Best:
Eric Berry, Safety Kansas City Chiefs
You wanna talk about a feel good story in the National Football League this season, look no further then Eric Berry. Just two years ago, he was battling cancer. Last year, he made a big comeback to the game he loves, and became a pro bowler. Now, in a homecoming of sorts, Berry made the play of the day for Kansas City. Berry, who's from Fairburn, which is just outside of Atlanta, came to his home state and made the play of the day. It was a crucial road game for the Chiefs, a game that they needed to win in order to stay in the race in the AFC West. Berry made the biggest play of the day, picking off a Matt Ryan pass on a two-point conversion and returning it for two points for his team. The Chiefs won 29-28. It brought a tear to your eye that it was the guy who won the biggest fight of his life, comes home and makes the play of the day to keep his team in the hunt.
Worst:
Colin Kaepernick, Quarterback San Francisco 49ers
He has been under fire most of the year for what he's been doing with the whole political statement that he's made during training camp and the start of the season. Now he's coming under fire again, but this time its for his horrible play on the field. Look at what happened on Sunday. It's bad enough that the 49ers got trounced 26-6 by the Bears. Kaepernick was horrible. His week 13 stat line will go down as one of the worst in NFL history. Through three quarters he had completed one of five pass attempts for a meager four yards. Kaepernick’s first completion did not come until midway through the second quarter and finished the half with -14 yards passing. He was eventually lifted in the fourth quarter in favor of Blaine Gabbert who wasn’t much better. Kaepernick was sacked five times on the afternoon for a loss of 25 yards and finished with a passer rating of just over 39. He had seemed to play a little better as of late, but this performance just put all of that decent work right down the tubes.
Best:
Travis Kelce, Tight End Kansas City Chiefs
Think it might be safe to say that Kelce has found his game again, and it showed on Sunday in the Chiefs 29-28 nail biting win over Atlanta. Kelce was targeted eight times Sunday and he caught every pass, racking up 140 receiving yards. To make this day better, 82 of those 140 yards, came after the catch. He didn’t get into the end zone for a score, but Kelce beat five different Falcons defenders for catches and QB Alex Smith had a passer rating of 118.8 when throwing the ball in his direction. He was a big reason why the Chiefs offense was able to do what they did against the Atlanta defense and kept the Falcons on their toes. Kelce was in the zone on Sunday and it was a big reason why Kansas City walked away with a big win and stayed in a tight race in the AFC West.
Worst
New York Jets
I'm sorry but I had to put them here, with how bad they played. The Jets were blasted on Monday Night Football, falling 41-10 to the Colts in an embarrassing fashion. I mean think about it, you give up two touchdowns in the opening minutes to the Colts, TY Hilton has a field day with 146 yards receiving on nine catches. Bryce Petty replaced Ryan Fitzpatrick in the second half, the defense couldn't stop a beach ball in this game, they got run over by the Indy offense. New York could do nothing right in this football game. Richie Anderson, who did have a touchdown catch, had a couple of drops. The offense couldn't get going at all, it was just a bad day overall for the Jets. They've found a way to outdo themselves on Monday night, which was a worse performance then what they put in against Arizona back in October.
Best:
Andy Dalton, QB, Cincinnati Bengals
Yeah, I thought the same thing too. A. J. Green wasn't available due to injury, it would have made things tough on Dalton to find a groove. But that's what good quarterbacks do, they still find a way to make it work without their best weapons at their disposal. Not only did Cincinnati pull out a 32-14 win over the Eagles, but Dalton had himself a good game. We got to see a glimps again of how good Dalton can really be, as he finished the day going 23 of 31 for 332 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Those throwing totals meant that Dalton completed 74.2% of his passes, which was nearly flawless on the afternoon. The Eagles didn’t get much pressure, but on the eight snaps they did hurry Dalton, he completed six passes for 103 yards and had a passer rating of 116.7. No pressure and plenty of time make Dalton's job easy and he took advantage of what he was given.
Worst:
Paxton Lynch, Quarterback Denver Broncos
This is what some would call growing pains for an NFL QB! It also goes to show that the stat of quarterback wins could be a little bit misleading. Denver had more punts in this football game then they did first downs. They had eleven punts, compared to just ten first downs. Sure Lynch had a solid day, going 12 of 24, but he threw for just 104 yards. He “won” because the other quarterback, Blake Bortles of the Jacksonville Jaguars, was even worse. Lynch did what he had to do to get by on the skin of his teeth in this football game. He started because Trevor Simian is dealing with a foot issue. Lynch's other start this year, against the Atlanta Falcons, didn't go so well either. Lynch hasn’t shown anything that would lead the Broncos to groom him next offseason to start on opening day over Siemian. Lynch has had two chances to impress the Broncos this season, and it’s hard to believe the team feels great about how those starts went.
Best:
David Johnson, Running Back Arizona Cardinals
You wanna talk about a guy who's been heating up, look no further then David Johnson. He's beginning a major assault on the record books in the NFL now. Johnson managed to accumulate 172 total yards from scrimmage against the Redskins on Sunday, walking away with a 31-23 victory for the Redskins. It was his record breaking 12th straight effort as he’s now gained more than 100 yards from scrimmage in every game this season. Johnson joins Edgerrin James as the only other player in NFL history to accomplish this feat. Johnson finised the day with 18 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown, to go along with nine cathces for 91 yards and a touchdown. He racked up 172 total yards and scored twice, helping the Cards try and hang around in this playoff race in the NFC. He’ll go for number 13 this week when the Cardinals travel to Miami to take on the Dolphins. Will he get it? We shall find out on Sunday.
Worst:
Ron Rivera, Coach Carolina Panthers
You would like to think that this would be a better move. Normally Ron Rivera makes smarter decisions then what he did this week. Carolina got blasted by the Seahawks, falling 40-7. That was bad enough, but what kicked it off was the poor decision by Rivera at the start of the game. Rivera decided to bench Cam Newton for the opening possession of the game, which was a bold move. The reason for the benching was becfause Newton wasn't wearing a tie, which was a violation of team rules. Sadly, it backfired with a INT in the first play leading to a Seahawks blowout win. The story of how far the Panthers have fallen this year has been shocking and Rivera deserves a good bit of the blame.
Best:
Jordie Nelson, Wide Receiver Green Bay Packers
When you think about the best wide receivers in football, Jordie Nelson's name is up near the top of a lot of lists, or at least in the top five on a lot of lists. This year, after recovering from a major knee injury last year, he's still be trying to regain his top flight form. Well you saw flashes of that on Sunday, in Green Bay's 21-13 win over Houston. Nelson scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, but that wasn’t his biggest play Nelson had. With the Packers facing third-and-6 at midfield with less than six minutes left, Aaron Rodgers threw one up to Nelson, who made a phenomenal catch over cornerback Kareem Jackson for 28 yards and an enormous first down. The Packers scored a key touchdown at the end of that drive and won the ballgame. Nelson finished with 118 yards. Yeah he's starting to return to form and that's huge for the Packers, who have now managed to claw back to 6-6 and stay in the race with Detroit and Minnesota in the NFC North.
Worst:
Quarterbacks Throwing Picks
It was a rough week to play quarterback in the NFL. But I have a question. What do Drew Brees, Ryan Tannehill and Carson Wentz all have in common? They each threw three interceptions as their team’s lost on Sunday. Brees fell to Detroit 28-13, Tannehill fell 38-6 to Baltimore, and Wentz lost 32-14 to Cincinnati (see above with Dalton). Each signal caller threw for one score and three picks as the trio combined for just three touchdowns compared to nine interceptions. All three quarterbacks attempted at least 40 passes as they were forced to air it out with their teams down big, not one scoring more than 14 points on the day. Wentz was the busiest of the three, having to throw the ball sixty times in the Eagles loss to the Bengals. SIXTY! That's an insane number of passes.
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