Five Wide: 2022 Week Fourteen

By Thomas Willoughby

Well that’s that, then. The World Cup is over (ignore your wall charts, it ends after the Quarters), and our collective attention can return to the NFL. It was great to not worry about the Falcons, either, given they were on a bye. Shame the Bucs couldn’t kill off our playoff dreams once and for all. Guess I need to pay attention for the final 4 weeks.

Some interesting stuff went down, though. It’d be shame if nothing happened, given that’s what this series is all about. Luckily, it was pretty good! Right let’s crack on.

Baker Cooking

In my years watching the NFL, I’m not sure I’ve seen a week as barmy as the one Baker Mayfield had. The poor man’s had a rollercoaster 2022, seeing his team court another quarterback without his knowledge, being denied a trade after that quarterback was brought in, starting games for a new team, and then losing his job with them half a season later. He was released by the Carolina Panthers at the start of the week, as they began the process of moving on to 2023. He was claimed by the Los Angeles Rams, a team in their own quarterback quandary. Two days later, he’s starting on Thursday Night Football, against the listless Las Vegas Raiders. And he only managed to pull a win out of the bag.

The numbers don’t matter (but he played pretty well), what’s impressive is how it happened with exactly no practice. No time to get to know his new guys, no work with the coaches, just flicking through the playbook on the flight over, and padding up the moment he got off the plane. That takes something, man. It speaks to Sean McVay’s and Baker Mayfield’s talents that they made it work. Whether it goes beyond this obvious remains to be seen, but the league ought to take notice.

Mayfield went 1st overall for a reason. Matthew Stafford will miss the remainder of 2022, but is likely back in 2023 (should he not run into any complications), so this opportunity represents little more than an audition to the league for Baker. But if they win their final 4 games, and he plays well, do they flirt with the idea of trying to keep him around beyond this season? It might be worth discussing.

Brock O'Clock

I talked a bit about the 49ers last week, and how Shanahan is effectively keeping this team rolling despite major upheaval in the most important position. They hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, who are probably the last team you want to see as a rookie making your first start in the NFL. I feel like I speak for everyone when I say I was concerned. I needn’t have been. Brock Purdy looked a player.

16/21, 185 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTS, and 1 crying father in the crowd. It was as smooth as you might expect a debut start to go, from Iowa State’s finest. Even as Deebo Samuel saw his afternoon end early, Purdy and company didn’t miss a beat. It’s helped by an all-star supporting cast (and all-world play-caller), but he looked like he was in his element. A really assured performance from the 7th rounder.

They’re 9-4, and have the Seahawks, Commanders, Raiders, and Cardinals to round out their season. They could all but secure the West with a win over Seattle on Sunday. After what he did to Tampa Bay on Sunday, you wouldn’t look past them in all 4 of those games. Mr Irrelevant never looked so, well, relevant.

Failing Successfully

Hell of an effort from two bad teams trying to get one over their local(ish) rivals this weekend. The Houston Texans walked into Jerryworld looking to get their second win of 2022, and were mere seconds from achieving just that. They certainly couldn’t have accounted for the Cowboys deciding to turn up with about 2 minutes left to actually get the win over a team they should have beaten comfortably. You could argue that was the best result for the Texans as an organization, though.

The Broncos are a side we all expected to be something this season, and they looked like they could be something on Sunday. They fronted up an uncharacteristically erratic Patrick Mahomes and went stride for stride against the Chiefs for long stretches of the game. Then Russell Wilson hit the turf awkwardly, and his night ended in concussion protocol. Rypien could not get it done in relief of “The Hustle”.

Fair play to both the Texans and the Broncos for running the Cowboys and Chiefs close, but no cigar for those lads, sadly. For the Cowboys and Chiefs, however, more questions than answers have been raised. Are the Cowboys as good as we thought? Are the Chiefs legitimately the cream of the AFC? They have a month each to answer those.

The Lions' Out Of The Bag

Alright, let’s talk about it: on Sunday, the Lions hosted the Vikings in what felt like their most important game of the season. They’ve been playing hard all year, and had turned that hard play into wins of late, rattling off 4 from their last 5. Their only loss in that stretch came against the all-conquering Buffalo Bills. The Vikings, 10-2 at the time, had questions hanging over them after that 40-3 defeat to Dallas a few weeks back. They’d rebounded, but questions were being asked. This felt like a big game for both teams.

The Lions absolutely slapped them. 34-23 was the final scoreline, and it doesn’t really do justice to how dominant the Lions really were. The Vikings didn’t seem to have a response for the Lions in any capacity, compounded by Jameson Williams picking up the first touchdown of his NFL career. Jared Goff, of whom I’m notoriously skeptical of, looks like he’s actually having a good time! These Lions are a joy.

The moment, of course, was right at the end. Knowing that a first down finishes the game, Detroit do something you don’t expect anyone in that position to do. They dial up a pass in the flat to a rogue offensive lineman. Penei Sewell, as up and down as his blocking career in the NFL has been, hauled in the pass like a veteran tight end. Before swan diving past the 1st down marker. Pure box office.

The Lions, God love them, are alive. They don’t need to worry about draft positioning, because the Rams being bad might deliver them a top 5 pick, and they’ve amassed enough talent they can legitimately throw punches with the best of them and not get outfought. 6-7 with four games to play…man they might just be something.

Hitting The Wall

I think Mike McDaniel has reached that point every “offensive guru” reaches in their debut season. You know what I’m talking about. They come into the league, and are scheming guys open left and right, throwing in looks and concepts you swear you’ve never seen before, all while scoring points in bunches and winning games for fun? There comes a point where those points are harder to come by, and the wins start to dry up. When the league has enough tape on you that it feels comfortable in how to handle you. Now’s when we see who you really are.

The 2022 Dolphins have been really fun, for the aforementioned reasons. Tua has looked the part this year, which is great to see, and they’ve bounced through 2022 like a team rejuvenated. The past two weeks, however, they’ve not been that. 17 points scored against both the 49ers and the Chargers, while conceding 33 and 23 respectively. Two games lost on the spin, and with the Bills right around the corner, they’ve gone from divisional hopefuls to potentially out of the playoffs altogether. High time to sort it out.

I’m not saying everything that came before was a lie. Far from it. Liken it to a “new manager bounce” from our football, or something. He’s come in with fresh ideas that have caught the player’s imagination, and he’d ridden the crest of a wave for as long as it’ll carry him. But waves don’t last forever. Now we get to see how he really coaches. Now we get to see how they get out of the mire. This ought to be good.

Features Image Credit: Lachlan Cunningham-Getty Images

THOMAS IS A WRITER, AND REGULAR GUEST ON THE TOUCHDOWN REVIEW SHOW PODCAST, FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. YOU CAN FIND HIM @WILLO290592 ON TWITTER

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