Best & Worst Of NFL Week Eleven

Week Eleven saw things really start to take shape around the National Football League. The bigger, better, more powerful teams, really started to establish themselves this week. One of those teams, the Dallas Cowboys, had quite the test on Sunday at home against the Baltimore Ravens and passed with flying colors. Dallas has come on as one of, if not, the biggest surprise teams in the league so far this year. Then, you have teams at the other end of the spectrum, like the Cleveland Browns, who ones again prove how inept a team they are. Cody Kessler may be done for the year after getting hit with another concussion. The Browns can't find anybody steady who wants to play quarterback for that franchise. Green bay has really hit the slide, as they got rolled over for the 2nd week in a row, last week by Tennessee and this week by the Washington Redskins. Seattle is beginning to reasert itself in the NFC, and the Rams still can't find an answer. With all that being said, here's more of the best and worst from the week that was in the NFL.

Best:
Landon Collins, Safety New York Giants
You want to talk about a comeback player, here's the prefect example of it. Landon Collins has been a standout for the Giants defense this year, look at what he did in the Giants 22-16 win over the Bears on Sunday. He had six tackles and the game sealing interception in the 4th quarter. The pick now gives him five interceptions in the last four games. Oh yeah and he broke up two more passes against the Bears as well. He was thrown at five times as the primary coverage defender and allowed just one catch for 23 yards to Josh Bellamy, but Jay Cutler had a passer rating in the single-digits when throwing in Collins’ direction. That's playing shut down defense if I've ever seen it. Collins has been one of the biggest reasons that the Giants are playing as well as they are on D. Not to take anything away from JPP who had a good day Sunday against the Bears, with two and a half sacks, Collins still had the better overall game

Worst:
NFL Kickers
This is a bad week to be a kicker in the NFL. Before the season started, the PAT line was pushed back to the 15 yard line. That has really caused a problem for kickers in the NFL this season, none more noticeable then this week. Kickers league wide missed 12 missed extra points, and on top of that six kickers missed field goals during the week. It was a shocking day at the office for almost all the leagues kickers. Nobody really knows exactly why kickers are missing so many extra points this year. Sunday was the first week of really bad weather for a lot of games, which was a factor no doubt, but having seen kickers be so automatic within 40 yards in past years and now struggle is a very strange sight. Maybe it’s the loss of the super-easy chip-shots that they used to have may have something to do with it.. Maybe a handful of early misses have simply rocked the confidence of the kickers and thus more pressure has been put on them. Whatever the reason is, the game has gone from “potentially being won on a late field goal” to “being lost by a missed extra point in the first quarter”, and that's not good.

Best:
Le’Veon Bell, Funning Back Pittsburgh Steelers
There's no denying the fact that both Ezekiel Elliott and David Johnson have been tearing things up this year. Both have been fantastic running backs this season. However, I think that Le"Veon Bell may have something to say about that. Bell made the point that he is still the best running back in the game this week with a monster performance in Pittsburgh’s 26-9 win over the Browns. Bell was the top rusher in the league this week with 146 rushing yards on 28 carries and a touchdown. Oh yeah and he had to break six tackles to pick up that many yards. To make matters better for Bell, he added another 55 yards through the air on eight receptions. He beat six different Browns defenders for catches, which is saying a lot, as some receivers can't even really do that at times. Yeah I think Bell is hitting his stride again, and if that's the case, the Steelers may be a very tough team to beat.

Worst:
Blake Bortles, Quarterback Jacksonville Jaguars
Bortles-Mania may be running out of steam in Jacksonville. He's having an awful season in Jacksonville this year and look no further then the Jags 26-19 loss to the Lions on Sunday. He had some bad plays on Sunday. Bortles threw a pass to a wide-open Marqise Lee, but the pass so far behind him that he tipped it up to Lions safety Tavon Wilson for the interception. Bortles had no pressure on him when he threw it. He still was nowhere close on the throw to a receiver the Lions weren’t even defending. Bortles has been terrible this season, and that moment summed it all up. Facts are he really hasn't been in much of a good groove this year, a year that Jacksonville was expected to take their game to another level and possibly make a playoff push. But Bortles has regressed and doesn't look comfortable at all under center.

Best:
Kirk Cousins, Quarterback Washington Redskins
Cousins had himself a pretty good day on Sunday, leading the Redskins to a 42-24 win over the Packers, and he was able to do it on the strenght of a massive 20 point 4th quarter. Yes, Green Bay is a shell of their former self, but out-playing Aaron Rodgers is no easy task. Cousins finished the day going 21 of 30 for 375 yards and 3 touchdowns. He finished the day with a 145.8 passer rating. Those numbers were all tops among quarterbacks this week, which is a pretty good stat. To make it even better was the sound bite of Cousins yelling "HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT" on the field after the win. Beating up on the Packers and hanging 45 points on Green Bay for the 2nd week in a row isn't easy to do, but the Redskins did it.

Worst:
Martellus Bennett, Tight End New England Patriots
Since Rob Gronkowski hasn't been playing too well this year, he didn't play on Sunday against the 49ers due to an injury, New England had been able to get excellent play out of Bennett already this season. Which has been a nice surprise. Only problem is, against the 49ers it just wasn’t there. Bennett’s blocking was particularly poor in this game, struggling both in the run game and as a pass-blocker. All of that could have been forgiven, had he been an impact player as a receiver, but he finished the day with just 14 receiving yards and a single catch. This was one game where the Patriots could have done with Rob Gronkowski, or even the real Martellus Bennett. Neither happened. Thankfully the Patriots were able to overcome that and walk away with the win. That's what the good teams are able to do when some of their players don't show up, they can make up for it. But if New England wants another shot at a title this year, they need Bennett to play better, whether Gronk is in the lineup or not.

Best:
Bobby Wagner, Linebacker Seattle Seahawks
Philly had been playing a solid offensive game the last couple of weeks. It made for a tight race in the NFC East this year. That was until the Eagles were grounded by the Legion of Boom. Seattle came away with a 26-15 win over Philly, and a large part of that was the play of linebacker Bobby Wagner. Wagner lead the NFL in tackles in week 11, with 15 total. Luke Kuechly had 14 versus the Saints before his marbles got loosened with a concussion. Wagner was hitting everything in sight on Sunday and really had the Eagles thrown off of their game plan. He was in full blown beast mode on Sunday and Philly had no answer for it. Masterful job by Wagner on Sunday.

Worst:
Cincinnati Bengals
It seems like its all coming down at once for the Bengals. Not only did the Bengals playoff hopes get snuffed out by a disappointing 16-12 defeat to Buffalo, but AJ Green went down early with a hamstring injury and could potentially miss the rest of the season. Green was one of the few bright spots in a poor season and now he could be gone, just like the playoffs.

Best:
Mike Evans, Wide Receiver Tampa Bay Buccaneers
There's no doubt that mike Evans is becoming one of the top flight receivers in all of football. He's got great speed and height and a good set of hands. That was on full display on Sunday against Kansas City. Tampa came away with a 19-17 win over KC and Evans had himself a big day. m Evans caught six passes for 105 yards, with 65 of them coming against Steven Nelson, who gave up six inches in height to the big receiver, and who knows what in catch radius. Evans had some impressive receptions at key times in the game. He wasn't able to find the endzone but still was able to really help get the Buccaneers into scoring range.

Worst:
Seattle Seahawks Running Game
Just when the Seahawks seemed to be getting things rolling, they suffered another huge injury in the running game. Thomas Rawls is now back in the Seattle backfield, but C.J. Prosise could be on his way out. Prosise has a scapula injury, so who knows how long he'll be out for. Prosise had given the offense a much-needed spark, like the 72-yard touchdown run on Sunday in a win over Philadelphia. Seattle is now having depth issues at tailback. The Seahawks looked great again on Sunday, and perhaps Rawls can immediately resume full-time duties and stay healthy. But if anything derails the Seahawks in the NFC, it could be because the running game ends up failing. Sure Rawls is good but if he can't stay healthy and Proise is out for the year, then Seattle's run game is in deep trouble.