12. Chicago Bears
We write many of these blurbs immediately after games are over, and this Bears blurb is being written immediately after their hilariously fun win against the Vikings on the road. If you were hoping for a showcase of second-year quarterbacks bringing their absolute best on the field, this game wasn’t for you. If you were hoping for the Bears to send every Vikings fan home absolutely crushed, this game was definitely for you.
It was almost as if the Bears were waiting to give up their lead just to torture Vikings fans. Based on how the Chicago defense played against JJ McCarthy the entire afternoon, this game was unnecessarily close. The Bears got a huge kickoff return from Devin Duvernay late to basically get them into scoring range, and Cairo Santos did the rest.
And to say it looked like it was going wide left off the foot…All is well that ends well for the Bears, who got a much-needed divisional win with a gauntlet coming up against the Steelers, Eagles, and Packers.
11. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Even with an otherworldly game out of Sean Tucker (who started him in fantasy this week?), the Bucs couldn’t outlast Josh Allen on the road in Week 11. And how much do you really blame them for that? When the schedule comes out at the beginning of the year, you look at late road games and this one was probably penciled in as a loss for the Bucs, even at full strength.
Certainly, as banged up as the Bucs are, it was going to be tough to beat Buffalo, and they actually kept up with them pretty good until late in the game. The Cardiac Bucs couldn’t do the “Cardiac” thing in this one. They just ran out of steam, or wind in their sails, or whatever you want to call it.
And just like that, the Buccaneers are tied with the Panthers in the win column. They are still ahead by a game in the loss column, but things have sort of started unraveling at a really bad time. They have a huge game next week against the Rams, again on the road.