NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Browns have had 3 possessions and have score 3 times.

 

Up 14-0 over the Bengals last score I saw

 

21-0 now... Mayfield and company really look sharp, but it is the Bengals defense, lol.

 

Completely different looking offense with Kitchens doing the cooking.

He has consistently kept Baker in his comfort zone with high percentage plays and it has shown up on the stat sheet and the scoreboard.

Dorsey should already be signing Fred to an extension.

 

Also, the ties to Bruce Arians and the former head coaches comments about returning if the Browns job opens up is something to definitely monitor.

 

I heard that earlier today. Arians said the only team he'd coach would be the Browns... that's if I remember correctly.

 

35-7, Browns... I think the road losing streak is over.

 

Bills and JAX throwing punches.

 

Browns handle the Bengals, 35-20...

Hue Jackson couldn’t figure out what to do with Baker Mayfield when he was the Browns head coach.

The same was true when Jackson was working as an assistant coach for the Bengals defense Sunday.


The rookie quarterback was sharp again, as the Browns stuck it to their former coach and his new team in a 35-20 win.

Mayfield led the Browns to touchdowns on five of their first six possessions (the other one was stopped by the clock at halftime), as they won their second straight game to improve to 4-6-1.

He was 19-of-26 for 258 yards and four touchdowns on the day, making plays as needed early. But the Browns seemed to have an edge early. Safety Damarious Randall, who said last week they’d stick it to the Bengals if A.J. Green didn’t play, got his revenge on his old coach early. He picked off Andy Dalton in the first half and flipped the ball to Jackson, giving him a friendly souvenir.

Dalton didn’t finish the game, as he left with a thumb injury in the second half. He was replaced by Jeff Driskel, who led a brief rally, but it was never close enough to matter (and included a missed extra point after a touchdown which cut it to a two-score game).

The Browns finished with 342 yards meaning the Bengals (5-6) are just ahead of pace to be the worst defense in league history.

They’ve now allowed 4,836 yards in 11 games, (439.636 yards per game), which means they could still challenge the record set by the Saints in 2012 (7,042 yards, 440.125 per game). (PFT)

 

Luck just hit Ebron… Lucks 30th TD which is fantastic, Ebron's 10th, wow.

 

Patriots return from bye with 27-13 win over the Jets...

It was a sloppy first half for the Patriots and the game remained tight into the fourth quarter, but the Jets never put any points on the board in the final 15 minutes and the Patriots will head home with a 27-13 win.

The closer was a long run by James White after the Patriots forced a turnover on downs inside their 5-yard-line with under two minutes to play. A comeback seemed like a long shot before that point, but it became an impossibility when White went for the last 24 yards of the 73 yards he picked up on the day.


That’s a great number for White, but it wasn’t enough to lead the Patriots in rushing. Sony Michel ran 21 times for 133 yards and a touchdown despite leaving for spell in the second half with a back injury. The Patriots picked up 216 rushing yards overall to provide ideal balance for Tom Brady‘s 283 passing yards and two touchdowns.

Those yards helped Brady become the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards when including regular season and postseason games. Peyton Manning had been No. 1 before Sunday.

Bill Belichick will surely be sore about 11 penalties that cost his team 105 yards, but the game was otherwise a good rebound for the Patriots after their Week 10 loss to the Titans. The bye week in between the two games gave tight end Rob Gronkowski time to heal up and he caught his first touchdown since Week One. Brady also found Chris Hogan for the first time in a few weeks and eight players caught passes as the team opened up a passing offense that had been focused heavily on White, Julian Edelman and Josh Gordon in recent weeks.

New England will host the Vikings next week and then they’ll visit Miami before heading to Pittsburgh for a game that figures to have a lot to say about playoff seeding in the AFC. The Jets won’t be playing in any games like that this year as their losing streak hit five with little reason to think things will get appreciably better this season. (PFT)

 

Jameis Winston plays his best game of the season as Bucs beat 49ers...

It took until Week 12, but the Buccaneers finally got a good game from quarterback Jameis Winston.

Winston, who started the season suspended, lost his starting job, got his starting job back, lost it again and then got it back again, played his best game of the season today in a big win over the 49ers.


After being a turnover machine all season, Winston was careful with the football, finishing the game with no interceptions and no fumbles while totaling 312 passing yards.

The other quarterback, San Francisco’s Nick Mullens, couldn’t get the job done. Although Mullens showed a lot of promise in his first two starts, today he struggled mightily, with two interceptions. Mullens has proven himself good enough to be worthy of a roster spot — and probably good enough to keep starting ahead of C.J. Beathard — but he has a ways to go in his development as a quarterback.

Winston has a ways to go, too, and he’s still not where the Buccaneers want him to be. But today’s game may instill some hope in Tampa. (PFT)

 

Eagles rally to save their season another week...

The Eagles were dead. Finished. Done. Over and out.

They looked nothing like the defending Super Bowl champions most of the first half. But the Eagles not only didn’t quit, they rallied.

Philadelphia somehow, some way pulled out a 25-22 victory over the Giants that has saved the Eagles’ playoff hopes for another week. It ended a two-game losing streak and pulled the Eagles (5-6) to within a game of Dallas and Washington.

The Eagles play Washington and Dallas in the next two weeks and have another game against Washington to close out the season, so they remain in the thick of the NFC East race.

Jake Elliott hit a 43-yard field goal with 22 seconds remaining to give the Eagles the come-from-behind win.

It was a crushing defeat for the Giants, who entered having won two in a row.

The Giants led 19-3 and were doing whatever they wanted against the Eagles injury-depleted defense for most of the first half. They had 346 yards in the first half, though Eli Manning left points on the field.

He missed a wide-open receiver on a two-point try, and he threw an interception trying to force the ball into Odell Beckham at the end of the first half.

The Giants finished with 402 yards, getting only 56 in the second half. Saquon Barkley had 131 yards from scrimmage on 15 touches in the first half. He finished with 142 yards on 20 touches.

Josh Adams ran for 84 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, and Carson Wentz completed 20 of 28 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown. Zach Ertz caught seven passes for 91 yards and a touchdown.

Manning went 26-of-37 for 297 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Beckham made five catches for 85 yards. (PFT)

 

Ravens score in all three phases for 34-17 win...

The Ravens threw 18 passes in the first half, took a sack and ran it only 10 times against a defense ranked 31st against the run. They ran over the Raiders in the second half.

Baltimore threw only seven passes in the second half, while running 33 times for 176 yards. It added up to a 34-17 victory for the Ravens.


It was a second consecutive victory for Baltimore with Lamar Jackson as the starter, keeping the Ravens’ playoff hopes alive with quieting calls for John Harbaugh’s job for at least a week. The Ravens are 6-5.

The Raiders dropped to 2-9, failing to put together back-to-back wins after beating Arizona last week.

The Ravens finished with 242 rushing yards and 416 total yards.

Receiver Michael Crabtree got a touchdown against his former team, catching an 8-yard pass from Jackson, and finished with three catches for 21 yards. But Jackson and Gus Edwards beat the Raiders on the ground.

Jackson rushed for 71 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, and Edwards gained 118 yards on 23 carries.

Jackson went 14-for-25 for 178 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions.

The Ravens scored on special teams and defense, too.

Punt returner Cyrus Jones went 70 yards for a score for the team’s first touchdown.

The Ravens also scored on a strip-sack by Matt Judon, with Terrell Suggs returning Derek Carr‘s sack 43 yards for a touchdown with 5:55 remaining. It was icing on the win for the Ravens.

Judon had a sack on three consecutive plays, the first NFL player to accomplish that feat since Cullen Jenkins did it for the Packers in Week 15 of 2006.

Carr went 16-of-34 for 194 yards and a touchdown. (PFT)

 

Carr has looked off all season. Haven't watched them too much, but he definitely has not looked anything close to a franchise passer in what I've seen. His OL that bad? I know the Ravens have a very good front 7 and Carr isn't the first QB that has needed to run for his life from the Ravens, but even when he had time to throw he was inaccurate. Looking like the rumors about the Raiders cutting him in the offseason might be true

 

Jags needed Fournette badly and he got ejected. SMH.

 

Carr is also lacking weapons. He has nobody to throw to and no running game to help keep a defense honest.

 

Report: Melvin Gordon has injury to MCL...

The initial diagnosis on Melvin Gordon‘s knee is an injury to his medial collateral ligament, Eric Williams of ESPN reports. The Chargers running back will undergo further medical evaluation Monday.

Williams added the team believes it is a “real possibility” Gordon misses next week’s game against the Steelers.


Gordon was injured in the third quarter on a trick play, but he was a game-time decision before Sunday’s game with hamstring and knee issues.

Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said after the game that Gordon’s knee is “swollen.”

“Hopefully what happened isn’t serious,” Lynn said, via Ryan Kartje of the Orange County Register. “I don’t know the extent of the injury right now. But if he has to miss some time — he’s a starting running back in this league. To have him for 14, 15 games is pretty good.”

Gordon has missed only one game this season. The Chargers made him inactive for the Titans game with a hamstring injury.

He has gained 802 yards and scored nine touchdowns on 153 attempts this season after rushing for 61 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries Sunday. (PFT)

 

Colts come back in fourth, extend winning streak to five...

The Colts were down 10 points in the fourth quarter on Sunday, but it turns out that they had the Dolphins right where they wanted them.

Indianapolis scored the final 13 points of the game, including Adam Vinatieri‘s game-winning field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter. The 27-24 win is the fifth in a row for the Colts and it gives them a boost in their quest for a playoff spot.

The 13 points came over the final 8:26 of the game and the Dolphins did nothing to stop the surge when they had the ball. Miami went three-and-out twice with Ryan Tannehill throwing two incompletions on the first drive and three running plays picking up four yards on the second one.

That wasn’t out of character for a Dolphins team that struggled to consistently move the chains, but head coach Adam Gase will certainly be asked about his choice to run on two third-and-10s that failed to produce anything that helped drain the clock.

On defense, the Dolphins will lament a key third down on the final drive. Andrew Luck evaded a pair of pass rushers to deliver a perfect pass to a wide open Chester Rogers for a 34-yard gain that put them in field goal position. Luck threw three touchdown passes and now has eight straight games with at least that many scoring throws, although he did see a five-game sackless streak come to an end.

The Colts lost Marlon Mack to a concussion in the second half, but he was effective before being injured and Nyheim Hines made some plays after Mack left the game. Tight end Eric Ebron caught two of Luck’s touchdowns and he’s now up to 11 on the year after having 11 in his first four seasons with the Lions.

Ryan Tannehill returned to the Dolphins lineup for the first time since Week Five and completed 17-of-25 passes for 204 yards. He was impressive to open the game, but threw for just 28 yards after halftime as the Dolphins leaned on the run in the third quarter.

The Dolphins will try to recover at home against the Bills, but the loss is a big blow to their playoff aspirations. The Colts will head to Jacksonville to face the reeling Jaguars with a chance to move to 7-5 ahead of a Week 14 trip to Houston. (PFT)