Making his first NFL start, Jalen Hurts threw for 167 yards and one touchdown as well as rushing for 106 yards to lead the Philadelphia Eagles to an upset win over the New Orleans Saints. Derrick Henry also rushed for 215 yards and two touchdowns against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Monday 14 December 2020 14:21, UK
Jalen Hurts was the hero for the Philadelphia Eagles, the Pittsburgh Steelers stumbled again, Drew Lock enjoyed a career day with the Denver Broncos and Derrick Henry did Derrick Henry things; here's a look at what we learned from Week 14 in the NFL.
Hands up who saw this one coming? A dominant Saints team had lost only twice all season and had won nine in a row, while the Eagles were handing a callow rookie his first NFL start.
So naturally, the aforementioned rookie produced a stellar display, the Saints folded on offense and defense and the Eagles got themselves into a 17-0 first-half lead that was enough to see them over the line.
The Eagles still have a pulse in the NFC East but they may have to win out and with Arizona, Dallas and Washington on the slate that's not impossible.
They got the spark they needed from Hurts, who rushed for more than 100 yards and was joined by Miles Sanders as the ground game gave New Orleans a reality check that may stand them in good stead, especially with Drew Brees poised to return and the Taysom Hill experiment still just that. Paul Prenderville
Up Next - Eagles @ Cardinals (Sunday, 9.05pm); Saints v Chiefs (Sunday, 9.25pm)
Ron Rivera has moulded this team in his image. They are gritty, tough to beat and now capable of winning games on defense - it has all combined to move them into pole position in the NFC.
Washington now have a one-game advantage over the Giants and more importantly are playing well and winning games against good teams, with the 49ers beaten on Sunday it's a result that probably ends San Francisco's hopes as much as it fires Washington's.
Two defensive touchdowns from Washington, the first time since 1997 per NFL Research, and a quite spectacular display from No 2 pick in last year's Draft Chase Young set the tone for a fourth win in succession for Rivera's team who haven't won the NFC East since 2015. Paul Prenderville
Up Next - Washington v Seahawks (Sunday, 6pm); 49ers @ Cowboys (Sunday, 6pm)
Let's preface this by saying that the Houston Texans defense isn't exactly a worthy marker of good quarterback play. But it seems quite evident that the Chicago Bears are far better with Mitchell Trubisky under center. In games that the former No 2 overall pick has started and finished, the Bears record stands at 3-2. That is far better than the 2-5 across Nick Foles' starts this season and they beat the Falcons in a combined effort.
On Sunday, Trubisky bounced back from his late fumble against the Lions to put together another strong performance. The maligned quarterback completed 24 of his 33 passing attempts for three touchdowns. He was helped by some complimentary football by David Montgomery who averaged 10 yards a rush, punctuated by an 80-yard rushing touchdown.
The Bears defense has not played up to the level we have seen in previous seasons. But on Sunday they were an absolute terror, sacking Deshaun Watson seven times. Roquan Smith led the way with 12 total tackles, two sacks and two tackles for a loss. Sonny Cohen
Up next - Texans @ Colts (Sunday; 6pm); Bears @ Vikings (Sunday, 6pm)
Tom Brady and the Bucs are back!
After a later-than-most Week 13 bye, it feels like it has been a long time since Tampa Bay were last in action. It's even longer since their last win (November 15). But this was very much job done on their return, a convincing victory over a streaking Vikings squad that had won five of their last six - threatening to oust the Bucs from their cosy position in the NFC Wild Card picture.
Brady was efficient, if not spectacular - 15 of 23 passing for 196 yards and two TDs - while Ronald Jones again impressed out of their backfield (18 carries, 80 yards, one TD) and the defence was in 'bend, don't break' mode. Sounds like a good recipe for playoff football. David Currie
Up Next - Vikings v Bears (Sunday, 6pm), Buccaneers @ Falcons (Sunday, 6pm)
Interesting one here, it looked like the Cardinals were on the slide and the Giants were on the up, but it was Arizona who delivered a performance to showcase their playoff credentials.
A dominant display on defense from the Cardinals - take a bow Hassan Reddick (five sacks) - was enough to blow away a Giants team for whom quarterback Daniel Jones still looked to be feeling the effects of the injury which kept him out of the win over the Seahawks last week.
A four-game winning streak had vaulted the Giants into control of their own destiny and a possible NFC East title, instead it's Washington who hold all the aces of the back of their own four-game winning streak.
The Cardinals are back into the playoff places themselves but perhaps even more importantly had Kyler Murray moving and throwing a little more freely - and getting the link-up with DeAndre Hopkins right too. Paul Prenderville
Up Next - Cardinals v Eagles (Sunday, 9.05pm); Giants v Browns (Monday, 1.20am)
More play-calling questions for the Chargers. Facing a third-and-one with 20 seconds left in the first half and no timeouts remaining, they decided to run the ball only to come up short. While a section of the offense stayed on the field, the field goal unit came out, resulting in them not getting the kick away successfully and therefore coming away with nothing.
Anthony Lynn finds himself under increasing scrutiny, no doubt along with offensive coordinator Shane Steichen. On this occasion they were bailed out by two off-the-script touchdown passes from the brilliant Justin Herbert - who became just the fourth rookie in NFL history to throw for at least 25 touchdown passes.
A team with so much talent shouldn't be this difficult to watch. Cameron Hogwood
Up Next - Falcons v Buccaneers (Sunday, 6pm), Chargers @ Raiders (Friday, 1.20am)
With Patrick Mahomes struggling somewhat against the Dolphins, the door in the MVP race creaked open and Aaron Rodgers may have just kicked it off the hinges. He added three more touchdowns and no interceptions to an impressive season resume. What was more impressive is that Rodgers threw just seven incompletions for a passer rating of 132.3. That is his 12th game of the season with more than two touchdown passes and over 100 passer rating.
It is just the level that Rodgers performs at and what we have come to expect from the former league MVP. 55 times over his career he has thrown three or more touchdown passes with no interceptions. And it was business as usual against the Lions, 6-0 in December when Rodgers' starts and finishes the game. Sonny Cohen
Up next - Packers vs Panthers (Sunday 1.15am); Lions @ Titans (Sunday, 6pm)
It has not been the year Drew Lock envisioned, but he'll happily take a game like Sunday. The Broncos quarterback had a career day, finishing 21 of 27 for 280 yards and four touchdowns, snapping a run of seven straight games with at least one interception in the process. He also posted the third-highest passer rating for a game in team history at 149.5 (with a minimum of 20 attempts), which trails only Peyton Manning's 157.2 against the San Francisco 49ers in 2014 and John Elway's 156 against the Arizona Cardinals in 1995.
There may be little for Denver to play for in regards to January football, but for Lock the final few weeks of the campaign are a window in which he has to impress ahead of the offseason. A few more days like that would do him the world of good. Cameron Hogwood
Up Next - Broncos v Bills (Saturday, 9.30pm), Panthers @ Packers (Sunday, 1.15am)
When you are a two or three-win team, you see games against similarly-struggling opponents as a chance to feel good and provide some hope for fans. Dallas did just that, while the Bengals were woefully bad.
Andy Dalton, on his return to Cincinnati after nine seasons with the team, finished with a 122.6 passer rating, Aldon Smith returned a fumble 78 yards for a touchdown, and Tony Pollard had a 60-yard kickoff return as Dallas won in all three phases. And the Cowboys, astonishingly, kept themselves in the NFC East race (just). They are two games behind, but face both the Giants and Eagles in their final two games.
Meanwhile, the Bengals under Zac Taylor have gone 4-23-1, have a bottom-five offense, a bottom-10 defense, and are tied for 31st with a minus-10 turnover differential. Will he get another shot next season? James Simpson
Up next: Cowboys v 49ers (Sunday, 6pm), Bengals v Steelers (Tuesday 1.15am)
Derrick Henry is an absolute battering ram and when the Titans are able to get behind him they are a scary proposition. The 2015 Heisman Trophy winner put the Jacksonville Jaguars to the sword, carrying the ball 26 times for 215 yards and two touchdowns. Henry so often wears down defenses in the NFL, but if he starts hot, as he did on Sunday then it opens everything else up on offense for Ryan Tannehill.
It is hard for opposition teams to not bite on the play action, and that is where problems arise for the secondary. AJ Brown has been on a tear this season, and leaving him in single coverage is always a concern. Well, on Sunday, Brown "Mossed" cornerback Sidney Jones for a one-handed touchdown grab off of a flea-flicker.
Once again we cannot talk about the Jags without mentioning standout rookie James Robinson. He now has the most scrimmage yards by an undrafted rookie in the Common Draft era and is the fourth undrafted rookie to have 1,000 rush yards in their first year. Sonny Cohen
Up next - Titans vs Lions (Sunday, 6pm); Jaguars @ Ravens (Sunday, 6pm)
The Seahawks are in a funny place of late, and that was amplified on Sunday as the team and fanbase emerged from a blowout win over the broken Jets not sure whether to be overjoyed, reassured or still concerned. In truth, Pete Carroll probably learned little about his team. If anything, this was a 'getting right' performance and result after spluttering on both sides of the ball the previous week against the Giants.
One noteworthy feature was Jamal Adams, who took his sack tally to 8.5 on the season - an NFL single-season record by a defense back since sacks became an official stat in 1982. That's despite having missed four games so far this year. Add a few more players of his calibre on that side of the ball and you might actually have reason to believe in this team going deep. Next week at Washington will be a bigger tell of where Seattle are at. Cameron Hogwood
Up next - Jets @ Rams (Sunday, 9.05pm); Seahawks @ Washington (Sunday, 6pm)
You could sense a changing of the guard was coming in the AFC. Even when Pittsburgh were unbeaten, the consensus pick of the best team in football was still the Chiefs; when the Steelers tasted their first defeat last week, suddenly their looming battle in Buffalo looked like another loss - and so it proved.
The Steelers defense is still an elite unit and kept Josh Allen and the Bills in check for a couple of quarters, but there are now real concerns on offense for this team, with the run game completely missing (again), and an ageing Big Ben no longer able to carry the team on his shoulders - his pick six thrown just before half-time signalled curtains for this one as a contest. David Currie
Up Next - Steelers @ Bengals (Tuesday, 1.15am), Bills @ Broncos (Saturday, 9.30pm)
The Raiders are doing it again. Last year, Jon Gruden's team were looking pretty - as pretty as a Gruden-coached team can look - when 6-4 and in the thick of the AFC playoff race, only to then lose five of their last six to finish up a disappointing 7-9.
This year their postseason prospects were even prettier still, at 6-3, but that's three defeats in four for this team - their one win courtesy of the worst defensive play call of all time by a winless Jets team - and once again they look to freeing up their calendar for the month of January.
The Colts, by contrast - who also sat 6-3 a few weeks back - seem to be a formidable, playoff-ready team that needs to start being respected. They can run the ball - Jonathan Taylor a career-best 150 yards and two TDs in this one - they have a great defense, and Philip Rivers is playing solid at QB, which is all they need from him. David Currie
Up Next - Colts v Texans (Sunday, 6pm), Raiders v Chargers (Friday, 1.20am)
Patrick Mahomes threw two interceptions in the first quarter, took a 30-yard sack, threw another pick early in the fourth, but still managed to lead his team to 33 points and a typical comeback win. Was there ever any doubt when they went down 10-0 early?
Mahomes had help - Tyreek Hill had 32 and 44-yard touchdowns, Travis Kelce racked up 136 yards, and both special teams and the defense contributed with points - and at this point, the 12-1 Chiefs look completely unstoppable. It would be a surprise if they don't make it to Raymond James Stadium in February.
Tua Tagovailoa had career-highs in attempts (48), completions (28), and passing yards (316) but a late surge was not enough for Miami, who fall to 8-5 and have games against the Patriots, Raiders, and Bills coming up to try and stay alive in the AFC playoff hunt. James Simpson
Up next - Chiefs @ Saints (Sunday, 9.25pm), Dolphins v Patriots (Sunday, 6pm)
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