10 Awards and Superlatives from Week 12: A choke job in Dallas

It was a busy Sunday in the NFL. Week 12 gave us three overtime games and a handful of come-from-behind wins/offensive collapses. For the most part, you either really enjoyed what you watched or you hated it, and thought about bleach and ammonia proportions. 

There are a bunch of things that aren’t that polarizing, and that’s where we get the awards. These are the players, the coaches, and the games that deserve to be called out for the good, the bad, and the unfortunate.

NFL awards and superlatives: The good, the bad, and dumb from Week 12

Let’s be positive first and talk about a fun game with a billion yards of offense and two of the most electric players in the NFL. 

Game of the Year of the Week: Lions/Giants

The Lions were coming off a loss where their offense only scored nine points. It really felt like Week 12 was a great spot for them to get right; it felt like they were going to slaughter the Giants…

But you can’t kill what’s already dead, and the Giants are very, very dead… and that’s exactly where Jameis Winston thrives. He had 366 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, and 13 rushing yards. It was awesome. He was force-feeding Wandale Robinson, who had nine catches for 156 yards and a touchdown, but that’s not where it ended.

Are you kidding me? The dude runs his route, adjusts to an underthrown ball, catches it, makes a move on the defender, stiff arms him, spins, and breaks a tackle. This isn’t a Saquon Barkley backwards hurdle, but it’s definitely a contender for play of the year.

The Lions had an answer, and his name is Jahmyr Gibbs. 

Gibbs had 219 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns, 45 receiving yards, and a touchdown reception. His biggest run came on the first play of overtime. He said, ‘You know what? I want to go home,’ and he had a very nice 69-yard run for a touchdown, where he hit 22.17 miles per hour. 

That’s the fourth fastest a ball carrier has moved this season. The third fastest is Jahmyr Gibbs. The second fastest is Jahmyr Gibbs again. The fastest is Jonathan Taylor. 

Regardless, this was a game with two of the most fun players in the NFL that had a 10-point comeback, which put the game into overtime. It was absolutely the Game of the Year of the Week. 

Hey dummy: Xavier Gipson

If you have a singular job and you do it so poorly that you get fired, would you be dumb or stupid not to try to do that job better in the future? 

In Week 1, Xavier Gipson was the Jets’ kick returner. Early in the first quarter of that game against the Steelers, he returned a kick from the one-yard line (which is fine for a kick return), got hit by Kenny Gainwell, and fumbled. The Steelers recovered the ball on the Jets’ 22-yard line and scored two plays later. 

In Week 12, Xavier Gipson was the Eagles’ punt returner. Late in the fourth quarter of this game against the Cowboys, he returned a punt from the one-yard line (which is inexcusable for a punt return), got hit by Alijah Clark, and fumbled. The Cowboys recovered the ball on the Eagles’ eight-yard line. 

The Birds' defense ended up shutting down the Cowboys' offense on the goal line, but that doesn’t excuse what Gipson did. He lost the Eagles an offensive possession, and as a UDFA who offers exactly nothing other than returning punts… You can’t suck at that one thing.

But he has sucked at it; he’s been bad in the past, he’s bad now, and you best believe he’s going to be bad in the future. 

Coward of the Week: Nick Sirianni

The juxtaposition between the football we got on Sunday evening/night was unbelievable. On Sunday Night Football, we saw the Rams get a lead over the Buccaneers and then extend that lead. They won 34-7. On Sunday afternoon, we saw the Eagles get a 21-point lead in the first 20 minutes of the game… and then they just kind of farted around on offense for the next 40 minutes. They lost 24-21.

It was pathetic, and it all stemmed from Nick Sirianni and his fanaticism with playing conservative football.

On the early downs during the Eagles' first three drives (when they scored because they were focusing on playing an actual offense), they threw the ball 13 times and ran the ball five times.

If you look at every set of downs that the Eagles converted into first downs, there were 19 early down passes and nine early down runs. On every set of downs that the Eagles didn’t convert, they had seven early down passes and six early down runs. 

Sirianni said he didn’t step off the gas, but he definitely did. Sure, they only ran the ball a handful of times in the second half, which would make you think that they kept pushing, but it’s the horrible timing of those runs.

He chose to run unsuccessful plays on early downs when he has a quarterback and a pass-catching group that’s proven to be elite. If he wanted to keep his foot on the gas, he wouldn’t have kept running the ball into the Cowboys’ five-man fronts… Instead, he would’ve peppered his pass-catchers like he did on the scoring drives.

Ignored the trade deadline: Eagles’ coaching staff

On that five-man front side of things: After the game, Landon Dickerson was asked about what the defense was doing to hurt the running game. He said, ”We went in. They gave us a defense that they rarely run. We didn’t execute the game plan we had.”

Then he was asked, “What was that defense?” Landon answered, “Just five down fronts. It’s not typically something they run a whole lot, and it turns out that was their flavor of the day.”

Wait. Waitwaitwaitwaitwait… The Eagles didn’t think the Cowboys were going to do five-man fronts? And it’s because statistically, they haven’t done it that much? 

Statistically, this season, the Cowboys have played fewer games without Quinnen Williams than they have played with Quinnen Williams. You knew they were going to use him when they traded for him. They couldn’t do five-man fronts before, and now they have the players to run them… 

The coaching staff did one of two things: A. They didn’t remotely plan a running game at all, given the changes in the Cowboys defense. Or B. They’re 12 weeks into the season and still don’t realize the offensive line isn’t remotely as good as it was in 2024. 

Both options are bad. They’re either addicted to vacation and took another week off, or they're delusional and living in the past. 

Too much dip on your chip: Shedeur Sanders

Shedeur Sanders made his first start of his NFL career, and he won. That’s an indisputable fact. It’s tough to win games in the NFL, and it’s very tough to win games in the NFL if you’re on the Browns… So good for Sanders, that’s pretty cool for him.

After the game, he was interviewed, and he was very, and rightfully, happy:

That’s cool… However, it was against the Raiders. So, maybe we slow our roll for a minute. Maybe we don’t bring up that it was one week of practice and that things are going to be magical with an offseason of preparation. 

He still has six games left to play this season. To be fair, those teams (49ers, Bears, Titans, Bills, Steelers, Bengals) don’t have great defenses. Aside from the Bengals, they are much better defenses than whatever Vegas is throwing out there.

Whether you like the guy or not, it’s cool that he’s happy… but let’s maybe focus on studying for final exams before we start thinking about how much fun the summer is going to be. 

Zach Wilson: J.J. McCarthy

So… Things in Minnesota aren’t great. We know they're doing this whole J.J. McCarthy thing, and we know that it’s been going terribly.

In the six games he’s played this season, he’s 86-of-159 (54.1%) for 929 yards, six touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. On Sunday, he hit a different level of low by going 12-of-19 for 87 yards and two interceptions. The bigger problem is that now he’s comparable to Zach Wilson.

In Wilson’s first six games, he was 104-of-181 (57.5%) for 1,168 yards, four touchdowns, and nine interceptions. In Wilson’s sixth game, he was 6-of-10 for 51 yards… and he only played for the first 18 minutes of the game because he got hurt. 

To say that the McCarthy experiment has gone poorly is a wild understatement. Throwing for 87 yards with Justin Jefferson as a healthy pass-catcher is unbelievable.

Good for Zach Wilson, though. He’s been the epitome of recent first-round quarterback draft busts. It looks like McCarthy/Nine is going to take that thorny crown in the next couple of weeks.

Black Box of the Week: Jaxon Smith-Njigba

In a plane crash, the Black Box always survives. So why don’t they build the entire plane out of the Black Box? The Seahawks have a Black Box on their offense with Jaxon Smith-Njigba. 

When you need something, throw the ball to JSN. When you don’t need something, throw the ball to JSN. When you’re bored, throw the ball to JSN. 

On Sunday, he had the best game of his season when he had eight catches for 169 yards and two touchdowns. 

With that game, he’s now at 80 catches for 1,313 yards. That’s a new franchise record for the Seattle Seahawks… and there are still six games left in the season. We’re now firmly in record-watch.

Calvin Johnson set the single-season receiving yards record in 2012 with 1,964 yards. For JSN to break that record, he’ll need to average 109 receiving yards in each of the last six games. He’s hit that number in six games so far this season. So, let’s just hope he stays healthy.

The real kick in the nards here is that he’s probably not going to win the Triple Crown. Davante Adams has 12 receiving touchdowns, compared to JSN’s measly seven touchdowns. 

Replacement guy of the Week: Emanuel Wilson

Normally, I give out a Rookie of the Week award, but there wasn’t a super sick or standout performance by a rookie on Sunday. This week, I’m pivoting to a backup guy who came in and was super sick. That’s the Packers’ running back Emanuel Wilson, who got the start over the injured Josh Jacobs. 

In a game where the Packers had a very healthy lead for the entire game, a bad game by Wilson would’ve opened a window for the Vikings to crawl back. He ended up getting 28 carries, had 107 yards, and two touchdowns.

He was breaking tackles, running very physically, and giving that offense some much-needed juice. It’s been a minute since the Packers' ground game has looked that way, and it feels like there's a chance Wilson has earned a bigger share of workload whenever Jacobs does come back. 

Not again: Baker Mayfield

Back in 2021, when Baker Mayfield was with the Browns, he tore his labrum in Week 2 and kept on playing until it was so bad that he couldn’t… and then he came back and hurt his leg. The point is that the dude is tough, but kind of to his own detriment.

Well… Baker Mayfield hurt his non-throwing shoulder again, so that sucks. Before halftime, he threw every ounce of his body into a Hail Mary and sprained the AC joint in his shoulder. He ended up sitting out the rest of the game, which is a lot better than watching him go back out there and be a shell of himself.

It’s just another injury that the Buccaneers have to deal with. So far this season, they’ve dealt with Bucky Irving, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Haason Reddick, Cody Mauch, Jamel Dean, Calijah Kancey, and Jalen McMillan all missing time. It’s tough out there.

If Mayfield’s not able to go back out there, it’s going to be Teddy Bridgewater time in Tampa. That’s… That’s not what you want.

The Panthers are in a prime position to take the lead in the NFC South. They’re tied with the Buccaneers with a 6-5 record. If they beat the 49ers on Monday Night football, they’re going to have that top spot.

Old Guy of the Week: Matt Stafford

It’s looking like Joe Burrow is going to start on Thanksgiving, so it would’ve been really cool if Joe Flacco took his last start to be the Old Guy of the Week. He didn’t; he had a 51% completion rate, threw for 183 yards, a touchdown, and a really, really bad interception. So long, Cowboy. We’ll see you wherever you play next year. 

Matthew Stafford, on the other hand, continued his MVP-worthy season on Sunday night. He was 25-of-35 for 273 yards and three touchdowns. That included a stretch where he completed 12 straight passes. He probably could’ve padded those stats, but he only ended up throwing the ball twice in the fourth quarter. 

The dude is 37 years old and having his best season in over 10 years. He steps on the field, embarrasses a defense, goes back to the sideline, rinses and repeats.