Broncos tight end Noah Fant (hip/foot) was held out of practice Wednesday.
Denver Broncos tight end Noah Fant (hip/foot) was held out of practice Wednesday but coach Vic Fangio remains hopeful that the rookie will be able to play in Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
In addition to Fant, defensive end Adam Gotsis (knee), right tackle Ja’Wuan James (knee), defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones (ankle) and guard Ron Leary (concussion) were also held out of practice.
Elsewhere on Denver’s injury report, outside linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu (foot), inside linebacker Alexander Johnson (knee), inside linebacker Joe Jones (back), outside linebacker Von Miller (knee), nose tackle Mike Purcell (shoulder/knee), outside linebacker Malik Reed (ankle) and cornerback Isaac Yiadom (shoulder) are listed as limited.
For the Chiefs, cornerback Morris Claiborne (shoulder), defensive end Frank Clark (illness/shoulder) and cornerback Rashad Fenton (hamstring) were held out of practice. Running back Damien Williams (rib) and guard Andrew Wylie (shoulder) were limited. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes (hand) fully practiced Wednesday.
Denver and Kansas City will practice again Thursday and Friday.
Our weekly NFL underdog betting staple continues into Week 15 where Ken Pomponio features three teams likely to upset their underdog odds
Another big week for underdogs (10-6 against the mid-week point spreads) meant another strong week here as we notched our third straight winning weekend with a 3-0 mark.
As expected, one of my three Week 14 underdog selections won outright with the host Los Angeles Rams beating the favored Seattle Seahawks 28-12 on Sunday night, despite being 2.5-point home ‘dogs midweek.
But we saw TWO of our underdogs win straight up as rookie quarterback Drew Lock and the Denver Broncos dominated the host Houston Texans (7.5-point favorites) in a shocking 38-24 win.
The third of our three picks, the 12.5 -point underdog Washington Redskins, hung tough as expected in a 20-15 road loss on the frozen tundra of Green Bay.
That all ups our season record here to a nice, shiny and – best of all – profitable26-16.
Now we move on to a Week 15 slate that doesn’t appear as promising at first (or even fourth) glance, looking like a rare 2019 week of favorites. Regardless, we’ve found three ‘dogs to back, utilizing, as usual, Wednesday’s posted point spreads at BetMGM.com.
Here goes …
Chicago Bears (+4½) at Packers
Photo Credit: Benny Sieu – USA TODAY Sports
Don’t look now but Mitchell Trubisky and the Bears have rebounded from a 3-5 start to win four of their last five and inch onto the fringe of the crowded NFC playoff chase.
The 7-6 Bears are 4-9 against the spread, but seven of those losses have come as favorites. Now they’re getting the third-most points they’ve received all season.
The Pack? They’ve won two straight since coming out on the wrong side of a 37-8 beatdown against the 49ers in Week 12 and, at 10-3, are fighting for the NFC North title and a possible first-round postseason bye.
Green Bay, though, is 4-3 ATS as a home favorite this season. And despite the Packers’ 10-3 win in Chicago in the season opener, Trubisky & Co. should be able to keep the rematch within the number, even if they wind up falling short in the latest installment of this storied rivalry.
Dallas Cowboys (+1½) vs. L.A. Rams
Photo Credit: Quinn Harris – USA TODAY Sports
Yeah, we’re going against all the momentum and trends on both ends and side with embattled coach Jason Garrett and the ‘Boys here.
Dallas has dropped three straight, four of five and seven of 10 overall since a 3-0 start, but the club is still somehow tied for the NFC (L)East lead.
It goes against all logic to take that resume over that of the suddenly surging Rams, who have won three of four to move to 8-5 and into the wild-card hunt, but sometimes the ugly ‘dog is the right ‘dog, and we’ll bank on the Cowboys avoiding a third straight home loss.
Buffalo Bills (+2½) at Pittsburgh Steelers
Photo Credit: Rich Barnes – USA TODAY Sports
The 8-5 Steelers are a truly impressive 7-1 since a Week 5 overtime home loss to the Ravens dropped them to 1-4, and they’ve done so with the backup-QB combo of Duck Hodges and Mason Rudolph at the helm.
Still, only one of Pittsburgh’s eight wins – a 17-12 Week 10 triumph over the visiting Rams – has come against a team currently sporting a winning record.
The 9-4 Bills own a rather similar resume with only one of their nine wins – a Week 5 victory over the then-Marcus Mariota-quarterbacked Tennessee Titans – coming against a team currently sitting above .500.
But in a Sunday night matchup of AFC wild-card front-runners possessing strong defenses, we’ll take the better QB (Josh Allen) and the points on the road in a mild upset.
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Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll believes discipline is the key to the team moving forward after suffering a tough loss to the Rams.
The Seattle Seahawks suffered their most devastating loss of the season Sunday night, falling to a division rival for their first road defeat of the year.
The road to the postseason is hardly over, however, as the Seahawks can still clinch a playoff berth Week 15 with a win in Carolina. The NFC West is still up for grabs as well, as Seattle continues to chase San Francisco for first place.
At 10-3 on the year, winning had become the norm and it’s how the team recovers from the loss that will tell the tale of the Seahawks this season.
“I think it’s the discipline of the approach,” coach Pete Carroll said Monday. “We like to stay with it. This has been enormously valuable to us over the years that we’re able to do this. These guys are prepared to put something behind us one way or the other, win or lose. We have to be disciplined about that and not get dragged through it and taken back to whatever just happened.”
Seattle has been a successful road team throughout 2019, losing just one away matchup all year. Slated to face the Panthers on Sunday morning, the Seahawks have the chance to win their final road game of the schedule and continue their hunt for a postseason appearance.
“We need to take the lessons that we learn, move forward and be better off,” Carroll said. “We have to get turned into what’s going on down the road here this next week. It’s my discipline. It’s the player’s and the coaches’ discipline to just do it. We know it’s important and it’s crucial. It’s the ability to command your own focus and put it in the right spot. Hopefully, we’ll do a good job of that.”
The Seahawks and Panthers are set to kick off Sunday at 10:00 a.m. PT – Seattle’s last early start this season.
Broncos quarterback Drew Lock will return to Missouri this week to face the Chiefs on the road.
Broncos quarterback Drew Lock was born in Missouri and played college football for the Tigers and he — gasp! — grew up a Chiefs fan.
“I did not grow up a Broncos fan,” Lock said in April after he was selected by Denver in the draft. “I was a Chiefs guy.”
There’s good news, though.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be able to go back to Kansas City and hopefully get a couple wins with ‘the bad guys.'” Lock said in April.
After defeating the Texans 38-24 on Sunday, Lock mentioned that he will return to Missouri for the first time as a starting QB in the NFL.
“That’s my home I’ve been there a thousand times,” Lock said Sunday evening. “Nothing new about it except for that I’m going to be in blue and orange and not red and yellow. So it will be a little different.”
Lock had a big game in Houston, throwing for over 300 yards and three touchdowns. He knows the Broncos will need to stay focused this week as they prepare for the Chiefs, who just knocked off the Patriots.
“We need to keep it day-by-day not get too far ahead of ourselves, we had an awesome game today, but that was because of the prep we had this week,” Lock said. “We can’t slack off this week going into the Chiefs game.”
The Cowboys will likely not make noise in the playoffs if they make it, but there’s ALWAYS a chance and tomorrow isn’t promised.
The Dallas Cowboys are either going to be NFC East champions, or one of the teams in the bottom half of the NFL. Which one will be determined over the course of the last three weeks of this topsy-turvy 2019 NFL season. Sitting with a 6-7 record courtesy of four wins against their miserable division, the Dallas Cowboys are tied with the Philadelphia Eagles.
By virtue of their head-to-head victory earlier in the year, Dallas could conceivably win the division with just seven wins. In fact, Dallas could lose this week against the Los Angeles Rams, the Week 16 tilt against the Eagles and still win the division if they beat the Washington Redskins in Week 17 and the Eagles lose their two non-Cowboys games.
With such a wide range of possible season-record outcomes, Dallas in turn has a wide range of draft order scenarios as well. The 20 teams which do not qualify for the playoffs are put in order from worst record to best, with any similar record ties broken by each team’s strength of schedule. The worst a strength of schedule, the better the draft slot. Each playoff team is sorted by round they lose, and any ties there are sorted by winning percentage, and then again by strength of schedule.
Entering Week 15, by virtue of their tiebreaker advantage, Dallas has the NFC East lead and therefore is drafting No. 21.
The Eagles, sitting at 6-7 with an opponents SOS of .582, are at No. 13.
If everything else in the league plays out as it currently stands (it won’t) but the Eagles overtake the Cowboys, that’s the spot in the draft order Dallas would fall into.
The tiebreaker difference is a matter of 8 draft slots, and theoretically the difference between grabbing a player with a first-round grade and a second; most drafts contain 18-20 prospects who are graded as first-round talents even though there are 32 picks in the round.
To make matters more interesting, there are four teams with five wins sitting right atop the Eagles’ current spot. It’s not out of the question if one of the two NFC East teams loses out, they then jump those clubs and could move all the way up to 8th or 9th in the 2020 NFL draft order.
The New Orleans Saints have room to improve after getting overrun by the San Francisco 49ers, but their spot in NFL power rankings is secure
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What more is there to take away from the New Orleans Saints’ dramatic loss to the San Francisco 49ers? Drew Brees clearly still has the ability to drop 40-plus points on an opponent at any given time, which is reassuring after the Saints struggled to do that for much of the 2019 season. The performance he put on last Sunday was vintage, recalling the kind of tape he put up often earlier in his Saints career.
Distressingly, the Saints defense regressed hard, and they too chose to play like it was 2014 or 2015 again. They weren’t competitive when the 49ers called deep shots downfield and were too often fooled by misdirection before the snap, causing defenders to move too-late into their run fits. The only silver lining to that problem is it validates a statement many fans probably believed going into the game: that 49ers play-designer Kyle Shanahan is better at his job than Saints defensive shot-caller Dennis Allen. Some success is to be expected.
So observers around the league weren’t exactly shocked when the Saints defense got carved up and served on a silver platter. According to the latest NFL power rankings from Doug Farrar over at Touchdown Wire, the throws and execution Brees showed throughout the afternoon are worth more than the defense’s breakdowns, though obviously it’s something they must improve. Farrar hasn’t budged from his stance as calling the Saints one of the best teams in the NFL, ranked third behind the 49ers and Baltimore Ravens:
Sunday’s game between the 49ers and Saints marked just the third time since 1950 that both quarterbacks in a game had the same number of passing yards. It just so happened that Jimmy Garoppolo’s yardage on San Francisco’s final drive meant a bit more than Drew Brees’ did. With less than a minute left, Brees hit receiver Tre’Quan Smith on an 18-yard touchdown pass — his fifth touchdown pass of the game — and the Saints looked to have a 46-45 win, as long as New Orleans’ defense could hold Garoppolo to his own side of the field.
That didn’t happen, as Garoppolo hit tight end George Kittle on a 39-yard play on fourth-and-2 from the San Francisco 33-yard line. Add in safety Marcus Williams’ 15-yard facemask penalty, and that’s all it took to position Robbie Gould for the winning 30-yard field goal.
The Saints went from the first seed in the NFC to the third with the loss, and they have tough games against the Colts, Titans and Panthers to end the season. Job No. 1 for New Orleans’ coaching staff will be to tinker with a pass defense that fell apart multiple times in this game.
It’s tough to argue with that assessment. More than a few emotional Saints fans want players like Williams cut immediately, but that’s a ridiculous pipe dream. He’s the only player on New Orleans’ roster with multiple interceptions this year (he’s bagged four, and lost a few others to unrelated penalties) and is still coming into his own after celebrating his 23rd birthday in September. Williams’ trajectory as a pro is trending up despite ugly instances like his facemask penalty on Kittle (which likely prevented a touchdown) or his past mistakes as a rookie (which we don’t need to dwell on). Odds are a good that he’ll continue to improve with more NFL experience; now it’s up to fans to support him in the low moments just like they praise him in high times.
The Seattle Seahawks could see a number of players return from injuries in time to face the Carolina Panthers Week 15.
The Seattle Seahawks are a bit dinged up heading into Week 15 although a number of players could return to action. Coach Pete Carroll provided a number of injury updates during his Monday afternoon press conference.
Wide receiver Tyler Lockett (leg, illness): Lockett has been battling the illness circling the Seahawks locker room but should be on the mend. “He’s fighting through it,” Carroll told reporters. “You can tell he’s carrying it. He’s out of that now. It’s a real positive for us. I’m glad for him.”
Linebacker K.J. Wright (finger): Wright only missed a few snaps Sunday night after he dislocated his finger.
Linebacker Cody Barton: Carroll couldn’t be certain yet whether or not Barton is battling a knee or ankle injury. “I don’t know that, I don’t know if it’s one or the other,” Carroll explained. “Generally, it would be your knee because it’s a more difficult injury, but I don’t know. He was okay and he went back int here. He’s very tough and very demanding of himself. He just overcame it. We’ll find out. I don’t know.”
Defensive end Jadeveon Clowney (core): “He’s hurting – he’s going to have to work his way through the week to make it for game day,” Carroll cautioned. “He’s playing really tough under the circumstances. He’s got some core issues that he’s working with, but he’s making it through. He’s toughing it out, doing rehab and all that stuff.”
Defensive end Ziggy Ansah (neck): Ansah was inactive Week 14 but Carroll expects him to practice ahead of the Panthers. “Yeah, I do because he practiced last week,” Carroll said. “He certainly should, it’s just whether his strength can be mustered here by the end of the week and get back at it. We’ll look forward to that.”
Seattle and Carolina are set to kick off Sunday at 10:00 a.m. PT.
“With the 49ers outlasting the Saints earlier in the day, all the Seahawks had to do was to beat the Rams on Sunday night to seize the top spot in the NFC playoff race,” writes Doug Farrar. “Seattle had beaten the Vikings six days earlier in a game where the Seahawks offense beat the daylights out of Minnesota on the ground and through the air. In addition, Seattle’s defense had been one of the NFL’s best in the second half of the season.”
New on @TheNFLWire: Power Rankings! With 20 teams left in playoff contention (an all-time low over the last decade after Week 14), it's time for the contenders to separate themselves. How the Ravens, 49ers, Rams, Steelers, and Titans are doing just that. https://t.co/totEP1XPYO
“With that much buildup, you probably know what happened next,” Farrar continued. “The Seahawks went to Los Angeles and got housed by the Rams in every way possible in a 28-12 loss. Jared Goff was barely pressured and completed 22 of 31 passes for 293 yards and two touchdowns – though he did also throw two interceptions to safety Quandre Diggs, who was by far the most effective member of Seattle’s defense on the evening.”
The Seahawks still have three regular-season games left on the books, with two against division rivals. Seattle heads to Carolina on Sunday to face the Panthers in the team’s final early kickoff of the year.
Waiver wire targets for the fantasy football playoffs.
It’s Week 15 and that means you’re either in the thick of the playoffs, just started the playoffs or trying not to come in last place. For the lucky postseason contenders, congratulations! In a year of injuries and roller coaster superstars, it has not been easy to develop a consistent roster week to week.
As any fantasy football veteran knows though the tinkering does not end at the end of the regular season. Adding and dropping players continues right up until the championship game and if you aren’t on top of things, it might just cost you a trophy and maybe a good amount of cash.
Some players are just late bloomers and while that might not be the best for fantasy football, its spots like these that you need a guy who is on a hot streak.
With the season winding down, here are six players to add to really put your team over the top:
(Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports)
WR A.J. Brown: 31.3% rostered (ESPN)
The Titans have been a new team in the second half of the season winning six of their last seven games. A large part of their success has been the impressive quarterback play of Ryan Tannehill, but Brown has been the leading receiver on this roster.
Last week against Oakland, the rookie receiver totaled five catches for 153 yards and two touchdowns. The combination of Brown and Corey Davis has really helped this Titans team, although Brown is separating himself in terms of production.
Brown will not be available for long after his big week so make sure if he is available in your league you claim him while you can.
