Eliminated Football Roundup: Week 15

This is a new series on the blog, and a way of displaying football customs on the blog again. We're in the part of the season where the playoff divisions are sort of set in stone, and the remaining teams are just sort of running out the clock until they get to go home and sit on their piles of money for a few months. So I figured I'd check in with the teams that have been eliminated from playoff contention, and see how they're doing amidst the circumstances.

Obviously the Patriots are a good place to start, because for the first time since the Matt Cassel era in Foxboro, the Pats won't be making a playoff appearance this year. To me, it's about time. I know it's ironic for a Yankee fan to hate an all-knowing evil monolith of a team that wins every year no matter what, but Belichick makes Brian Cashman look wholesome.

Today, against the surprisingly-fit Miami Dolphins, Cam Newton and the Patriots felt listless. The absence of decent receivers was definitely felt, and Newton's passing game felt very off today, more than usual. Alternatively, Tua Tagovailoa was running rings around Newton, putting his team up by 10, and coming back from a slow first half. 

The Pats are officially out of the picture, and the great Patriots dynasty may be dimming even further. 

Meanwhile, the Houston Texans continued their sharp slide that this season has inevitably become, with no fault towards stars like J.J. Watt and Deshaun Watson. The odd thing is, this team was pretty even with Indianapolis for most of the game, only losing by a botched reception by Kekee Coutee in the endzone in the final minutes by Houston. David Johnson had a pretty nice game, with 100 receiving yards. Watson himself was also pretty sharp today. But it came down to which team had the better all-around effort, and it was ultimately the Colts, who are likely playoff-bound. 

Elsewhere in that division, James Robinson had another fantastic day to cement his status as one of the premier rookie performers of 2020, and one of the best young running backs in the league. Unfortunately for him, he happens to be playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that would best be described as 'befuddled'. Gardner Minshew looked absolutely confused out there today. There was one specific play where the Ravens completely guessed his play-call, and he looked positively startled by it. Unsurprisingly, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens put on a show against the Jags, with 40 points against Minshew and co's measly 14. 

The Detroit Lions actually held their own for the most part during an all-too-certain loss against the Tennessee Titans. It does help that Matthew Stafford is one of the best QBs in the league this year, and had 252 passing yards today, plus two TDs to his main man DeAndre Swift. So even if the Lions are still ailing after firing Matt Patricia, they still have enough going on to be a mild spoiler going into the final weeks of the season. 

I will hand it to Matt Ryan and the Falcons- for the umpteenth week, they did have the opposing team on the ropes for the majority of the game, and greatly limited the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the first half of the game. Ryan still had 356 passing yards today. Calvin Ridley still had 163 receiving yards. However, as is prone to happen with Matt Ryan against Tom Brady, there was an epic comeback, and Brady spent the entire second half getting comfortable and turning the game upside down, culminating in the latest and greatest blown Falcons lead of 2020. It's far from Matt Ryan's fault, but the fact that Brady and the Bucs can still do epic comebacks despite still feeling like an underdog is a dangerous aspect of that team. 

And then, most surprisingly, you have the New York Jets. Who, despite going up against the formidable, 1st place Rams, still defied all odds and got their first win of the season, on the backs of Sam Darnold's non-haunted precision and Frank Gore's non-elderly touchdown. Nobody expected a Jets win here, especially not Jets fans, and despite the fact that they probably just lost the ability to draft Trevor Lawrence in April, they also blocked any chance of finishing the 2020 season without a win. Which is a bit more of a dignified way of going out, I suppose. 

Tune in next week to see which other non-competitive teams pull some odd luck in similar situations.