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The latest
Dallas Cowboys at Kansas City Chiefs (-2.5)
Latest Odds:
Kansas City Chiefs -2.5
This is the game of the week, and it should be an offensive shootout between Patrick Mahomes and Dak Prescott. This past Sunday night, Mahomes got the offense back to what we expected to see before the season. That will carry over here. The Cowboys will score their points as well since the Chiefs defense still isn’t great, so look for a high-scoring game with the Chiefs coming out on top.
Pick: Chiefs 34, Cowboys 30
NFL Week 11 underdogs: Will Cowboys conquer Chiefs? Bears to surprise Ravens? | NFL.com
Dallas Cowboys AT Kansas City Chiefs
6-4
WHERE: GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (Kansas City)
WHEN: 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 21 | FOX
UNDERDOG: Cowboys +2.5
Kansas City’s prime-time thumping of the Raiders is an event I refuse to overreact to. Bash around the Cowboys in similar fashion and my undivided attention is yours. Dallas might be the most dangerous team in pro football, with a ceiling-free offense and a defense that, on Sunday, embarrassed a sometimes-juicy Falcons attack. Perhaps Assistant Coach of the Year candidate Dan Quinn grew tired of all the pregame white noise over Matt Ryan’s intimate familiarity with his ex-coach’s scheme. By tilt’s end, Ryan was pummeled into the lowest passer rating (21.4) of his 14-year career. The Chiefs arrive as a far meatier challenge and, yes, the reignited connections between Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill suggest a superpower rising from slumber. Kansas City’s defense has puffed up, too, allowing 17 points or fewer in four of its past five tilts. For the sake of context, that came against Washington, the Giants, a Jordan Love-led Packers roster and a back-to-the-wall Raiders outfit. K.C.’s acid test draws near as Dallas unfurls a blinding air flurry led by MVP candidate Dak Prescott and a cadre of skill-position heavies in the form of CeeDee Lamb, Amari Cooper and Ezekiel Elliott for starters. The absence of Randy Gregory and DeMarcus Lawrence is no help on defense, but rookie sensation Micah Parsons is ready to rumble while young Dorance Armstrong doubled as a fever dream in Week 10. The super-driven Prescott preached about the team’s resilience in bouncing back after an ugly loss to Denver. At long last, this is a Cowboys team boasting style AND substance. I’d call this a possible Super Bowl preview, but I’m not convinced the Chiefs are out of the woods just yet.
Culp was chosen to the Pro Bowl that season, the first of six appearances in the NFL’s all-star game. Culp later played for the Houston Oilers and coach Bum Phillips, before finishing his career with the Lions.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013. Now Culp, 75, faces the biggest challenge of his life. He shared in a Twitter message that he has been diagnosed with cancer.
“To my followers, family and friends I have stage 4 pancreatic cancer,” Culp wrote. “Do donate to your local cancer organizations so this dreaded disease is eradicated. Love life, family and friends. pray to God for all physical and spiritual healing.
Love, Curley Culp HOF#13.”
Nathaniel Hackett, Byron Leftwich, Patrick Graham among young NFL coaches to watch | NFL.com
Chiefs QB coach/passing game coordinator Mike Kafka, 34: A fourth-round pick by Andy Reid’s Eagles in 2010 who bounced around the NFL as a quarterback for parts of six seasons, Kafka possesses innate leadership traits and has earned a strong reputation as a QB tutor since reuniting with Reid in Kansas City as a quality control coach in 2017. He was promoted when the Bears hired then-Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy in 2018 (the same year Patrick Mahomes took over as QB1), and the plan has been for Kafka to move up again to OC when Eric Bieniemy gets his head-coaching shot after so many interviews in recent years. That still hasn’t happened, and Kafka now is on the head-coaching radar himself. His Chiefs contract is also set to expire after the season, and he could end up elsewhere as a play-calling OC in 2022 if a head job doesn’t materialize.
Big Picture: 5 Storylines for Cowboys & Chiefs | Dallas Cowboys official site
This week is quite the opposite for head coach Andy Reid who is extremely familiar with the Cowboys organization. Sunday marks the 22nd all-time meeting between Dallas and the Super Bowl winning head coach. Reid has the all-time advantage over the Cowboys 18-13 dating all the way back to his first season with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999. From 1999-2012, Reid led the Eagles before joining the Chiefs a season later and has led them to five straight AFC West titles.
24. Kansas City Chiefs (6-4)
Drake London, WR, USC*
After attempting to sign JuJu Smith-Schuster in the offseason and adding Josh Gordon to the roster in September, it’s clear that the Chiefs want to add a specific type of receiver to play alongside Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman, one with size and the physicality to do the dirty work. At 6-foot-5, 210 pounds, London fits that profile. He can win easily at the catch point, is a versatile route runner and isn’t shy as a run blocker. Before breaking his ankle last month, London had 88 catches for 1,084 yards and seven touchdowns.
Biggest needs: WR, EDGE, DB
Mecole Hardman Just Wants To Get Good At ‘Rocket League’ | Forbes
“Anybody play Rocket League?” he asked in a tweet that now has nearly 6,000 likes.
It turns out, quite a few people do, including fellow NFL athletes George Kittle, Devonta Smith, and Cam Jordan. All four NFL players have partnered up with Rocket League developer Psyonix for this year’s NFL/Rocket League crossover, which includes NFL content in the popular cars-meet-soccer video game, and the video game in these stars’ social media feeds and Twitch streams.
Part of this, for 23-year-old Hardman, is just his competitive nature. “I wanna get good,” he tells me, which—alongside having fun—is frankly one of the most noble ambitions any gamer (or athlete) can aspire to. This partnership between the NFL players and Rocket League should give Hardman plenty of chances to up his game.
Of course, the competition is fierce. 49er’s tight end George Kittle has been playing Rocket League since college, and has played and streamed alongside many of the game’s biggest influencers. Hardman, on the other hand, only got into Rocket League this year—and he got here by way of Warzone.
Around the NFL
NFL to intensify COVID-19 protocols around Thanksgiving holiday | ESPN
With Thanksgiving approaching and COVID-19 cases rising again nationwide, the NFL on Tuesday night issued a memo to its teams detailing changes to its COVID-19 protocols, including mandatory testing for all players and staff the Monday and Wednesday after the holiday and mandatory mask-wearing for all players and staff while inside club facilities from Nov. 25 through Dec. 1.
The memo, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN, also establishes new requirements for surveillance cameras in team facilities for the purpose of enforcing COVID-19 protocols. The memo says the league has been “periodically reviewing footage from surveillance cameras in club facilities to ensure Protocol compliance. Discipline has been issued against individual players and clubs as warranted.”
Effective Nov. 29, all NFL teams will be required to have video cameras installed in their weight rooms and cafeterias, including weight rooms that are outdoors or in practice bubbles. Teams must retain video from those cameras for 30 days in case the league requests to view it for the purpose of finding out whether people are following mask requirements at team facilities.
Jets to start QB Joe Flacco vs. Dolphins; Zach Wilson still ‘not 100%’ | NFL.com
With injured rookie Zach Wilson continuing his recovery from a PCL sprain in his right knee, the club will turn to veteran Joe Flacco for Sunday’s AFC East home game against the Miami Dolphins, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday. Coach Robert Saleh later confirmed the decision.
“Miami’s got a dynamic coverage system, with all the different coverages they run,” Saleh told reporters. “Joe’s been there, done that. He’s a steadying experience that we felt would put us in the best position to win. This is why we brought in Joe, for situations like this.”
Saleh added that won’t have a short leash this weekend and White will serve as New York’s backup.
2021 NFL season: Top 10 candidates to make their first Pro Bowl | NFL.com
8 - Justin Herbert
Los Angeles Chargers · QB · Year 2
Herbert threw his way to last season’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award, placing high expectations on himself entering 2021. So far, he’s largely lived up to them. Herbert has the Chargers in the thick of a tight AFC West race at 5-4 after throwing for the sixth-most passing yards (2,545) through 10 weeks. His only red flag has been a recent run of interceptions (four in his last four games). Still, he has a 19:7 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He’s excellent at making plays out-of-structure, averaging 11.3 yards per pass attempt on passes outside the pocket (the most in Next Gen Stats history in a single season, among those with a minimum of 200 attempts), and he makes the Chargers a legitimate contender on a weekly basis. When combined with his statistical performance and the current landscape of AFC quarterbacks, Herbert has a good chance to earn his first Pro Bowl nod in 2021 — especially if the Chargers end up reaching the postseason.
In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride
Patrick Mahomes named AFC’s offensive player of the week for Week 10
Mahomes went 35 of 50 for 406 yards and five passing touchdowns for a 127.6 passer rating in Kansas City’s 41-14 thrashing of the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday Night Football.
This award marks the seventh offensive player of the week award for Mahomes, who won two in 2018, one in 2019, two in 2020 and now two in 2021 (also in Week 1). Mahomes joins Pro Football Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas (eight) and Dante Hall (seven) as players with at least seven Player of the Week awards in Chiefs history.
The quarterback is the first player in NFL history with three career games with at least 400 passing yards and five touchdown passes in his first five seasons.
A tweet to make you think
Patrick Mahomes said he had to tell his college coach, Cardinals HC Kliff Kingsbury, to “stay away from his guy.”
— Pete Sweeney (@pgsween) November 17, 2021
The Cardinals tried to poach third-string QB Shane Buechele off the practice squad before the #Chiefs gave him the call up to the 53.
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