Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. If the Chiefs are looking to follow in the Colts’ footsteps after the Patrick Mahomes injury and bring a quarterback in his 40s out of retirement, Brodie Croyle is only 42.
In today’s SI:AM:
🐴 Week 15 takeaways
🧀 Packers’ title hopes dashed
😔 Mahomes goes down
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What an eventful week in the NFL
Week 15 in the NFL was a wacky one. We had upset victories, gutting injuries, colossal comebacks and a grandfather at quarterback. Usually, in this newsletter, I’d pick one thing to go in depth on. But Sunday was so jam-packed with news that I think we should try to hit on all of it.
Chiefs eliminated from playoff contention as Patrick Mahomes tears ACL
A bad day for the Chiefs got even worse when, in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, Patrick Mahomes went down with a left knee injury as Kansas City was attempting to drive for a game-tying field goal against the Chargers. Gardner Minshew came in to replace him and had the Chiefs on the fringes of field goal range before throwing a game-sealing interception.
The loss officially eliminated the Chiefs from playoff contention. They’ll miss the postseason for the first time since 2014, Andy Reid’s second season in Kansas City.
To make matters worse, the team confirmed shortly after the game that Mahomes’s injury is a torn ACL. He and the franchise are “currently exploring surgical options,” the Chiefs said in a statement. Suffering an ACL tear this late in the season means Mahomes might not be at 100% when next season starts. Training camp starts in about seven months, and Week 1 begins two months after that.
Bills mount massive comeback to topple Patriots
The AFC East race looked like it had been decided before it was even halftime in Foxborough. The Patriots, needing only a win over the Bills to clinch the division, took a 21–0 lead over Buffalo on a 52-yard touchdown run by TreVeyon Henderson with 5:53 left in the second quarter. But then the Bills’ offense finally got it going. Buffalo took its first lead of the game, 28–24, with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, only to see New England take it right back with another long Henderson run (65 yards). The Bills responded with a touchdown drive of their own and then stood tall on defense to come away with a 35–31 victory.
New England still has the upper hand in the division race. The Bills are now 10–4, while the Pats are 11–3. Buffalo’s only real hope of claiming the division is to win its three remaining games and hope the Patriots lose against the Ravens, Jets or Dolphins. Then the division would come down to tiebreakers (likely the better record in common games). It’s far from likely, but at least the Bills have hope.
Packers lose Micah Parsons
The other major injury from Sunday’s action was to Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons. He is believed to have suffered a torn ACL in his left knee.
Parsons was injured late in the third quarter of Green Bay’s game against the Broncos in Denver. The Packers went on to lose and fall to 9-4-1 on the season. They’re clinging to the third and final wild-card spot in the NFC playoffs, while the Bears (10–4) are in first place in the NFC North.
The injury fundamentally changes the Packers’ outlook for the rest of the season. Parsons has been the only Green Bay player capable of consistently generating pressure on opposing quarterbacks from the edge. His 12.5 sacks this season are tied for third in the NFL. Even with Parsons, the Packers haven’t been all that great at getting to the quarterback. They rank 13th in QB pressure rate. With him sidelined, opposing quarterbacks will have all the time in the world to sit in the pocket and dissect the defense.
Philip Rivers almost did it
The biggest story entering Sunday’s action was the Colts’ decision to start 44-year-old Philip Rivers at quarterback, five years after he retired. It wasn’t all fun and games, though. Indianapolis is in the thick of the playoff hunt and badly needed a win against the Seahawks. It almost got it, too.
Rivers did just enough to keep the Colts in the game, completing 18 of 27 pass attempts for 120 yards with a touchdown and an interception. As you might expect, he didn’t hop off the couch and immediately start throwing downfield bombs as he did 20 years ago in San Diego. His average completion was only 1.4 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
The end of this game was a wild one. After the Seahawks took a 15–13 lead with 2:30 left to play, Rivers got the Colts just enough yardage for Blake Grupe to attempt—and make—a 60-yard field goal to take a 16–15 lead. But then Seattle answered with a 56-yard field goal of its own to reclaim the lead, and Seahawks safety Coby Bryant intercepted Rivers on the first play of the Colts’ ensuing possession to end it.
Saints upset Panthers to set up tense NFC South finish
The Panthers could have taken the lead in the NFC South with a win over the lowly Saints, but Carolina collapsed late and lost 20–17. New Orleans scored the final 13 points of the game, including Charlie Smyth’s 47-yard field goal with two seconds left.
That leaves the Buccaneers and Panthers tied atop the division at 7–7. The two teams will play each other twice over the final three weeks. If either team sweeps, they’re going to the playoffs.
Take a moment to laugh at the Raiders’ horrendous offense
On a day like the one we just had, the scoreline “Philadelphia 31, Las Vegas 0” might not stand out. But I bring it up because the Raiders’ offense was bad enough that it warrants mentioning.
The Raiders gained just 75 total yards (46 rushing, 64 passing, 35 lost on sacks). That makes them just the ninth team since 2000 to fail to gain more than 75 yards in a game. It isn’t even the first time this season they’ve been bottled up like that. They only managed 95 total yards in a 31–0 loss to the Chiefs in Week 7. That makes them just the seventh team since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger to have multiple games in a season in which they failed to gain at least 100 yards and the first with multiple such games since the 1992 Seahawks. Will Pete Carroll be one-and-done in Vegas?
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Albert Breer leads his Week 15 takeaways with a conversation with Broncos quarterback Bo Nix after his team’s big win over the Packers.
- Conor Orr tried to find a silver lining for the Chiefs after Patrick Mahomes’s season-ending injury.
- Gilberto Manzano believes Micah Parsons’s injury put an end to the Packers’ Super Bowl hopes.
- It’s been a tough year for the Vikings, but Matt Verderame explains why J.J. McCarthy’s performance in the past two games has given Minnesota hope for the future.
- Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza was awarded the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night in New York. Here’s how Pat Forde and Bryan Fischer filled out their ballots.
- Saturday was also a big day in men’s college basketball. Kevin Sweeney breaks down all the most important results.
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. This comically sloppy sequence in the Kings-Timberwolves game.
4. A boneheaded play by Dillon Brooks to get ejected for bumping LeBron James for no reason immediately after Brooks hit a go-ahead three in the final seconds. James and the Lakers went on to get the last laugh, with LeBron hitting two free throws to win it.
3. Philip Rivers’s first touchdown since 2020.
2. Drake Maye’s downfield block on TreVeyon Henderson’s 65-yard touchdown run.
1. A pair of laterals by the Giants’ defense after a fumble recovery late in their loss to the Commanders.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Every Wild Thing That Happened in Week 15.