With another Sunday of NFL action in the books, the teams with the most talent are continuing to inch closer to a berth in the playoffs. Following the most recent group of games around the league, there are now 11 teams that have six or more wins this season and the battle for playoff seeding will likely go down to the wire as usual.
Sunday’s top moments included Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater putting a uniform on for the first time in almost two seasons, Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman Adrian Clayborn finishing with six sacks (yes, six) in his team’s win over the Dallas Cowboys, and the Jacksonville Jaguars getting a big overtime win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Aside from the top NFL stories this week, what were some of the lesser known events that occurred around the league on Sunday?
Three touchdowns from DeMarco Murray powers the Titans to a win over the Bengals
Compared to his performance in 2016 (1,287 rushing yards and 12 total touchdowns), it has been a bit of a down year for Tennessee Titans running back DeMarco Murray. However, he came up big for the Titans in their Week 10 matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Tennessee scored a total of three touchdowns on Sunday in their 24-20 victory over the Bengals and all three trips inside the end zone were thanks to Murray. The Titans running back finished the game against Cincinnati with 72 total yards (42 rushing, 30 receiving) and three scores on 18 total touches.
OUDNA Alert: Three touchdowns today for Demarco Murray. #Soonerspic.twitter.com/TdfXU2PUoz
— Sooner Gridiron (@soonergridiron) November 12, 2017
His most important touchdown easily came in the fourth quarter. Down 20-17 with under five minutes remaining, Tennessee quarterback Marcus Mariota tossed a short pass to Murray, who then ran seven yards for the score and that turned out to be enough for the Titans to get the win over the Bengals.
An offensive explosion in the third quarter leads the Rams to an easy victory
At the half of their Week 10 matchup on Sunday, the Los Angeles Rams only had a two-point lead over the lesser-talented Houston Texans. Someone in the Rams’ locker room must have made an Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday-type speech during their halftime break because they came out blazing in the third quarter.
Thanks to scoring three touchdowns and forcing two turnovers, Los Angeles outscored the Texans 24-0 in the second half and captured their seventh win of the season.
With their victory over Houston on Sunday, the Rams are now 7-2 through nine games for the first time since the 2000 season. Los Angeles’ win this week also puts them in a prime position to end a draught of missing out on the playoffs that began back in 2005.
Defense gets the Bucs a win in an ugly game against the Jets
Who could have predicted that a matchup between quarterbacks Josh McCown and Ryan Fitzpatrick would not produce a ton of fireworks? Well, just about anyone who has ever seen these two signal-callers play before, that’s who.
Thanks to their defense on Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Fitzpatrick were able to squeak out a 15-10 win over McCown and the New York Jets.
The Bucs’ defense sacked McCown six times, forced two turnovers, and held the Jets offense to just 56 rushing yards on the day. As for Fitzpatrick, he served up an expected, underwhelming performance that saw him throw for 187 yards, one touchdown, and one interception.
Shout out to the fans of these two teams who forced themselves to sit through this entire game. Chugging rubbing alcohol probably would have been a more enjoyable experience.
Kyle Shanahan gets his first career victory as an NFL head coach
It took awhile, but the San Francisco 49ers and head coach Kyle Shanahan finally picked up their first win of the year on Sunday after defeating the equally-hapless New York Giants 31-21.
Heading into the fourth quarter, the 49ers only had a 17-13 lead and ending the day a victory was far from a sure thing. But thanks to scoring 14 points in the final 15 minutes of the game, San Francisco was able to beat the Giants and avoid the dreaded, winless season.
Rookie 49ers quarterback C.J. Beathard had a solid day with 288 passing yards, two touchdowns, and just one interception. His performance combined with the San Francisco defense forcing New York to commit two turnovers propelled to the 49ers to having the opportunity leave the field as winners for the first time this year.
As for the Giants, they are just bad and there is really no other way to describe it.
