PHILADELPHIA — Saquon Barkley just continues to get stronger as the game goes on. Once Barkley gets going, so does the Philadelphia Eagles offense.
The Washington Commanders shut down Barkley in the first half, as he was held to 15 carries for 56 yards (3.9 yards per carry). The Eagles scored just once (a field goal) on six possessions, totaling 174 yards of offense.
In the second half, Barkley took over the game. He finished with 11 carries for 90 yards and two touchdowns, 76 of those rushing yards and two of those touchdowns came in the fourth quarter. The Eagles scored on all four of their second-half possessions (not counting end of game kneel downs), including three straight touchdowns. They had 230 yards of offense.
There’s no secret the Eagles offense goes through Barkley. Once he gets going …
“That’s why we train the way we train, whether it’s on my own or in OTAs with the other guys,” Barkley said on getting better in the second half. “This offseason, we kind of had a college mindset. We were running with each other. When you have those guys up front, it’s easy to get stronger because they’re (carrying) a lot of the load, and leaning on those guys.
“Just keep trusting them, trusting the scheme and make the right reads because they’re doing a helluva job for me.”
What Barkley has accomplished in the second half this season can not be ignored. In the second half of games (including overtime), Barkley leads the NFL with 738 rushing yards and 7.2 yards per carry — both of which lead the NFL. Barkley has 320 rushing yards in the fourth quarter (and overtime), ranking second in the NFL only to Derrick Henry. His 7.1 yards per carry lead the league.
“He’s an exceptional talent,” said Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson. “And when we go back and look at the first half, the O-line, maybe we didn’t play as well as we needed to. We didn’t have the momentum. Second half, we gained that.”
Perhaps a few adjustments the Eagles offensive line made freed Barkley up, but there may be a coincidence the Barkley and the Eagles get stronger as the game wears on. The Eagles average 6.6 yards per play and 110.7 rushing yards in the second half of games this season, 15.9 offensive points per game (which leads the NFL).
Also the time Barkley gets going as well.
“It was huge that we were able to get that going, even though some of it was muddy early,” said Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni. “But that’s how it goes sometimes in the run game. It’s ugly sometimes. It’s grimy sometimes.
“But you continue to grind that out and that really helped us put that game away.”
The Kansas City Chiefs will be without one of the NFL’s best kickers for Week 11 and beyond as Harrison Butker has been placed on injured reserve, the team announced Friday. Butker is expected to undergo a procedure to trim the torn meniscus in his left knee, per NFL Media.
Butker will miss at least four games, including Sunday’s big showdown against the Bills.
Butker has made 18 of 20 field goals this season, as well as 21 of 22 extra points. He’s yet to miss from inside of 50 yards and is 2 of 4 on kicks of 50-plus. The three-time Super Bowl champion has made in excess of 88% of his kicks in every season of his career but one.
He last missed time in 2022, with the Chiefs using Matthew Wright and Matt Ammendola in his place during a four-game stretch. This time around, they announced the signing of Spencer Shrader off the New York Jets practice squad. Shrader has appeared in two games this season, making both of his field goal attempts and all three of his extra points.
Shrader went undrafted in the 2024 NFL Draft and signed with the Colts as an undrafted free agent. He was waived and re-signed to the practice squad, only to be elevated for the season opener when Matt Gay was injured. The Colts released him in October, at which point he signed with the Jets. He played for New York last week against the Cardinals, connecting on field goals of 25 and 45 yards.
PHILADELPHIA — If there’s a test for Quinyon Mitchell throughout the NFL season, opposing quarterbacks don’t want him to take the exam. Thursday’s showdown against the Washington Commanders was a prime example.
Mitchell played 39 coverage snaps. He was targeted just once.
The play occurred with 4:21 left in the second quarter, a Jayden Daniels pass to Austin Ekeler. The Commanders were in no-huddle and Daniels was in shotgun on a crossing route. The pass was incomplete, the only time Washington even thought of testing Mitchell as the primary defender.
Mitchell’s assignment was Terry McLaurin. The Commanders didn’t even throw Mitchell’s way when he was covering McLaurin, who was targeted just twice on the night.
“I feel like we did, defensively, we did a good job with him and their offense just limiting explosives,” the soft-spoken Mitchell said. “I feel like we had great preparation and went out and executed.”
The Eagles defense shut down Daniels and his targeting of wide receivers throughout the night. Daniels attempted 32 passes, 11 of which were to wide receivers. Daniels went 4 of 11 for 28 yards with an interception, finishing with a 7.1 passer rating.
“It’s just good team defense,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “A lot of credit to Q [Mitchell] and [Darius] Slay and the underneath coverage that was helping them go other places with the football. Good team defense takes being on the same page, playing with great effort to the football, which I saw a lot in this game, and then just tackling well.”
There was no secret the Eagles looked to contain McLaurin and show down the Commanders passing attack. Commanders wide receivers had four catches for 28 yards. Ekeler accounted for 89 of Daniels’ 191 passing yards Thursday night, an outlandish 46.6%.
“I feel like they had a little plan of, ‘Hey, let’s limit Terry’ and stuff like that,” Daniels said. “So, we’ve got to go back and watch the film and figure out ways how I could get Terry the ball, how we could get Terry the ball.
“Because he’s an explosive player, what he’s done in this league and his resume. So, we want to give our best players the ball as much as possible. So, we’ll figure out ways to move down the road and do that.”
Mitchell credited his preparation for shutting down McLaurin, but knows his play his far from a finished product. It was nearly flawless Thursday.
“He’s a great receiver,” Mitchell said. “I felt like I got some good reps in there, but there are some things I’d like to clean up, too. Just continue to get better.”
Welcome to the Friday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
It’s a big week here at CBS Sports and that’s because we have a monster game on Sunday with the Bills hosting the Chiefs at 4:25 p.m. ET in what could go down as the biggest regular-season game of the year. This game is so big that our pregame show, THE NFL TODAY, will be live from Buffalo on Sunday. If you’re going to be in the area, fans can join the CBS crew in Lot 6 at Highmark Stadium starting at noon.
I will not be there, which is probably for the best, because not only would I be shirtless, but I would probably try to become an official member of Bills mafia by jumping through a folding table that may or may not have been on fire.
We’ll be covering that AFC showdown in today’s newsletter, plus we’ll be taking a look at last night’s game between the Eagles and Commanders with some grades. We’ll also be making some bold predictions for Week 11, so let’s get to the rundown.
As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here.
Eagles outlast Commanders: Grades and notes for ‘Thursday Night Football’ untitled-design-2024-11-14t214334-599.png Getty Images The Philadelphia Eagles (8-2) took control of the NFC East on Thursday night with a 26-18 win over the Washington Commanders (7-4). After falling behind 10-3 in the third quarter, the Eagles scored 23 straight points to put the game away.
Here are our grades from the game:
COMMANDERS GRADE: C
At some point, Jayden Daniels was bound to have a bad game and it finally happened. Daniels couldn’t get anything going with through the air (191 yards) and he had no room to run (18 yards), which is a big reason why Washington’s offense sputtered for most of the final three quarters. The problem for Washington is that the defense wasn’t much better, especially during a second half where the Commanders got steamrolled for 141 yards on the ground (The Eagles totaled 228 rushing yards in the game). Stopping the run has been a weakness all season for the Commanders and it doesn’t look like they’ve fixed anything. Dan Quinn also made a bizarre decision in the fourth quarter when he passed up a shot at kicking a field goal that would have given his team a 13-12 lead. This loss hurts definitely hurts the Commanders’ chances of winning the division title, but they’re definitely not out of it.
Commanders notes
Commanders get run over. Going into this game, Washington was surrendering the fifth-most rushing yards in the NFL (142.7) and that number is only going to get worse after the Commanders gave up 228 to the Eagles. That marks just the third time over the past five years that Washington has surrendered 225 rushing yards or more in a game. Commanders can’t beat the Eagles. With this loss, the Commanders are now 1-6 in their past seven games against the Eagles. Washington will get another crack at Philly in Week 16 and the Commanders will likely need to win that game if they want to have any shot of winning the NFC East. EAGLES GRADE: B
The Eagles defense did what no other NFL team has really been able to do this season: They shut down Jayden Daniels. They did that by applying constant pressure, which led to three sacks and a fourth-quarter interception by Reed Blankenship. On the offensive side of the ball, the Eagles struggled early, but then Saquon Barkley took over in the second half. Barkley rushed for 76 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone on a night where he totaled 198 yards (146 on the ground and 58 through the air). The Eagles did have to deal with multiple missed kicks by Jake Elliott, but he’s been so consistent throughout his career that they probably won’t need to worry about him as long as he’s able to fix things by Week 12. The Eagles didn’t play a perfect game, but they won comfortably, which will probably give them plenty of confidence going forward.
Eagles notes
Saquon is unstoppable. With 146 yards on the ground, Saquon Barkley now has rushed for at least 140 yards in four different games this season. That marks the first time since 2005 (Shaun Alexander) that a player has done that in his first 10 games. Barkley has also been quite the closer. For the second time this season, the Eagles running back rushed for at least 50 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, which is wild when you consider that no other player in the NFL has even done that once. Eagles survive meltdown by Jake Elliott. The Eagles kicker had the worst game of his career on Thursday night. Not only did he miss two field goals in the game for the first time since 2019, but he also missed an extra point. The performance marked the first time in Elliott’s career that he missed three kicks in one game. All-around dominance. The Eagles outgained the Commanders by 170 yards (434-264), which makes them just the second team over the past 30 years to outgain their opponents by at least 100 yards in six straight games, joining the 2019 49ers. Finally, you can check out our full takeaways from the game here.
Roger Goodell reveals timeline for possible international and regular-season expansion Roger Goodell has made it very clear over the past 12 months that he wants to expand the regular-season schedule while also adding more games to the international schedule. However, the NFL commissioner had never put a timeline on his plans until this week.
During an appearance at Liberty Media’s investor day, Goodell had some interesting things to say about possibly expanding the schedule (via Sports Business Journal).
Goodell wants to see 16 international games within five years. The NFL played five international games this year and will likely bump that up to eight for the 2025 season. By 2029, Goodell wants to see the NFL holding 16 international games. “We hope to be 16 within five years,” Goodell said. When will the schedule expand to 18 games? It seems that Goodell would like to see the schedule get expanded to 18 games at the same time that the international game gets expanded. “We could be doing more regular season than preseason, so we’re looking at a change from the 17-and-three format to maybe 18 regular season games and two preseason games,” Goodell said. “And that will open up more inventory to allow us to play more globally.” The one hold up with expanding the schedule. Although Goodell wants to see the schedule expanded, that can’t happen unless the NFLPA is on board. The current collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2030 season, which means nothing can be done about expanding the regular-season schedule before then unless the NFLPA approves it. Back in May, CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones broke down what the players might ask for in exchange for agreeing to add an 18th game before the current CBA expires and you can check that out here. One thing Jones noted is that that players might ask for an extra bye, which would turn the current 18-week regular season into a 20-week season. The bottom line is that more international games are definitely coming and an expanded regular season is likely coming, and it’s all probably going to happen before the end of the decade.
Chiefs at Bills: Breaking down the AFC showdown in Buffalo As I mentioned at the top, this is such a huge game that THE NFL TODAY will be live from Buffalo on Sunday. And once again, if you’re going to be in the area, fans can join the CBS crew in Lot 6 at Highmark Stadium starting at noon.
We’ve got a lot to cover on this game, so let’s get to it:
Patrick Mahomes vs. Josh Allen. Cody Benjamin put together a tale of the tape between these two quarterbacks, and according to his final verdict, Allen should have the edge in this game. If you want to know how he came to that conclusion, you’ll have to check out his story here. Chiefs offense is better than you think. The Chiefs haven’t been blowing teams out this year and they haven’t been lighting up the scoreboard, but their offense might be better than you think. One key thing they’re doing? They’re averaging the more time of possession per drive (3:22) than any team on record (data available back to 1991). That let’s Kansas City control the game. Doug Clawson took a look at a few other factors that make this offense so good and you can check those out here. The matchup that will decide the game. Garrett Podell broke down why the matchup between Josh Allen and Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo will decide the game. Allen has had some of his biggest games against the Chiefs and you can read about why he might have another one here. Don’t bet against Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs are set to be an underdog in this game for just the 15th time in Mahomes’ career. The reason you shouldn’t bet against him is because he’s 11-3 straight-up in the previous 14 games and 12-1-1 against the spread. You can read more about his impressive record here. With the Chiefs sitting at 9-0 and the Bills at 8-2, this game will be a rarity in NFL history: This will mark just the fifth time over the past 54 years that two teams with eight wins or more have played each other in Week 11 or before. You can read more interesting facts about the game here.
NFL Week 11 picks: Steelers and Bengals pull off upsets USATSI It’s officially time for your favorite part of the Friday newsletter, which is where I round up five NFL writers and we all make some picks for the upcoming week. Just in case you’ve forgotten, our five writers are: Pete Prisco, Will Brinson, Jordan Dajani, Tyler Sullivan and myself. In Week 11, things got a little weird: We went 2-3 against the spread, but 4-1 straight up. For the season, that means we’re now 24-26 ATS and 24-21 straight up.
OK, let’s get to the Week 11 picks.
If you’re new here, here’s how things work: I’ll give you one Week 11 pick from each writer and then direct you to the rest of their picks. That way, if you like their pick, you’ll be able to click over and check out all of their Week 11 picks, but if you hate their pick, you can ignore the rest of their picks and move on with your life.
Pete Prisco — Browns (+1) 23-16 over Saints. From Prisco: “The Saints are coming off a nice upset victory in Darren Rizzi’s first game as interim coach. The Browns are coming off a bye. Cleveland has the better defense, which will show up against Derek Carr. Jameis Winston will play well enough to win it in his return to New Orleans against his former team. Revenge game.” For the rest of Prisco’s Week 11 picks, be sure to click here. Tyler Sullivan — Steelers (+3.5) 27-23 over Ravens. From Sullivan: “Mike Tomlin’s team has done a solid job against Jackson in his career. As a starter, the two-time NFL MVP is 1-3. Since becoming the starter, Russell Wilson has been able to unlock Pittsburgh’s downfield passing attack, which should come in handy against a Baltimore secondary that has been torched this season, surrendering a league-worst 294.9 passing yards per game.” For the rest of Sullivan’s Week 11 picks, be sure to click here. Will Brinson — Bills over Chiefs. From Brinson: “I’m backing Allen and Sean McDermott to get it done against Kansas City this week. The playoffs might be another story, but the Bills have had a lot of success against the Chiefs … in the regular season. Allen is 3-1 against Mahomes before the postseason rolls around in his career.” You can check out the rest of Brinson’s best bets for Week 11 here. Jordan Dajani — Dolphins (-7.5) 22-13 over Raiders. From Dajani: “I think that Miami’s upset win over the Rams on Monday night could serve as a turning point for the Dolphins.” For the rest of Dajani’s Week 11 best bets, be sure to click here. John Breech — Bengals (+1.5) 27-20 over Chargers. “Over the past three weeks, the Chargers defense has faced Spencer Rattler (Saints), Jameis Winston (Browns) and Will Levis (Titans). I feel like Joe Burrow is going to be a shock to their system.” For the rest of my Week 11 picks, be sure to click here. For more Week 11 NFL picks, you can check out out our CBSSports.com picks hub here.
NFL bold predictions for Week 11: Titans shock Vikings After giving you some bold predictions for Week 10 last Friday, Garrett Podell is back with five more for Week 11. Last week, Garrett correctly predicted that the Patriots would shock the Bears, so you’ll definitely want to see what he has to say this week.
Let’s take a look at two of his bold predictions for Sunday:
Titans use stingy defense to upset Vikings. “Sam Darnold has nine turnovers in his past five games… and he now leads the NFL with 13 turnovers this season, and averages the third-most turnovers per game (1.11) in his career among active QBs with at least 50 starts. Darnold won’t get away with his turnover problem in Week 11 against Tennessee. The Titans will force the Vikings to feel the consequences of their sloppy play, sending them back home with a loss.”
Ravens light up the scoreboard against the Steelers defense. “The Ravens are going to win, and they are going to that by scoring at least 30 points on a Steelers defense that is allowing the second-fewest points per game in the entire NFL (16.2). Why? Because Jackson and running back Derrick Henry are on pace to rewrite the history books. This backfield cannot be stopped, even by the stout Steelers defense.” Garrett made a total of five bold predictions for Week 11, and you check out all of them here.
Extra points: Harrison Butker placed on IR Getty Images It’s been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
Chiefs set to have a new kicker for the next few weeks. Harrison Butker has been placed on injured reserve due to a meniscus issue in his left knee. Since he’s on IR, that means Butker will have to miss at least four games, which means he won’t be able to return until Week 15 at the earliest. With Butker out, the Chiefs are expected to sign Spencer Shrader off the Jets’ practice squad. You can read more about the Butker situation here. Tyreek Hill might need surgery. Hill’s injured wrist might eventually need surgery. Hill said that surgery was mentioned as a possibility to fix it, but he shot down that option. “Surgery was brought up, and it was talked about, whenever I talked to a few of the doctors. But it’s my call at the end of the day, and my call is to stay out on the field,” he said. You can read more about the Dolphins receiver here. Bears starter placed on injured reserve. Bears safety Jaquan Brisker was placed on IR this week related to an injury that happened all the way back in Week 5. Brisker suffered a concussion against the Panthers and was placed in concussion protocol, and after six weeks, he’s still showing symptoms, so the team decided to place him on IR. Brisker had started in all five games he played in before the injury. Cowboys turning to Rico Dowdle. Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has decided to scrap his running back-by-committee approach, and going forward, Dowdle will be the lead back. With the Cowboys season going down the drain, we’re only mentioning this for Fantasy purposes. You can read more about McCarthy’s decision here.
It would be understandable for future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers to have had enough NFL football. His New York Jets have bottomed out.
They are off to a 3-7 start through their first 10 games of 2024 after their biggest blowout defeat of the year, a 31-6 embarrassment against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 10. Their offense registered season lows in both points (six) and total yards (207). Rodgers threw for season-worsts in passing yards (151) and yards per pass attempt (4.3). His 4.3 yards per attempt stands as the third-fewest passing yards per attempt in any game of his 20-season career with a minimum of 15 pass attempts. His favorite target, Davante Adams, caught six of his season-high 13 targets for 31 receiving yards, which amounted to the six-time Pro Bowler’s fewest receiving yards in 44 career games with at least 12 targets. New York’s defense, which was once their biggest strength, surrendered its most yards per play allowed (7.1) and first downs allowed (28) in a game this season.
However, the struggles through the Jets’ first 10 games haven’t impacted his desire to continue playing ball into 2025.
“Not really, not for the negative, no. Not really” Rodgers said Wednesday, via SportsNet New York, when asked if New York’s 3-7 start has altered his thought to play next season.
When asked point blank if still wants to play in 2025, Rodgers had a similar short but direct answer.
“I think so, yeah,” he said.
No player may have a better window into what drives Rodgers than Adams, who has caught more receiving touchdowns (69) from the mercurial quarterback than anyone else ever has. Here’s what is driving Rodgers to keep pushing through for at least another year despite a worst-case scenario start to his 2024.
“He’s achieved a lot, obviously, but I think he’s driven by not being able to win multiple Super Bowls,” Adams said, via ESPN, on Wednesday. “He’s won one, but he’s been in situations where he’s had the opportunity to almost taste it, almost touch it. Not being able to secure a championship at a higher rate is something that has, I won’t say bothers him, but it has motivated him to continue on at this old age.”
Rodgers is in his 20th NFL season, 17th as an NFL starting quarterback, and he turns 41 on Dec. 2. With a Super Bowl MVP trophy, four NFL MVP trophies and the best touchdown to interception ratio of all time (490-112, 4.38), his legacy is secure as an all-time great. He doesn’t need to keep playing, and like his team, Rodgers himself is also struggling mightily. These 10 games are his worst first 10 games to a season ever in terms of losses (seven), his team’s scoring offense (17 points per game), passing yards per attempt, passing yards per game (225.8) and passer rating (86.8).
Larry Csonka is once again getting calls about another team that is trying to join his 1972 Miami Dolphins as the NFL’s only perfect teams. Csonka, a Hall of Fame running back who powered Miami to back-to-back world titles in addition to helping the ’72 Dolphins go 17-0, sees similarities between that team and the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs, who will put their 9-0 record to the test Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
“It’s fun to talk about a team that’s showing signs that kind of reminds me of the Dolphins,” Csonka said during an interview with CBS Sports. “The attention to detail, their willingness to not care about their own statistics but about winning, is reminiscent, and I kind of get a kick out of that quarterback and that coach. It brings back memories.”
Csonka sees one specific similarity between his team and the modern day Chiefs, who in addition to trying to go undefeated are also vying to become the first team in history to win three straight Super Bowls.
“When you watch Kansas City, you see perhaps not perfect execution, but a lot better than anybody else is doing,” he said. “You see the fundamentals being executed. … You don’t see the basic fundamental breakdowns that lead to defeat. When you see something like that, then you recognize that they have that competitive edge.”
As far as the Chiefs’ prospects of remaining undefeated, Csonka said that it’s a “coin flip” while adding that “the right people have to come forward at the right time.” He then alluded to last week’s blocked field goal attempt that sealed Kansas City’s 16-14 win over Denver as an example of that. In fact, the ’72 Dolphins — whose success was largely due to someone routinely stepping up in big moments — received a similar play in the playoffs when safety Charlie Babb blocked a punt that set up a score in Miami’s 20-14 win over Cleveland.
“Someone steps up and does more than what they’re being called on to do,” Csonka said. “And that was a characteristic of the ’72 Dolphins. I see similarities in Kansas City. They’re intriguing to watch. Fundamentally, they don’t mess up that much at all. In crisis situations, just like the game ended last week, with a blocked kick at the end of the game, made the difference. That’s reminiscent.”
While Kansas City’s close win against Denver brought back memories for Csonka, it led to some criticism from fans and media members who think the Chiefs should be winning games more decisively. That is another thing the Chiefs share with the ’72 Dolphins, who won more than their share of close games.
“Some days we were dominant, but 50-60% of the time, our butts were right in there sweating with everybody else,” Csonka said. “It was down to the wire. That perseverance, and being fundamentally correct is a discipline. I see some of that discipline in Kansas City and it’s reminiscent in the ’72 season and back when I played.”
Csonka, who recently wrote a book chronicling his fascinating life and career, was the driving force behind Miami’s powerful offense that led the league in scoring in 1972. He was to the Dolphins what Patrick Mahomes currently is to the Chiefs. They may play different positions, but Csonka and Mahomes share a similar mentality in that winning mattered above all else.
“He reminds me of some of the guys that I played with in ’72,” Csonka said of Mahomes, who is just one of five starting quarterbacks in NFL history to win three Super Bowls. “He does not care about statistics. He cares about mistakes, improper alignment, being off count, that drives him crazy. He is something of a perfectionist in the way he approaches how he plays. He doesn’t have to lead the league in stats. He wants to win. I think that’s a commonality that falls on a great team.
“He is so competitive, that inspires you to do a little better yourself. That’s a damn great thing to have.”
