Hawks in the NFL: Week 16

Just one week left you guys and still so much to be decided in the NFL. Let’s look back on the penultimate week of the season!

Tight Ends

Yeah we start with these guys often. It’s because guys like George Kittle exist. The Niners tight end had another big day at the office Monday night, hauling in 7 passes for 115 yards and another touchdown as San Francisco rolled Indianapolis, 48-27.

That was Kittle’s first 100-yard game of the season. He is now third all-time for the San Francisco 49ers in 100-yard receiving games at 22, three behind Terrell Owens for second. This is one record he will not break – Jerry Rice had 66 (!!) in his 49er career.

I said last week that Kittle’s been on an incredible heater since returning from injury. Here are his last six games:

T.J. Hockenson had just a single catch for 2 yards as the Vikings defeated the Giants, 16-13. Didn’t help that the oft-injured J.J. McCarthy was injured again for the Vikings and they had to stick with Max Brosmer for a chunk of the game. Quick non-tight end update – Dane Belton logged 6 tackles in this game, as did Chauncey Golston (also a sack and 3 TFL’s for Golston.)

Of course, no Sam LaPorta for Detroit this week – one of the strangest endings to a game I’ve seen in that game – and Noah Fant was hurt last week against Baltimore and missed Cincy’s 45-21 win over Miami.

Cooper DeJean

Nice day at the office for DeJean, as the Eagles won at Washington Saturday night, 29-18. DeJean logged 5 tackles and defended 4 passes. Not bad! He also logged this interception, his second of the season and third of his career.

Tory Taylor

This was the Saturday night showcase and what a game it was. Taylor logged 3 punts for 125 yards in Chicago’s insane 22-16 overtime win over Green Bay. His punting included a crazy pin at the 2 on what was one of the windiest games I can remember watching – it felt like the goalposts were about to blow over multiple times. It was so impressive it drew and audible “WOAH!” from Tom Brady.

Good thing for the Bears is, they can celebrate wins like this when they are playing in northwest Indiana in the near future.

Riley Moss

Hit and miss day for Moss and the Broncos as a whole as they dropped a disappointing game to Jacksonville, 34-20 (I have to add that Jacksonville is pretty good.) Poor tackling, failure to convert chances into points, even some late hospital balls from Bo Nix that left Pat Bryant mostly dead late in a game they trailed by 14.

Moss ended the day with 6 tackles, a sack, 2 tackles for loss, and 2 passes defended. He also missed on a couple of tackles, one of which led to a huge gain for Parker Washington. Oh well – Denver was a due a dud game, so good to do it now. Playing close games finally caught up with them and this was a bridge too far.

Potpourri

We can’t go through the week and not mention Jack Campbell. He logged 16 tackles for Detroit in their goofy, insane, ref-tacular finish loss to Pittsburgh, 29-24. Kaleb Johnson was a healthy scratch from this game, which was wild considering Pittsburgh rolled with just two running backs.

Amani Hooker logged 3 tackles as Tennessee beat Kansas City, 26-9. Pat Bryant? Mostly dead. Mostly dead means slightly alive. Kansas City? All dead.