 6.

Over the Cowboys’ last five games, the defense has allowed the Offensive Player of the Week to emerge out of three of them. Lions stars like wide receivers Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones, Jr. and rookie tight end T.J. Hockenson may be salivating right about now. Quarterback Matthew Stafford is likely lobbying Detroit’s medical staff hard to allow him to return to action after missing last week. But at this rate, even backups Jeff Driskel and J.D. McKissic have to like their chances should they step into a starting role once again.

If the news of Cook’s honor didn’t rub in a sickening loss quite enough for Cowboys fans, the Player of the Week announcements added an extra sucker punch on the AFC side.

Jets safety Jamal Adams, who the Cowboys tried unsuccessfully to acquire before the season’s trade deadline, went on to win the Defensive Player of the Week award for the game he had in Week 10. Adams racked up nine tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles, and a fumble-return touchdown against the Giants.

A defensive stat line like that sure would have come in handy against Cook. Maybe it would been enough to make someone else the Week 10 NFC Offensive Player of the Week.

For a group that had its sights set on elite-caliber accolades, the Cowboys’ defense has become a clear league leader in letting their opponents shine on offense.

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