Best & Worst NFL Week Twelve

Week Twelve has come and gone in the NFL and what a week it was around the league. We had a couple of whippings take place on Thanksgiving night, while Sunday night saw its fair share of drama. We got offenses that are starting to find a groove again, while others are hitting the wrong time to sputter. So lets not waste any more time. Here's some of the best and worst from week twelve in the NFL.

Best: Pittsburgh Steelers Offense
There had been some complaints about the Pittsburgh offense this season. Well this past Sunday, in a 16-10 win over the Bengals, the offense showed up. And in a big way. As a team, the Steelers had 33 carries for 133 yards, lead by 99 of those yards from Najee Harris. Kenny Picket threw for 278 yards, 120 of which went to tight end Pat Freiermuth. By the time the day was all said and done, the Steelers racked up 412 yards of offense. That kind of offensive output from the Steelers hasn't happened since week two of the 2020 season in a win over the Denver Broncos. That covers 54 total games and was a long time coning for Steelers fans to witness that offensive outburst.

Worst: Jake Browning Quarterback Cincinnati Bengals
Going from Joe Burrow to Jake Browning isn't an easy transition. And its hurting whatever playoff hopes the Bengals had left. When Burrow went down with the wrist injury, they had to go with Browning under center. He couldn't do much of anything in the Bengals 16-10 loss, which we just touched on. The Bengals mustered just 222 total yards of offense. As we just talked about the Steelers offense exploded and the Bengals fell apart. Browning looked like a backup QB and not a QB 1. He did throw for 227, but was sacked four times and picked off once. That pick lead to the Steelers scoring the go ahead touchdown. The next Cincy possession lead to a punt after Browning ran right into a sack. Ouch.

Best: Shane Steichen Head Coach Indianapolis Colts
With the things going on off the field for the Colts, hat tip to head coach Shane Steichen. He was able to pull his team together. With the release of Shaq Leonard it made for quite the story in Indy ahead of their game with the Bucs. But the coach got the club together and Indy walked away with a hard fought 27-20 win over Tampa. Tampa got the jump early but thanks to the steady play from Gardner Minshew, the Colts overcame it and were able to hold off the Bucs at the end of the ballgame. Oh and the win got them back over .500 on the year. If Shane is hoping to keep winning and making a push for the playoffs, keep feeding the run game of Jonathan Taylor and Zach Moss.

Worst: Dennis Allen, Head Coach New Orleans Saints

He had one goal in mind this week. Come out of the bye week and beat an inept Falcons team. On paper, that seems like a simple task. Well things didn't exactly go as planned for the Saints, who fell 24-15 to Atlanta. Granted, having Chris Olave exit early due to injury didn't help the cause for the Saints. And New Orleans gave Atlanta a short game and the Falcons took advantage of it. New Orleans defense made Desmond Ridder and Bijan Robinson look like one of the game's most electrifying duos when it counted. Allen did not in any way, shape or form, have his boys ready and it showed against a bad team.

Best: Tommy DeVito Quarterback New York Giants
It wasn't a pretty win, but a win is a win never the less. For the second week in a row the New York Giants have won a football game, this time a 10-7 victory over the New England Patriots. Enter Tommy DeVito, who was getting his first start in front of his hometown. He got his first career win last week, and he delivered again in the building he lives just twelve miles from. He went 17 of 25 for 191 yards and a touchdown toss to Isaiah Hodgins. He was sacked six times by that New England defense, which is something that his line is going to have to work on. Still DeVito performance has been good enough to get the Giants wins the last two weeks.

Worst: Matt Ammendola Kicker Houston Texans
There's times I feel bad for putting Kickers on this list, but this isn't one of them. Houston came up just short, falling 24-21 to Jacksonville. C.J. Stroud almost pulled off the impossible. He was down by ten points and had the Texans within striking distance in this ballgame. But Ammendola had trouble on this day, missing twice from distance. First he missed from 50 yards out early in the game. Then, with 30 seconds left, Houston tried for a 58 yard kick. It would have tied the game, and at a tough distance no less. What does he do? Doink! Right off the crossbar. Yes I know hitting kicks from those distances are very tough to do for any kicker. But it ended up being the difference.