Week 11 Walkthrough: Restacking the Balance of Power.
The Broncos won their biggest game since Super Bowl 50. Sam Darnold did Sam Darnold things. The Eagles survived a nail-biter. And Shedeur Sanders made his hilarious debut.
Week 11 featured two likely NFC playoff previews, one game to decide the fate of the AFC West, an AFC Wild Card tiebreaker showdown that was also a rematch of one of the zaniest playoff games of the 2020s, a cross-conference duel between two perennial playoff teams at the crossroads, the return of Brock Purdy, the debut of Mike Kafka, and Caleb vs. McCarthy II: Dawn of Wishcasting.
Also, just for giggles: Shedeur freakin’ Sanders saw the first real action of his career.
With so much going on, this Walkthrough will cover Sunday’s action in a power ranking format. That will ensure that we lead with plenty of Eagles/Lions, Rams/Seahawks, Broncos/Chiefs and Bills/Buccaneers goodness/analysis/hand-wringing.
The power ranking format will also allow us to touch on some Week 10 developments we didn’t get to cover last week.
Let’s ride.
1. Philadelphia Eagles (8-2)
The Eagles offense looked anti-coordinated, like 11 guys who had been given 11 different sets of instructions. But their defense dominated a top-tier opponent. The Eagles survived a weird late-game coaching decision to defeat another NFC powerhouse.
Wait, am I describing last Monday night’s 10-7 victory over the Packers or Sunday night’s 16-9 victory over the Lions?
The Eagles defense relentlessly pressured Jared Goff on Sunday night, holding him to 15-of-37 passing. Jordan Davis batted three passes at the line. Amon-Ra St. Brown caught just two of 12 targets. The Lions, without Sam LaPorta and with their top offensive linemen gutting through injuries, went 0-of-5 on fourth-down conversions.
As for the Eagles offense: it couldn’t even Tush Push properly.
Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby and Jalen Hurts thumped out 148 rushing yards, while Hurts did what he could to placate A.J. Brown (7 catches on 11 force-fed targets for 49 yards).
A failed Tush Push late in the fourth quarter allowed the Lions to kick a field goal which cut the Eagles lead to seven. An extremely ticky-tack pass interference penalty on Rock Ya-Sin, in coverage against Brown, gave the Eagles the critical third-down conversion they needed to kill the clock in the final minutes.
The Eagles don’t feel, look or smell like the NFL’s best team right now. But they just beat one of the toughest teams in the NFC, on short rest after beating a 6-3-1 team. They defeated the Rams head-to-head earlier in the year, making it hard to rank the Rams first. They beat the Chiefs, for whatever that’s worth. They’re the defending champions, having won their share of ugly games in 2024.
Sure, the vibes are toxic. But if we’re ranking teams on vibes, we could just hand the Patriots the Lombardi Trophy and call it a day.
The Eagles are flawed and vulnerable. Their offense needs an intervention. Nick Sirianni needs to stop consulting Brandon Staley’s Guide to Foolhardy Risk Management late in fourth quarters. Yet they keep winning. So the Eagles are the NFL’s best team until proven otherwise.
2. Los Angeles Rams (8-2)
The Rams did not play all that well in Sunday’s 21-19 win over the Seahawks.
The Rams passing game was flat. Matthew Stafford’s protection was shaky. The Seahawks marched straight into to the red zone over and over again. The Rams kept giving the ball back while nursing two-point leads throughout the second half.
Fortunately, the Rams defense forced four Sam Darnold interceptions. Two of them, both by Kamren Kinchens, set up short touchdown drives. The Rams defense also forced the Seahawks to keep settling for field goals. And Sean McVay’s heavy-personnel tactics allowed the Rams to hammer out 119 rushing yards and a wisp of play-action passing to Puka Nacua and the tight ends: just enough offense to keep the Seahawks at arm’s reach.
So no, it wasn’t pretty. But the Rams beat their last four opponents by a combined score of 128-46, so they have some style points banked away. They would be 9-1 if not for a blocked field goal at the end of the Eagles game and might be undefeated if not for another set of kicking misadventures against the 49ers.
The Rams are good enough to beat an incredibly tough divisional foe without playing particularly well. That’s pretty damn good. (And the same assessment applies to the team ahead of them.)
3. Denver Broncos (9-2)
The Broncos just keep winning.
They neutralized Patrick Mahomes’ big-game alchemy. They bounced back from another of their own extended midgame offensive brownouts. They overcame 87 yards of Riley Moss pass interference penalties, 147 total penalty yards and that sinking feeling that every borderline call (including a nullified Mahomes interception early in the third quarter, as well as a long return by Ja’Quan McMillian on an interception a few plays later) was going to go the Chiefs’ way.
Finally, the Broncos overcame the bad late-game field goal/penalty juju from last year’s Week 10 loss to the Chiefs. Wil Lutz drilled a 35-yarder, made possible by a cucumber-cool Bo Nix drive, for a 19-16 victory in what was a must-win game for their championship-tested opponent.
The Broncos defense was as stout as ever, despite Mahomes’ sorcery and Moss’ freebies. Their offense was boring as ever, but Nix threw for 295 yards with minimal help from his running game (J.K. Dobbins is now on IR), and game-winning fourth-quarter drives have just become a day at the office for him. The special teams pitched in with some long Marvin Mims punt returns and three punts inside the 20 by rookie Jeremy Crawshaw.
The Broncos now have a two-game lead in the AFC West. They’ve beaten the Eagles and Texans, as well as the Chiefs. They would be 9-1 if not for the penalty chaos at the end of their loss to the Colts. They are not as good as the Bills and Ravens at their best, but they are less likely than those perennial contenders to activate the self-destruct sequence on any given Sunday.
The Broncos face the Commanders and Raiders after their bye. They will likely be 11-2 by mid-December. Nothing they do is pretty. It’s hard to imagine them running a playoff gauntlet against the traditional AFC powerhouses. But I am done arguing with results when it comes to the Broncos.
4. Buffalo Bills (7-3)
Both the Bruce Banner Bills (the nitwits who lose to the Falcons and Dolphins) and the Incredible Hulk Bills (who could beat the 2007 Patriots) made appearances in Sunday’s closer-than-the-score 44-32 win over the Bucs.
Josh Allen made some plays few quarterbacks in NFL history could make, but also threw a pair of synapse-misfire interceptions and a few moonballs to no one.
Mecole Hardman climbed off the practice squad to join Ray Davis in carving up the Buccaneers kick coverage units, but Hardman also kept the Bucs in the game with a muffed punt.
The Bills defense allowed 202 rushing yards to Sean Tucker and others but delivered a key interception and a pair of red-zone stops while forcing Baker Mayfield to scramble for his life all afternoon.
Ultimately, the Bills prevailed on Allen drive-and-dish highlights, Allen goal-line touchdowns and Todd Bowles’ decision to play it far too safe with a fourth-quarter punt on fourth-and-2.
The Incredible Hulk Bills are the NFL’s best team. The Bruce Banner Bills could reemerge at any time. You may consider this ranking too high or too low. But keep in mind that the Bills generally play up to their toughest competition.
In other words: the madder they get, the stronger they get.
5. Detroit Lions (6-4)
Tackles Penei Sewell (ankle) and Taylor Decker (shoulder) were playing at about 60% of their usual performance level against the Eagles on Sunday night, and the guys in between them are nothing special. As a result, the Lions offense looked a little like the Chargers offense: a few splash plays, lots of desperate throwaways.
The Lions are now a half-game behind the Packers, whom they face again in two weeks, and a full game behind the Bears. The Bears will tail off against a tough schedule down the stretch. But a sweep at the hands of the Packers could force the Lions into the Wild Card pool. They need to be very careful, because it’s weird down there. Panthers weird.
6. Seattle Seahawks (7-3)
Sometimes, NFL analysis is tricky. It can be easier, however, if the analyst keeps important axioms in mind, like this one: