Shake-up at the top of AFC? Season over for Jets and Cowboys? Struggles for kickers? NFL Week 11 takeaways

By CNN Newsource

Published November 20, 2024 5:09 AM

By Ben Morse, CNN

(CNN) — Between the reigning Super Bowl champions losing their first game of the season and former contenders continuing their disappointing seasons, Week 11 was filled with talking points.

The ‘Trump dance’ also took center stage, with many prominent players across the league mimicking the dance made popular by President-elect Donald Trump to celebrate moments in their games.

Here are the main takeaways from the past week in the National Football League.

Shake-up at the top of AFC?

The AFC path to the Super Bowl looked like it would run through Kansas City after the Chiefs opened the season on a nine-game winning streak.

However, things might be subject to change following the Chiefs’ first loss of the season to their conference rivals, the Buffalo Bills, on Sunday.

The Bills now sit just a game behind the Chiefs who still occupy the AFC’s No. 1 overall seed, but due to the 30-21 win, hold the tiebreaker between the two teams.

Perhaps more than the result though, it should how Buffalo might be growing into the most complete team in the conference.

Spearheaded by an MVP-caliber quarterback in Josh Allen, the Bills’ offense has everything it needs to succeed, even in the often-freezing cold temperatures of upstate New York.

Between the Bills’ host of playmaking wide receivers, talented group of tight ends and running backs capable of making defenders miss, Allen can pick and choose which match-up he favors as he lines up to take the snap.

Even when those things are covered and his offensive line has been beaten by defenders, Allen’s running ability can be a great pressure-release valve as he showed on the final touchdown in the victory over Kansas City, breaking multiple tackles and rumbling into the endzone for the game-sealing score.

Allen is also helped by an ascendant defense which, under the tutelage of head coach Sean McDermott, has grown as the season has progressed, intercepting Patrick Mahomes twice and restricting the Chiefs as a whole to just 259 total yards on offense.

It was a momentous victory for Buffalo to overcome the AFC’s No. 1 seed, but as the team heads into its bye week, the squad is stressing it’s not the end of the season.

“This is not the finish line, this is the next game,” McDermott said, with left tackle Dion Dawkins calling it “just a win.”

“It feels good to win, especially against a great team. Anytime that we play the Chiefs, we already know what type of time it’s going to be and to get a win, which is beautiful, but it’s not the Super Bowl,” he told reporters.

“The respect is there, and the respect is high, but it’s a good thing going into the bye week. It puts everybody in good faith and good spirits and good smiles.”

Week 11’s results mean it is now extremely tight at the top of the AFC with seven weeks of the season remaining.

The Chiefs hold a one game lead over the Bills who themselves have a one game advantage over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Houston Texans, Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens all sit on seven wins.

Season over for Jets and Cowboys?

The 2024 season has been one to forget for the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys.

The Jets lost their eighth game of the season on Sunday, falling by a point at home to the Indianapolis Colts after a late fourth-quarter touchdown drive – led by recently-reinstalled starting quarterback Anthony Richardson – gave Indy the win.

The Cowboys, meanwhile, lost their fifth game in a row and seventh of the season on Monday, being emphatically beaten 34-10 at home by the Houston Texans.

For two teams with high expectations entering 2024, their Week 11 results could signal the end of any playoff hopes they might’ve had and foreshadow a big offseason of changes in both New Jersey and Texas.

The Jets were supposed to be transformed into a Super Bowl contender with the addition of Aaron Rodgers last year, but his season-ending Achilles injury on the fourth snap of his debut ended all hopes last year.

This season hasn’t been much better though, with head coach Robert Saleh being fired and the acquisition of Rodgers’ long-time friend and Green Bay Packers teammate Davante Adams not helping a stuttering Jets offense.

What the Jets do next season at quarterback remains a question with Rodgers turning 41 in December.

For the Cowboys, it has been a vastly underwhelming regular season after the success of years prior.

Under head coach Mike McCarthy, Dallas had been dominant in the regular season but came up short in the playoffs.

With pressure mounting on McCarthy to bring postseason success to Arlington, it has been a disaster on all fronts for ‘America’s Team,’ with serious injuries to key players – notably quarterback Dak Prescott and star linebacker Micah Parsons – blighting the campaign.

The results have also been underwhelming too, with the Cowboys yet to win a home game all season so far, losing four of them by more than 24 points.

Like the Jets, it looks to be an offseason of upheaval in Dallas, but McCarthy says his team is still scrapping for every result.

“We got seven losses. We’ve got to go. Backs against the wall. We got to fight, scratch and claw,” he said after the defeat to the Texans. “We’ve got to do everything we can to go win the next game. That’s where my mind’s at. That’s what I’m going to coach and that’s the expectation.

“We’ve got to win. We deserve to win. You know, we deserve the opportunity to win. And that’s about putting the best people out there. So right now, we’re young. So, those guys, our young guys, they’re getting a lot of experience. We need to do whatever the hell we need to do to win.”

Struggling kickers?

The sight of Justin Tucker booming through a field goal and celebrating has become commonplace over recent years.

After all, Tucker is the most accurate kicker in NFL history.

But 2024 has been somewhat of a strange season for the 34-year-old as he’s been uncharacteristically wayward with his efforts.

And that continued in the Baltimore Ravens’ Week 11 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, during which Tucker missed two field goals from 47 and 50 yards respectively. The kicker’s struggles were highlighted by his opposite number’s success, with Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell making all six of his field goals – he has missed just one kick all year.

For arguably the greatest kicker of all time, Sunday’s performance continued a down year in terms of his high standards as he’s now missed six field goals and one extra point so far – for reference, it is the second-most misses he’s had in a single season throughout his 13-year NFL career.

Tucker, who has a career-low 71.4 field-goal percentage through Week 11, called his performance against the Steelers “frustrating,” but he remains confident he can correct his issues.

“I’m still confident I’m going to go out there and nail every single kick,” Tucker said. “Part of the way we stay confident is by continuing to work and trust the process. I might sound like a broken record, but it’s a part of what brings us success is just trusting the process and then taking it one kick at a time.”

But Tucker by far isn’t the only kicker to be struggling this season.

Younghoe Koo – the Atlanta Falcons’ usually reliable kicker who is a one-time Pro Bowler – has missed seven kicks, while Greg Zuerlein, who made the second-most field goals last season, has missed six.

Errant kicks have been a constant theme of this season so far in general, a surprising trend for a facet of the game which has improved so much in recent years.

Twenty years ago in the 2004 season, three starting kickers had field goal percentages of about 90%. Now, 13 kickers around the NFL have hit that mark.

They are not being helped by some inspired special teams play too, with two games in recent weeks sealed by last-second field goal blocks.

It perhaps is just a blip, but kickers missing their attempts has now become a more regular sight.

Full Week 11 scores

Away @ home (winners in bold)

Thursday

Washington Commanders 18-26 Philadelphia Eagles

Sunday

Green Bay Packers 20-19 Chicago Bears

Jacksonville Jaguars 6-52 Detroit Lions

Las Vegas Raiders 19-34 Miami Dolphins

Los Angeles Rams 28-22 New England Patriots

Cleveland Browns 14-35 New Orleans Saints

Baltimore Ravens 16-18 Pittsburgh Steelers

Minnesota Vikings 23-13 Tennessee Titans

Indianapolis Colts 28-27 New York Jets

Atlanta Falcons 6-38 Denver Broncos

Seattle Seahawks 20-17 San Francisco 49ers

Kansas City Chiefs 21-30 Buffalo Bills

Cincinnati Bengals 27-34 Los Angeles Chargers

Monday

Houston Texans 34-10 Dallas Cowboys

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