The NFL Week 11 slate of games is one of the best so far this season. The schedule this week features several really intriguing tilts between high-caliber teams, and with the playoffs looming just over the horizon, the outcomes of a handful of these games will help to start revealing which teams are contenders and which are pretenders. As a preview for some of the marquee games this weekend, let’s take a look at a few key players and matchups to watch closely.
The best matchups and what to watch for on the NFL’s monster Week 11 schedule
Sunday may be the best slate of NFL games all season and it could have major implications on not just who gets to the postseason, but the seedings and home field advantage when they get there. Here are the top games and what to watch for in each.
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Here are the games I’m most excited to watch, and I’ve listed teams along with their records and their spot in our weekly Power Rankings. First up on the docket is New Orleans at Cincinnati, and while they sit in the middle in terms of Power Rankings, both teams have flashed enough at times to be considered playoff contenders.
Mark Ingram, Jeremy Hill as the bell cow backs
The Saints aren’t where they want to be at 4-5 through 10 weeks, but they hold the distinct advantage of playing in the NFC South, where they currently lead the division with a losing record. While Cincinnati has underwhelmed (badly) at times this season, they’re still very much in the hunt in the very tough AFC North, where every team is at least two games over .500 -- the only time that’s happened in a division since 1934 this late in the season.
At the center of both teams' game plans will be relatively new bell cow backs in Mark Ingram and Jeremy Hill. For the Saints, with Pierre Thomas and Khiry Robinson on the mend, the former first-rounder Ingram has emerged and has looked like a new back. He's apparently running with newfound explosion and he's posted over 100 yards in the last three games, including 120 on 4.4 yards per carry against the Niners last week.
To get an idea of the attitude that Ingram’s brought to the Saints’ backfield, just watch this run below:
In Cincy, with Gio Bernard still nursing a hip injury that’s kept him out of the past two games, the Bengals will look to Jeremy Hill once again to carry the load and set the tone for the offense.
In Week 9 against the Jags, Hill broke off a huge 60-yard touchdown run late in the game that buried Jacksonville, and it displayed several of the traits that had originally convinced the Bengals to spend a second round pick on him last year.
In particular, the cut that he makes downhill when he sees the safety take a poor pursuit angle is explosive, and then he manages to gain separation in the open field. To top it off, he breaks a tackle up the sideline and gets into the endzone.
In addition to explosive downhill speed and power, Hill has displayed some nice short-area quickness and escapability, as evidenced on this run below from the Browns loss last week.
Like most rookies, though, Hill must be certain to concentrate on one of the game’s biggest fundamentals -- ball security.
K.J. Wright at the mike
The Seahawks have heated up of late and are winners of their last three games, but just as they're getting healthy in the back-end on defense with the return of S Kam Chancellor and CB Byron Maxwell, they took a big hit this week with the loss of nose tackle Brandon Mebane. Further, with middle linebacker Bobby Wagner still out with a turf toe injury and his backup, rookie Brock Coyle suffering from a bruised glute, the Seahawks have decided to go with K.J. Wright back in the middle of their defense. His role there is a major one now that Mebane won't be up front clogging up run lanes in the middle.
Against a Chiefs team that likes to run the ball, this is going to be something to really keep an eye on.
“I can’t say enough about K.J and his versatility,” said Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn on Thursday. “Not only can he play Mike (middle linebacker) but he can play Will (weakside). It’s rare to have a guy that can have that versatility -- not only week to week, but he can do it in a game if need be. So I have a lot of respect and appreciation for what he brings to our defense.”
This versatility has come in handy because Seattle has experienced so many injuries to the linebacker corps.
“I think it starts with him having really good football instincts,” Quinn continued. “To say, ‘I understand the concept of how we play whether it is three deep, or man to man. Then, the intricacies of each position -- you have to learn and study at those hard because you’re seeing things at a little bit of a different angle so I have a lot of respect for the way he has gone about it.”
Imagine going in and playing the position that’s widely referred to as the “quarterback of the defense” after spending all of last year and most of this season on the outside.
“He knows every position,” explains Seahawks’ linebackers coach Ken Norton. “He knows where the outside linebackers go. He knows where the inside linebackers go. He knows where the nose guard is supposed to be. So for him, it’s a very natural fit. He is the middle linebacker. He knows where everybody is. So that’s what the guy in the middle does. He’s the heartbeat. So this is a very natural place for him to be.”
“It’s not a big deal whenever I’m at Mike linebacker,” Wright said. “You’ve just got to get guys lined up. That’s it.”
Easier said than done. Seattle will depend on the third-year linebacker to man the middle and he'll be calling the shots to get Malcolm Smith, Bruce Irvin, and/or rookie Kevin Pierre-Louis lined up where they need to be. With Seattle reeling up front and looking to push Kevin Williams in at the nose tackle, there's sure to be an adjustment period, and that's why an experienced player like Wright at the Mike spot becomes so important.
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Clay Matthews at inside linebacker?
Similar to the Seahawks, the great matchup between the Eagles and Packers could feature one of Green Bay's best players out of position. Last week against the Bears, the Pack moved outside linebacker -- pass rush specialist, really -- Clay Matthews to the inside linebacker position. In a 3-4 defense, the move from the outside to the inside is a pretty significant one, because you're not only dealing with different alignments and different types of head-on blocks, you're playing way off the line and in space.
It’s not an easy transition, and the keys and reads are all different in the middle. Outside linebackers are trained and grilled on reacting to and defeating tackles, and now Matthews is in the middle trying to figure out what guards and centers do and how they look in runs or passes.
Matthews, despite the 11 tackles he racked up in his first try there, obviously didn’t feel terribly comfortable with it. “I don’t just like going out there and kind of freelancing, so to speak,” Matthews said after the game. “I’m still learning. I’m still learning the nuances of the position, just from a different aspect and viewpoint. That being said, obviously I’m getting more comfortable with it, but there’ll still be some bumps along the way.”
Matthews looked a little overly aggressive on a few occasions, and you’d expect a guy that’s been one of the best pass rushers over the last few years to have this mentality, but I thought he looked pretty natural with most of it. One example from early in the game kind of demonstrated that: Watch as he avoids getting caught up in the wash, keeps his eyes in the backfield, defeats a block and makes a tackle. This is middle linebacker stuff right here.
“You put someone in position to make plays like that, and you come up with making those plays, you’re obviously a little more warm to the idea of playing those different personnel changes,” Matthews said. “So, I mean, if I had no action the other night, I’d probably be saying, ‘Hey, put me at safety or somewhere where you can figure out how I can get after the ball.’ No, I think that’s what we were going for. I think it worked out.”
I mean, Matthews is someone that plays with crazy agility, power, and speed, so the idea of him in the middle is pretty fun, frankly. Rushing the passer is pretty damn important, obviously, and the Packers had him mostly outside on third downs. But he does play with a keen awareness of what’s going on so it’s a position switch that could work out if Green Bay needs it.
Watch him sniff out and blow up this reverse: Sees the receiver coming from the opposite side, and decides to do something about that.
It’s still up in the air as to whether Matthews will stay in the middle, but if he does stick with his new position, it’s something to keep an eye on and will be another fun matchup to watch against the fast-paced Eagles offense.
Antonio Cromartie/Patrick Peterson vs. Golden Tate/Megatron
This will be one of the more exciting games to check out this week and features two of the hottest teams in the NFL. The Cardinals, of course, will be without their starting quarterback in Carson Palmer after he was lost to a torn ACL, and Drew Stanton will have his hands full with one of the best defenses in the NFL right now in Detroit. Of course, Arizona would also probably make the claim for the best defense in the NFL, and they'll get the chance to try and slow down one of the NFL's best receiver duos in Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate this Sunday.
Trying to stymie that pair will be Patrick Peterson and Antonio Cromartie. As for who will be matched up with whom, Bruce Arians isn't letting the cat out of the bag.
“Each week, it’s the best matchup for those guys and how we feel like we can play man and zone and not, basically, be giving things away,” Arians told reporters Wednesday. “We want to be able to continue some disguise. But the majority of it is who we feel handles the other guy the best.”
Peterson and Golden Tate have “a history” from Tate’s time in Seattle so I wonder if that will be something Arians will look to take advantage of. With Cromartie’s length, that attribute might come in handy against the 6’5 Megatron. Or, will Peterson’s pure speed and explosiveness match up better against Johnson to take away some of the size advantages he has, and will Cromartie have a better shot at using his length to disrupt the 5’10 Tate? These are the questions. I can’t wait to find out what the answers are.
Dwayne Allen as the joker
Sunday Night's game might in fact be the best of the best, and will pit Tom Brady against Andrew Luck in the storyline that writers have been dying to narrate all year. I'll spare you that, and instead point to Indy's Dwayne Allen as a potential x-factor player to keep an eye on.
Everyone talks about Rob Gronkowski, and they should. But, Allen plays a role similar to Gronk in Indy's scheme in that he's a moveable chess piece that can be used in both blocking and receiving, and his specialty is exploiting mismatches against linebackers, nickel backs, or safeties when given the opportunity.
Patriots vs. Colts
The way that Colts head coach Chuck Pagano described Allen really resonated with me.
“Whether it’s 60, 65, 70 plays in a game, 60 of them are just going to be boxing, just sparring,” he said this week. “There’s going to be five or six plays that determine the outcome of every single game, and most of those are scheme matchups. That’s a displaced tight end -- you get them out in space and you get them on maybe a smaller nickel back or a safety that’s not a great cover guy and guys find ways to find that matchup.”
When those opportunities present themselves -- and Andrew Luck's eyes get as big as milk saucers, "It's a way to steal plays and steal touchdowns," said Pagano. "That's what this league is."
That’s what this league is. It’s a constant, evolving chess match. If you can get three, four, or five exploitable mismatches per game and seize those moments, you give yourself a great chance to win.
Exhibit A: The Colts get Allen matched up in man coverage against a linebacker here, and just generally speaking, trailing coverage down the seam isn't most linebackers' forte. In this case, anyway, Allen's route confounds Lawrence Timmons, and he separates just before getting into the endzone.
Allen wasn't the fastest guy in the 40-yard dash, but he's field fast, and that's what matters. Watch him separate here against Jacquian Williams, one of the Giants' better and more athletic cover linebackers.
“He’s a versatile player,” Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton said. “He’s a great example of an every-down tight end. (He’s) a guy that can block in the run game; he can play without the ball. And in the passing game, it’s surprising to see that a big, physical guy like Dwayne is explosive enough to create separation. And once he gets the ball in his hands, he’s made some big plays.”
He might not be Gronk, but he’s one guy that I’ll be watching for on Sunday night.
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