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NFL Week 13: What We Learned from Thanksgiving Day tripleheader
- Different quarterback, same issues for Giants. Drew Lock got the nod with Tommy DeVito not healthy enough to start, but the Giants offense remained beset with familiar issues. It started out fine as Lock orchestrated a 13-play, 70-yard scoring drive on their opening possession, but New York’s offensive woes would soon rear their head. Lock’s pick-six came on the first play of their second possession, and it began a slog that produced six points within the Giants’ next eight drives, including Lock’s aforementioned fumble. A stagnant rushing attack rendered the Giants offense predictable during that span, allowing the Cowboys pass rushers to pin their ears back freely and harass Lock all game. When he did have time to throw, Lock keyed in on Malik Nabers (eight receptions, 69 yards) and Theo Johnson (5/54) down the stretch, but there were no splash plays from the Giants, as Lock, who led the team with 57 rushing yards, provided the team’s biggest play of the night (a 28-yard scramble). Lock found the end zone with his legs to make it a one-score game late, but the Giants’ all-around miscues, particularly with penalties (13 for 98 yards), prevented the G-Men from ruining Dallas’ Thanksgiving.
- Rico Dowdle powers Cowboys’ first home win of 2024. It wasn’t a walk in the park for the Cooper Rush-led offense, but the Cowboys’ lead running back countered those struggles as the unit’s reliable force against the Giants. Dowdle was as consistent as they come rushing the ball, using his blocks efficiently while breaking tackles in the moments where lanes weren’t provided. Scoring his first rushing TD of the season in the third quarter to extend the Cowboys’ lead to 17, Dowdle finished with 112 rushing yards off 22 carries (5.1 YPC) to break a 25-game streak without a Cowboys RB surpassing the 100-yard mark. Rush did his part behind an offensive line that allowed no sacks, completing 21 of 36 passes for 195 yards with one TD and no INTs. The backup QB did come up clutch when needing to ice the game on the final possession, finding Brandin Cooks for the game’s final first down, but Dallas wouldn’t have been in such a favored position without Dowdle in this one.
Next Gen Stats Insight from Giants-Cowboys (via NFL Pro): Rico Dowdle rushed for a career-high 112 yards on 22 carries against the Giants on Thanksgiving, recording a career-high +44 rushing yards over expected. Dowdle saw most of his production rushing inside the tackles, gaining 74 yards and a touchdown on 10 such carries (+41 rushing yards over expected). Dowdle also forced a career-high nine missed tackles in Week 13 (40.0% MTF rate, career-high).
NFL Research: DeMarvion Overshown is the first Cowboys player to have a pick-six and a fumble recovery in a single game since Roy Williams in Week 17, 2002 (fifth player to do so in Dallas franchise history). Overshown is also the first Cowboys player to record five-plus sacks and a pick-six in a season since Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware (2006).
Big Blue View
Giants-Cowboys ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’: At least there are ‘Kudos’ this week
Wet Willies to …
Run defense — In putting this here it has to be acknowledged that during the game the Giants lost defensive linemen Dexter Lawrence, D.J. Davidson and Rakeem Nunez-Roches to injury during the game. But, Rico Dowdle had eight carries for 50 yards (6.3 per attempt) in the first half and finished with 22 carries for 112 yards, his first career 100-yard rushing game. As usual, the run defense wasn’t good enough.
Execution/technique/discipline … whatever you want to call it — The Giants had 13 accepted penalties. The Cowboys declined two others. Two of those came on third downs that should have resulted in punts. Four defensive penalties gave Dallas first downs. The Giants committed offensive penalties that negated two 14-yard gains by Tyrone Tracy and a 29-yard pass to Malik Nabers.
The Giants missed 10 tackles, according to early stats from Pro Football Focus. They had two turnovers. They dropped three passes.
The Giants played hard. But, it is hard to argue they played well.
Pass protection — With Andrew Thomas somewhere recovering from Lisfranc surgery and Jermaine Eluemunor back in New Jersey because of his injured quad, the Giants had no chance to slow the Dallas pass rush.
Drew Lock was sacked six times. He was hit 14 times and Pro Football Focus said he was under pressure on 47.6% of his dropbacks.
Left tackle Chris Hubbard gave up seven pressures. Right tackle Evan Neal gave up a sack and three pressures while usually matched up with Micah Parsons. Left guard Jon Runyan Jr. gave up a sack and had the lowest pass-blocking grade of any Giant lineman (41.5) in preliminary PFF grading.
Big Blue View
Giants injury news: DL Dexter Lawrence suffers a dislocated elbow
The Giants lose their best player to injury
Things have gone from bad to worse for the New York Giants on Thanksgiving against the Dallas Cowboys.
The team announced at the close of the third quarter that star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence had been ruled out with an elbow injury. He confirmed after the game that he suffered a dislocated elbow.
The loss of Lawrence is a massive blow to the Giants’ defense as he’s arguably the best defensive tackle in the NFL and is certainly the Giants’ best defensive player.
Blogging the Boys
Cowboys injuries: Rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton reveals he has high ankle sprain
During the contest Juanyeh Thomas and Josh Butler left the game and rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton also got banged up. After the game concluded, Guyton spoke to members of the local media and revealed that he has a high ankle sprain.
Guyton has been a bit touch and go as a rookie and during last week’s win against the Washington Commanders the Cowboys even rotated him around with Asim Richards. Recent-ish history has seen rookie offensive linemen thrive for the Cowboys, and while there is certainly no shame in not being an All-Pro as a rookie left tackle, Guyton’s season has been more hot and cold instead of sustained excellence.
A high ankle sprain is not ideal and will likely cost him some time.
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Caleb Williams on Jack Campbell’s hit to his left knee: “I didn’t really appreciate the play”
During the second half of Thursday’s game at Detroit, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams took a low hit along the sideline from Lions linebacker Jack Campbell. Williams’s left knee buckled, and it initially looked like he might have suffered a significant knee injury. After an evaluation in the medical tent, he returned to the game without missing an offensive snap.
After the game, Williams was asked by reporters whether it was a clean play.
“Um, knee’s fine,” Williams said without directly answering the question. “Yeah, I — that play was funky. Just put it that way. I don’t really — you know, I didn’t really appreciate the play. He just kind of dove straight at my knee. So I didn’t really get that. Definitely kind of frustrated about that one, just ‘cause you know, whatever. Yeah, knee’s good. Nothing wrong with it. Think I just got a bruise. But the play was — the play was funky.”
Here’s the play. It was funky, but it was also clean. When a quarterback becomes a runner, a hit at or below the knee is legal.
In this case, Williams apparently tried to do a Lamar Jackson-style freeze/stop, with Campbell flying by and Williams gaining more yards. It didn’t work.
Once a quarterback leaves the pocket, he sheds certain protections. Once he crosses the line of scrimmage, he loses all protections that don’t otherwise apply to running backs.
Campbell was permitted to hit him low. For that reason, Williams should have just gotten out of bounds. More importantly, he shouldn’t have tried to make a move on the sideline in the hopes of making Campbell miss.
The fact that Campbell didn’t miss is on Williams, not Campbell.
NFL.com
Bears HC Matt Eberflus defends not calling timeout on botched final play of Thanksgiving loss to Lions
With a little over 30 seconds left on a ticking game clock, the Bears didn’t use their final timeout and instead rushed to the line for their next play. The only problem was that play was snapped with about six seconds left, and Williams’ incompletion downfield hit the ground just as the game clock expired, concluding a frantic sequence that brought plenty of questions for Bears head coach Matt Eberflus postgame.
“Our hope was, because it was third [down] going into fourth, that we would re-rack that play at 18 seconds, throw it inbounds, get into field goal range and then call the timeout,” the Bears head coach said. “That’s where it was and that was our decision-making process on that. Again, we were outside the field goal range, so we needed to get a few more yards in there, as close as we can get, and then we were going to call a timeout, and that’s why we held that last timeout.”
Added Eberflus: “I like what we did there. Again, once it’s under 12 [seconds] there, you’re going to call timeout there, you don’t have an option. … To me, I think we handled it the right way. I do believe you re-rack the play, get it in-bounds and then call timeout. That’s why we held it and it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”
Williams got the Bears lined up with about 13 seconds left, but the quarterback told reporters postgame that he made an adjustment on the the play just before that moment.
“I ended up changing the play,” Williams explained, “because with the play we had, 13 seconds — any play you have with 13 seconds with no time… Well, we had a timeout, but with that situation, 13 seconds, make a call and try and get it snapped and take a shot.”
The final pass sailed toward Rome Odunze as he neared the 5-yard line, but it wasn’t close to getting completed. Williams went on to explain what happened after taking the sack.
“In that situation we had a call, I got the call in, trying to get the guys back, focused on making sure everyone gets back, gets lined up,” Williams said. “I know we don’t have much time left, and so trying to get everybody back. I don’t have a microphone to speak to coach or anything like that, so there wasn’t like any huge communication in that situation. You get a call with that time, you got to try and get the guys back and get everyone lined up so you go run a play. We got lined up, got the play and then I made an adjustment because I saw the clock running down knowing that if we complete a ball inbounds or anything like that, we won’t have time to kick a field goal or anything like that. So, I made an adjustment and knew Rome was either going to be one-on-one or he was going to beat the safety and be one-on-one there. Tried to give him a shot, we got the shot and missed.”
Pro Football Focus
2024 NFL quarterback rankings ahead of Week 13
In this quarterback rankings breakdown, we’ve evaluated the top performers based on PFF passing grades. Using insights from Premium Stats, we’ll also present a variety of key grades beyond passing grade, including grades under pressure, from a clean pocket, against the blitz and more.
Best against the blitz: Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears
For the second straight week, Williams looked like the superstar quarterback we had anticipated — and much of that is because of his play when blitzed. The rookie completed 15-of-20 attempts for 192 yards, three big-time throws and zero turnover-worthy plays against the blitz-heavy Vikings. Williams earned a fantastic 92.4 overall grade and a 92.3 passing grade against the blitz, both of which were tops in the league.
♦ Click here to see PFF’s passing-under-pressure report
Best in the red zone: Cooper Rush, Dallas Cowboys
Rush recorded only three red-zone passing attempts, but they proved pivotal in Dallas’ wild upset over the Commanders. The Cowboys backup completed 2-of-3 red-zone attempts for 2 yards and a touchdown, avoiding a turnover-worthy play in the process. Rush’s average time to throw of 1.77 seconds when inside the Washington 20-yard-line was the lowest in the week, reflecting his decisiveness in the red area.
♦ Click here to see PFF’s QB grades
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Pro Football Talk
Will clock debacle spell doom for Matt Eberflus?
The approach was simple, or it should have been. Run a play aimed at making the field goal shorter than 59 yards, call timeout, kick the field goal that, if good, would send the game to overtime.
But something happened. More importantly, nothing happened. The Bears didn’t hurry to the line. They didn’t get a play called with time to gain yardage and call timeout. Instead, Caleb Williams started the play with six seconds left. By the time his throw landed incomplete inside the five, the game was over.
It’s inexcusable. It’s a fireable offense. And it’s the third loss this year that falls directly onto the coaching staff.
One, the Hail Mary disaster in Washington. Two, the blocked field goal against the Packers. Three, today.
Will that be enough to get the Bears to fire Eberflus? His fate seems to be sealed after the season ends. The question is whether they’ll do it as soon as tomorrow.