NFL Monday morning recap week 12

Steelers: Big group at my buddy's house. Too much activity. Way too much talking. An unhappy ending to our party.

• Ugh. Way too many mistakes. Let me count them. Blocked field goal attempt, Xavier Grimble fumble in the end zone, Ben Roethlisberger interception, James Connor fumble, Ben Roethlisberger interception. Not going to win games with that many turnovers. Not happening.
• Trick plays were tried, and while one didn't work, the other did. Funny thing is I called it. Not when they executed it but when Boswell kicked the field goal that tied the game at 3. I suggested that he become the quarterback and throw it into the end zone, and while he didn't do it then, he did it the next time, and I was outside moving my car. The entire group went crazy and had me sit down to replay it. I'm so good.
• Juju Smith-Schuster was the man of the game for the Steelers. Key catches. The big play of 97 yards for a touchdown. The kid is incredible, humble, and hopefully staying out of trouble.
• Ryan Switzer stepped up when things looked bleak. He made some crucial catches and plugged away yard after yard after yard. He also helped recover his own dropped ball on a kickoff. He's like a little mighty muscular elf. I love him. Plus, he's a Tar Heel alumni.
• Steelers have a hard road to the playoffs. Next up is the Chargers (Yuck), the Saints (Double Ugh), the Patriots (Groan), and the Bengals (Yuck, Ugh, Groan, Sigh).

Other:

• I gotta start with the fight during the Jacksonville/Buffalo game, which began with a football caught between a player from each team that was ruled a touchdown for Jacksonville. While the two men, Donte Moncrief (nice butt on that guy, by the way) and Levi Wallace lay atop of one another on the field in the corner of the end zone fighting for a ball, a brawl broke out between several players. The Bills outside linebacker Shaq Lawson pushed a Jaguar player and suddenly Jags running back Leonard Fournette, who hadn't even been in the game during the series and had just been shown kneeling on the sidelines with his helmet off, came out of nowhere and shoved Lawson and then added a punch for good measure. The two men began scuffling, ended up against the wall, and despite the refs blowing their whistles like they were performing a musical number in a concert hall, they wouldn't quit. Eventually, the two men were ejected from the game. They were led off the field, and they continued shouting at each other through the tunnel on their way to their respective locker rooms. While the loss of Lawson wasn't that big of a deal, the loss of Fournette was HUGE for Jacksonville. And for what? The refs had already made their decision (one that was overturned upon replay as it showed Moncrief at the one-yard line). Fournette knew it too as he walked off the field with his head down. That loss is on you, buddy.
• Seattle pulled out a massive win over the Panthers on Sunday by doing what they do best--getting behind quarterback Russell Wilson and hanging on while coach Pete Carroll, who has to have the biggest backbone of all the coaches, kept insisting his team play forward on fourth downs. Gotta love a coach that has faith in his boys.
• Kudos to the Browns who hung on and discovered they have a chance now with their quarterback and a hot running back. And really, did the Bengals seriously hire fired Browns coach Hue Jackson for inside information? If Bill Belichick had done that, it would've been the story for the rest of the season.
• How about aging quarterback Phillip Rivers of the Chargers? He's just quietly going about business, heaving the ball into the hands of his receivers. Rivers was 28-29 for 259 yards and three touchdowns, tying the NFL mark for consecutive completions and breaking records for most starts in a game and for the highest completion percentage in a game. The Steelers will have a tough match against them Sunday night for sure.