Are the Commanders falling apart?
Just a few weeks ago the Washington Commanders were rolling along as the NFL’s surprise team, in first place in the NFC East and not far from the conference’s top seed. On this Monday NFL snapshot, as the season heads down the homestretch the Commanders are barely holding onto the NFC’s final wild-card spot after losing their third straight game, this one at home to the Dallas Cowboys.
Washington has lost three straight games and have gone from 7-2, a game back of Detroit for the No. 1 seed, to 7-5 and just a half-game ahead of Arizona for the final NFC wild-card spot.
“Losing to Philly and Pittsburgh is one thing, losing at home to Dallas is another,’’ said a long-time personnel man who keeps tabs on the NFC. “The cracks are starting to show. They were probably a year ahead of schedule and caught some people by surprise early. Now it looks like everyone has caught up to them.’’
Washington hosts Tennessee Sunday. The Titans are bad, but are coming off their best game of the season, an upset of Houston. The Commanders finally get their bye the following week and finish at New Orleans, Philadelphia, Atlanta and at Dallas.
Monday NFL Week 12: Who’s No. 1
The Eagles after a 2-2 start that had head coach Nick Sirianni’s job being questioned, are now 9-2 and a game behind the Lions (10-1) for the NFC’s top seed.
Can the Eagles catch the Lions?
Here’s a breakdown of both team’s remaining schedules.
Detroit: Chicago, Green Bay, Buffalo, at Chicago, at San Francisco, Minnesota
Philadelphia: at Baltimore, Carolina, Pittsburgh, at Washington, Dallas, Giants
If the Eagles do tie the Lions, who wins the tie-breaker? That would depend on who the Lions lose to in order to get caught.
The first tie-breaker is head to head, but the teams did not play. The next is conference record. Both of the Eagles losses were to NFC teams, as was the Lions lone loss. So the Eagles have to hope the Lions lose to one of the NFC teams remaining on the schedule.
If the conference record is the same, the next is common opponents. Both teams lost to Tampa Bay and beat the rest of their common opponents. The one left is Green Bay on the Lions’ schedule. Philadelphia would love to see the Packers beat the Lions.
Wild, Wild, West
The NFC West is going to have a fun finish.
Arizona blew a chance of putting some space between itself and the rest of the division when it lost to Seattle, Sunday.
So as it sits now, Seattle and Arizona are tied at 6-5 (Seattle has the current tie-breaker) while San Francisco and Los Angeles are both 5-6, just one game back.
Arizona plays all three of its division opponents over the final six games, as do the Rams.
Bad News Bears
One week after losing the they had a field goal blocked as time expired, the Chicago Bears food mother heart-breaking way to lose Sunday.
The Bears trailed Minnesota, 27-16 with 30 seconds to play.
They scored a touchdown.
The Bears converted the two-point try.
They recovered the onside kick.
The Bears kicked the game-tying field goal with 0:00 on the clock.
They lost in overtime.
It was the fifth straight loss for the Bears (4-7), who started the season 4-2.
Miles and Myles
Cleveland’s Myles Garrett recorded his 10th sack of the season in the Browns upset of Pittsburgh last Thursday. That gives Garrett seven consecutive seasons of 10 sacks, or more.
Only two players, since the NFL started keeping sacks as a stat, have had more consecutive 10-sack seasons. Reggie White had nine and John Randle had eight. Both White and Randle are in the Hall of Fame.
Finding a Way
The Kansas City Chiefs (10-1) improved to 8-0 in one possession games when they bounced back from their loss to Buffalo to beat the Carolina Panthers, 27-24, Sunday.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes (269 yards, 3 TDs) remained unbeaten against NFC South opponents during the regular season at 9-0. In those nine games Mahomes has 23 TD passes and just four interceptions.
Of course Mahomes has lost once to a NFC South team — Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl.
