To begin our look back at NFL Week 15, let’s examine the Philadelphia Eagles’ come-from-ahead loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night. Future historians might just possess a new euphemism to describe a situation that went terribly wrong. Consider this possible excerpt from a future historical record:
“The situation with the reconstruction of the temple had been going quite well. But then Matt Patricia called the plays and the structure collapsed in on itself. While no one was injured, centuries of artifacts and records were irretrievably lost.”
Some future historian somewhere
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni handed the defensive playcalling duties to senior assistant Matt Patricia for Monday night’s game, taking the role from defensive coordinate Sean Desai. And in the biggest moments of the game, quarterback Drew Lock — named the starter in place of injured Geno Smith late in pregame — shredded the Eagle defense to lead Seattle to a 20-17 victory.
Despite its third straight loss, Philadelphia clinched a playoff berth and remains fifth in the NFC. The good news for the Eagles is a pillowy-soft closing schedule with home games against the New York Giants and Arizona Cardinals before a visit to the New Jersey swamps to take on the Giants again.
But the Eagles went from 10-1 juggernaut to 10-4 wild-card team faster than you can say “Matt Patricia called the plays.” That doesn’t bode well for the defending NFC champs.
Meanwhile, Seattle won for the first time in more than a month and jumped to eighth in the NFC standings, trailing the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams on tiebreakers for the last two wild-card positions.
So before Matt Patricia calls the plays on this column, it’s time to move on to the other overreactions to NFL Week 15.
5. Baker Mayfield playing his way off the scrap heap
Baker Mayfield is making himself a ton of money this season as he leads the Tampa Bay Buccaneers toward a potential third consecutive NFC South title. Mayfield dissected the Green Bay Packers’ defensive for 381 yards and four tournaments in a 34-20 that got the Bucs back to .500 with their third straight win.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft by the Cleveland Browns, Mayfield has thrown for 3,315 yards and 24 touchdowns with just eight interceptions this season. Over Tampa Bay’s three-game winning streak, Mayfield has seven TD passes and one pick.
The Buccaneers might decide he’s the guy moving forward. Mayfield will be 29 by the time the 2024 season opens, plenty young for a quarterback. Quarterbacks in the NFL draft always tantalize, but Tampa Bay could decide that the quarterback in the huddle is better than any of the quarterbacks in the combine.
And if not, Mayfield has certainly shown enough this season in a quarterback-needy NFL that someone will throw him embarrassingly large stacks of cash in free agency to be their guy.
4. Mike Tomlin needs repairs on his smoke generator and mirrors, stat!
Even without Matt Patricia calling the plays, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ season came crashing down over the last three weeks. On Monday, coach Mike Tomlin pulled the plug on Mitch Trubisky and indicated that Mason Rudolph, whose first six snaps of the season came in mop-up duty in Saturday’s 30-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, is first in line to start in Week 16.
The Steelers, in just three weeks, have gone from 7-4, second in the NFC North and the top wild-card in the AFC to 7-7, last in the North and 10th in the conference.
Trubisky oversaw yet another offensive nightmare on Saturday in Indianapolis, a season-low 216 yards total with three turnovers.
Tomlin didn’t shut the door on injured Kenny Pickett getting the ball against the Bengals. Pickett had surgery to install a device to stabilize his sprained right ankle. After a similar procedure at Pitt in 2020, Pickett missed four weeks of action.
Rudolph last started a game in 2021 and hadn’t played at all since Dec. 26, 2021, before getting the call on Saturday in Indy.
But if Mason Rudolph is your Hail Mary to save your season, you might just be out of options.
3. Brandon Staley whined his hardest but had to go
The axe fell on Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley on Friday after the man who made his reputation as a defensive coordinator helped oversee a 63-21 throttling by the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday.
Staley spent most of the last month telling any media member he could find the reasons why he deserved to retain his job. When an employee at any level is politicking publicly to keep a job despite mountains of evidence of incompetence, it’s never a good look.
General manager Tom Telesco joined Staley in carrying his belongings out of the team facility on Friday as the Chargers, irrelevant on the greater Los Angeles sports scene since returning to the city in 2017 after 56 seasons in San Diego, opted for an extreme team makeover.
Staley was 24-24 in two-plus seasons and made the playoffs in 2022, but turning a 27-0 lead into a 31-30 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Wild Card Playoff on Jan. 14 turned out to be the beginning of the end.
Giff Smith, a member of the Chargers’ staff since 2016, will serve as interim head coach for the 5-9 club, which is still mathematically in the playoff picture but fading faster than Marty McFly in that “Back to the Future” photograph.
2. Antonio Pierce may have won the full-time job for the Las Vegas Raiders
The Las Vegas Raiders bounced back from an embarrassing 3-0 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 14 to club the aforementioned Los Angeles Chargers 63-21 on Thursday night.
Provided the Raiders continue to show some fight down the stretch, interim coach Antonio Pierce could remain in place with the “interim” tag removed from his business card.
In 2021, Las Vegas rallied to make the playoffs under interim coach Rich Bisaccia. Well-liked by the players, who wanted him to stay, Raiders owner Mark Davis went another direction with Josh McDaniels. After going 9-16, McDaniels was fired on Oct. 31, making history in the process.
McDaniels is the only non-interim coach in NFL history to be fired by two teams in less than two seasons. Realistically, his head-coaching career is over.
The Raiders are 3-3 under Pierce. The players have responded well to him, like playing for him and the defense has played extremely well for the former Super Bowl-winning linebacker.
Will Davis learn from his colossal McDaniels mistake? Time will tell.
1. The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers are on a collision course
The San Francisco 49ers became the first team to clinch a division title, sewing up the NFC West with a 45-29 road win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Christian McCaffrey pushed his touchdown count to 20 in the win, rushing for 115 yards and a score while catching five passes for 72 yards, two of which ended with the guys in the striped shirts throwing their hands in the air like they just didn’t care.
Quarterback Brock Purdy has endorsed McCaffrey as the NFL MVP and considering he’s also a prime candidate, that’s telling.
The 49ers have been the best team in the league save for a three-week stretch in October when star receiver Deebo Samuel was sidelined.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens clinched a playoff berth in the AFC. They share the best record in the NFL at 11-3 and as scheduling luck would have it, the Ravens and 49ers have a Christmas night showdown on Monday as a gift for NFL fans.
Quarterback Lamar Jackson is no longer hearing the “he’s just a running back who throws a little” criticisms. Yes, Jackson is a major threat with his feet, leading Baltimore with 741 rushing yards. But he’s also completing 66.3% of his throws for 3,105 yards, averaging 8.6 air yards per attempt.
That’s not dinking and dunking. The 2019 NFL MVP is also very much in the mix for a second helping of the trophy.
The 49ers and Ravens meeting in late December is a treat for fans. A second meeting in February at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas seems a distinct possibility as well, while fully understanding the madness of the NFL playoffs has something to say about that.
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