Steelers, Commanders start the playoffs early

Pittsburgh's 28-27 win leads the way to a month of high-powered NFL showdowns.

Zach Ertz couldn’t cross the line. Johnny Newton crossed it all too obviously. Washington lost the NFC East lead Sunday because of the agony of those feet. When you’re suddenly trying to win division championships instead of counting the days until the end of the 17th game, every line is fine.

The Commanders and Jayden Daniels, their heretofore divine rookie quarterback, played the Steelers, who give the final exams in this league. Since it’s a pass-fail situation, it didn’t matter that Washington played B-plus football. The 28-27 loss probably isn’t enough to drain Washington’s confidence, but it did mean Philadelphia is now the NFC East leader. It sets up Washington’s Thursday game at Philadelphia, and leads us into a phase of the season where everything gets real.

The Steelers had just gone ahead when Russell Wilson hit Mike Williams, acquired this week, with a 32-yard TD pass at the 2:27 mark. That made it 28-27 and gave Daniels the last at-bat. On fourth-and-9 from the 50, Daniels hit Ertz, the old Eagle, down the middle, and Ertz wriggled and struggled against Pittsburgh’s Damontae Kazee and reached out with the ball to get to the “line to gain,”. The refs ruled he did not, and the replay camera agreed.

But coach Dan Quinn had saved his three time outs. He used them as the Steelers tried to get a clinching first down. With 1:02 left, the Steelers lined up to go for fourth and one on the Commanders’ 49. Had Washington stopped them, Daniels would be in business near midfield. It all became hypothetical when Newton, a rookie from Illinois who had started throwing his weight around, along with some linemen, in recent weeks, breached the neutral zone. The flags came out, and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin handed his headset to an assistant. The Steelers were 7-2 and a half-game clear of Baltimore, their dear NFC North friends and their opponent in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

That’s not even the clear main event. Kansas City, undefeated yet unsteady, goes to Buffalo Sunday.

On Nov. 25, Baltimore comes west to play the Chargers in yet another Har-bowl, between the brotherly coaches, and the Eagles play the Rams in L.A. the night before. That’s also the Sunday the 49ers go to Green Bay. On Dec. 1, the Eagles go to Baltimore. On Dec. 5 the Lions play host to the Packers. On Dec. 8, the Chargers go to Kansas City.

Few of those games will decide who’s in the playoffs and who’s not. But they will help decide division champs, playoff byes, and homefield advantages. Plus, they’ll bring out whatever emotion still lives in all those broken bodies. 

Of those, the Steelers might have the most room to progress or, as Steve Kornacki might say, the most outstanding votes. Sunday was Russell Wilson’s third start. He tossed three touchdown passes and went 14 for 28, and he showed that he knows where the snap and crackle live in the Pittsburgh offense. George Pickens can be an infuriating soloist at times, but he’s capable of more gasp-worthy catches than anyone else in the NFL. In this one he caught five passes for 91 yards.

The oft-injured Williams was with the Jets and caught onto the playbook right away. Linebacker Preston Smith, a former Super Bowl MVP with the Seahawks, also came to the Steelers at the trade deadline, and he played extensively, getting a sack.  T.J. Watt is out for a couple of weeks with an MCL sprain, so one can expect some extra fire coming through his nose when he returns.

With Najee Harris running for 102 yards, the Steelers proved they have multiple paths to victory, and maybe another Super Bowl, too.

As for Daniels, his 68.5 passer rating was his low for the season, but Washington led 24-14 early in the third quarter. Ahead 27-21 with 7:05 left, the Commanders knocked the ball loose from Jaylen Warren on their own goal line, and Jeremy Chinn recovered it. But that was just a postponement. Daniels couldn’t get a first down and Washington had to punt from its own three, and Wilson took it from there.

In September the Commanders and their few remaining paying customers would have celebrated a 7-3 start to this season. Now there’s a wary glimpse at what lies below, and the reality of the schedule catching up. What’s really hard to comprehend, as you watch the Christmas car commercials, is that teams like Washington have seven games left. They aren’t even turning for home yet. So for Daniels and his ambitious mates, it’s good to learn the hard lessons now. Some days, it’s a game of flinches.

More NFL confetti:

Detroit 26, Houston 23

— You couldn’t have fit an emery board in the space between Jake Bates’ game-winning kick and the upright, but he made the 52-yarder nonetheless. His 58-yarder with five minutes left was just as tight a squeeze. His Lions lived on a similar high wire, falling behind 23-7 before deciding to hang onto the football and winning the second half 19-0.

— Jared Goff became the fourth NFL quarterback to throw five interceptions on the road and still win. He had thrown four all season. His 37-yard pass to Sam LaPorta set up David Montgomery’s touchdown, and a 24-yarder to Montgomery led to a 9-yard TD pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown. The kickers took over from there. In between Bates’ field goals, Houston’s Ka’imi Fairbairn tried a 58-yarder that drifted wide right. That set up Detroit (8-1) on its own 48, and Goff needed only one third down conversion, to St. Brown, to get Bates into position.

— Bates was working at the Acme Brick Company (no, Wile E. Coyote was not his supervisor) in the Houston area this time last year. He caught Detroit’s eye with his kicking in the UFL this spring and hasn’t missed a field goal yet for the Lions. C.J. Stroud threw two picks of his own, but also hit John Metchie with a scoring pass for the Texans (6-4). It was Metchie’s first NFL score. The Alabama alum missed the 2022 season with leukemia treatments.

Kansas City 16, Denver 14

— They are cutting it closer than a Lasix surgeon, but the Chiefs are 9-0 and have won 15 consecutive games, the longest NFL winning streak since the Packers did it in 2010. This time Leo Chenal was one of several Chiefs who caved in Denver’s field goal unit and blocked a 35-yard, game-winning try by Wil Lutz.

—  Statistically, rookie Bo Nix outplayed Patrick Mahomes, and his TD passes to Courtland Sutton and DeVaughn Vele, a 7th-round rookie from Utah, had Denver ahead, 14-3. The Broncos defense sacked Mahomes four times, hit him nine times, and held him to one TD, a 2-yarder to Travis Kelce.

– The Chiefs ground their way to within 14-13. Then Nick Bolton’s 16-yard sack of Nix stopped a Denver (5-5) bid. Two series later Mahomes connected with DeAndre Hopkins on a 31 yarder that led to a 20-yard kick by Harrison Butker. A hiccup by Butker on the kickoff set Denver up on its 40, and Nix converted three third downs until the game-killing block. Kansas City won in overtime over Tampa Bay last week, and seven of the nine wins have been by seven or fewer points.

San Francisco 23, Tampa Bay 20

— It’s been a hellish month or so for the Bucs, who have lost four consecutive games and also primo receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. But they’ve been a tough out all along, and they led the 49ers 17-13 on Bucky Irving’s touchdown with 14:24 left. But the 49ers (5-4) responded with Brock Purdy hitting Christian McCaffrey for 30 yards and then finding George Kittle for an 11-yard score.

— Tampa Bay tied it 20-20 after an 11-play drive, but with 41 seconds left Purdy hit Jauan Jennings for 13 yards and set up a 44-yarder by Jake Moody, who had missed three previously. He drilled this one and sent the Bucs, the only team to beat Detroit this year, to a deceptive 4-6 record.

–= Tampa Bay did not have a 20-yard play all day and averaged 3.7 yards per play, but the snapshot of the game will be Baker Mayfield, running right while Nick Bosa was trying to pull his arm off and still completing a pass to Rachaad White for a first down. McCaffrey made his season debut (Achilles) and had 132 all-purpose yards, and Jennings caught seven passes for 93 yards.

Baltimore 35, Cincinnati 34

— The Ravens had a very Poe first half offensively, but Lamar Jackson is a 60-minute man. He went 25 for 33 for 290 yards and threw four touchdowns with no interceptions, and had a 141.4 passer rating, on top of last week’s 158.3. The Ravens scored touchdowns on their final four possessions and Jackson found Rashad Bateman with a 5-yard scoring pass at the 1:49 mark of the fourth quarter.

— But Joe Burrow was just as prolific. He chucked it 56 times, 17 times to Ja’Marr Chase, who caught touchdowns of 83, 70 and six yards. Burrow was knocked around severely, withstanding 13 hits and getting sacked three times. But Burrow hit Chase with 0:38 left, and coach Zac Taylor ordered a 2-point, do-or-die conversion at the end, and Burrow threw incomplete to Tanner Hudson. Burrow was hit in the face mask on the play, and there appeared to be considerable defensive holding by the Ravens, to the point that Al Michaels of Amazon Prime called out the late-game officiating.

— The Bengals had a 21-7 lead at the ball midway through the third period. But Marlon Humphrey tackled Chase Brown and forced a fumble, and Raquon Smith recovered it for the Ravens. Derrick Henry scored for Baltimore five plays later and the train started rolling.

New Orleans 20, Atlanta 17

— There’s nothing like that New Coach Smell, even though Darren Rizzi talked about “clogging the toilet” when he got up Sunday morning. Rizzi, the special teams coach, succeeded Dennis Allen, who was fired Monday, and the Saints found the energy they used when they started 2-0, seven losses ago. Derek Carr found Marques Valdez-Scantling for two touchdowns and 105 yards, and Tyrann Mathieu intercepted Kirk Cousins at the end.

– Ugo Amadi had three tackles for loss for New Orleans, which had to play over 35 minutes but kept Falcons receivers out of the end zone. Normally the Falcons have an edge in close games because of kicker Yonghoe Koo, but he had a field goal blocked and missed two others.

— There are few safer jobs in the NFL than playing quarterback against the Falcons (6-4), who did not sack Carr and hit him only once. It was the fourth sackless game of the year for Atlanta, which has had nine in 10 games and, instead of addressing this issue in the draft, picked quarterback Michael Penix, after they had already gone big to trade for Cousins.

Philadelphia 34, Dallas 6

— This was a name-your-score affair from the moment that Dak Prescott was ruled out of action. Cooper Rush lost two turnovers early and was replaced by Trey Lance, who wasn’t much better. CeeDee Lamb lost what might have been a touchdown pass in the glare of AT&T Stadium and, afterward, asked for some shades to prevent that, which owner Jerry Jones dismissed. The Cowboys are 3-6 and, as social media connoisseurs already know, have become America’s Meme.

— The Eagles are 5-0 since their bye week and 7-2 overall, and they replaced Washington atop the NFC East. A.J. Brown caught five passes for 109 yards, and Jalen Hurts went 14 for 20 and ran for eight years a pop. He also survived five Dallas sacks, two by Micah Parsons in his return. Meanwhile, the Philly defense held Lamb to 21 yards on six catches.

— It was the second time Philadelphia had denied a ‘24 opponent any explosive plays. Zack Baun, one of the emerging defensive playmakers, forced two fumbles. On the other side, Dallas is 0-4 since a win at Pittsburgh, and has given up 138 points in those losses.  

L.A. Chargers 27, Tennessee 17

— Will Levis returned to action in L.A. Sunday and would have preferred a little less. The Chargers sacked him seven times, giving them 18 sacks in their past three games. Levis still managed a 127 passer rating, hit 18 of 23 passes and had a 41-yard touchdown to Calvin Ridley, but the Titans became the 10th Chargers opponent, out of 10, that came up short of 21 points.

— Justin Herbert was 9-for-9 in the second half for the Chargers (7–3). After Derius Davis returned a kickoff 56 yards, Herbert threw a 16-yard touchdown to the improving Quentin Johnston. In the fourth quarter the Chargers ended all doubt with a 95-yard drive that warmed Jim Harbaugh’s heart, since it featured nine runs in 11 plays, and put L.A. ahead 27–10.

— Six different Chargers had a tackle for loss, and linebacker Daiyan Henley was in on 13 tackles. Tuli Tuipulotu continued his fine work with two sacks, giving him five-and-a-half in the past three weeks.

Minnesota 12, Jacksonville 7

— The Lions weren’t the only team which had to overcome its own quarterbacking. Sam Darnold threw three interceptions to keep the Vikings from rolling over the Jaguars. They had the ball for more than 42 minutes and snapped the ball 39 times in Jacksonville territory, but couldn’t manage a touchdown and went 0-for-5 in the red zone. Nevertheless, they improved to 8-2.

— The Vikings’ defense made it just as hard on Matt Jones, subbing for Trevor Lawrence. It had three sacks and eight tackles for loss, and gave up no touchdowns after Jones piloted a 70-yard drive on the Jaguars’ first series. In fact, Jacksonville (2-8) never snapped the ball in Vikings’ territory after that drive. But two of Darnold’s interceptions came in the red zone.

— It wasn’t the right day to come see LSU alumni receivers. Brian Thomas Jr., whose rookie year has been one of the Jaguars’ few highlights, caught two for 12 yards. Justin Jefferson was targeted nine times and caught five for 52.

Buffalo 30, Indianapolis 20

— There was another pickfest in Indianapolis. Josh Allen threw two to the Colts, Joe Flacco three to the Bills. One difference was that Buffalo’s Taron Johnson intercepted Flacco and returned it 23 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. Another was Allen’s constant threat as an emergency runner. After he threw 34 yards to Dalton Knox, he ran 13 yards for the score that put Buffalo ahead, 17-13.

— Pass rusher Greg Rousseau forced and recovered a sack fumble against Flacco that led to a Bills’ field goal, and Buffalo’s defense hit Flacco six times. As for Allen, that was his first two-interception game of the year and the first time this season that he hasn’t thrown a touchdown. But James Cook kept the offense on point with 80 yards rushing.

— Jonathan Taylor cracked open a 58-yard run, reminding Colts’ fans how much they’d been missing with Taylor hurt. But he didn’t have much of a chance late in the game, as Allen supervised two 13-play drives that led to 10 Buffalo points.

/New England 19, Chicago 3

— With three consecutive games coming up against NFC North playoff contenders, the Bears (4-5) might be reaching a breaking point, or at least a firing point when it comes to head coach Matt Eberflus and/or offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. They went without a touchdown for the second consecutive plays and had no 20-yard plays. How bad is it when New England (3–7) is the most explosive team on the field?

— Caleb Williams was sacked nine times and has completed 50.5 percent of his passes in the past three weeks. The Bears were 1 for 14 on third down and gained 142 net yards.

— Drake Maye, who was the No. 3 pick in the draft while Williams was No. 1, is 2-2 as a New England starter, although he was only 15 for 25 for 184 yards. Maye converted three third downs on the Pats’ only touchdown drive, including a 24-yarder to Austin Hooper, and a two-yard TD pass to Ja’Lynn Polk.

Arizona 31, N.Y. Jets 6

— Kyler Murray is playing the most disciplined and efficient football of his career, and you can throw “brilliant” in there, too, on Sunday. The former Heisman winner was 22 for 24 and got touchdowns on two of his three runs. “He was the best football player on the planet today,” said coach Jonathan Gannon. The Cardinals, now 6-4 and hanging onto first place in the NFC West, got touchdowns in four of their five red zone trips and were 5 for 7 on third down.

— Meanwhile the Jets slumped to 3-7 and did not have a play longer than 15 yards. Aaron Rodgers only got 151 yards out of his 35 pass attempts, and the Jets were nearly doubled up in total yardage, 406–207.

— Gannon was the Eagles’ defensive coordinator before he came to Arizona in 2023, and he is constructing a stout, if anonymous, defense. Budda Baker had three tackles for loss Sunday, and the Cardinals sacked Rodgers three times, including a sack fumble they recovered. Arizona hasn’t given up a touchdown in its past two games.

Carolina 20, N.Y. Giants 17 (OT)

— Playing in Munich, the Panthers (3-7) found a continent in which Bryce Young can thrive, although the opponent might have had something to do with it. Young has a 2-game win streak for the first time in his career, hitting 15 of 25 passes. His best move was to hand off to Chuba Hubbard, who took 28 carries 153 yards as the Panthers built a 17-7 lead.

— Daniel Jones drove the Giants to Graham Gano’s tying field goal, and he began overtime with a handoff to Tyrone Tracy, who had gained 103 yards on 18 carries. But A’Shawn Robinson stripped the ball and Josey Jewell recovered it, setting up Eddy Piniero’s game-winning 36-yard field goal. Jones was intercepted twice and sacked twice in going 22 for 37, and had only one completion over 20 yards.

— The Giants had 24 first downs and possessed the ball for 34:29, but still lost their fifth consecutive game and are 2-8. During that losing streak they have scored 67 points.