Not to beat a dead horse here, but the MVP race is over. Call Vince Carter, fire up the GIF. It’s OVER. The dalliance with Saquon Barkley was cute, but Josh Allen locked up the award on Sunday with a third straight signature game in a stretch of historically incredible football that is putting an all-time stamp on his 2024 season.
Allen tamed another NFL giant on Sunday, defeating the Lions 48-42. Detroit and Kansas City, who boast the two best records in football, are now 0-2 against the Bills and 25-1 against the rest of the NFL. The Bills are now just the second team in NFL history to snap multiple 10-game win streaks in the same season.
And Allen did it all again on Sunday, throwing for 362 yards and a pair of touchdowns while rushing for 68 yards and two more scores. He’s accounted for 14 total touchdowns in his last three games — seven passing, six rushing and one receiving. He has back-to-back games with 340+ passing yards, 60+ rushing yards, 2+ pass touchdowns and 2+ rush touchdowns. Such a game had only been done once EVER in NFL history, when Steve Young pulled it off in 1991. He’s also the only quarterback since 1970 with 6+ pass touchdowns and 6+ rush touchdowns in a span of three games.
Fantasy owners know it too: Allen is the first player in NFL history to top 40+ Fantasy points in back-to-back games. He’s single-handedly dragging teams to titles over the last three weeks. He’s now got back-to-back seasons with 25+ pass touchdowns and 10+ rush touchdowns … there are only two other seasons EVER with those milestones (Cam Newton, 2015 and Kyler Murray, 2020).
Buffalo topped 30+ points for the eighth straight game on Sunday, tying the mark set by Peyton Manning and the Broncos in 2013, when Manning obliterated passing records and cruised to a near-unanimous MVP (49 of 50 votes). The Bills are the first team in NFL history to score and allow 40+ points in back-to-back games (and we here at CBS Sports thank you for the ratings, Buffalo).
And to top it all off, Allen hasn’t committed a turnover in this stretch, either. He’s the only quarterback in the NFL this season with zero picks, fumbles AND sacks in three straight games.
Now, all of it may be moot. The Chiefs don’t seem intent on warding off the spell that keeps them winning. Allen may very well need to go to Arrowhead at some point if he wants to make it to the Super Bowl. That’s no easy task given Kansas City’s defense, the presence of Patrick Mahomes/Andy Reid/Travis Kelce and the Chiefs ability to turn things up a notch once the postseason gets here.
Buffalo has the tiebreaker on Kansas City, but the Chiefs are running out of games to lose. But the schedule is much more friendly for Buffalo down the stretch. The Bills draw the Patriots twice and the Jets sandwiched in between. They’ve had a strong recent history of dominating inside the division and I would expect them to close out with three more wins against inferior opponents, although Aaron Rodgers and the Jets offense has looked much, much better since he realized playing well would be the ultimate spite move for his soon-to-be ex-team.
The Chiefs have to play the Texans at home this week before closing out with the Steelers and Broncos, both on the road. They could drop two of those matchups against current playoff teams. It wouldn’t be that surprising given the way the Chiefs have played. But it also wouldn’t be shocking if Kansas City went 2-1, kept the Bills at bay and secured the top seed in the AFC.
Which means even though Allen’s locked up the MVP already, he’d still have to go on the road in the toughest environment in football against a dynastic coach and quarterback and validate it. Not exactly the prize you want to receive for being the best player in the NFL for a full season.
Two teams you don’t want to see in playoffs
At the risk of giving free advertising away, I have to talk about the phenomena that is Jordan Love’s performance during Toyota’s annual sale. It’s a thing! Toyotathon runs from Nov. 15 through Jan. 9 this year and after shredding the NFL during a similar stretch last season, Love is on another heater after going to Seattle on Sunday night, winning handily 30-13 and throwing for 229 yards, two touchdowns and no picks.
His career, late-season numbers are astonishing:
Last season’s numbers down the stretch, if you put them across a full, 17-game season, would have won him the MVP pretty easily. He’s starting to put together similar numbers as we head into the most important part of the NFL season and while the Toyota thing is fun to talk about, maybe it’s just part of Love’s profile as a quarterback.
He was always streaky in college. And when he arrived in the NFL it looked like more of the same. But let’s not look at streaky as bad. Streaky can be good and streaky can be GREAT. And when Love gets real great streaky at the end of the season, it’s looked like MVP level football.
It’s also why the Packers — along with the Rams, more on them in a second — might very well be the teams you don’t want to see in the playoffs this year.
The AFC feels fairly straightforward with the Dolphins and Colts losing on Sunday. You’ve got your top-tier teams with top-tier quarterbacks (Bills, Chiefs, Ravens) and they’re going to probably end up with some combination therein where they meet in the AFC title game. The rest of the teams are capable of making runs for sure, but there’s an extra level to those teams because of their elite quarterback play.
The NFC is totally different though. Love and Matthew Stafford stand out as streaky, hot-hand disruptors for the rest of the conference.
Both guys have elite arm talent. Both guys aren’t afraid to throw interceptions or push the ball vertically down the field. Both guys have Shahanan-tree, high-level coaches in Matt LaFleur and Sean McVay. Both teams have physical run games that can wear down opponents late in games if they have a lead. Both guys have a pile of weapons at their disposal.
The Rams with a healthy Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp — and, yes, I’m aware they didn’t score a touchdown in their 12-6 win over San Francisco on Thursday and no, I don’t care, they’ll get right — have the best wide receiver duo in the league. DeMarcus Robinson, Tutu Atwell and Colby Parkinson are very nice supplemental pieces.
The Packers guys all complement each other so well. Romeo Doubs‘ return from injury is huge for Green Bay as evidenced by his two-touchdown night on Sunday in Seattle. Christian Watson is a pure deep threat who can take the top off any defense. Jayden Reed’s been quiet lately but he’s capable of exploding at any moment, especially when LaFleur starts deploying him in various jet-sweep motions. Dontayvion Wicks isn’t scared to get hot off the bench and Tucker Kraft’s been a revelation this year. They even have depth with Bo Melton and Malik Heath.
And when both teams get hot they get HOT. We saw this with the Rams last year, who were scorching until they ran into a really good Lions team in Detroit in the playoffs. The Packers set fire to Jerry Jones’ house in the postseason with Love rolling as the playoffs began.
Elite quarterback play from a wild-card contender is exactly how you shake up things in the playoffs. The Eagles look like a steady rock right now and the Lions have been the best team in football but are battling injuries. The Rams and Packers profile perfectly to me as a pair of teams who could really make some noise and be the type of teams you don’t want to see coming into your building in January.
Race to the bottom
How bad is the bottom of the NFL this year? So bad it might be awesome. We’ve got a thrilling final few weeks of multiple teams chasing the No. 1 overall pick and it could come down to the final seconds of Week 18, which the NFL would love.
Currently, there are EIGHT TEAMS on losing streaks of three games or longer. At the bottom of the standings, the Giants and Raiders — with Vegas pending on Monday night — have both lost nine straight games. That’s not great news for their coaching staffs and front offices, but it sure is for their chances at landing a franchise quarterback at the top of this draft.
The Bears (“MNF” pending) are on a seven-game losing streak, second-worst in the league and could at least make some noise for a top pick at 4-9 if a few other teams stumble into wins the rest of the way.
The Patriots, Panthers and Falcons (also “MNF” pending) have all lost four straight games. The Panthers had been really good until Sunday when they were dismantled by the Cowboys in Charlotte, but have still managed to find ways to lose. It’s not the worst thing in the world for Carolina, a team that desperately needs difference-makers on both sides of the ball.
The Browns and Titans have both lost three games in a row, with Tennessee benching Will Levis on Sunday and Cleveland starting to see the shine on the Jameis Winston Experience dull a bit. Both teams love finding ways to lose this year and at three wins are squarely in the battle for the top spot as well. Each team has a strength of schedule over .500, according to Tankathon, joining the trailing Giants and Raiders at the top of the standings.
The Jaguars got back to their losing ways against the Jets, trying to become the first team in the modern draft era to hold the No. 1 pick in three of five years. It will only make that potential job opening that much more attractive.
We don’t have a Caleb Williams or a Jayden Daniels for the prize this year, but Cam Ward is an intriguing prospect, as is Shadeur Sanders. And Travis Hunter is a really interesting prize given his ability to play both sides of the ball.
The 2025 NFL Draft could be a spicy one. The race to the top certainly is.
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Author: Will Brinson
December 16, 2024 | 12:20 pm
