2022 NFL season, Week 14: What We Learned from Sunday’s games

Around The NFL breaks down what you need to know from all of Sunday’s action in Week 14 of the 2022 NFL season. Catch up on each game’s biggest takeaways using the links below:

EARLY GAMES

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Kevin Patra’s takeaways:

1. Jalen Hurts authors MVP performance in demolition of division rival. The Eagles’ offense is so effortless when it’s rolling. With all day in the pocket, Hurts diced up the Giants with his arm in the first half. The quarterback dropped deep bombs of 41 yards and 33 yards for touchdowns as Philly sprinted to a big lead. The Eagles opened the game with a 14-play, 84-yard TD drive, and followed it up with a 12-play, 91-yard scoring drive. After a botched Giants punt, Hurts hit A.J. Brown with a 33-yard TD the next play. The game felt over. Hurts had the answer for everything Big Blue threw at him. Free rusher in his face on third down, he flips a dime to the sideline to move the chains. Drop into coverage, he finds Brown for a score. Then when New York threatened to make it close in the second half, the Eagles offense essentially said, ‘Fine, we’ll just run with our All-World QB,’ who gashed for a rushing score to make it a 20-point game in the third quarter. Credit goes to the offensive line, which gives Hurts a ton of time in the pocket and creates gaping holes in the run game. The Philly offense steamrolls opponents when the pass and run are clicking like Sunday.
2. Giants don’t have playmakers to keep pace. Big Blue failed to generate any big plays before the score got out of hand. New York’s longest play before the final quarter was a Daniel Jones 17-yard run. Getting down big off the bat didn’t allow New York to hammer the Eagles’ run D with Saquon Barkley. Jones and the offense couldn’t generate consistency, with zero drives in the first half netting more than two first downs. A blocked punt set up New York’s only first-half points. The lack of threats on the outside allowed the Eagles’ defensive line to tee off on the quarterback. A compilation of swings and short throws isn’t going to work against a Philly D with linebackers who flow to the ball. While the Eagles’ offense looked effortless, New York was pulling teeth to get first downs. One team sports stars, the other No. 3 and 4 wideouts.
3. Eagles clinch playoff berth.The victory moved Philly to an NFL-best 12-1, clinching a postseason spot with four games remaining. Next on the docket is an NFC East title. Philly owns a two-game lead in the division following Dallas’ comeback victory over Houston. The Vikings’ loss in Detroit Sunday gives Philly a stranglehold over Minnesota for the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye. For New York, the loss is a big blow to its playoff chances. At 7-5-1, Big Blue has a massive game against Washington next week, which could be a de facto playoff game.

Next Gen stat of the game:Jalen Hurts has more than twice as many carries (32) and first downs (19) than any other QB on designed runs in the red zone in 2022.

NFL Research: Jalen Hurts rushed for his 10th touchdown of the season. He joins Cam Newton as the only QBs in NFL history with 10-plus rushing touchdowns in multiple seasons and is the first to ever reach the mark in consecutive seasons.

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Eric Edholm’s takeaways:

1. Demarcus Lawrence, Dallas D-line essentially saved the Cowboys’ season. Things were not looking good for Dallas when Dak Prescott threw an interception (his first in the second half this season) deep in his own territory, setting up the Texans with a golden opportunity at the Dallas 4-yard line with Houston clinging to a three-point lead. A touchdown there makes it incredibly tough for the Cowboys to beat a one-win, one-tie team at home. But on third-and-goal from the 1, Lawrence knifed into the backfield for a massive tackle for loss on Rex Burkhead, kicking the Texans back to the 3-yard line. Houston opted to go for it on fourth but was stopped when quarterback Jeff Driskel appeared to reverse pivot the wrong way on a speed option. Carlos Watkins, who made the tackle at the 1-yard line on second-and-goal, had tremendous penetration on the fourth-down stop. It shouldn’t have been this hard, but Dak and the offense led them down on a 98-yard game-winning drive thereafter. But without the goal-line stop, the rest might have been moot.
2. The Texans have a good one in Jalen Pitre. It wasn’t hard to find bright sides for the Texans in the loss because most of their losses aren’t this impressive. However, a big one has to be rookie safety Jalen Pitre, who now has stacked some impressive games. The second-rounder led Houston in tackles with 12 and passes defended with two. He absolutely walloped James Washington to break up one potential catch and then stepped in front of Cowboys wide receiver Noah Brown to make a big pass breakup. The latter was especially impressive because Pitre showed veteran poise not to make contact with Brown, timing up his hit perfectly. This is why the Texans used a top-40 pick on Pitre. He’s a tone setter who can cover, run and hit. He could be a gem for this team for a long time.
3. The Cowboys need to flush this ugly performance quickly. Dallas finishes the regular season with four tough games, three of them on the road. Every win will be crucial. The Cowboys might be 10-3 now, but they’re currently staring at the No. 5 seed and a road playoff game unless they can overtake the Eagles in the NFC East down the stretch. Losing Sunday would have made that nearly impossible. The Cowboys still have a shot, but they can’t afford another performance of that quality again. Almost losing at home to a team that rotated Davis Mills and Jeff Driskel at QB is nearly grounds for playoff expulsion. Yet Houston had the Cowboys on the ropes all game and was two or three plays away from pulling a stunner. This is one of the worst offenses in the NFL, yet the Texans moved the ball pretty consistently. The Cowboys’ offense was stuffed in a goal-to-go situation and turned it over twice. Houston won the special teams battle in a big way. Dallas faces a suddenly hot Jaguars team, the Eagles at home and the last two on the road – at Tennessee and Washington. It’ll have to play far cleaner games in those than it did Sunday.

Next Gen stat of the game: Dak Prescott was 6 of 14 passing for 148 yards and an interception on passes of 10-plus air yards in Week 14 (five touchdowns, eight interceptions on such passes this season).

NFL Research: New Texans wide receiver Amari Rodgers had more receiving yards from Jeff Driskel (28) and Davis Mills (29) in Week 14 than he ever had in a full game with Aaron Rodgers at QB (22 was his single-game high with the Packers).

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Nick Shook’s takeaways:

1. Welcome back, J.K. Dobbins. With Lamar Jackson out of the lineup, Baltimore’s lead back picked a perfect day to return to form. Dobbins powered the Ravens’ offense throughout the afternoon, ripping off a 44-yard run to set up his own 4-yard touchdown for Baltimore’s only trip to the end zone all day. His 120 yards on 15 carries amounted to a staggering average of eight yards per attempt, and he wasn’t alone. Gus Edwards took his 2.9 yards-per-carry average of the last two weeks and nearly doubled it, gaining 66 yards on 13 attempts. Their combined efforts accounted for 186 yards and a touchdown, and when Tyler Huntley exited due to a head injury, the backfield duo became even more important. Edwards even put the game away, rushing for 13 yards between first and third down to gain the fresh set of downs necessary to run out the remaining clock. Third-string quarterback Anthony Brown didn’t need to do much in this one, thanks to his team’s rushing attack, which returned to form at just the right time.
2. Mitchell Trubisky meets Baltimore’s defense. Roquan Smith deserves a gold star for his performance Sunday, sacking Kenny Pickett to force an early stop (and unfortunately knocking the rookie out of the game), and his interception of Trubisky ended a promising Steelers drive midway through the second quarter. That was just the first of a few key takeaways for Baltimore, which intercepted Trubisky three times, including a fantastic play in coverage by Patrick Queen, and a deep interception made by Marcus Williams, who slid over the top of a deep Trubisky pass intended for Diontae Johnson to wipe out another scoring opportunity for Pittsburgh. Those three turnovers kept the Steelers’ offense at bay just enough to allow Baltimore’s rushing attack to preserve its lead. When we talk about complementary football, we can point to this game as an example — even if it wasn’t all that pretty.
3. Pittsburgh receives a dose of reality. The loss of Pickett undoubtedly hurt the Steelers’ chances on Sunday, and it also reminded their fans of the importance of the position. Trubisky showed flashes of potentially leading the Steelers to victory, especially on their five-play, 75-yard touchdown drive inside the game’s final three minutes, but when viewed as a full game, it simply wasn’t enough. After averaging 4.6 yards per carry in Weeks 10-13, Pittsburgh’s rushing attack came back to earth, gaining just 65 yards on 20 attempts, hurting the Steelers’ chances of moving the ball effectively with Trubisky forced into action. We were reminded of Trubisky’s shortcomings, sure, but the lasting impression is that of a team that still lacks firepower, even with the young talent on its roster. Steelers fans will wonder if this one could’ve gone differently had Pickett remained in the game, which is encouraging for the franchise’s long-term perspective, but frustrating on Sunday. It also stands as a reminder that the Steelers likely aren’t a playoff team in 2022, even if their recent run gave their fans temporary hope.

Next Gen stat of the game: J.K. Dobbins thrived against Pittsburgh’s defense Sunday, gaining 75 yards and scoring one touchdown on eight rushes attempted versus stacked boxes.

NFL Research: Justin Tucker’s 42-yard field goal put the first points on the board for Baltimore on Sunday, and also moved him past kicker Matt Stover as the Ravens’ all-time leading scorer in franchise history (1,466 points).