The term ‘Any Given Sunday’ could not be any more true this past weekend in the NFL. First of all, a 13-point underdog (Atlanta) won on the road at New Orleans. In addition to that shocker, two other one-win teams doubled their win totals with victories.
Yes, the Falcons did not allow a touchdown to the Saints in their 26-9 conquest of the NFC South leaders. Other teams who won their second game included Miami taking care of Indianapolis and the New York Jets winning the battle of New York by embarrassing the Giants.
Week Ten did leave us with one winless team. The Cincinnati Bengals got blown out by the Baltimore Ravens by a 49-13 count.
Lamar Jackson
I have nothing else to say about the Bengals. But I have a great deal to say about Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. The second-year signal-caller scored four touchdowns and accounted for 288 total yards. He became just the second player in NFL history, joining Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in 2007, to have two games in one season with a perfect passer rating of 158.3. Once widely thought of as not having the skills to quarterback an NFL team, Jackson is now a true MVP candidate.
Oakland won last week over the LA Chargers and, at 5-4, are only ½ game back of the Kansas City Chiefs. The two teams play in three weeks and the Raiders, much to the surprise of many, are in the playoff race. Prior to meeting the Chiefs, coach Jon Gruden’s team has winnable games against the New York Jets and the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Chicago Bears and UNC product Mitchell Trubisky ended a four-game losing skid by handing the Detroit Lions a 20-13 defeat. Trubisky threw for three touchdowns and may have silenced his many critics for a while.
The New York Giants loss to the Jets on Sunday illustrated just how bad the Giants offensive line is at this point of the season. The Giants have one of the top three runningbacks in the game in second year back Saquon Barkley. His stat line against the lowly Jets ended up being one yard on 13 carries. Stat buffs will be quick to point out that is the worst output of any back who carried the ball over 10 times since 2006.
LSU Stuns Alabama
The Tigers of LSU have surprised the world of college football this year. They continued a dream season on Saturday by traveling to Alabama and beating the Crimson Tide by a 46-41 count.
LSU took control early in the matchup between the top two schools in the nation. The Tigers opened up a 20-point lead at the half and held on behind Heisman candidate, quarterback Joe Burrow.
Joe Burrow
Burrow ended up completing 31 of 39 passes for 393 yards and three scores.
LSU, now 9-0, has all but eliminated Alabama from making the Playoffs for a sixth straight season. Both are in the SEC West which means the Crimson Tide will likely not make it to the SEC Championship Game. Alabama needed that extra game to rise in the polls as it now has a loss to go along with a weak schedule. The Tide will likely drop to somewhere between 7-10 in this week’s poll. It will be very difficult to leapfrog four to six schools to make the top four.
LSU, meanwhile, should jump ahead of Ohio State in the next set of playoff rankings. It is quite ironic that Burrow actually transferred out of Columbus so he could get a starting gig. He may actually get a revenge game in the National Championship game.
