NFL Bandwagon Report: Patriots, Vikings on opposite ends of wild comebacks

There are the teams you’re born rooting for, for better or worse, and then there are the bandwagon clubs — the franchises and star players that pique your interest, draw you in and drop you off. Each week of the 2022 season, we’re recapping some of the most encouraging and discouraging developments from around the NFL and deciding whose bandwagon to hop on or off — even if only for a week.

What the heck was in the water during Week 15? Maybe it was an exciting Saturday triple-header, or perhaps even that other type of football happening at the incredible 2022 FIFA World Cup Final, that set the tone for a spectacular sports Sunday. Suffice it to say there was no shortage of highlights in the NFL this past weekend.

Here are a few things that caught our attention – both good and bad – and what we’re watching for in the remaining weeks of the regular season.

Hopping on: Vikings when trailing in the second half

The Vikings fell behind 33-0 to a team that has just one win since mid-October, yet just when we’re about to call them frauds, and completely write off their Super Bowl aspirations as a fantasy, they go and do something like set an NFL record for the biggest comeback in league history.

Kirk Cousins threw for more than 400 yards, and Minnesota rallied epically to outscore Indianapolis 39-3 in the second half and overtime to improve to 11-3 and clinch its first NFC North title since 2017.

The Vikings were blown out by the Cowboys in November and were beaten by Detroit earlier this month but this win over the Colts was a get-right spot that allows them to carry some momentum and confidence into a matchup with the Giants on Saturday. They know there’s literally no deficit they can’t overcome.

In addition to the crazy win over the Colts, these Vikings also have fourth-quarter comeback victories over the Lions (Week 3), Saints (Week 4), Bears (Week 5), Commanders (Week 9), Bills (Week 10) and Patriots (Week 12) this season — and four out of those five wins happened in Minnesota, which bodes well for the post-season considering the Vikings will host a wild-card game, unless they somehow manage to win out and leapfrog the Eagles before the end of Week 18 to earn the bye.

Hopping off: Season-altering laterals

Seriously, what can you say about that Patriots-Raiders ending? No, the band wasn’t out on the field, but this was one of the most memorable and dramatic extended-last-play-of-regulation-with-multiple-laterals type sequences in recent football history — and it might legitimately end up costing the Patriots a playoff spot.

Tied 24-24 in the waning seconds of regulation, instead of kneeling out the clock to get to OT or attempting a Mac Jones Hail Mary, the Pats ran a draw play to Rhamondre Stevenson, who decided to lateral the ball to Jakobi Meyers with zero time on the clock. Meyers then threw the ball across the field but it was caught by Raiders defensive end and former Patriots star Chandler Jones, who stiff-armed Mac Jones into the earth’s crust before running nearly 50 yards into the end zone.

The salt in the wound for Patriots fans is the fact their team was up by a touchdown with less than 40 seconds left in regulation, and the tying score came on an incredible Keelan Cole TD catch in the corner of the end zone.

Hopping on: Jags as new AFC South top dog

The Jaguars are below .500 with three games left and the franchise hasn’t won more than two consecutive games since the 2017 season, yet Jacksonville might actually be the best team in the AFC South and a strong contender to sneak into the playoffs.

They’ve won four of the past six, during which Trevor Lawrence has 14 touchdown passes and only one interception. They averaged 38 points per game in back-to-back wins over the Titans and Cowboys, the latter of which they overcame a 17-point second-half deficit and the defence won it in OT.

Jacksonville is on a short week, travelling to visit the Jets, who will go with Zach Wilson over an injured Mike White at QB again on Thursday.

The Jags then finish out their schedule against the one-win Texans followed by a Week 18 game versus the Titans with a division title potentially on the line.

Hopping off: Titans as AFC South champs

Coinciding with the Jags’ rise has been the Titans’ recent decline. Tennessee is holding onto first place in the AFC South despite losing four in a row (the first time the team has dropped four straight during Mike Vrabel’s tenure as head coach) and looking to make the playoffs for the fifth time in the past six seasons.

At 7-7 with three games remaining, there are two likely scenarios for Vrabel’s club: either they win a third consecutive division title, or miss the playoffs and see how the Jags do in the post-season.

Next week is a bounce-back game against the Texans before ending the season at home against Dallas then Week 18 at Jacksonville.

Hopping on: Drives that last nearly a full quarter

If you enjoy short runs and passes, penalties and first downs then you’re probably still reminiscing about Pittsburgh’s drive that ended up lasting nearly the entire duration of the third quarter.

The Steelers are holding onto slim playoff hopes and needed to keep their season alive with a win over Carolina. The drive to kick off the second half lasted 21 plays, the team travelled 91 yards while gaining 106 because of penalties, and Steelers QB Mitch Trubisky capped off the longest drive of 2022 with a one-yard sneak into the end zone to put Pittsburgh up by two touchdowns.

It was the longest drive from Pittsburgh in more than four decades and the second-longest drive of the past four NFL seasons. That's some old-school football, baby!

Hopping off: Tom Brady’s teams when up 17 points at home

To say 2022 hasn’t been Tom Brady’s year would be an understatement and Sunday’s loss to the Bengals after going up 17-0 in the opening half was somewhat symbolic of the season he and his Bucs teammates are having. Brady wasn’t his team’s only problem, but his two interceptions and two fumbles certainly helped make Cincinnati’s 34 consecutive points scored easier than it otherwise would’ve been.

Joe Burrow threw four TD passes to four different players on five second-half Bengals drives, but ultimately the story of the game was Brady setting two new personal records — except not the kind we’re used to. It was the first time in his two-decade career one of Brady’s teams lost a home game after leading by 17 points. Brady’s now 89-1 in that situation, and it’s officially the first time Brady has ever lost more than seven games during a regular season.