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Five things we learned from Week 14 of the 2024 NFL season

One Super Bowl contender invents a new way to lose while another finds yet another way to win.

Week 14 provided another round of NFL action in a season that is rounding towards the home stretch.

Here are a few of the things from the weekend's games that may (or may not) have slid under the radar.

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We're running out of superlatives for Josh Allen

Josh Allen

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We told you last week that the Buffalo Bills quarterback is the front-runner for the NFL MVP award, and on Sunday he added to his case with a Herculean effort in a 44-42 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

Allen became the first player in history to throw three touchdown passes and score three rushing touchdowns of his own in a regular season game, as the 28-year-old put his team on his back in a frenzied comeback attempt that fell short.

Put into conext, the Bills' loss was historic as they became the first-ever NFL team to suffer defeat while scoring at least six touchdowns and committing zero turnovers. The other 245 times a team has recorded those numbers, they've won.

Regardless, Allen is a massive reason why the Bills are battling for the top seed in the AFC with the Kansas City Chiefs, and he likely only has one real challenger for the league MVP nod...

Saquon Barkley's 'quiet' day out

Saquon Barkley Eagles_09082024

Barkley is likely the only player in the league that has a legitimate shot at taking the MVP award away from Josh Allen, but Week 14 was a relatively quiet one for the Philadelphia Eagles' star running back in a 22-16 win against the visiting Carolina Panthers.

The word "relatively" is doing a lot of work here, as Barkley was still dominant despite not getting into the end zone or going viral with another feat of crazy athleticism. The 27-year-old racked up 124 rushing yards on Sunday, giving him 1,623 yards on the season so far.

That's good enough for the Eagles' single-season rushing record, and it keeps him on pace to eclipse the NFL single-season record currently held by Eric Dickerson.

Barkley needs to average just over 120 yards per game to claim the all-time league record as his own. His season average is currently 124.8.

Father Time may have caught up to Kirk Cousins

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It may be a hasty overreaction, but it does seem that Cousins' age and mileage have caught up to him in recent weeks — and it's come at the worst time for the Atlanta Falcons.

The 36-year-old started the season a renewed man with the Falcons, leading the team to a 6-3 record over their first nine games and earning a passer rating of 114.8 or higher in four of those games. The tail end of that great run was actually the high point for Cousins, who threw for seven touchdowns in wins against Tampa Bay and Dallas while recording QB ratings of 145.9 and 144.8, respectively.

Cousins' output fell off a cliff in the four games since then — all Atlanta losses — as he failed to connect on a single touchdown pass across those four games and threw eight interceptions, including another pair of INTs in the Falcons' 42-21 Week 14 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Four games is a small sample size for a veteran QB with a lengthy career such as Cousins, but with such a stark drop-off questions will be asked about whether the four-time Pro Bowler is in the early stages of finally succumbing to Father Time.

The clock is also ticking on Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers NFL 2024

The New York Jets were officially eliminated from playoff contention with their 32-26 OT loss to the Miami Dolphins, although Rodgers could not be faulted as he threw for 339 yards and a touchdown in the defeat.

The truth lies in the bigger picture, as Sunday's game was the first time Rodgers surpassed 300 passing yards in a game in the past three seasons. OK, so last season was a write-off due to the Achilles injury he suffered in his first drive as a Jet, but it's not unreasonable to expect the 41-year-old to decline from seasons past, especially with that devastating injury having taken its toll.

Rodgers' pass-heavy approach hasn't worked in New York — he has the third-most passing attempts in the league — and it's unlikely to improve as he ages. For his part, Rodgers acknowledged that his shortcomings were partially to blame for the Jets' latest failed campaign, although the delicate matter of age wasn't part of the summation he gave following Sunday's defeat.

“We felt good three weeks in, that weekend off everybody felt real good and since then it’s been a lot of difficult games with opportunities to win," he told reporters. "We just didn't figure out how to win enough games, I didn't play good enough in some crunch times, that's why we're sitting here with the record we've got."

The four-time NFL MVP is still under contract for another season, but it may be in the Jets' best interest to convince Rodgers to hang up the cleats for good.

The Kansas City Chiefs do not look like a 12-1 team

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(Getty Images)

And yet, it doesn't even matter.

The Chiefs found another new way to win in Week 14, with the "doink" heard 'round the world to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers 19-17 as the clock struck zero.

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It was another close win for the Chiefs, whose last four victories have come by three points or less. A stunning number of Chiefs' games have come down to the wire or close to it, indicating that the team has luck on its side.

Don't get it twisted though, this is a team that has learned how to win over the past several years, and while they may not appear nearly as dominant as they have been for most of the Patrick Mahomes era, the Chiefs' pedigree makes them the most dangerous team in the league. They will simply find ways to earn victories, and one would be foolish to bet against that continuing in the playoffs.

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