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Winners and Losers of NFL Week 14 The Ringer
Winners: Chiefs magic
All right, I give up. The Chiefs are a team that defies logical analysis. All of the numbers suggest that this team is closer to mediocre than elite, and that it’s just a matter of time before this incredibly flimsy house of cards comes crashing down. Every week, we walk away saying “they can’t keep getting away with this,” only for Kansas City to get away with it again.
This week’s win felt like a cruel joke by the football gods. For a brief sliver of time—I’m talking fractions of a second—it appeared the Chiefs would lose like many of their opponents have this season, when Matthew Wright’s 31-yard, game-winning field goal attempt banked off the left upright. But then the refs raised their arms, Mike Tirico belted out “a doink for the division,” and the realization that it happened again set in. It doinked, yes, but it doinked through the uprights.
NFL top-10 rankings: Lions keep top spot: Eagles, Chiefs rise; Bills tumble | FOX Sports
3. Chiefs
The defending champs continue to find various ways to knock off top opponents. Whether it is a bank-shot field goal with 0:00 on the clock or an improbable bounce that goes their way, the Chiefs’ good fortune and superb execution have produced a 15-game winning streak in one-score contests. Given the nip-and-tuck nature of playoff games, the Chiefs’ late-game mastery gives them a chance to complete the three-peat.
Sorting the Sunday Pile, NFL Week 14: Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs are blessed; NFC West shaping up for wild finish | CBS Sports
And just like the Patriots, the Chiefs keep stacking wins week after week after week. They didn’t look their best during the regular season last year, and it hardly mattered. Kelce and Mahomes elevated their performance during the postseason and when you’ve got a hot Chiefs offense coupled with a strong defense and a run game that can finish off teams in the second half, they’re a really difficult team to beat.
Even when Kansas City runs into a juggernaut from the other side of the bracket — hello, 49ers — they still have Mahomes there ready to make some plays, to pull off the impossible and find a way to win. It’s how something like 28-3 happens — a bulldozer Falcons team plays a perfect half against New England, and it’s all eradicated because, again, Tom Brady.
This regular-season version of the Chiefs is impossible to handicap. They should be -7 in every game, but the odds for betting on them should be like 5-1. And their moneyline number should be something in the range of -500. They probably won’t cover (they’re just 5-8 on the season against the spread) but they’re definitely going to figure out a way to win.
For 99 percent of NFL teams, it would be wildly unsustainable. We’d be dying to fade them in the first round of the playoffs, knowing the one-score game record was indicative of a lucky team, a la the Vikings a few years ago when they ran into Daniel Jones and the Giants. Or the Giants the week after knowing they were lucky too.
Road to 272 Bets: NFL Week 15 Picks for Every Game | SI
Chiefs vs. Browns Prediction
The Chiefs have shown they will find ways to win games, but they simply can’t cover a spread, especially as big favorites. It makes sense when you consider how much worse they are from a metrics standpoint than their 12-1 record indicates. They rank 20th in the NFL in Net Yards per Play at -0.2, which is worse than the likes of the Titans and the same mark as the Miami Dolphins.
Cleveland has a better Net Yards per Play over their last three games (+0.2) than the Chiefs do over those same three games (-0.8), yet the Browns are set as significant underdogs.
Look for the Winston to Jeudy connection to get going in this game. The Chiefs rank 21st in opponent dropback EPA and 20th in opponent dropback success rate this season.
I’ll take the Browns to cover the spread to cause the Chiefs to move to 0-8 ATS in their last eight games.
Pick: Browns +4.5 (-110)
NFL Team Needs: Prioritizing Every Roster’s Biggest Weaknesses Before Week 15 | Bleacher Report
2025 Free Agency: OT Trent Brown, Cincinnati Bengals
Trent Brown is going to be a risky signing for a lot of teams. The 31-year-old tore his patellar tendon in Week 3 and won’t be returning this season. His size is only going to make his recovery more difficult, but the 6’8” tackle has always been a solid pass protector.
After watching Morris and Kingsley Suamataia struggle to hold up this season, the Chiefs could see it as a worthwhile risk to give Brown an opportunity to recover, get in shape and be a contributor on a contender.
2025 NFL Mock Draft: Latest First-round Predictions Entering Week 15 | The 33rd Team
31. Kansas City Chiefs
Luther Burden, WR, Missouri
Missouri Tigers wide receiver Luther Burden III (3) catches a touchdown pass during overtime against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 208 lbs.
Class: Junior
Fit: Luther Burden’s 2024 campaign wasn’t anywhere near as fruitful as his 2023 season — which put him squarely on the radar as a potential first-round draft choice. Burden’s talent is still obvious — but his development as a player did not necessarily take a big leap this season.
That leaves him as someone who likely benefits from complimentary skill sets in the wide receiver room; and Kansas City has got a collection of talent to offer. Rashee Rice’s size and route running and Xavier Worthy’s speed would pair with Burden’s run-after-catch ability to create all kinds of problems.
Pro Comp: Percy Harvin
Around the NFL
Monday Night Football: Cowboys’ special teams miscue hands Bengals 27-20 win | NBC Sports
The ghost of Leon Lett showed up at AT&T Stadium almost 31 years to the day after the Cowboys defensive lineman’s blunder on a blocked Dolphins field goal attempt in the waning seconds that cost Dallas the game.
On Monday night, Cowboys linebacker Nick Vigil blocked Ryan Rehkow’s punt on the play after the two-minute warning in a tie game. Cowboys cornerback Amani Oruwariye tried to pick up the ball and run with it and instead Maema Njongmeta recovered for the Bengals at the Cincinnati 43.
The Cowboys would have had the ball in field goal range for a Brandon Aubrey go-ahead kick. The Bengals instead got another chance and three plays later were in the end zone on a 40-yard catch-and-run by Ja’Marr Chase.
The Bengals escaped with a 27-20 victory, and both teams now are 5-8.
The Vikings have a massive Sam Darnold problem | SB Nation
Sam Darnold was a problem for the Falcons on Sunday. In total command of Kevin O’Connell’s offense, he turned a middling Atlanta secondary into his own personal playground, throwing for 347 yards and 5 touchdowns on an afternoon where there was simply no stopping him.
Sam Darnold has been a problem for the entire NFL this season. Boasting a 108.1 passer rating this season, only Lamar Jackson and Jared Goff have higher efficiency ratings. There have only been two games this season in which Darnold has finished with a rating worse than 100.
Sam Darnold is a problem for the Minnesota Vikings. The future decision they never expected they’d need to make — one destined to be a franchise-altering choice, regardless of which side they land on. Truth be told, there’s no good answer for what Minnesota should do with Darnold, and herein lies the conundrum.
On Sunday morning ESPN’s Adam Schefter appeared on NFL Sunday Countdown and offered insight into the decision making behind the scenes, indicating that it appeared the Vikings were on a course to part ways with Darnold.
Eagles’ Graham: Comments on Hurts and Brown ‘a mistake’ | ESPN
Responding to Brown’s criticism of the passing game following Sunday’s narrow home win over the Carolina Panthers, Graham emphasized the importance of hashing things out internally rather than through the media during his weekly radio show on 94 WIP. That’s when he suggested Hurts and Brown aren’t tight the way they once were.
“The person that’s complaining needs to be accountable,” Graham said. “I don’t know the whole story, but I know that [Hurts] is trying and [Brown] could be a little better with how he responds to things. They were friends before this, but things have changed, and I understand that because life happens. But it’s the business side, that we have to make sure the personal doesn’t get in the way of the business.”
Graham was reacting to Brown’s terse postgame comments, in which Brown said “passing” was what the offense needs to improve on and that “there’s not too much conversation” between he and Hurts during the game to troubleshoot when the pass game isn’t fully clicking.
“I made a mistake and I assumed that it was something that it wasn’t,” Graham told ESPN. “I just want to win so bad that I don’t just want to use the media when we need to talk about something and we can fix the problem ourselves. I didn’t add to it in a good light, so that’s my bad.
“I just assumed, and it made me out to look even worse because I had it all wrong and now people are going to run with that part. I really just want to win, man, and I want brothers to be able to just hash it out.”
In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride
Chiefs Injuries: Andy Reid discusses D.J. Humphries, Joshua Williams
During the Kansas City Chiefs’ 19-17 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night, two Kansas City players left the game with injuries during the fourth quarter. Cornerback Joshua Williams went to the locker room with a chest injury, while new left tackle D.J. Humphries left the field with what was reported to be a “tweaked hamstring.”
Reid said he had no additional information on Williams — but then provided a tiny bit of it before his usual Monday meeting with vice president of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder.
“He did come in feeling better today,” said the head coach, “but I’ll meet with Rick here after we’re done and see where we’re at with all that.”
With regard to Humphries, the head coach said the team is “right in the middle of that process.”
“We’ll see how he does,” allowed Reid. “He’s feeling a little bit better this morning, but we’ll see where it goes from here after he gets an MRI.”
This could suggest that Humphries’ injury is more serious than first believed — or could also reflect due diligence by the medical staff. In any case, we’ll have to wait for more information.
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