Week 11 NFL Takeaways: Browns have Super Bowl-calibre defence, Bills stay alive in AFC

A Thursday night rivalry game between the Bengals and Ravens featured a couple of unfortunate injuries that will significantly impact the entire AFC down the stretch.

Although that game left a bad taste in the collective mouths of football fans, the remainder of the Week 11 schedule deserved a chef’s kiss. NFL enthusiasts had a twelve-course appetizer to savour before Monday’s anticipated entrée, a Super Bowl rematch between the AFC-leading Chiefs and NFC-leading Eagles, caps off a pivotal slate.

It was a wild day of football action all across North America on Sunday as the 49ers and Jaguars looked refreshed and dangerous following bye weeks, Sean McVay continued his dominance of Pete Carroll as the Seahawks failed to get past the Rams, and before Green Day was serenading CFL fans at the Grey Cup halftime show before Montreal's epic comeback win, Green Bay was busy spoiling the Chargers' afternoon at Lambeau.

The other all-AFC North showdown, Cleveland vs. Pittsburgh, had the lowest pre-game total of the week and fittingly it was Sunday afternoon’s lowest-scoring game. The Browns stayed winning thanks to their punishing, disciplined, championship-calibre defence that stumped the Steelers in a 13-10 win. The recent news that Deshaun Watson is done for the year with a shoulder injury hurts Cleveland and lowers the offence’s ceiling, yet it may not completely derail the team’s championship aspirations because the defensive unit is so dominant.

Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz’s game plan was zone-heavy and his group held Kenny Pickett to a career-low 34 first-half passing yards. Jaylen Warren was the only Steeler on offence able to muster anything meaningful. Myles Garrett was his usual dominant self with two of his team’s three sacks to bring his season total to a league-leading 13.

Cleveland started Dorian Thompson-Robinson behind centre instead of P.J. Walker and DTR earned his first NFL win in his second start. Although Thompson-Robinson’s 19 incompletions, zero touchdowns, one interception and 3.8 yards per pass attempt isn’t what you want to see on a weekly basis, the fifth-round rookie was calm and clutch on Cleveland’s game-winning drive that was capped off by a Dustin Hopkins field goal.

The 7-3 Browns hit the road for games at the Broncos and at the Rams, two teams not known for lightning opposing teams up.

The Buffalo Bills got back on the winning track less than one week after that disastrous walk-off loss to Denver in prime time after which the team fired its offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey. Quarterbacks coach Joe Brady took over as interim OC and the team took pressure off starting QB Josh Allen by calling 38 run plays compared to 32 passing plays. The Bills defence feasted on the outmatched duo of Zach Wilson, who was mercifully pulled, and Tim Boyle, who was unmercifully not, in a one-sided win.

Fun fact highlighting the miserable state of New York football: Giants third-string QB Tommy DeVito has six touchdown passes in the past three weeks after his team upset the Commanders, which is as many touchdown passes as Wilson has in nine starts with the Jets this season.

If the playoffs began today the Bills would be on the outside looking in, and with their upcoming schedule at Philadelphia, at Kansas City then home vs. Dallas, they may soon be back at or even below .500. Sunday’s win, though, gives the Bills fanbase some optimism heading into Week 12.

C.J. Stroud is running away with the Offensive Rookie of the Year award and the Houston Texans star is on a short list of QBs who legitimately belong in the MVP conversation after helping lead his team to a third consecutive victory. The No. 2 overall pick from the 2023 Draft leads the NFL with three first-half performances with 250 or more passing yards after going 18 of 24 for 259 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in the opening two quarters against Arizona on Sunday.

Houston was up 21-10 at halftime, however, early in the third quarter Stroud was rocked by Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson and wasn’t quite the same after he came back in the game after being briefly examined on the sidelines.

Stroud only threw for 77 yards and tossed two interceptions in the second half but Arizona’s bend-don’t-break defence held up their end of the bargain and the Texans improved to 6-4 heading into a huge Week 12 divisional showdown at home versus the Jaguars. Houston is firmly in AFC playoff contention and can pull even with Jacksonville atop the AFC South if they extend their current streak to four in a row. Which version of Stroud will show up next week? The one we saw in the opening half Sunday or the one who struggled in the second half?

“You’re going to have miscues, you’re going to have bad plays, but it’s all about how you respond to those plays, so we will continue to highlight all the positive things that C.J. is doing, and then we’ll also coach him up on those negative plays,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans told reporters of his rookie’s less-than-perfect outing.

At this point in the season, what more can you ask for if you’re a Chicago Bears fan? Justin Fields returned from a thumb injury, showed off his leg talent by rushing for 104 yards on 18 carries and displayed nice chemistry with D.J. Moore, throwing for 169 yards and one touchdown. It was an exciting game against a division rival with plenty of scoring, momentum swings and highlight plays on both sides of the ball, ending with Chicago blowing a late fourth-quarter two-score lead thanks to a touchdown from former Bear David Montgomery. And on top of that, Dallas beat Carolina which meant Chicago doubly improved their odds of landing two top-five picks and the No. 1 overall selection in the 2024 draft.

When the playoffs are already out of reach and you need to look to next season in the hopes of finding optimism, you really can’t do better than days like Sunday.

BLAND IS ANYTHING BUT BLAND

The Dallas Cowboys were expected to handily defeat the Carolina Panthers and that’s exactly what happened. Dallas’ defence got to No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young in the backfield seven different times and held their opponents to under 200 total yards. The defence also scored as many points as Carolina’s offence when, a mere 10 seconds after the Cowboys went up 14 early in the fourth thanks to Tony Pollard’s first rushing score since Week 1, DeRon Bland tracked Young’s eyes and jumped a Jonathan Mingo route. After a nice little somersault for style points, the second-year defensive back ran back the interception 30 yards for six points and his fourth pick-six of the season, which tied the NFL’s single-season record.

The Cowboys were also lucky to escape with no new names added to the injury report. A quarter of the league has a short turnaround this week with it being U.S. Thanksgiving and Mike McCarthy’s group is one of those eight teams.

This year’s annual Thursday triple-header features Green Bay at Detroit, Washington at Dallas, and San Francisco at Seattle, and the NFL is introducing an additional holiday game with the Dolphins visiting the Jets on Black Friday.

Kenneth Walker III of the Seahawks and Miami’s DeVon Achane were among players on these teams to sustain injuries Sunday, so be extra mindful of the injury reports this week.