NFC Hierarchy/Obituary: Week 13 edition

9) Falcons (5-7): The Falcons have been getting killed for "not running the ball for the win" against the Commanders on Sunday, as if it's that easy. The following play is going to be a touchdown if Daron Payne doesn't get his big paw on this throw. Assuming Marcus Mariota leads Cordarrelle Patterson even a little bit, Patterson is going to walk in for a touchdown. 

The Falcons have been in some wild games this season. They've won some (Panthers, Seahawks), and they've lost some (Saints, Chargers, and Commanders). If they played in literally any other division, we'd have already written their obituary. But in the NFC South...

8) Giants (7-4): After a first quarter touchdown got wiped off the board because of an illegal man downfield penalty, Brian Daboll went apes*** on the officials.

I don't blame him. The penalty is on the right tackle below, who is in pass protection. This is not a screen, or an RPO, or any type of play that illegal man downfield penalties are designed to police. But... illegal man downfield penalties became a point of emphasis this season in the NFL, and as a result the officials have been over-officiating the bejesus out of it.

By letter of the law, sure, it's a penalty, but it is basically the equivalent of calling a lane violation in basketball because a guy lined up with a toenail across the line on the first of two free throws.

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If you look at the play itself, it's a play action boot with the backside receiver coming across the field, wide open. That is very clearly a play that was repped heavily in practice and called on the (scripted) first drive of the game in a spot that Daboll thought it would work, which, of course, it did. It is also the kind of "scheme play" that you draw up when you have eight offensive starters on the shelf with injuries. To have your players execute it, only to have it not count because your right tackle's momentum inconsequentially carried himself across an imaginary line by a yard or so, while in pass protection, must be absolutely infuriating.

There's going to be some garbage illegal man downfield penalty that costs some team a playoff game, isn't there?

Ultimately, the Giants lost 28-20, and deservedly so, but who knows how that game goes if that opening drive touchdown stands.

Anyway, my illegal man downfield rant aside, as noted last week, the Giants are likely not going to the playoffs, in my opinion. They have a boatload of injuries, and the hardest remaining schedule in the NFL, via Tankathon.

And if indeed they don't make the playoffs, they will have also ruined their chances of drafting an elite quarterback prospect because they'll be picking in the late teens.

Last week: 7

6) Commanders (7-5): Discredit the Commanders' win on Sunday because of a batted pass if you will, but it's worth noting that Daron Payne (who batted said pass) and Jonathan Allen have been arguably the best interior defensive line duo in the NFL this season.

Those two guys are the biggest reason the Commanders are 7-5.

Last week: 8

5) Buccaneers (5-6): The Bucs' interior offensive line has been challenged all season long after losing LG Ali Marpet to retirement, C Ryan Jensen to a knee injury, and Alex Cappa to free agency. They'll now be without Tristan Wirfs (AKA, the second-best RT in the NFL) for a while after this weird play. (Ignore the silly take in this tweet, and focus on the video):