Week 12 of the NFL season should have come with a health warning. Blocked punts, missed extra points, botched holds, onside kicks returned for touchdowns, muffed kickoffs recovered and housed, overtime and game-winning field goals. Not suitable for the faint of heart.

The beady-eyed among you will note most of those pulse-raising plays happened in one game. In fact, in the final five minutes of one game.

Don’t let the mayhem in Washington fool you. Close games and last-minute lead changes were in plentiful supply. Kansas City again eked out a last-minute win in Carolina after they let inferior opposition make a comeback, while Caleb Williams managed to extend the Bears’ contest with the Vikings before coming up short in overtime. It is noteworthy, however, that, through 12 weeks of the season, there have now been 82 one-score games, a league record.

 

Week 12 NFL Scores (as of Monday 25th November)

Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3) 19 @ Cleveland Browns (3-8) 24
Minnesota Vikings (9-2) 30 @ Chicago Bears (4-7) 27 OT
Detroit Lions (10-1) 24 @ Indianapolis Colts (4-7) 6
New England Patriots (3-9) 15 @ Miami Dolphins (5-6) 34
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-6) 30 @ New York Giants (2-9) 7
Dallas Cowboys (4-7) 34 @ Washington Commanders (7-4) 26
Kansas City Chiefs (10-1) 30 @ Carolina Panthers (3-8) 27
Tennessee Titans (3-8) 32 @ Houston Texans 27 (7-5)
Denver Broncos (7-5) 29 @ Las Vegas Raiders (2-9) 19
San Francisco 49ers (5-6) 10 @ Green Bay Packers (8-3) 38
Arizona Cardinals (6-5) 6 @ Seattle Seahawks (6-5) 16
Philadelphia Eagles (9-2) 37 @ Los Angeles Rams (5-6) 20

 

Game of the Week — Dallas Cowboys 34 @ 26 Washington Commanders

Rather than try to sound smart in summarising the last five minutes of the Dallas Cowboys’ bizarre win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday, I’ll instead share some of the messages sent in my fantasy football group chat.

“That spin from Turpin!”

“WTF?”

“Jayden Daniels, please no!”

“F*ck me!”

“This is all very funny!”

“WTF is going on with this game man?”

“Slide, you idiot!”

This NFC East matchup was a sloppy and meandering affair for 55 minutes, before a sequence of events that beggared belief.

With 5:26 left on the clock, the Cowboys established a seemingly comfortable 20-9 lead when Cooper Rush capped a competent performance with a 22-yard strike to Luke Schoonmaker.

Jayden Daniels was able to reply, however, leading the Commanders’ best possession of the day when they needed it most. He connected with the rejuvenated Zach Ertz for a four-yard score, cutting the deficit to just three points after converting a two-point conversion on a QB keeper.

This is where things got truly bizarre. KaVontae Turpin muffed the ensuing kickoff, dropping the ball at his own one-yard line. The speedster calmly retrieved the ball, languidly advancing towards the onrushing and disorganised kick coverage. In a flash, Turpin planted his left foot, pivoted, twirled and accelerated past the hapless Commanders tacklers. With a clear alley to the promised land, Turpin ate up 99 yards in a flash, extending the Cowboys lead, and surely icing the game.

Not so fast. Again, Daniels was able to advance the ball, setting up an Austin Seibert attempt from 51 yards to cut the lead to seven. The kicker was able to reverse Washington’s terrible fortunes on special teams in the game, overcoming two misses of his own, plus a blocked punt and, of course, the Turpin return to position his young quarterback to do the impossible once again.

First, the Commanders needed a stop. Able to bottle up a conservative Cowboys rushing attack, Washington received the ball at their own 14, with no timeouts and 33 seconds left on the clock. On what turned out to be the only play of the drive, Daniels found Terry McLaurin along the right sideline, surely with the intention of picking up 20 yards and stopping the clock. McLaurin had other ideas, surging past stagnant Dallas defenders en route to a one-play touchdown. We’re going to overtime.

If Siebert would make his extra point. A low snap, a shaky hold and a drastic hook left the scores at 27-26. Perhaps to round out Washington’s awful day in the third phase, the ensuing onside attempt was housed by Juanyeh Thomas.

This is the Commanders’ third loss on the troy. Their high-powered offense of the first half of the season stymied for three quarters by a Dallas Cowboys defense ranked 29th in the league by DVOA entering Week 11. In the first half, Daniels was sacked three times, threw a pick and totalled just 57 passing yards. Nagging injuries to the rookie signal caller and his offensive line could be to blame, but have the upstart Commanders been figured out? They’ll need to rebound against the Titans in Week 12 if they’re to keep in touch with the surging Philadelphia Eagles.

MVP of the Week — Saquon Barkley

Indulge me in a game of comparison. Let’s stack up the per game stats of two running backs, one from today’s game, and one from a historically great season of a future Hall-of-Famer.

Player A: 131.1 rushing yards / 6.0 yards per carry / 2.5 catches / 13.5 receiving yards / 0.81 touchdowns

Player B: 126.5 rushing yards / 6.2 yards per carry / 2.5 catches / 23.4 receiving yards / 1.09 touchdowns

Player A? Adrian Peterson from the last non-quarterback MVP season in 2012. Player B? Well you don’t need a PhD to work that one out. It’s Saquon Barkley’s 2024 season thus far. While it’s nigh-on impossible for a running back to win this award in today’s game, Barkley is ticking all the boxes.

Barkley put out his magnum opus in Sunday night’s game against the Rams, breaking off touchdown runs of 70 and 72 yards respectively in a dominant second half performance. His 255-yard game is the ninth-best single player rushing performance in NFL history. To do that in prime time, with the majority of the football-world watching? Big with voters.

The former Giant now leads the NFL in rushing by more than 200 yards, has six rushes of more than 50 yards (his closest competitors are on three), and has improved an already stellar rushing game that lost its captain and Hall of Fame center in the offseason. Statistically, and narratively, Barkley is making his case heard.

Loser — Matt Eberflus

Now in his third year as head coach of the Chicago Bears, Matt Eberflus has proven himself incapable of leading his team in tight games. The Bears are 5-18 in one-score games under Eberflus’ leadership. His opposite number on Sunday, and intra-division rival, Kevin O’Connell is now 23-10 in such games.

There were no obvious mistakes in Eberflus’ game management. The Bears were able to stick around in a back-and-forth game against a powerful Vikings defense and an explosive performance from Jordan Addison. Caleb Williams threw for 340 yards, two scores and no picks, while showcasing his ability to traverse a lethal pass rush. For the most part, this was not the game that will ultimately cost Eberflus his job. That said, without a clear identity or calling card to fall back on, losing these tight inter-division games is a recipe for mediocrity in the NFL.

Winner — Tua Tagvailoa

The Miami Dolphins are very much alive. Able to ride out the horrors of Snoop Huntley in the absence of their starter, Mike McDaniel has his team clicking offensively.

Again, the young head coach is enhancing and embellishing the skills of his oft-maligned quarterback. Tua’s timing and ability to process defenses have never been questioned and, since his return, that’s been even clearer to see. Rather than looking downfield for the explosive Tyreek Hill, the Dolphins offense has instead prioritised short routes to tight end Jonnu Smith and the diminutive-but-explosive De’Von Achane. Since Week 8, the Dolphins have the shortest average depth of target in the league at just 5.2. That hasn’t limited their success however, as they’re gaining 5.6 yards per play, compared to just 4.7 in the first seven weeks of the season.

Loser — The San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers season is more or less over. The Athletic’s playoff probability model gives Kyle Shanahan’s men a 5% chance of making the postseason. Sunday’s 38-10 capitulation against the Packers is understandable, given the team’s awful injury situation, but it will still be damaging to an organisation that expects excellence.

Without Brock Purdy under center, the Packers were able to sell out against the Niners’ vaunted running game. Christian McCaffrey still looks a shell of himself after missing the first eight games of the season with Achilles tendinitis, while Trent Wiliams remains a key miss. Defensively, San Francisco had little response for Josh Jacobs, who scored three times on the ground. There is still hope in a chaotic NFC West, but the Niners may simply be unable to muster the strength required to overcome their injury report.

Winner — Baker Mayfield

It’s not often you’d call a quarterback without a passing touchdown a ‘winner’, but Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay offense looked revitalised in a 30-7 win over the New York Giants.

The return of Mike Evans added a degree of comfort for the veteran signal caller, who has maintained a high level of play even as his key targets were ruled out. In New York, Mayfield hit 80% of his passes, positioning his team for success and keeping the scoreboard ticking over. Triple-headed running back monster Bucky Irving, Rachaad White and Sean Tucker all contributed, while Baker ran in a score of his own and hit Tommy Devito’s celebration in a despondent MetLife Stadium. Now sitting at 5-6, just one game back on the Atlanta Falcons, Tampa are very much in the NFC playoff picture.

Stats of the Week

• Sonic and Knuckles continue to do their thing. Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery are the first pair of running back teammates with at least 10 rushing touchdowns each in consecutive seasons in NFL history. Montgomery has 11 rushing scores on the season, while Gibbs has 10.
• Turpin is the first player to record a punt and kick return touchdown in a season since 2019. The Cowboys are the first team to record multiple scores on kick returns since Week 18 of 2022.
• T’Vondre Sweat is the second-heaviest player to record a sack. Weighing in at 366lbs, the youngest Sweat — brother of Eagles DE Josh — is only eclipsed by Ted ‘Mt.’ Washington. The former Raider officially tipped the scales at 375lbs.
• Over the past three games, Bo Nix has recorded eight passing touchdowns and no picks. He is just the second rookie in NFL history to record such a stretch. The only other player, Dak Prescott in 2016, went on to win Offensive Rookie of the Year.
• Patrick Mahomes logged three touchdowns in the Chiefs narrow victory in Charlotte. With 237, Mahomes now holds the record for the most passing scores in Kansas City history, surpassing franchise legend Len Dawson.