Every week in the NFL season brings a host of new questions … and answers some old ones, too. Let’s run down what we learned in Week 18 … and what we’ll be wondering about in the first round of the playoffs and beyond.
ASKED: Is there any way to fix Week 18?
When the most compelling element of your regular season’s final week is which chump team is going to chump the hardest and end up with a chance to chump a little less next season, something is definitely off.
Week 18, as it always seems to be, was a real letdown this season, primarily because so little was at stake. Only three teams outside the playoff bubble had any mathematical chance of getting in, and only one of those — the Cincinnati Bengals — played with any sense of fire and urgency. The Atlanta Falcons decided to give their defense an early holiday. The Miami Dolphins had no Tua Tagovailoa. And the Kansas City Chiefs ran out their scout team and allowed Denver to walk all over them, effectively escorting the Broncos right into the playoffs.
When you have nothing at stake, there’s no urgency, no fire. The Bills gave Josh Allen a big ol’ asterisk-laden start against New England, then pulled him immediately. Saquon Barkley sat out of the Eagles’ final game, passing up on a chance to break the single-season rushing record. And the less said about the Chiefs’ rollover, the better.
Thing is, there’s not much to be done about this. The NFL is a reverse bell curve — there are quite a few really good teams, a whole bunch of terrible teams, and only a few in the murky middle. There’s not much that can be done about this that isn’t already being done, so we have to comfort ourselves with the idea that we’ll miss these games in June. Maybe.
ANSWERED: Jerod Mayo got jobbed
There’s no other way to put this: Jerod Mayo . The team hired him with a substandard roster, then fired him when that substandard roster performed in a substandard fashion. The team even had a fully prepared statement from owner Robert Kraft ready just hours after the Patriots beat the Bills. That’s an organization that’s ready to move on, regardless of whether New England had lost in Week 18 or beaten Buffalo by 75 points.
Mayo didn’t have the backing of many in the Patriots organization, and didn’t help himself with some public gaffes and criticism of his own roster. But to place all the blame for the organization’s ills on his shoulder after just 17 games is flat-out wrong … and seems to indicate the Patriots have someone else in mind. Purely by coincidence, we’re sure, Mike Vrabel is now available and on the market.
Was Mayo the right fit for the New England coaching job? Maybe not. But he deserved more opportunity to prove himself, or at least more respect on the way out the door.
ASKED: Did the Vikings run out of gas?
It’s not fair that we spent the whole season wondering when the Vikings would regress to their expected performance, but that’s the way it is. You can’t really say that a team which won 14 games in the regular season failed by any possible measure, and yet Vikings fans can’t be particularly thrilled about how Sunday night’s final regular-season game turned out — Minnesota looked overmatched and unprepared, making wrong decisions both on the field and on the sideline all game long. Sam Darnold was a mere 18 of 41 for 166 yards with no touchdowns, and several of those incompletions came in crucial deep red zone possessions.
Minnesota is now the winningest team to ever get relegated to the Wild Card weekend, and draws a feisty Los Angeles Rams team to close out the first weekend of the playoffs. Assuming Minnesota wins, and assuming all other seeds hold, the Vikings will be right back in Detroit in two weeks. What, if anything, will they have learned by then?
ANSWERED: Detroit is going to be a very tough out
The Vikings got an up-close lesson in what the rest of the league is about to realize: Detroit has found another gear. (Car reference, because Detroit.) Jahmyr Gibbs scored four touchdowns against Minnesota on Sunday night, three on the ground and one through the air, proving that Sonic can thrive even without Knuckles. Jared Goff struggled a bit, throwing two interceptions into dubious situations, but the oft-maligned Detroit defense stepped up and shut down Justin Jefferson. That’s a testament to the coaching staff of Dan Campbell, the way that everyone works in tandem toward a goal of disruption and dissolution. And now the Lions have two weeks to prepare for their next opponent.
Be afraid, fellow NFL playoff participants. Be very afraid.
ASKED: Who would you take now, Caleb Williams or Bryce Young?
Just because this is the last time we’ll talk about them until August … how did the past two No. 1 picks fare this season? Both Carolina’s Bryce Young and Chicago’s Caleb Williams took heat for their performances; Young even took the bench for a few games when he struggled too much for the Panthers to take. But over the course of the season, they began to draw somewhat closer.
The two had the exact same yards per passing attempt — 6.3 — and nearly the same completion percentage (Young 60.9%, Williams 62.5%). Williams had more than 37 more yards per game passing – 208.3 to 171.6 – and 20 touchdowns over 17 games to Young’s 15. The two had nearly identical rushing yards per attempt of about six yards, but Young had six rushing touchdowns to Williams’ 0. It’s possible Williams will improve with another year in the league; will Young?
So, with all that in mind … who would you take right now to start your team?
ANSWERED: Baker Mayfield is That Dude
Everything was set up for a classic Week 18 letdown for Tampa Bay — an easy opponent, a wide-open path to the playoffs, a classic trap-game opportunity. And early on, it certainly appeared that the Bucs were going to fumble their way out of a fourth straight NFC South championship. The Saints opened up as much as a 10-point lead on Tampa Bay behind, of all people, Spencer Rattler. But Mayfield calmly handled business, throwing for 221 yards, rushing for 68, and guiding the Bucs back into the game drive after drive. By the end of the game, the outcome wasn’t in doubt, only the final score was.
Mayfield doesn’t have the most talented roster around him, and his receiving corps is seriously depleted. But he’s got a bunch of junkyard dawgs in his corner, and he’s the biggest dawg of them all. Tampa Bay probably won’t win the Super Bowl this year, but they won’t go out without a real fight, either.
