TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D3
Soldier Field seemed like a
realistic demand after the
Chicago Bears suffered one of the
most maddening losses of a
season filled with maddening
losses.
The Baltimore Ravens played
without supernova quarterback
Lamar Jackson and top wide
receiver Marquise Brown, out
with a non-covid-19 illness and a
thigh injury, respectively. The
Bears lost Justin Fields to a rib
injury midgame, but they still
had the quarterbacking
advantage with veteran Andy
Dalton against second-year
backup Tyler Huntley.
Dalton gave the Bears a 13-9
lead with 1:41 remaining on a
miracle pass, a fourth-and- 11
bomb that Marquise Goodwin
caught for a 49-yard touchdown.
The Bears had pulled a season-
saving win out of the fire, and
then they dropped it on their
foot. The Bears surrendered
three gains of at least 21 yards,
including a 29-yard reception
from Sammy Watkins on a third-
and-12 coverage bust.
The Ravens deserve credit for
their resilience, a trait they have
showed all season in the face of
unceasing injuries. But Nagy will
to have to own a terrible loss.
There have been no midseason
coaching firings this year. Nagy
could be the first.
[email protected]of their losses came by four
points or fewer, and the other
came by a touchdown. They have
proved they can play with any
team, and Cousins has been a
driving factor.
The Kansas City Chiefs are
winning with defense. As the
Chiefs sputtered to a 3-4 start,
their defense was routinely
shredded. When it started to
improve, its success was
overshadowed by the first slump
of Mahomes’s career. By now, it’s
clear the Chiefs are surging back
into contention not despite their
defense but because of it.
In a 19-9 victory, the Chiefs
held Dak Prescott and the Dallas
Cowboys, who played without
wide receiver Amari Cooper and
lost fellow wideout CeeDee Lamb
to a concussion, without a
touchdown. During their four-
game winning streak, the Chiefs
have yielded 17, seven, 14 and
nine points.
After a bye next week, the
Chiefs will end the season with a
manageable schedule: Broncos,
Raiders, at Chargers, Steelers, at
Bengals, at Broncos. It’s wholly
realistic that the Chiefs could
finish 12-5 or even 13-4. The
Chiefs started the season as
Super Bowl favorites, and soon
they may wear that label again.
Matt Nagy might be in
trouble. The “Fire Nagy” chant
that cascaded from the seats atChiefs. But their other wins have
come against Washington, the
Miami Dolphins twice, the
Texans and the New York Jets.
Kirk Cousins is quietly
having an elite season. And the
Minnesota Vikings will have to
be reckoned with in the final two
months of the season. In perhaps
the best game of the day, Cousins
outdueled Aaron Rodgers and
led the Vikings to a 34-31 victory
in Minneapolis. He passed for
341 yards, throwing for three
touchdowns and no
interceptions before leading a
last-second field goal drive.
Cousins’s performance
continued a sneaky-great season,
at least by the numbers. He has
completed 68.2 percent of his
attempts while throwing for 21
touchdowns with only two
interceptions. Entering Week 11,
Pro Football Focus graded
Cousins as the second-best
quarterback in the NFL this
season, behind only Tom Brady.
Cousins doesn’t have to carry the
Vikings with Dalvin Cook, Adam
Thielen and Justin Jefferson
surrounding him. He has been
excellent and efficient in
distributing the ball.
The Vikings’ victory nudged
them to 5-5, but they are
probably much better than a .500
team. Amazingly, the Vikings
have led by at least seven points
in every game this season. Fourcontributed to their 0-3 start, the
Colts have climbed above .500 at
6-5. Taylor allows the Colts to
play a style that can thrive
anywhere, in any weather. If
quarterback Carson Wentz can
avoid the big mistake, the Colts
will be exceedingly difficult to
beat.
The Bills lost their grip on
the AFC East. At the end of last
season, it looked as if the Bills
had wrested control of the
division for years to come. It took
the New England Patriots 11
weeks to take it back. The
Patriots ascended to first place
with their dominant, 25-0
victory over the Atlanta Falcons
on Thursday night and Buffalo’s
loss Sunday. At plus-123, the
Patriots have the best point
differential in the NFL. They are
undeniably a Super Bowl threat.
The Bills are facing serious
questions about their status as a
contender. Quarterback Josh
Allen has dealt with the same
problem Patrick Mahomes faced
for so much of this season:
Defenses are playing a shell-like
alignment with deep safeties,
daring the Bills to beat them
with short passes and the
running game. The Bills have
lacked the personnel and the
discipline to defeat that strategy.
The Bills’ defense often has
looked strong, and they own a
commanding victory over theAnother week
brought another
head-spinning
result for a team
at the top of the
NFL. The AFC-
leading Tennessee Titans had
won six straight entering Sunday,
including five consecutive
against 2020 playoff teams. At
home in the rain, the Titans
unraveled in a 22-13 loss to the
Houston Texans, who
intercepted four Ryan Tannehill
passes for their first win since
Week 1.
In 2021, the moment you think
a team might be great is the
moment it proves it is not. Here
is what to know.
Parity rules. There is no
dominant team at the top of the
NFL, there is no clarity in the
middle, and there is almost
nobody out of playoff contention.
The 9-2 Arizona Cardinals, who
won again without Kyler Murray
and DeAndre Hopkins, are the
only team in the NFL with fewer
than three losses. The 0-9-1
Detroit Lions are the only team
with fewer than two wins.
After 11 weeks, absolutely
nothing is settled. Twenty-one
teams squeeze into the territory
between 4-7 and 7-4. The playoff
picture is a mess in both
conferences. In the AFC, seven
teams fighting for the last two
wild-card spots are between 6-4
and 5-5. In the NFC, the
Washington Football Team was
2-6 two weeks ago, and now it is
one game out of the playoff
picture.
Jonathan Taylor may be the
most valuable non-quarterback
in the NFL. The Indianapolis
Colts stunned the Buffalo Bills,
41-15, on the road, trouncing a
team in free fall from its perch as
the AFC favorite. The Bills
knocked the Colts out of the
playoffs last season, and in their
victorious locker room Sunday,
Indianapolis players and coaches
referenced “owing” the Bills.
They built their victory on the
shoulders of Taylor, who in
Derrick Henry’s absence has
emerged as the closest thing to
Henry: the best running back in
the NFL and a one-man offense
on an AFC South contender.
Taylor had four rushing
touchdowns against the Bills and
caught a pass for a score while
rushing for 185 yards. Taylor
leads the league with 1,122
rushing yards, putting him in
position to challenge a 2,000-
yard season. Henry has 937
rushing yards, putting him
second even though he hasn’t
played in a month. Cleveland’s
Nick Chubb ranks third at 851,
nearly 300 out of first place.
Taylor was the 41st draft pick
in 2020 and the third running
back taken behind Clyde
Edwards-Helaire and D’Andre
Swift. Though teams are wary of
taking running backs early, there
are some teams kicking
themselves.
After a difficult scheduleIt’s all parity, all the time, and the Colts’ success is Taylor madeOn the
NFL
ADAM
KILGOREWADE PAYNE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Potential AFC supremacy slipped from the grasp of quarterback Ryan Tannehill and the Titans, who lost Sunday to the woebegone Texans.BY ROB MAADDItampa — Tom Brady threw for
307 yards and two touchdowns as
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat
the New York Giants, 30-10, on
Monday night.
The Super Bowl champion
Buccaneers (7-3) snapped a two-
game losing streak as Brady
avoided dropping three in a row
for the first time since 2002.
Daniel Jones threw a touch-
down pass to left tackle Andrew
Thomas, and the Giants (3-7)
stayed close for one half before
unraveling.
Down 17-10, New York drove to
the Tampa Bay 25 on the opening
drive of the third quarter before
Jones, under pressure from Devin
White, threw incomplete on
fourth and one after rushing to
the line to beat the play clock.
Brady then connected with
Mike Evans on a five-yard touch-
down pass to extend the lead to
24-10. Evans set a franchise rec-
ord with his 72nd touchdown,
passing Mike Alstott. He made
sure to keep the ball after giving
away Brady’s 600th touchdown
pass to a fan earlier in the season.
Jones threw an interception to
310-pound nose tackle Steve
McLendon on New York’s next
possession, but Tampa Bay set-
tled for Ryan Succop’s 40-yard
field goal despite starting at the
Giants 37. It was McLendon’s first
career pick in 12 seasons.
Jones was picked by Mike Ed-
wards in the fourth quarter, and
Succop hit a 30-yarder to cap the
scoring.
Brady finished 30 for 46 with
one interception. He improved to
6-1 against the Giants in the regu-
lar season but has lost two Super
Bowls to New York, including one
that prevented New England
from a perfect season.
The seven-time Super Bowl
champion leads the NFL with 29
touchdown passes and is second
in yards passing with 3,172.
Four-time all-pro tight end Rob
Gronkowski was back in Tampa’s
lineup after missing five of the
previous six games. Brady target-
ed his buddy eight times, con-
necting on six passes for 71 yards.
Star running back Saquon Bar-
kley returned for the Giants after
missing four games with a
sprained ankle but only had 25
yards rushing on six carries.
Jones was sacked twice by a
ferocious defense that was miss-
ing defensive tackle Vita Vea with
a k nee injury.
— Associated Press
Brady has
Tampa Bay
back on
right track
BUCCANEERS 30,
GIANTS 10outspending others — including
the Mets’ qualifying offer of
$18.4 million — and
surrendering a draft pick to get
him. Few other general
managers admit doubt like that
at all, let alone admit that they
take sideways glances at their
peers to make sure they aren’t
too crazy. But Minasian isn’t
hiding his intentions.
Even after Syndergaard
signed, creating a potentially
maddening top-of-the-rotation
duo with fellow fireballer
Ohtani, Minasian didn’t use the
moment to declare the return of
the Angels or foretell a prolific
offseason that would change the
trajectory of the franchise
forever. No, he explained,
signing Syndergaard — like
everything else the Angels do
this offseason — would have to
speak for itself in terms of the
franchise’s trajectory, in terms of
convincing other players that
this team is finally, actually
headed somewhere.
“At the end of the day, I like
what we have to sell. I like the
groups of guys we have in that
locker room. Players talk to
players, so what the experience
is for each and every player in
our locker room has a big impact
on possible additions,” said
Minasian, suggesting that
nothing he could say would
matter as much as what the
players tell one another.
“I think some of their missing
pieces was starting pitching,”
Syndergaard said. “I hope I can
fill that role, and when I’m able
to get back to where I used to be,
I think the Angels are going to
have a real shot to make a big
run at this.”
[email protected]Minasian flew across the
country to have dinner with
Syndergaard and his agent in
New York just to convince him to
come to the Angels for one year,
something other executives
typically do only for much
longer, much more expensive
deals.
“I’d like to thank ownership
for allowing me to take this risk.
We’re going in eyes wide open,”
Minasian said when he
addressed the signing. “... As
far as man hours, the amount of
work, I don’t know if I’ve ever
done more on an individual
player. We feel good where he’s
at in his rehab. The physical
went really well. I think it’s a
good gamble to take.”
During that Zoom news
conference to discuss the
signing, Minasian praised
Syndergaard and his agent.
Syndergaard praised Minasian,
explaining that while he would
have to listen to the Angels’
pitching coaches, of course,
Minasian’s breakdown of his
mechanics was enlightening and
spot on. He felt the six-man
rotation Minasian is plotting
would help him manage his
post-surgery workload without
limiting him. And Syndergaard
noticed more than that.
“I could just sense his passion,
his desire to win right now,”
Syndergaard said. “That got me
really fired up.”
Minasian admitted that he
was relieved when he heard
other teams were in on
Syndergaard, competing for his
services. The shared consensus
about Syndergaard’s bounce-
back potential increased the
comfort Minasian had that he
was making the right decision byand his staff began offseason
planning meetings the day after
the regular season ended. They
identified Syndergaard as a risk
worth taking.
The Angels were the first
team to call Syndergaard. They
didn’t hedge or play it safe.destination, but people close to
him make clear that he will not
go anywhere he doesn’t see an
imminent and immediate path
to the World Series.
But instead of hoping one of
those types comes his way,
Minasian made sure of it. Hethe kind of competitive fury
Minasian seemed to be hinting
at. One of them, Justin
Verlander, signed with the
Houston Astros soon after the
general managers’ meetings.
Another, Max Scherzer, has yet
to make a decision on histhough his first season at the
helm ended the way of those
before it: without a legitimate
postseason chance, with
squandered star power and with
resignation that preempted
disappointment.
His approach to this offseason
has been steady and dogged: He
signed right-hander Noah
Syndergaard to a one-year deal,
betting that the hard thrower
can reemerge as an ace after
Tommy John surgery cost him
most of the past two seasons.
Minasian also acquired
discarded infielders Andrew
Velazquez and Tyler Wade from
the New York Yankees,
stockpiling athletic players who
could help bolster an infield that
already includes steady David
Fletcher, potential MVP
candidate but injury-prone
Rendon and potent first
baseman Jared Walsh. On
Monday, Minasian pounced on
one of the more coveted left-
handed relievers on the market,
giving a two-year, $17 million
contract to Aaron Loup.
Besides building depth,
Minasian has been clear about
what he feels this franchise has
been lacking. He believes, and
has said publicly, that the
Angels’ rotation must not only
get better but also grittier and
more competitive.
“We’d like to be a little more
aggressive,” Minasian said.
“What we currently have, certain
pitchers set tones, and I think
there’s a trickle-down effect.
We’re lacking in that area.”
The market is not lacking in
starting pitching moxie, loaded
with veteran starters known for
ON BASEBALL FROM D1
ON BASEBALL
GM Minasian hopes adding Syndergaard can help talented Angels break through
JIM MONE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Two-way star Shohei Ohtani is not obligated to remain with the Angels beyond 2023, and he knows it.