32 things we learned in NFL Week 11: Rivalries reveal plenty about top teams

Posted by Admin November 18, 2024 NFL

The 32 things we learned from Week 11 of the 2024 NFL season:

1. Sunday provided ample evidence that the league should brand at least one official rivalry weekend per season. Several consequential outcomes emerged in key games between opponents who are all too familiar with one another.

2. No bigger matchup thus far in this regular season than the one between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, the latter handing the former their first loss of the 2024 campaign. Now only a half-game game behind K.C. in the overall AFC standings, the Bills are very legitimate threats to win home-field advantage.

3. We can also get the obligatory celebration of the undefeated ’72 Miami Dolphins out of the way, though sad that recently deceased Mercury Morris is no longer a part of it.

4. Buffalo’s victory was secured thanks to QB Josh Allen’s highlight reel, 26-yard TD run with little more than two minutes to play. He may not finish with stats as gaudy as Baltimore Ravens counterpart Lamar Jackson, but Allen’s success with a team seemingly depleted in the offseason should put him squarely in the conversation for his first MVP award.

5. In their last seven meetings with the Chiefs, the Bills have won all four regular-season matchups … but dropped all three in the playoffs.

6. Amid the spirited and smashmouth rivalry that exists between the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers – and things got plenty chippy Sunday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium – could the difference between them in 2024 be their kickers? With the decided advantage going to Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell? Boswell scored all of Pittsburgh’s points in Sunday’s 18-16 win, three of his field goals from 50+ yards, including a 57-yarder. Meanwhile, Baltimore’s Justin Tucker missed from 47 and 50 yards – effectively costing his team the win – in what continues to shape up as the potential Hall of Famer’s worst season.

7. Meanwhile, Boswell has now hit 29 of his 30 field-goal tries in 2024, including all 20 inside 50 yards (yes, he’s 9 of 10 beyond). He has at least four field goals in four games this season, and Sunday was the second time he posted a six-pack for all of Pittsburgh’s Iron City points.

8. Incidentally, wasn’t QB Russell Wilson supposed to solve the Steelers’ red-zone issues? Pittsburgh was 0-for-4 Sunday against the league’s worst pass defense and is 3-for-12 over its past three contests. Wilson’s 22-game streak with a TD pass – which was the NFL’s longest active one – came to an end.

8a. The Steelers had 18 points and 18 first downs. The Ravens had 16 points and 16 first downs.

9. Leave it to Steelers coach Mike Tomlin to sum up the state of affairs for his 8-2 squad: “I love Boz, man. I’m tired of him getting (special teams) player of the week. He probably got player of the week again this week. He’s deserving of it, but it reminds us of our warts. It reminds us of the work that we need to do. But, man, no doubt, I’m thankful that he’s on our team.”

10. Baltimore’s offense, which entered the game comparing favorably to the best units in league history – at least by the numbers – scored its fewest points of the season and also posted its fewest yards (329).

11. Could another uninspiring performance against Pittsburgh cost Jackson his third league MVP award? Stay tuned.

12. And, much as we might want to thing of Pittsburgh-Baltimore as the NFL’s best rivalry in the past 15 years or so, it must be noted that the Steelers have won eight of the last nine meetings.

13. The number of penalties committed Sunday by the error-prone Tennessee Titans in their 23-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The Titans entered the game among the league leaders by averaging 7.7 flags per game before nearly doubling that rate.

14. Vikes WR Justin Jefferson didn’t have a huge game, but his 81 receiving yards gave him 6,811 in his career, most ever by a player in his first five seasons – and “Jets” has seven more games to extend that standard.

15. Speaking of Jets – at least lesser models – the New York Jets were expected to have one of the league’s elite defenses, and maybe its best in 2024, but have allowed at least 23 points in five of the six games since former coach Robert Saleh’s abrupt firing after Week 5.

16. Appears the Indianapolis Colts turned back to QB Anthony Richardson just in time. After a two-game benching, his 4-yard TD run in the final minute not only kept Indy’s playoff hopes alive with a 28-27 win, it might have officially staked Gang Green. Richardson’s 106.5 passer rating Sunday was his best in a full NFL game, and he matched his career high by accounting for three touchdowns (1 passing, 2 rushing). Richardson’s 66.7% completion rate was also his best in a game in which he attempted at least 15 throws.

17. The Chicago Bears’ new offense – now run by newly promoted coordinator Thomas Brown – largely outperformed the hated Green Bay Packers on Sunday, posting more yards (391-366) and first downs (23-19), a significantly better time of possession (nearly 12 minutes) and didn’t turn the ball over (Green Bay did once). But the Windy City residents will hate it that the Packers had more points in a 20-19 victory and more blocks on game-winning field-goal attempts.

18. The Pack ran their record in the league’s most storied rivalry to 108-95-6, including victories in the past 11 meetings – the longest streak in the historic series.

19. The Seattle Seahawks ambushed the team they’ve come to dislike the most in recent years, beating the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in Silicon Valley and – technically – dropping the Niners into last place in the NFC West.

20. The idle Arizona Cardinals (6-4) continue to lead the division but are only one game ahead of cellar-dwelling San Fran (5-5).

All NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY’s 4th and Monday newsletter.

21. The Detroit Lions’ 52-6 obliteration of the Jacksonville Jaguars is as about as bad a beatdown as you’ll see in the NFL, especially in this era of parity. It was the worst defeat in the Jags’ 30-season history.

22. The Lions had 475 yards … more than Jacksonville. Detroit scored a touchdown on each of its first seven possessions.

23. Now 9-1, the Lions are off to their best start since going 10-0 in 1934 – their first year in Detroit after being born as the Portsmouth Spartans in 1930.

24. The number of consecutive games – a league record – that the current NFC leaders have scored at least one rushing TD. The Lions had three against Jacksonville.

25. Note to Lions WR Jameson Williams: The NFL will eventually edit your highlights – though it didn’t on Sunday – if you continue to celebrate like Marshawn Lynch.

25a. And that would be a bummer given Williams scores’ are always thunderbolts, all seven of his regular-season TD grabs from beyond 30 yards.

26. Detroit QB Jared Goff had a 158.3 passer rating after completing 24 of 29 throws for 412 yards and four TDs against the Jaguars. It was only the second perfect rating of Goff’s nine-year career but the third time he’s eclipsed 150.0 in the past seven games.

27. While it seems something of a foregone conclusion that Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels will eventually be named Offensive Rookie of the Year, don’t count out Las Vegas Raiders TE Brock Bowers just yet. He leads all first-year players with 70 catches for 706 yards after a 13-grab, 126-yard outburst Sunday in Miami.

27a. Bowers’ 13 receptions Sunday are a single-game record for a rookie tight end.

28. However Bowers wasn’t the most impactful man at this position on the same field Sunday, the Dolphins’ Jonnu Smith posting a career day (6 catches, 101 yards, 2 TDs) as Miami won again and continued to claw back into the boundaries of the playoff picture.

29. While it seems something of a foregone conclusion that Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels will eventually be named Offensive Rookie of the Year, don’t count out Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix juuuuuust yet. In Sunday’s 38-6 thrashing of the NFC South-leading Atlanta Falcons, Nix eclipsed 300 passing yards for the first time this season and threw four TDs for the first time in an NFL game. The sixth quarterback drafted in the first round this year, Nix can’t match Daniels’ talent, but he certainly might have an equally impactful splash as a rookie with both Denver and Washington currently in wild-card position.

30. Is there an NFC Offensive Player of the Week award coming to New Orleans Saints QB/RB/FB/TE/KR Taysom Hill after he piled up 188 yards from scrimmage on 15 touches while scoring three TDs in a 35-14 blowout of the Cleveland Browns? He even returned a kickoff 42 yards.

30a. Or are we holding Hill’s interception and fumble against him?

31. Regardless, the Saints are now 2-0 since firing HC Dennis Allen and quietly climbing back up the NFC South standings.

32. Uniform note of the week: The Cincinnati Bengals really seem to be committing to the orange pants they debuted this season. Sunday night was the first time they wore them with their white jerseys and … meh. Team founder Paul Brown intentionally mimicked the Browns uniforms when he founded the Bengals in 1968, and his son, current owner Mike Brown, seems to be rekindling that “tradition.”

***

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.