More from Albert Breer: Jaguars Taking on the Personality of Their Coach | How Matt LaFleur’s Packers Set the Tone in a Thanksgiving Win
Week 12 wasn’t exactly a banner Sunday of football—outside of the epic Eagles-Bills game. But there are still story lines to get to. Here are a few, in this week’s takeaways.
The Broncos’ defense is a key part of that team’s rebound. When people start paying attention to what Denver is doing, I’m sure a lot of it will focus on Sean Payton’s hard-driven turnaround plan. Or how Russell Wilson has been reborn within it as a game-managing, chain-moving, point guard of a quarterback. But leave Denver’s defense out of the equation, and you’ll miss the story entirely.
You may remember that unit as the one shredded by the Dolphins for 70 points and 726 yards on Sept. 24—the Miami offense wasn’t even in third down until its third touchdown drive of that game. You’d also recall that the next week Justin Fields was nearly perfect in the first half, and the Bears, of all teams, wound up with nearly 500 yards of offense on the Denver defense at Soldier Field. And, as it turns out, that’s where the Broncos’ embattled defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, once fired as Denver’s head coach, drew the line.
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“After that Chicago game, VJ sat us down in the defensive meeting room and showed us a lot of our bad clips to let us know what we need to be more detailed on and what we need to communicate better—but immediately followed with a lot of good clips and when we do things the right way, good things happen,” three-time All-Pro safety Justin Simmons told me postgame. “We just got to do our job and do it at a high level. For us, seeing that and knowing that we’re going to stick together and hearing VJ saying he’s not giving up on us, I think that was the light bulb for us, at least defensively, knowing that we can be a good team.
“We know we got the guys in the room. We knew we just had to buy in, all 11 of us, do our jobs, communicate at a high level and execute it at a high level, and we’ll be able to win some football games. That was big for us.”
Really, what Joseph, Simmons and the rest of the players and defensive coaches found was that communication had to get better, as did a certain aspect of their discipline. More or less, what the tape showed was a lot of busts happening as one defender fouled up his assignment, while others would rush to the scene of the crime to make up for it. So it was, as the coaches explained, much more correctable than it looked to the layman.
And the players would listen to Joseph in large part because Simmons, a captain, and Josey Jewell, the team’s star linebacker, played for the defensive coordinator while he was Denver’s head coach, a half decade ago. Which really helped, since not every player is automatically going to listen to a new coordinator—but would pay attention if a veteran could vouch for the coach in question.
“VJ’s always been up front and honest,” Simmons continues. “He cares about us. He talks to us. He lets us know what he’s thinking. He calls it exactly how he sees it. You fight for guys like that. I think from a defensive standpoint, we knew in the room that we just weren’t playing up to a level of our standard. It’s clear as day. We never really listened to the outside noise to begin with. We just needed to find a way to respond for him.”
Did they ever.
The team’s yards allowed went down in each of the five weeks following the Miami debacle (471 vs. the Bears, 407 vs. the Jets, 389 vs. the Chiefs, 331 vs. the Packers, 274 vs. the Chiefs), and points allowed dropped four straight weeks, from the Jets game (31) to games against the Chiefs (19), the Packers (17), then the mighty Chiefs again (9). And the numbers have stabilized since, with Denver holding the Browns under 300 yards in Sunday’s 29–12 win.
That’s allowed the Broncos to win a different way than fans of theirs or Wilson’s may be used to—with the quarterback’s needing just 134 passing yards to win by 17 against a solid (albeit QB-deficient) Browns team. It’s also, of course, much different than most people would’ve thought Payton would try to win in his second shot at being a head coach.
But there aren’t any pictures on the scoreboard, nor do they post those in the standings.
“Sean’s definitely come in and helped establish a formula,” Simmons says. “A lot of times in this league, it’s not about necessarily winning games, it’s finding ways not to lose them. Sometimes you make boneheaded penalties, you make boneheaded mistakes, Day 1 stuff. Speaking from a defensive standpoint, all of a sudden, they pop a 25-yard pass. It’s just things like that. When you’re able to hone in on the details and execute, you’ll find yourself in a lot of games. And you’ll find yourself winning a lot of those games.”
And the Broncos are starting to stack such wins by following that simple formula—faster than most, myself included, would’ve expected.
Now, the trick will be sustaining it.
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To me, there were three really impressive things about the Eagles in that win over the Bills: their depth on the lines of scrimmage, how complete the roster is and the composure of their young quarterback.
• Remember, we’re in a period of pro football when very few teams lack trouble spots on their offensive lines, and almost no one has depth to spare at those positions. Yet, somehow, the Eagles don’t have much to worry about on the offensive line and showed Sunday that they have options in reserve, as problems crop up.
Case in point, right tackle Lane Johnson’s troublesome groin acted up on him over the weekend, so he got an MRI on Sunday, before the team shelved him for the Bills game. That left fourth-year man Jack Driscoll to take his place, and the line barely missed a beat—Jalen Hurts was sacked twice but, for the most part, had plenty of room to run and time to operate, and as a team the Eagles rolled to 185 yards on the ground. That, again, was absent a potential Hall of Fame right tackle.
That type of depth exists on defense, too. The Eagles had their top three edge guys—Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham—on the field together for the Bills’ offense’s final snap, on which quarterback Josh Allen was rushed to throw and as a result couldn't quite get enough juice on the ball to get it to Gabe Davis, running open on a corner route in the end zone. So instead of what would’ve been a game-winning touchdown, the Bills settled for a field goal, which extended a game that had already been extended by one particular Eagle …
• How complete are the Eagles? Well you know about their lines, their star-studded receiver room, their experienced group of corners and all. And, then, you have that particular Eagle referenced above, their kicker.
Jake Elliott is in his seventh year with the team, and never was he more valuable than around 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday night. More than just that, Philly had every right to be confident he would be. Elliott entered Sunday’s game, according to ESPN, a perfect 7-for-7 on game-tying or go-ahead field goals in the final two minutes of regulation or overtime. So as Nick Sirianni measured a decision, after Jordan Poyer batted away a Hurts throw to A.J. Brown on a crosser to put the Eagles into fourth-and-17 from the Bills’ 41 with 25 seconds left, that was part of the equation.
It was wet. It was sloppy. It was windy. The field goal would be a 59-yarder, two shy of Elliott’s career long. And despite the risk of a bad snap or a block, or a million other things that could go wrong in the elements, the Eagles’ coach assuredly sent his kicker out there, and his kicker laced a line drive low and right through the uprights to force overtime. Which showed, again, how the coaches have studs to lean on in just about every situation.
• And then, once there, and after the missed connection between Allen and Davis, Hurts showed how the team’s calm, cool demeanor that’s allowed it to come back from halftime deficits in four straight games is a product of its leader’s steady approach to the biggest moments.
You can go down the list. There was the 15-yard dart to DeVonta Smith to cut the Bills’ lead to 24–21 in the fourth quarter. There was the 29-yard bomb Olamide Zaccheaus in the back corner of the end zone on third-and-15 moments later, to cash in on James Bradberry’s pick and give Philly its first lead. There were the throws that methodically moved the Eagles into the fringes of Elliott’s range at the end of regulation. There were three completions on Philly’s only possession of overtime that covered 32 yards, or the runs of eight and 12 yards, respectively, that bookended that drive, the final one on which he walked into the end zone for the game-winning points.
Faced with a Josh Allen who seemed to be slipping a cape on for most of the biggest moments of Sunday’s showdown, Hurts countered by going blow-for-blow with Goliath, and he was the one standing in the end. And, amazingly enough, that makes the Eagles 32–8 since starting the 2021 season, Hurts’s first year as starter, at 3–6. Which is pretty wild, when you consider where the Eagles were coming out of the Doug Pederson era, and where Hurts was, too.
So where does all of that leave Philly? To me, as the cofavorite in the NFC heading into December. And lucky us, the Eagles will play the other cofavorite at home next Sunday, with the Niners set to roll into Philly for a rematch of the NFC title game. Can’t wait for that one.
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Mike Tomlin’s pretty good at this, and it looks like his team got what it needed. The Steelers, as paragons of stability, are loath to do what they did last week—when Tomlin offloaded offensive coordinator Matt Canada, promoting running backs coach Eddie Faulkner to run offensive meetings and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan to call plays in Canada’s stead. And that they did it is a good sign of how poorly the start of the season went on offense, with Pittsburgh outgained in each of its first 10 games.
Somehow, and this is a tribute to how well Pittsburgh handles game management and critical situations, the Steelers came out of that at 6–4. And that, it turns out, only heightened Tomlin’s urgency to do something to spark the group.
So the Steelers fired a coordinator in-season for the first time since World War II.
“Yeah, it was hard, obviously,” third-year tight end Pat Freiermuth said, over his cellphone, and on the way out of Cincinnati on Sunday. “You don’t want somebody to lose their job. We all felt like we played a part in that. But we had a meeting, and then talked with everyone on the staff, all the players on offense, to figure out a solution to overcome this and kind of see what Faulk and Sully liked and what they didn’t like and what they’re going to put little wrinkles in and stuff. So, it was a solid week.”
For Freiermuth personally, the change worked out well. He had nine catches for 120 yards Sunday. For the group, it did, too. The game in Cincinnati, a 16–10 win, was the first in which the Steelers went more than 400 yards in total offense since Week 2 of the 2020 season. At that point, Canada was still working as quarterbacks coach under Randy Fichtner, and Ben Roethlisberger was still on the Pittsburgh roster (he threw for 311 yards that day), which is to say it’d been a while since the Steelers had hit that milestone.
And at least part of the outburst came from that meeting, through which, Freiermuth says, the players talked about ways for the coaches to involve everyone. As a result, eight different receivers caught passes, and Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren combined for a nearly evenly split 28 carries, churning out 148 yards between them. Kenny Pickett was efficient, with a 97.8 passer rating, and this time he, and the offense around him, found a rhythm much easier than they have for most of the year.
“We moved the ball any way we wanted to, but there were some splash plays there,” the tight end says. “We just need to build on that. And I think just the communications aspect today was a lot better than it’s been. [We] just communicated on all aspects.”
The uptick in communication—another thing discussed at the meeting with Faulkner and Sullivan—gave the offense a good baseline to work from when it mattered most, on a seven-play, 52-yard drive in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, capped by a 33-yard Chris Boswell chip shot to put the game away.
Now, beating the Bengals the week after they lost Joe Burrow won’t make the Steelers’ season. But there was enough there to think maybe, just maybe, an offense that left a lot to be desired early in the season might be turning the corner. And with the defense the Steelers have, and the team at 7–4, that could change the dynamic of the race both for the AFC North title, and the conference’s spot in the Super Bowl.
The Colts are suddenly in a great spot, with a lot of great vibes, and Shane Steichen is why. Don’t believe it? You can ask a guy around whom there were a lot of bad vibes just a couple of months ago.
Jonathan Taylor will tell you now that one reason he was so excited, after all the contractual acrimony from the spring and summer, about signing his three-year extension in Indianapolis was the chance to play for the Colts’ new coach.
“I was really excited when we hired Coach Shane, just seeing how they were able to have that explosive offense in Philly—it really was just something that was special,” Taylor told me postgame. “When we hired him, you kind of start envisioning the players we have in it, like, Oh my gosh, we can run this. You just look at the plays that they ran and you look at the guys that you have and it gets your mind running.
“It’s definitely a blessing. I’m super excited because I know we have the players to go where we want to go. I’m just happy to be a little small piece of that to continue to push forward.”
Taylor and his teammates have gotten more than just Steichen’s offensive ingenuity. They’ve gotten to win, too. After Sunday’s 27–20 victory over the Buccaneers, Indy’s won three straight and pulled even with Houston in the AFC South at 6–5, two games back of Jacksonville. And that the Colts are in that mix, at least to people on the outside, would put them ahead of schedule in their new coach’s first year, after things went nuclear with that football operation in 2022.
That said, it sure looks like Steichen himself has plenty of belief that what he inherited was a lot better than people might’ve thought, and it’s showing up pretty consistently in another thing that the coach has brought with him from Philly—a gambling style that requires faith in the players carrying out the risks.
That showed up first Sunday with 12:51 left in the first half, Indy up 10–3, and in fourth-and-1 with the ball at the Colts’ 47. Rather than nurse the lead and punt the ball away, Steichen lined Gardner Minshew up in the shotgun, motioned Zack Moss to his side and called for a fake to Moss, a roll left and a throw to the flat to Michael Pittman Jr. The catch-and-run caught the Bucs completely off guard and went for 24 yards, helped to set up a two-yard scramble touchdown from Minshew six plays later to make it 17–3.
And it showed up again with 9:11 left in the game, the Colts’ lead cut to 20–17, and Indy in fourth-and-1 from the Tampa 49. Taylor lined up behind Minshew in the I formation, and the quarterback took the snap out of a heavy set, faked to Taylor and threw a pop pass over the defense to tight end Mo Alie-Cox for 30 yards. Again, Steichen’s faith was rewarded—with Taylor taking it in himself three plays to, essentially, ice the game.
“I really feel as though they’re not gambles,” Taylor says. “When you have a coach that trusts you, that trusts your guys, and you have players who execute at a high level and are laser-focused, it’s less of a gamble, and almost, Hey, this is what we’re going to do. He has that trust and that vision that, Hey, this is going to work. I know it is because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen you guys work. You just want to play for a coach like that.”
And with everything from the offseason behind him, Taylor can full-throatedly say Steichen is the kind of coach he wants to play for—for the faith he has in the tailback, the creativity he’s bringing, the program he’s building and most especially how he handled Taylor’s contract situation, even as the temperature was turned up between the fourth-year back and Steichen’s boss, Jim Irsay.
“Number one is he always stayed about ball,” Taylor says. “His main focus, his main goal is, Hey, my job is to put this team in the best position for success each and every single week. When you have a coach like that that’s going to hold people accountable saying, If you can’t give us the chance to win, then we need to make sure we correct that, that’s all you can ask for, a coach that’s that competitive, that all he wants to do is win. He definitely cares about the players in the locker room and how the chemistry is, but it’s all about winning on the field.
“We need guys that are going to win on the field.”
Taylor is one, for sure, and by the looks of it, and the team’s record, there are a few more of those guys in Indy than the rest of the AFC South bargained for.
While we’re on the AFC South—that was a big win for the Jaguars on Sunday. We’ll have a lot more Monday on what it means for Jacksonville, and the AFC race, but one thing I figured I’d pass along here is Doug Pederson’s perspective on what could be a burgeoning rivalry between Trevor Lawrence and C.J. Stroud.
The Jaguars’ quarterback was excellent Sunday in Jacksonville’s key 24–21 win in Houston, throwing for 364 yards, a touchdown and a pick. But the precocious Stroud wasn’t far off with 304 yards—and the Texans’ rookie kept swinging until the very end, driving Houston from its own 11 into position to give Matt Ammendola a 58-yard field goal try to force overtime.
The kick doinked off the crossbar. The Jags survived. Still, Pederson was impressed with the quarterback he and his team had to get past to take a two-game lead in the division.
“C.J.’s off to a great start, obviously,” Pederson told me, as he headed for the buses to go back to Florida. “You can see the athleticism, the arm strength, decision-making. All that stuff, he’s proven that he’s an NFL quarterback. I do think that this could be a rivalry in the making in our division. That’s what you want. You want the division to have these types of games. DeMeco [Ryans] has done an excellent job down here in Houston. They play with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement.
“They’re going to continue to get better.”
The good news for Pederson is that his Jaguars are already really good—now 8–3 and winners of seven of eight. Like I said, we’re going to dive deeper into that Monday morning.
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Frank Reich is out in Carolina (item updated at 10:40 a.m.). When we published the takeaways early Monday morning, we mentioned that veteran beat man Joe Person, of The Athletic, tweeted from Nashville on Sunday that Carolina owner David Tepper let out a loud “F---!” as he left the team’s locker room, after the Panthers fell to 1–10 with a 17–10 loss to the Titans. That little picture, from talking to people there, seemed to be a microcosm of the tension in that building for the coaching staff.
Tepper indeed went through with the firing, confirming the fears of assistants that thought this could be coming last week. One said to me Friday, “I’ve seen this movie before.” The owner, in recent weeks, had taken a critical eye towards Reich’s leadership of the team and how the team was responding to him.
Tepper, and I think he’d admit this, can be tough to work for. He’s intense, and demanding, and is involved on the ground with the team he paid $2.25 billion to purchase five years ago. Since then, he rode out two years with a coach he inherited (Ron Rivera), and fired a coach he gave a massive contract to less than three years earlier (Matt Rhule). Now he’s fired a third.
Some surface changes—like handing off play-calling to offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, then taking it back weeks later—didn’t work. And the failure to get more from Bryce Young, as a coach hired to develop the young quarterback, gave Reich a steep hill to climb to keep his job.
There is logic in promoting special teams coordinator Chris Tabor for the final six games of the season, in that it allows for Brown and defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero to stay in their roles. On the other hand, the rest of the season could’ve been used to audition one of those two for the head coaching job. It’s certainly possible that, after seeing Steve Wilks turn the team around last year, Tepper is already planning to go outside the organization to find his next coach, and doesn’t want that disrupted by a late-season rally. (It’s hard to believe, even if they win, that there would be a groundswell of support for Tabor to get the job full time.)
Either way, Reich is out in what now stands as the league’s swiftest firing in 45 years—the last person to go this quick (and this isn’t counting Bill Belichick’s resignation in 2000) was Pete McCulley, who was fired after nine games as the 49ers’ coach in 1978. Want some hope, Panthers fans? The guy who replaced McCulley in ’79: Stanford coach Bill Walsh.
Mac Jones looks broken, and the Patriots do, too. New England keeps finding new rock-bottoms, and this week’s version came in what could be Bill Belichick’s final game at the Meadowlands, where he coached for 12 seasons with the Giants and another three with the Jets.
The Patriots lost 10–7 to the Tommy DeVito–led Giants.
Jones was benched for the fourth time this year.
The difference was a missed field goal by the kicker, Chad Ryland, whom Belichick drafted in the fourth round back in April.
Jones, to be clear, earned his seat on the sideline. He threw two ghastly picks, one on the run and throwing off his back foot, and another that was a virtual twin (thrown like a shot put) to the one that clinched the loss against the Colts in Germany. There were other balls that served as further evidence to coaches’ suspicions that he has the yips—one example was a ball thrown three yards out of bounds in the direction of Mike Gesicki, another was actually a completion to Gesicki that seemed to sit suspended in the air for five minutes. But Jones isn’t the only problem.
The team’s offensive line is a mess, the skill-position players are pedestrian and, at this point, former Cowboy Zeke Elliott is probably the roster’s best player on offense. On defense, things are better, but not close to where the Patriots envisioned, with Matt Judon and Christian Gonzalez sidelined. And then there are the issues that have existed with guys such as Trent Brown and J.C. Jackson.
Add it up, and it’s possible this 2–9 team still hasn’t bottomed out yet.
A desperate Chargers team is up next. Speaking of …
Those Chargers got beat again, this time by perhaps the most well-rounded team in the AFC—the Ravens. Baltimore is now 9–3, a half game up on the Dolphins, Jaguars and defending champion Chiefs in the AFC, and earned every bit of it with a 20–10 win at SoFi Stadium on Sunday night.
Among other things, the Ravens rushed for 197 yards on 35 carries (a 5.6 average). Lamar Jackson connected with seven different receivers, five of them multiple times (despite completing only 18 passes total). And the defense choked out Justin Herbert and the Chargers’ offense, getting two fourth-down stops in the final three minutes, after yielding a touchdown on the hosts’ first full possession of the quarter.
“I thought the fourth quarter was a statement,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh told reporters postgame. “We put an exclamation point on it with our defense getting the stops and offense finishing it at the end there.”
The Ravens have their bye up next. Then, they’ll face the Rams, Jaguars, Niners, Dolphins and Steelers to finish the season out, so landing home field advantage in the playoffs won’t be easy.
But, again, with perhaps the league’s MVP at quarterback, and a team that can win a lot of different types of fights, the Ravens have as good a chance as anyone to land the top seed and advance through a bracket that doesn’t look quite as daunting as it promised to be back in the summer.
Give the Packers credit for being patient with their quarterback. Green Bay is another team we’ll feature more later in the day Monday, but I thought Jordan Love’s breakthrough Thursday deserved a note here and for a really specific reason.
Love started the season like gangbusters against the Bears, then went through the rigors of a four-game losing streak, a 1–5 stretch and a personal slump before knocking another wall down in rallying against the Chargers in Week 11, then putting together a fantastic end-to-end Thanksgiving performance in Detroit.
All the while, the Packers have been as measured in handling the ups and downs as they were in choosing to sit him for three years before trading Aaron Rodgers.
So I figured I’d ask Matt LaFleur about it.
“First of all, his job is made easier when everybody around him ups their game and is more comfortable,” the coach said Friday. “I will say, just as a whole, I think our offensive line has gotten better, especially in pass protection, in giving him more time. I think that’s been pretty evident, especially against a [Lions] team that’s got that ability. The first go-around versus these guys, they got after our ass pretty good. It allows you to call it a lot different; you can be a little bit more aggressive in what you’re calling.
“At the same time, he’s done a hell of a job with progressing through our reads and making good decisions. Guys have been making plays for him. I’ve said this a lot of times, quarterback gets too much credit when you win and too much blame when you lose. Early on, we felt that. We were losing games and everybody’s on Jordan; well it’s not all Jordan. Now we’ve won a couple games. It’s the reverse. I do think he’s shown great poise. He’s shown great leadership. He’s working through his reads. He’s being a facilitator back there.
“He’s doing a great job of giving guys opportunities. Guys are coming through for him. I think it’s a collection of a lot of things. One hundred percent, I think he’s upped his game. No doubt about it. He looks more comfortable. He looks more confident. I think he’s being way more decisive. One thing we’ve talked about with him is getting your cleats in the ground. He’s just way more decisive than he’s been maybe early on. I think that’s part of the process.”
In that long quote is, over and over again, the implication that the Packers’ patience has been key to their plan. Which, honestly, it should be to every team’s plan with a young quarterback.
Again, we’ll have more from Green Bay on Monday.
It’s time for the quick-hitters for Week 12. So here they are …
• Heisman Trophy front-runner Jayden Daniels has become one of the most interesting guys in the 2024 draft class, and there are a wide range of potential outcomes for him. But as for what’s there—it’s height, it’s athleticism, it’s an ability to create and throw on the run. And it’s also the fact that he’s started more than 50 games at two schools (first Arizona State, then LSU), something that helped Brock Purdy assimilate to the pros after being drafted in the seventh round.
• The Chiefs have maintained that the reason they were hesitant to add at receiver was the hope for continued development from their second-round picks of the last two years, Rashee Rice and Skyy Moore, as well as Kadarius Toney. With an eight-catch, 107-yard showing against Las Vegas on Sunday, Rice showed he might be closest to delivering, despite being a rookie.
• The Rams suddenly have a nice little crew of young skill players, with Tutu Atwell and Kyren Williams having had nice Sundays in the blowout of the Cardinals. Of course, we already know what Puka Nacua can do.
• I honestly don’t know what firing Jack Del Rio and Brent Vieselmeyer does for Ron Rivera or the Commanders, other than give new owner Josh Harris a pound of flesh to show the fans. Big changes are almost certainly coming in D.C.
• That Jake Browning looks competent in the Bengals’ offense is, in part, a tribute to the roster they’ve assembled. It’s also a reminder that Cincinnati probably won’t be able to keep it together next year for Burrow’s return, with the number of free agents they have, which is a terrible shame.
• Myles Garrett was running away with Defensive Player of the Year before his injury Sunday, so here’s hoping he’s O.K. It doesn’t sound great, based on the initial comments we’ve gotten out of Cleveland.
• Despite the loss, the Bills’ offense does look a lot more consistent and controlled with Joe Brady elevated to offensive coordinator. Josh Allen had a really solid afternoon, aside from the stats.
• Someone has to win the NFC South, and it may well be the rising, young team in Atlanta that’s well-conceived and -coached, but has had its issues at quarterback.
• I’ll be interested to see what Shaq Leonard has left in the tank—and shout-out to the Colts for giving him that seat in the suite on his first weekend off the roster. Really cool gesture.
• Congrats to Travis Kelce on a very big fall. The latest development? He just became the fourth tight end ever to hit 11,000 career receiving yards, and he got there faster than the other three.
