Winners, losers and some bad beats from NFL Week 10
Nick Chubb was selfless, Kyler Murray was ridiculous, and Chase Young was foolish. Highs and lows from Week 10, plus a peek at the point spreads for Week 11.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/FKTEFT72PJA77CYG7KTSQTUN6Q.jpg)
Heaven help those who bet the Browns and/or had Nick Chubb on their fantasy football team this weekend.
Chubb busted off a 59-yard run at the end of Cleveland’s 10-7 win over Houston, but voluntarily stepped out at the 1-yard line in a move that killed those who had the Browns laying 4.5 points.
The Browns took a couple of knees to bleed out the clock, and a lot of the bookies celebrated.
“[It was a] smart play, but painful for a lot of [bettors] and very fortunate for others,” said Nick Bogdanovich, director of trading for William Hill-US.
PointsBet had 72% of the handle on that game on the Browns. At WHUS, it was 89% of money on Cleveland.
It’s always a welcomed site when players put the team first. Just don’t bring it up to any of those folks who bet on Cleveland.
Another bad beat
Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray hit DeAndre Hopkins with a 43-yard Hail Murray that helped the Cardinals beat Buffalo, 32-30. But here’s where the nausea kicks in.
Rather than risk catastrophe on the point-after with two seconds left, the Cardinals simply took a knee. They won the game, but did not cover the 2.5-point spread. There were some 1.5-point lines out there, so it wasn’t as egregious as the Cleveland-Houston result.
Winners & losers
Saints quarterback Drew Brees was knocked out in the second quarter of New Orleans' win over the 49ers. He was sacked by Kentavius Street, who partially landed on Brees and was unfairly flagged for a body-weight penalty. Jameis Winston replaced Brees and went 6-for-10 for 63 yards in the second half. The Saints will visit the Eagles in Week 14 (Dec. 13).
New Orleans star wide receiver Michael Thomas had just two catches on seven targets for 27 yards. Losing Brees is the last thing he needs.
Buccaneers running back Ronald Jones reeled off the longest offensive play in team history with a 98-yard touchdown run as Tampa Bay washed away Week 9′s 38-3 disaster to New Orleans by thumping Carolina.
Rough trip for the Buccaneers, who spent five hours on the tarmac because their charter had mechanical problems. They didn’t get to Charlotte until just before midnight Saturday.
Nice piece of comedy from the Washington Football Team. It was the only team in the league that hadn’t scored on its opening possession, a rather dubious distinction. It drove all the way to Detroit’s 14-yard line Sunday, but then J.D. McKissic lost 10 yards on second down, Alex Smith lost 14 more on a sack, and Tress Way was brought in to punt.
The Packers, who had scored on their opening drive in all eight of their games, went 3-and-out against Jacksonville.
Miami’s next three opponents — Denver (3-6), N.Y. Jets (0-9), and Cincinnati (2-6-1) — are 5-21-1 combined. As a comparison, the Eagles next three — Cleveland (6-3), Seattle (6-3), and Green Bay (7-2) — are 19-8.
Duke Johnson makes his case for Kyle Brandt’s entertaining “Angry Runs” segment. on the NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.”
Four Bengals assistant coaches had to miss the game against the Steelers because of COVID-19 protocol, including linebackers coach Al Golden, the former Temple head coach.
It was the 100th regular-season meeting between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, which Pittsburgh leads by 65-35 after rolling to a 36-10 victory. The Eagles are 3-9-2 all-time against the Bengals, which means the Steelers have played Cincinnati 100 times (102 counting postseason) and have never tied them. The Eagles have played them 14 times and tied them twice.
Eight of the 11 games Sunday afternoon were televised by Fox, so they brought in recently retired cornerback Aqib Talib to do color commentary for the Washington-Detroit contest. He wasn’t too bad in the snippets we heard, considering it was his debut. The lead announcer was Brandon Gaudin, the voice of the Madden NFL video games.
Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth was carted off the field after having his knee rolled on. He has not missed a game because of injury since 2013.
Kickers were 11-for-11 on field goals of 50 yards or longer on Sunday afternoon. Buffalo’s Tyler Bass had three 50-plus-yarders in the first half (54, 55, 58), Detroit’s Matt Prater hit a 59-yarder (see below), and Seattle’s Jason Myers connected from 61. Leaguewide, kickers made 42 of 45 field-goal attempts (93.3%).
Road teams went 1-11 on Sunday. Favorites were 6-5-1 against the spread.
If the playoffs started today ...
Heading into Monday night’s Vikings-Bears game.
NFC
1-Packers (bye)
2-Saints vs. 7-Seahawks
3-Cardinals vs. 6-Rams
4-Eagles vs. 5-Buccaneers
AFC
1-Pittsburgh (bye)
2-Chiefs vs. 7-Ravens
3-Bills vs. 6-Dolphins
4-Colts vs. 5-Raiders
Admission of the week
Chase Young is going to be a problem for NFL offenses for the next decade, but he killed his own team with a mental lapse that led to another Washington loss.
Game was tied with 12 seconds left and the Lions were on their own 35 when Young committed a silly roughing-the-passer penalty with a shove in the back of Matthew Stafford. It wasn’t violent, but it was unquestionably late.
“Rookie mistake,” a glum Young said afterward.
The Lions used the 15-yard penalty and a subsequent 9-yard completion to set up Prater’s 59-yard field goal at the buzzer.
Yeah, 59 yards.
The loss also robbed Alex Smith of a heroic return. Smith, Washington’s quarterback, made his first start in almost two years and rallied the Dan Snyders from a 24-3 deficit with 390 passing yards and to a field goal with 16 seconds remaining that looked as it was going to force overtime.
“Great penalty,” a Washington fan under the moniker @BruciferAllen tweeted. “Ensures a competitive loss and a higher draft pick. Win/win when it comes to this team.”
Nice.
Quotable
“Josh Allen would be a good tight end. If we got him in the weight room a little bit more in the offseason. If we bulked him up another 25 pounds, he’d be a really good tight end. He’s got some toughness at the quarterback position.”
— CBS analyst Rich Gannon reacting to the highlight of the Buffalo quarterback’s nifty touchdown catch
***
“There are not a lot of fantasy football owners who have DK Metcalf that are happy with Jalen Ramsey here today.”
— Fox announcer Joe Buck referring to the Seahawks star wide receiver being held in check (2 catches, 28 yards) by L.A.'s Ramsey
***
“I told him after the game that I look forward to these matchups for years and years to come. It’s big on big, good on good.”
— Jalen Ramsey after the Rams' win
***
“I knew when it left my hand it had a chance. You play quarterback, you can tell the trajectory, the touch of the ball.”
— Kyler Murray on his miraculous, game-winning touchdown pass
***
“You’re not gonna win every game, but to lose this one the way we did — it hurts.”
— Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, whose team was beaten by Murray’s last-second heave