NFL Week 15 Takeawys

NFL Week 15 review

A lot Of Expected Outcomes From Sunday’s Week 15 Slate Of games. The Bears Run Roughshod Over The Browns, the Eagles Break The Raiders, but No Philly’s Offense didn’t Look Much Better Than Anything We’ve seen From Them at Any Point This season, and the Cardinals Fell To The Overpowering Might Of The Texans' defense as Arizona HAs Lost Six Straight. The Cardinals, Tight End Trey McBride, Went Nuclear. The Seahawks Suffered A Strange Letdown And Ultimately Survived The Colts to A Score Of 18-16. Sam Darnold Finished With An Underwhelming Game: 22/36, 271 Passing Yards, and an 84.4 Passer Rating As The Seahawks Escape On A Late Field Goal. The Colts started 44-year-old Phillip Rivers, A Man On the doorstep of the Hall of Fame Before Joining The Team This Week, and He Played Like Some 40-year-old quarterbacks would, 19/27 for 120 Passing Yards, 16/18 Passes Under 10 Air Yards For 87 Yards, Still Rather Impressive For A Man Who Last Played In 1800 Days(since 2020). The Seahawks’ survival means They Move To Face The Rams, Who Dispatched The Lions on Sunday, To Give The NFC West rivals Another Shot At Number One. Rivers' Sudden Inspiration To Play Would Have Dominated The Headlines had Not The Unthinkable happened, the Chiefs Lost To the Chargers, ending Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, and Kansas City’s Run Of Playoff Appearances At 11 Years. Unfortunately, Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered an ACL tear Late In The Fourth Quarter, Ending His Season, and Just When We all Hoped The Media cycle on Mahomes Would End, Another TAlking Point Springs To Life.

Jaguars Vs. Jets

Every Analyst In The Football Brain Trust Expected The Jags To Beat A Jets team with New York Starting Their Rookie Quarterback Brady Cook, But The Score Betting Spread From Vegas Drew Eyebrows Because Of A Two two-score spread. Could Jacksonville Notorious For Playing Underwhelming In Spots When They’re Expected To Elevate and Live Up To The New Hype? The Jags Crash The Jets(Is That Bad To Say) By More Than Two Scores 48-20. The Jags move to double-figure wins on The Season, and they’ve Beaten Bad Teams Before This Season, But The Defense and Takeaways Control Those outcomes. Against the Jets, Trevor Lawrence Showed Out, 330 Passing Yards, 20/32 Passing, Five Touchdowns, 136.7 Passer Rating, with Eight Pass catches, Registering A Catch lead By Running Back Travis Etienne with Three Catches For 73 Yards. Wide Receiver Brian Thomas Jr. reeled In A Touchdown and A 39 Yard Catch, and Receiver Parker Washington had Three Catches For 53 Yards And a 33 Yard Catch downfield. The Jags Remain An Unconvincing Playoff Team In My Vote. You Have To Like Watching Them Handle The Jets, but you Have To Wonder Why The Jags Never Play To This Level We Witnessed Against The Jets every Sunday. Lawrence Had The Passing Game clicking downfield, 230 Air yards, 11.5 Air Yards Per Completion, 250 Explosive Yards On 10 Explosive Plays. Lawrence Usually Struggles in the Field Despite Possessing The Arm Talent To Easily Attempt Deep Passes. Lawrence Generated Six Total Touchdowns, Five Passing, One On The Ground, Along With 51 Yards, 41 Of On Srambles To Lead The Jags In Rushing. This Performance Moves Lawrence Slightly Abover Bryce Young In Terms Of Worse Recent Number Overall Picks. Lawrence Finished With A total EPA of +29.2 and EPA per play of +0.73. The Best Game Of His Career, in terms of EPA.

The Jags Remain A Top In The AFC South Standings as The plan To hold off The Charging Texans. Jets Wide Receiver Adonai Mitchell Caught Seven Passes For 70 Yards, including an Early Touchdown, and He’s One Of The Few Players The Jets Have To Analyze Going Into Next Season.

Patriots Vs Bills

The Patriots Control The Fate Of the AFC conference In Terms Of the Number One Seed, But They’re Far From The Super Bowl Favorites In The Conference. The Patriots' Red Zone Woes On Both Ends Of The Field, one Of Six Of Their Last Red Zone Trips Have Ended With a Successful Touchdown On Offense, and The Defense Ranks Last in Red Zone Stops, Facing The Singular Force In The Red Zone, Josh Allen. The Red Zone Success Rate For The Patriots Jumped After Week 15 As The Patriots Register A Red Zone Score On Their First Two Drives Of The Game On A Drake Maye Registering Both On Eight Yard Rushing Attempt That Put The Patriots Up 7-0 and another Seven Yard Scrambled That Push The Lead To 14-0 In The First Quarter,100% on Red zone. This Season, the Patriots simply Match Up Better Against The Bills Than In Years Past. Nearly Every Offense In Football This Season Knows They Can Run At Will Against Buffalo, as New England Demonstrated On Their First Drive Of The Game and Throughout The Game, Rushing For 177 Yards In The First Half. The Patriots Produced A Big 30-yard catch downfield from Maye To Wide Receiver Kayshon Boutt, who came down to “6-7”, a Toss-Up Catch, but I Think He Caught The Ball. Drake Maye Entered The Game Number One In Passing yards Under Pressure (1,085 passing yards and nine touchdowns Via Next Gen Stats), and He Demonstrated Excellent Poise when Pressured By The Bills. Typically, Josh Allen's mobility helps neutralize pressure, but the Patriots countered him effectively early on In The GAme With Timed Blitzes. The Bills' Offense and Josh Allen Started The Game Averaging -0.5 Per Pass attempt After The First Two Drives Of The Game For Buffalo. The Bills' Offense didn’t generate positive Yardage As a Team Until The Final Three minutes of The Second Quarter.

Patriots Rookie Running Back Treyveon Henderson Got In On The Action Scoring A 52 Yard Rushing Touchdown In The Second Quarter That Put The Patriots Up 21-0. The Bills Scored on Their Fourth Drive on 7 Plays, a 42 Yard Drive That Featured a 19 Yard Catch by Dalton Kincaid for Buffalo and A Yard Run for James Cook to Cut The 21-7 Before The half. The Bills Started The Game With two 3-and-outs and another Punt. The Bills' Offense Would Come Out Of The Second Half Cooking in the Worst Way, Two Red Zone Touchdowns, a four-yard Dawson Knox Five Yard To Finish Off A 6 Plays 44 Yard Drive, and James Cook's Buffalo Running Back Gets Buffalo A Three Yard Rushing Touchdown At The Goal Line. The Bills Entered The Fourth quarter on a 21-3 Run From The Last Drive Of The Second Quarter Through The Third, and In The Fourth Quarter scored on Four Straight Drives. The Patriots' Defense In The Second Half Especially Had No Answer In The Red Zone. The Bills Hit Five Straight touchdowns, 4/4 In The End zone. The Patriots' Defense struggled With Penalties Late and Run Fitting On James Cooks. As A Smaller Back, His Size Suggests He’s Easier to Take Down, But He's Harder to Locate Behind the Line, and He Builds Up momentum in a Short Amount of Steps. James Cook and Ty Johnson Iced The Game For Buffalo as The Bills Avenge Their Week Five Loss 35-31. The Bills Generate 283 Yards In The Second Half and Simply Overwhelm New England. Drake Maye Couldn’t Overcome the Bills' Pressure Late, As He Finished With One Of His Worse Performances Of The Season, Going 14/23 For 155 Passing Yards, Three Sacks, And 62.8 Passer Rating. New England Rushes for 246 Yards On The Ground, 171 yards on Explosive Runs, Rookie Treyveon Henderson With Two 50 Plus Yard Rushes On His Way To 14 Carries For 148, 10.6 yards per Carry, and Two Touchdowns. Drake Maye Rushes For Two Touchdowns, But His Fourth-Down Pass In The Fourth Quarter Fell Incomplete as Maye Failed To Escape The Grasp Of Bills’ Edge Rusher Joey Bosa. The Patriots' Offense Relies So Heavily On Drake Maye To Produce Yards Through The Air, 74 Yards After The Catch, Which Doesn't Allow The Offense To Switch Gears and Throw a Short Pass For someone To Make Some One Miss and Convert Or Pick up Yards. After Kayshon Boutte Caught His 30 Yard Touchdown, He Didn’t See Another Target.

Josh Allen 19/28 193 Passing Yards, Two Touchdowns, 123.1 Passer Rating, and Three Touchdowns. James Cook's 22 Carries For 107 Yards, One of the Few, if Not The Only, Rushers To blast New England For Over a hundred Yards. The Loss Takes New England Out Of The Number One Seed in The Conference, and Shaves The Patriots' Lead Down To One Game.

Chiefs Vs Chargers

The Chiefs had a remarkable journey through the playoffs, dominating the AFC West, striving for Super Bowl victories, and navigating the seemingly endless football media circus that was trying to rationalize the end of their dynasty. However, it all came to a halt with one loss to the Chargers on December 14th, 2025. The Chargers Defeat The Chiefs 16-13. The Ugly Loss Dropped Kansas City To 6-8 and Mathematically Eliminated The Quarterback And The Coach No One in Football Media Believed Would Ever Fail Like the Economist and the Housing Market Before 2008. Mahomes Left One Of The Biggest contests of His Career Against The CHARGERS late In The Fourth with a Knee Injury. Chiefs Back Up Gardner Minchew Stepped In and Threw an Interception to end the Chiefs' Hopes. Patrick Mahomes Faired No Better Against The Chargers, 16/28 189 Passing Yards, One Interception, 62.9 Passer Rating, and The Chargers Registered 21 Pressures and Five Sacks. Both Teams Played a Muddied Brand of Football, But the Chargers Won the Time of Possession Game, Penalty Game, and the Turnover Game Thanks To The Late Pick. For The Chargers, Justin Herbert is Still Recovering From Injury, 19/29 Passing, For 210 Passing Yards, 84.0 Passer Rating, And Four Sacks. The Chargers Sweep Patrick Mahomes And Move To 10-4 Further Solidifying Their Place In The playoff Picture Only Los Angeles’s Early Lost To The Colts Leaves Room For Some Form of Slippage Heading Into The Final three Weeks of The Season. the Chiefs Entered This GAME with The Number One Offense In Terms Of EpA Per Play But The Offense Couldn’t Get Much Going After a Early Touchdown To Start The game. The Chiefs Autopsy Report will be released this week, and a clearly flawed team, no longer propped up by scheme and execution, will face grave consequences. Patrick Mahomes Finished With a -0.05 EPA Per Play, -1.9 Total EPA, -5.3 Completion Percentage Over Expected, and -9.9 EPA Lost To Interceptions and Sacks.

Panthers Vs Saints

The Final Week of the bye week takes effect in Week 1 as the Patriots, Panthers, Giants, and 49ers All Take A Reprieve Ahead Of The Final Four Weeks Of The Season. NFL Bye Weeks Don’t Have a Structured Base On The Computer Model That Builds the Schedule Based on Thousands of Computations, but Not “Rule of Thumb” for Teams who Don’t Control How the NFL Exists, I’m pretty sure Most Want Their Rest week Later in the Season. The Panthers had built some Form Of Momentum Before Their Break, and Each Time This Season The Panthers pull Off An Upset, They Make Spectators Believe They Will Build Momentum. Instead, They Lose To The Saints, The Team They Face in Week 15, as the Panthers Come Off An Upset Of The Rams. I Wanted The Panthers To Have A Game The Following Week And Build On The Largest Upset Of The Season Thus Far. The Break May Influence Panthers Head coach Dave Canales. May Think The Game Plan Like The Pass-Heavy Approach He took Against The Niners Following The Panthers Upset Over The Falcons the Week Before. As the Panthers Approach Another Chance To Avoid An Upset At The Hands Of The Saints, Carolina Looks To Somehow Secure A playoff Berth. The Saints No Longer Serve As an Easy Outing. They’re Approach Top Ten Defensive Status For The Season And Have Played Like A Top Five defense Over The Past Few Weeks Or So. The Saints' pass Defense Has Generated sub-60 Passer Ratings Of Three of the quarterbacks Their Last Quarterbacks Faced, Including The Panthers’ and Quarterback Bryce Young Three Weeks Ago. Bryce Young threw one Of The Prettiest Moon Balls In Football after He Dropped A 33 Yard Bomb To Wide Receiver Jalen Cooker, But The Panthers fell short, Suffering Their Second Upset This Season At The Hands Of The Saints. New Orleans single-handedly continues to Make The NFC South race more and More Interesting. The Saints upset the Buccaneers in Week 14, which opened the Door For Carolina To Take First Place In The South After The Bucs Lost To Atlanta. The Panthers Would’ve Created More Room Between Them And The Bucs With A Win Instead. Carolina Suffers A Sweep At The Hands Of The Saints After a 20-17 Loss. Saints Rookie Quarterback Tyler Shough Finished With An Excellent Game, 24/32 Passing, 272 Passing Yards, One Touchdown, 110.4 Passer Rating, and Led The Saints In Rushing 8 Carries For 32 Yards Though He Suffered an injury On A Late Game Run as He Led The Saints From Down 10 In The Third Quarter. With The Game Tied 17-17 With Less Than Three Minutes Left In THE game, Bryce Young couldn’t Deliver One Of His Patented Game-Winning Drives. Instead, the Panthers ended their Fourth Quarter Downs, Punt, Punt, and A Last Second Fumble. The Win Gives The Saints The Best Record in the Division And Returns The Crown To The Bucs, Who Prepare For Their First Of Two meetings With The Panthers in Week 16. Neither the Bucs nor the Panthers enters Week 16 With Momentum On Their Side, Though The Bucs Returned To Full Strength On offense, So They Remain The Most Worthy Team To Win The Division.

Packers vs. Broncos

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin popularized The Refrain “Death and Taxes”, The Two Certainties Of Mortal Life, a Phrase Most People In Western Society Accept without Objection. The Idiom Has Even Grown Legs, So To Say, Since Franklyn’s Age, as Religious People Have Added The Name Of “Jesus”, The Holy One, As Another Certainty Of Life. In 2025, NFL “Bo Nix In The Fourth Quarter, Davante Adams In The Red Zone” has become Certainties Of Themselves In Arena Of Football, and on Sunday, the Packers Hope To Make an Objection To One Of The Inevitabilities.

Packers Edge Rusher Micah Parsons has a Petition To Have His Name Join The Ranks Of The Inevitable. As A Pass Rusher, he’s Second In The League In 4th Quarter Pressure and first in Quick Pressures, according to The Athletic. Nix Has The second-best sack Rate in Football, 3.3% and 70% Completion Percentage over His Past Three Games, but Nix Still Lacks A “Complete Game” To Fill Out His Resume Yet This Season. Bo Nix Threw For Four Touchdowns, 302 passing Yards, As The Broncos overcame a 23-14 Deficit In The Third Quarter to pull away From The Packers 34-26. The Game Ended On Five Straight Drives Of Offensive Futility For Both Teams As Both Defenses Ramped Up Late To Help Secure A Victory. The Packers' Offense Sputtered After an Early Fourth Quarter Field Goal, Finishing The

Fourth Quarter: With An Interception, a Turnover on Downs, and another Downs. The Broncos' Fair No Better Though Their Touchdown In The Fourth Quarter Extended Their One Point Lead To An Eight Point Lead Before Their Offense Generated Just 15 Yards On Eight Plays After Wards. The Broncos are currently holding the number one seed in the AFC. If the playoffs were to go through Denver, their defense, which generated a 52% pressure rate against Jordan Love and the Packers, could propel the Broncos straight into the Super Bowl with their tough style of football. Packers’ Edge Rusher Micah Parsons Suffered a Scary Non-Contact Injury In Pursuit Of Bo Nix, and Some Speculation Suggests the Injury Could Prove a Major Blow To The Packers' Super Bowl Hopes. Jordan Love finished 24/40 for 276 Passing Yards, One Touchdown, two interceptions, +4.0% Completion Percentage Over Expectation, 68.3 Passer rating, and Three Sacks. The Packers' Defense Failed To Sack Nix once the entire Game. The Packer finished with three receivers with 50 Or More Yards, but their offense lacks that singular force who can go get open or the player who takes the defense's Full Attention And Opens Up Opportunities For Others, and That Limits The offense's Upside. Nix Finished 23/34 For 302, Four Touchdowns, and A Passer Rating Of 134.7 In A Complete Performance For Him and His Team. The Broncos Have One Of Those Heliocentric Forces Outside(Sort Of). Courtland Sutton 7 Catches For 113 Receiving Yards One Touchdown.

Rams Vs Lions

The Rams And Lions Meet In Week 15 With So Many Narrative Thread That Compose This Showdown, I Can’t Believe The NFL Didn’t Flex This Game into Primetime. These Two Teams Meet on Sunday Nearly On The Opposite end Of Where They Each Sat Last Season. in 2024 The Rams Overcame Another Sub .500 Start, Wtachinf The Odds All the Way, Then Winning their Division and came One Upset Away From Nearly Making The NFC Champion, This Season The Rams Have Complete Control Of Their Fate As The Number One Seed In NFC With Their Toughest Competition Coming From Within NFc west From The Seahawks. The Lions won the NFC Regular Season in 2024, Fending Off Their Division Rival Vikings, Suffered An Upset In The Divisional Round, and in 2025, the Lions Need Every Win Down The Stretch to secure A Wild Card Spot In the NFC, with The Division Completely Out Of Reach. The Stafford-Goff Trade and All The Other pieces Involved Always reign as The Prominent Storyline Between These Two Teams, Even To The Point You Could Wish The Rams and Lions Played More Than Twice a Year. Jared Goff Took Over the Rams, The Number One Pick Of 2016, and eventually led them To A Super Bowl. Before Goff Arrived In Detroit, Ineptitude Had Long Loomed Over The Franchise; Not Even Stafford’s Talent Could Come to The Fueled Failure Of Detroit. Stafford Won The Rams A Super Bowl, And The Assembly Of Picks and Goff Traded for Him Lifted Detroit Into The Upper Echelon Of The Conference, Even As They Hit A Decline This Season.

After Drake Maye Played HimSelf Out Of The Conversation For MVP in The Patriots' Loss To The Bills And over The Weeks, Matthew Stafford Stepped Into The Void As the Clear Front Runner, But He’s Become Bored, I Believe, Like a Magician UnImpressed With His Own Tricks and Magic. The 37-year-old Stafford Easily Carved Through Defenses, Gets The Ball Off Before Pressure, and Deceives Defensive Backs With The Trick Shot Throws he Can Get Careless, Trusting His Skills To Always Win. Lions Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson Jumps The Passing Lane On an Early Stafford Pass, Getting The Interception and Returning The Ball Into The Rams Territory, setting Up A Goff To Amon-ra Touchdown and 7-0 Lions Lead. Stafford and the Rams Missed A lot Of Shots downfield early In The Game, Then On Fourth Down Twice, Stafford Would Locate His Top Receiver, Puka Nacua, For The Conversion. The Rams' Forst Scoring Drive Goes For 13 Plays, 72 Yards, and Fourth Quarter End Zone Score. Jared Goff Really Had The Lions Offense Cooking Early, Three Passing Touchdowns in The First Half, and His Connection with Amon-ra St. Brown Proved Just As Devastating as Stafford and Nacua. St. brown Generated 127 First yards With Two Touchdowns To Match Nacua’s 120 In The First Half, but Jameson Williams' 31 Yard Touchdown Made The Difference. In The Second Half, The Rams' Offense Took Off 17 Unanswered Points In The Third Quarter Alone As Their Point Lead Melted Into A Point Deficit. Nacua Looked Unstoppable. Nothing the Lions intended Worked Against Him In The Passing Game, and While Tight End Colby Parkinson and running back Blake Corum Cashed In Touchdowns, Nacua completed Big Catches That Set The Offense Up In The Red Zone For Corum with a 39 Yard Catch and run. The Rams Took A 34-24 Lead Into The fourth quarter, and the Lions hadn’t produced a First Down In The Third Quarter. Goff Completed Just one Just 1/3 pass in The Third Quarter As The Rams' Defense Started Ramping Up The Pressure. The Rams Prove Too Much In The End, Shutting Down The Lions' Run Game, and Tom Brady Made Mention That Outside Of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, and Maybe Jahmyr Gibbs, The Offense Lacks Reliable Targets Out Wide Without Tight End Sam Laporta In The Offense. The Lions' Defense is Complete Swiss Cheese For Stafford and the Rams' Run Game. The Defense Needed To Secure Another Turnover To Slow Down Stafford’s Pace, and They Couldn’t. The Score 10 Points In The Fourth Quarter But Fall Short As The Rams Continued Churning out Yards On The Ground and Keeping The Lions Offense Off The Field As The Rams advance To A Playoff Berth With The One Seed In Hand 41-34. A Nuclear Game From Puka Nacua 9 Catches For 181 Receiving Yards as He Led The Charge In The Come Back Win. Matthew Stafford Shook Off The Worrisome Start 24/38 368 Passing Yards Two Touchdowns, 101.6 Passer Rating. Jared Goff had a Solid Game, 25/41 for 338 Passing Yards, Three Touchdowns, But The Effort Proved Futile In The Face Of The Rams' Defense. Amon-Ra St. Brown 13 Catches For 164 Receiving Yards, Two Touchdowns, and 7 Catches for 134 Receiving Yards, One Touchdown. Detroit Couldn’t Run The Ball Much All Game and One Touchdown. The Loss Drops The Lions to sub-50% 50% Playoff Odds, And They’ll need Some Serious Help To Make Another Playoff Run. Without now, Making The playoffs looks Improbable. This roster will become increasingly expensive without new deals for players like Jahmyr Gibbs or Brian Branch in place. Those Years Of Excellent Drafts Have A Future Price Tag, and Lions Will Suffer Some Serious Turnover Potentially Next Season.

Tampa Bay Vs Atlanta

The Bucs Have Won The NFC South In Four Straight seasons twice with Brady and Twice With Baker Mayfield After The Saints Won The previous four. After Brady’s Second Season, When The Team went 13-4 and Won The division, going away, the Bucs have Battled With The Rest Of The South To Maintain Their Hold On The Division, and With Their Place as The Only winning Team In The Division, they’ll Have To Fend Off The Unexpected Rise Of The Panthers. The Problem This Time, Unlike In Years Past, Baker Mayfield Enters The Final weeks Of The Season Struggling Down The stretch. In Week 14, He Registered His fourth straight Game With Less Than 200 Yards Passing, and He’s Completed Just Three Passes Of 10 Or More Air Yards Or Better, and the third-worst off-target Pass Percentage In Football Over The Past Three Games.

The Bucs Offense Returned To Full Strength In Week 15. Second-Year Pro Jalen McMillian Made His Season Debut, and Franchise Leader In Receptions Mike Evans Returns For The First Time Since Week Three, But The Falcons rallied in The Fourth quarter from A Touchdown Deficit as the Bucs came up Short 29-28, Falling Out of First Place In The NFC South. Mike Evans Announced His Return In A Big Way, 6 Catches For 132 Receiving Yards, and Evans Bullied Atlanta’s Secondary For Most Of The Game. Unfortunately For Tampa, The Rest Of The Receiving Core Couldn’t Boost the Same Fortune. Jalen McMillian Nearly Caught a Touchdown In the First Quarter with a 19-yard Catch(Reversed From A 20 Yard Score) That Set Tampa Up At The Yard Line, which Set Up A Sean Tucker Yard Run. But the Falcons' Pass Defense recovered a lot Of The “Mojo” From Their early-season success facing Tampa’s 30th-ranked passing Attack In Terms Of Success Rate. The Falcons' Pass Rush sacked Mayfield five times and Pressured Him 26 Times On 40 drop-backs, and Those Sacks and Pressures Kept The Bucs From Running Away With The Game, and One Sack By Jalon Walker Basically Ended The Game For Tampa Late In The Fourth Quarter. The Falcons' Defense Forced The Bucs Into Multiple third-and-long situations In The First Half. Some ended In Punts, Others In Field Goals. Mayfield Found A lot Of Success Downfield, Including A Stretch In The Second quarter on Tampa’s Fourth When Mayfield Completed Passes of 12, 12, and 19 Yards In A Row Before The Bucs ultimately settled for a Field goal. Mayfield finished 19/34(55.9%) for 277 Passing Yards, -0.02 EPA Per Pass Play, Two Touchdowns, One Pick, 90.0 Passer Rating, 84.5% Air Yards, +2.4 Completion percentage Over Expected, and 0.21 EPA per play. Mayfield Produced A Good Game, But Overall, the Falcons' Pass Defense Won This Matchup, and Kirk Cousins outdueled Mayfield in the Fourth Quarter. Most Football Analysts Pronounced Kirk Cousins’ Career Over, and The Stats and Data Support His Career Demise, But Cousins Turned Back The Clock against Tampa, Playing Without Top Wide Out Drake London. Cousins finished 30/44 for 372 passing Yards, 54.8% After The catch, 17.1 Yards After The Catch EPA, Three Touchdowns, and one game-winning Drive. Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts Produced A World Of A Game 165 Receiving yards, 11 Catches Three Touchdowns As Help Atlanta Produce Ten Explosive Pass Plays as The Offense Scheme To Take Advantage Of His Size and Maneuverability In The Open Field And Help Atlanta Convert A 3rd And 28 Into A Converted 4th & 14 On 21 Yard Catvh by Wide Receiver David Sills On The Final Drive Of The Game That Ultimately Won The Contest For The Falcons. Sills Filled Some Of The Void Opened By The Absence Of Wide Receiver Drake London and Finished With 78 Yards And dropped a wide Open Bomb In The Third Quarter. Pitts Produced Three Pass Plays Of 15 or more Yards downfield, either Through The Air Or a part of 88 Yards After The Catch. Pitt's First Two Touchdowns help Atlanta build a 14-13 first-half lead. Tampa’s Linebacker Lavonte David Gave Up 85 Yards In Coverage, Mostly Against Pitts. The Falcons' Offensive Coordinators Stopped Scheming or Adding Wrinkles to Their Offense for Pitts after his Breakout Season, Simply Because Scheming for Drake London and Bijan Robinson proved More Effective. The Falcons Never Acquired The Quarterback With The Capability To Create The Force Of Nature Pitts Can Become Based On The Talent Level He’s Demonstrated At a point In His Career.

The Bucs' Pass Defense Had No Solution As The Falcons Overcame Their Own Late Turnover, A Fumble By Running Back Bijan Robinson To Force A Late Fourth Quarter Interception By Baker Mayfield. The Bucs Finished With a 52% success Rate, and Baker’s Downfield Passes, Something He Struggled With In Recent Weeks, looked a lot Better, 2/4 on passes 20 Air Yards Or More For 78 Yards. The Falcons Tried For Two Points After Both Of The two fourth-quarter touchdowns They Scored and Succeeded At Neither, But The defense's Success In the Fourth quarter, an Interception and Forced Punt, opened the Door for a Winning Field Goal. The Loss Puts The Panthers In The driver's Seat In The Division. Carolina Faces Tampa Bay Twice Along The Final weeks Of The Season. The Bucs Finished With a Rushing Success Rate Of 50, But Couldn’t Run The Ball Much In The Fourth Quarter. The Bucs Defense Allowed +0.29 EpA Per Pass Play, Generating 27 Pressures But Just One Sack. The Bucs Defense Ranks 9th In Pressure Rate But 18th In Sack Rate. Sacks Hurt Offense Far Greater Than Simple Pressures, As We Saw from The Bucs In a Game With Their Offense At Full Strength, and By Not Getting Home Consistently, The Bucs Defense Continues to Play Against The Leverage, Leaving Yards and Plays On The Field. Even though the Tampa Bay Offense ‘shuddered’ In The Fourth Quarter. I Like Tampa Bay and The Options They Have In The Receiving Game. Chris Godwin Caught A Fourth Touchdown and a Point Conversion To Put up 28-14 With 13 Minutes Left in The Fourth.