Analysis

12/5/22

5 min read

Week 13 First-and-10: What You Missed Over a Wild Weekend of Football

By The 33rd Team

first and 10 graphic

Ten wonderful, weird and wacky items from a wild weekend of football:

1st Down

Swallowing Crimson Pride

Georgia, Michigan, TCU and Ohio State will play for the national championship. Alabama will not. The two-loss Tide was left off the College Football Playoff's final four on Sunday. Did the committee get it right? Take it from here, Trey Wingo.

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2nd Down

Lil Kirko Chains

Over the past few games for the Vikings, 8-year-old Lincoln has been coming dressed up as Kirk Cousins. Not in the quarterback's No. 8 jersey, but shirtless with chains after Cousins’ alter ego, Kirko Chains, who made headlines wearing the same garb on the Vikings team plane after a win. Lincoln, aka Lil Kirko Chains, received a surprise phone call from Cousins before Sunday's game against the Bears. Cousins complimented his style and gave him free tickets to the game, just in time for his 8th birthday.

3rd Down

Rookie Setting Records

Christian Watson has seven touchdowns on 25 catches. According to NFL Research, he joins Martavis Bryant (2014 with Pittsburgh) as the only two rookie wide receivers over the last 25 seasons to have seven receiving touchdowns within their first 25 receptions. He is also the only rookie receiver in NFL history to have eight scrimmage touchdowns in a four-game span. The other: Randy Moss.

On Watson’s 46-yard touchdown run against the Bears on Sunday, he reached a top speed of 21.72 MPH, according to Next Gen Stats. This is tied with DeSean Jackson for the fastest speed by a wide receiver this season.

4th Down

There’s Always Next Year?

Time for Texans fans to start looking at mock drafts. Houston lost to Cleveland, 27-14, sliding to 1-10-1 on the season. With the loss, they become the first team to be officially eliminated from the playoffs. Their sad season can be encapsulated in this seemingly impossible-to-mess-up play.

5th Down

Man Amongst Boys

Najee Harris must have some basketball in his background because he delivered one of the most outrageous power dribbles of all time. In the first quarter against Atlanta, Harris took a handoff out left, and Falcons safety Richie Grant just happened to get in his way. This proved to be a bad business decision as Harris showed no mercy bouncing Grant's head off of the turf.

6th Down

Straight Cash, Homie

After missing the past four games with a hairline hip fracture, Ja’Marr Chase was back to doing what he does best against the Chiefs. Joe Burrow, who joined Tom Brady as the only two quarterbacks to beat Patrick Mahomes three or more times, rained down pinpoint passes to Chase, who hauled in seven for 97 yards. After teammate Tee Higgins' early second-quarter touchdown, Chase drew a taunting penalty for making it rain right in front of Chiefs DBs L’Jarius Sneed and Justin Reid.

7th Down

FCS Playoff Magic

University of The Incarnate Word is headed to the FCS Playoff Quarterfinals for the first time in program history. The Cardinals beat the Paladins of Furman University, 41-38. The highlight of the night made SportsCenter’s top 10 with Lindsey Scott Jr. completing an improbable touchdown pass to Darion Chafin.

8th Down

USC Falls Flat

Utah proved to be USC’s kryptonite yet again on Friday night. The Utes handed USC its only regular-season loss in Week 7 and came out on top again in the Pac-12 Championship. The loss plummeted USC six spots in the standings from 4 to 10 and opened the door for Ohio State to sneak into the College Football Playoff. USC quarterback and Heisman candidate Caleb Williams played the game with a controversial message written on his fingernails. Among other choice words, Utes quarterback Cameron Rising called Williams stunt "cute" after their win.

9th Down

Fins Down

The high-powered Dolphins offense ran into the defensive juggernaut that is Nick Bosa. Making his case for Defensive Player of the Year, Bosa recorded three sacks, two tackles for loss and one forced fumble. The Tua stopper now leads the NFL with 13.5 sacks. 

10th Down

There Are Levels To This

While there were many great individual receiving performances over the weekend, none stood out more than what Davante Adams did against the Chargers. Adams put the Raiders on his back with eight receptions for 177 yards and two scores in Las Vegas' win, marking the fourth time this season he has had at least 100 yards receiving and two touchdowns. No receiver in the NFL has more than two. What sometimes gets lost i Adam's spectacular play is his second-to-none route running. These camera angles show how he sets up his monster-receiving performances.

Tags: Christian Watson, Davante Adams, Green Bay Packers See More

The 33rd Team

The 33rd Team is a Football Think Tank created by Mike Tannenbaum and Joe Banner.

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