GEORGE: 16 NFL Thoughts From Week 12

Some thoughts after another busy NFL weekend:

1) We paid homage to the Patriots who were injured in Sunday’s win at Cincinnati.

It looks like Will Campbell may return for the season finale against Miami. At worst, he has a sprained MCL. Nothing much on Jared Wilson, who, it appears, may only have a sprained ankle.

But we did not give a shout-out to another injured Patriot: Milton Williams.

Without Williams, the Patriots’ run defense has suffered. Two weeks ago, quarterback Justin Fields rushed for 67 yards on 11 carries, while Breece Hall rushed for 58 yards on 14 carries. This was an aggregate 5.8 yards per carry. This Sunday past, Chase Brown rushed for 107 yards on 19 carries for an average of 5.6 yards per carry.

Would these numbers have happened if Williams had been in there?

Williams has turned out to be a very good free agent signing, much like Hunter Henry a few years back. Without Williams in there, the number nine rush defense in the NFL has taken a hit. With rookie running back Cam Skattebo on the horizon for the Giants, Mike Vrabel will be hard-pressed to deal with this dynamic rookie out of Arizona State.

And watch out if you overplay the run and dare rookie Jaxson Dart to beat you through the air. Dart showed the Patriots in August a little taste of what he could perhaps do.

2) Geek of the week: After the final seconds ticked off in a 20-9 win by the 49ers on Monday night, Jauan Jennings, a San Francisco wideout, slugged Carolina safety Tre’von Moehrig in the chops. The two were broken up and separated quickly, but Jennings was furious with Moehrig. Joe Buck on television said, “The league will certainly look into this, and possible fines will be levied on Jennings.” This is why Jennings is our GOTW. ESPN showed earlier in the game where, at the end of a play, Jennings got up, and Moehrig punched Jennings in the face. Jennings obviously called out Moehrig for a meeting after the game. Jennings forgot that it’s always the SECOND man who gets nailed, not the instigator. Nothing will likely happen to Moehrig unless the league does its due diligence. Jennings should have known that he could perhaps exact revenge in a future matchup. Owner Jed York could perhaps petition the league to look at what Moehrig did, to make sure that he who deserves punishment gets it.

3) Not that this will actually happen, but Vrabel had better not get outcoached next Monday night.

Brian Daboll was recently fired. Mike Kafka is interim head coach. Now, Shane Bowen, the defensive coordinator, has been fired. Charlie Bullen will serve as interim defensive coordinator.

The Giants are a mess at 2-10. They are worst in the NFC, and only the Titans are worse in the league.

Here is another game that screams out “trap” for the Patriots.

Vrabel must preach two tenets this week: “Next man up” and “Play sixty minutes of football”. With their bye week looming on the horizon, the Patriots must play good football all game long, and don’t turn this game into a nailbiter. Win this game, win it solidly, and enjoy the week off that follows.

4) Count me in on the growing adulation for the Rams. Bringing in Davante Adams to pair with Puka Nacua is just the beginning. They look frightening right now.

5) Jerry Jones called Dallas’ come from behind win over Philadelphia Sunday night as a win he will remember until the day he draws his last breath. If you ask Bob Kraft which game(s) he will remember to his final hour, it’s a good bet his answer will involve the words “Super Bowl”.

6) Back to school: With rivalry games coming up, the entire college football rank and file should look at the Harvard-Yale game and be humbly reminded that anything goes in a rivalry game. For me, Michigan has won four straight versus Ohio State, but I don’t see them winning this year. However, if Michigan plays like Yale, well…

7) So now, Baltimore is 6-5 and leads the AFC North. Beware all future Ravens opponents. You all know one of them.

8) Michael Penix Jr., Atlanta quarterback, is once again doing what he is famous for: getting hurt. Whatever the Falcons thought in drafting him when they already had Kirk Cousins, I have to wonder if the subject of Penix’s health ever came up.

9) It’s been 62 years now since President Kennedy was assassinated on my fifth birthday. All these years later, and the NFL playing that Sunday was an asinine decision. Then-press secretary Pierre Salinger reasoned that the late President would have wanted the NFL to play. This was not the same as baseball playing during WWII. The AFL did not play. Raider owner/GM Al Davis said “I won’t play. I don’t care what they say, I won’t play!” That Sunday was the day the late President lay in state in the Capital rotunda while some 500,000 people walked by to pay their respects.

10) Good news: Both the Bills and Colts lost this past weekend. Bad news: Here come the Bills and the Ravens.

11) What’s with the NFC North? You’ve got the Vikings in last place and the Bears in first. Green Bay and Detroit are still within striking distance. It should be the other way around.

12) The Vikings are having second thoughts about their quarterback, J.J. McCarthy. Is this another case of a young player who looks great in college but can’t handle the game? Bryce Young is finally starting to figure the pro game out, and smart money says McCarthy will also.

13) Another young quarterback who is figuring out the pro game is Trevor Lawrence. He has the Jaguars right in there for division contention. Things tend to go better with a better cast and a better head coach.

14) Remember him: A lot was made of Kansas City’s Willie Lanier becoming the first African-American middle linebacker in NFL history. Former Giants middle linebacker Sam Huff was credited with establishing the position as we know it today, more or less the quarterback of the defense. Huff joined the Giants in 1956 and they won the NFL Championship that year. Two years later Huff played in the first overtime game in NFL history, a 23-17 loss to the Colts in the championship game. He was traded to Washington in 1964 and finished his career under Vince Lombardi, during the coach’s brief time with the Redskins. In 1960, Huff was the subject of Walter Cronkite’s Sunday night show The Twentieth Century on CBS, called The Violent World of Sam Huff. The late Howard Cosell of ABC Sports described the Giants’ defense of the mid 1950s this way: “You had Katcavage, Modzelewski, Grier and Robustelli tying up the offensive line, giving Sam Huff a cheap shot at the ball carrier.” Huff was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982 and passed away in November of 2021 at age 87.

15) Every time Carolina has to play San Francisco, they have to be sick to their stomachs that Christian McCaffrey used to play for them.

16) So, Thursday is fast approaching. Green Bay at Detroit, Kansas City at Dallas, Cincinnati at Baltimore. A big parade and a dog show in New York City.

Hopefully, it’s also about families gathering, lots of food, lots of togetherness. Being thankful is what Thursday is all about.

If it’s the Patriots that you’re also thankful for, it’s with good reason. Enjoy this whole week, one and all.

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About Bob George

Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139

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