NFL Panic Index 2017, Week 11: Injuries may derail Cowboys’ entire season

The Cowboys missed Ezekiel Elliott against the Falcons in Week 10. But they missed left tackle Tyron Smith even more, and it showed.

You’ve got to expect some lapses when a backup takes over on Dak Prescott’s blind side while the best left tackle in the league is sidelined with groin and back injuries. But nobody expected Chaz Green to be quite as bad as he was. Green was benched after giving up four of Adrian Clayborn’s six sacks on Sunday. His replacement, Byron Bell, promptly gave up another one after taking over for Green.

And the worst news for Dallas is that Smith may not be ready to go this week against the high-flying Eagles. And they have another glaring hole on the other side of the ball, with linebacker Sean Lee out with a hamstring injury he suffered in Week 3 against the Cardinals.

Having Lee out against the Eagles’ offense is the worst-case scenario for the Cowboys. Philadelphia has the second-best scoring offense in the league with 31.4 points per game. Dallas will particularly miss Lee when the Eagles are running the ball. Philadelphia’s ground attack is ranked fourth in the NFL and averaging 136.8 yards per game.

Panic index: Dak Prescott has proven that he can generally keep the Cowboys competitive. But with Elliott still out serving his six-game suspension and the Cowboys missing key players on both sides of the ball, it’s a rough time to have to face the division rival that just happens to be the best team in the NFC.

The Seahawks are 6-3 and in the mix in the NFC. But injuries to key players on both sides of the ball raise questions about whether or not Seattle can keep pace in the conference.

Last Thursday’s win over the Cardinals was particularly devastating. All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman was lost for the rest of the season with a ruptured Achilles. Left tackle Duane Brown, starting his second game for Seattle after being acquired from Houston before the trade deadline, left the game with an ankle injury. His status for Sunday’s game against the Falcons is uncertain.

Earl Thomas may make it back for Week 11 after being sidelined with a hamstring injury for the Seahawks’ last two games. Kam Chancellor’s status is up in the air after suffering a stinger against the Cardinals. Running back Chris Carson has been on injured reserve, but is a candidate to return. Left guard Luke Joeckel has been out recovering from minor knee surgery. Both may be able to play this week, but there’s no guarantee.

And even if Brown and Joeckel are both healthy enough to play, it may make for a shaky left side of the line against a Falcons defense that sacked Dak Prescott eight times last week.

Panic index: The Seahawks need to keep pace with the 7-2 Rams. That’s going to be a much bigger challenge with so many key players banged up. Might be time to panic.

It was only two weeks ago when the Bills were 5-2, and looking like they might actually be able to challenge the Patriots in the AFC East.

Early season wins against the Broncos and Falcons impressed, but the Bills have lost consecutive games to the Jets and Saints. Neither game was really close, either.

“We haven’t given the fans a lot to be excited about the last two weeks,” center Eric Wood said, via WGR 550 Sports Radio. He added, “It’s a long season and we’ve played good ball this year so we can’t go into the tank at this point. We’re sitting at 5-4. We have a lot of football ahead of us and a great opportunity still.”

The Bills still have to play the Patriots twice, in Weeks 13 and 16. They also have to travel to Kansas City and play the Dolphins twice. That’s not exactly an easy slate of games.

Panic index: They’re still in the playoff hunt, but we know how this movie ends — at home watching other teams play in January and February.

There are very few, if any, quarterback matchups that you could conceive that would be less watchable than this one. The Texans and Cardinals are facing off in Week 11. A few weeks ago, we’d be looking forward to Deshaun Watson attempting to go after Patrick Peterson. Now, we get to watch Tom Savage do his “best.”

To show the difference in the Texans’ offense:

Drew Stanton, who is already filling in for Carson Palmer, injured his knee against the Seahawks, and he’s questionable to play against the Texans. That would leave us with Blaine Gabbert and his 56 percent career completion rate.

Panic index: There’s still a chance Stanton plays, but even that’s not a whole lot more intriguing than the worst-case scenario.

The final score is deceiving: 38-24 looks like a comfortable win. The type of victory that no one was sweating too much, but there’s still enough to work on in practice later that week. Instead, the Lions only managed to pull away from the winless Browns late. At home.

The Browns were up 10-0 early, their biggest lead of the season. The score probably should have been tied at half, if not for some major Brownsing happening right before the break that can be summed up with this Hue Jackson GIF:

The Browns even held a lead late in the third quarter, until the Lions tied it up right before the final period, denying Cleveland its first fourth-quarter lead of the season. Then DeShone Kizer, in the midst of his best game as a pro, exited for a few drives, essentially quashing any hope the Browns had at ending all those 0-16 jokes the Lions know far too well.

So even though the Lions got back above .500 with the win, and even though they’re still in striking distance of a wild card spot, how pleased can they be? The Vikings keep rolling and have a two-game lead in the NFC North. The Packers are right there with the Lions at 5-4, despite the absence of Aaron Rodgers.

Detroit gave up 201 rushing yards to Cleveland and needed a signature Matthew Stafford fourth-quarter comeback to beat the worst team in the NFL, in a month that Jim Caldwell owns (yes, really).

Maybe it was an off day, it happens. But it was basically what you’d expect a battle of two teams that have never played in a Super Bowl would look like.

Panic index: Forget about Sunday, Lions. Time to win your first championship in 60 years. The soccer world has foretold it.

Yes, Italy will miss the 2018 World Cup, a good omen for the Lions right when they needed it most.

After following up an embarrassing week of losing to the Rams 51-17, the Giants topped it! They lost to the previously winless 49ers, 31-21.

Ben McAdoo’s reaction? Well ... it might not be as strong as you’d expect for a coach whose team is now 1-8.

“I’m not embarrassed by this team,” he said.

He might not be embarrassed, but he might be feeling the heat. He got the dreaded vote of confidence this week from owner John Mara and executive VP Steve Tisch:

”Ben McAdoo is our head coach and has our support. We are in the midst of an extremely disappointing season. Our performance this year, particularly the past two weeks, is inexcusable and frustrating. While we appreciate that our fans are unhappy with what has occurred, nobody is more upset than we are.

“Our plan is to do what we have always done, which is to not offer a running commentary on the season. It is our responsibility to determine the reasons for our poor performance and at the end of the year, we will evaluate the 2017 season in its entirety and make a determination on how we move forward.”

They gave him the vote of confidence, while also not committing to him next year.

Panic index: If you’re a Giants fan, this nightmare is your life now. At least for seven more games. You could panic, or be happy about your future high draft choice.