Every week dozens of players stand out and perform exemplary. Today I am going to be highlighting the top 5 players or units that stood out. Also if two players on the same offense or defense both have career games, only one will get top five as they worked off of each other. (The other can still be an honorable mention)
Honorable Mention: TJ Hockenson
Hockenson got beat out by his teammate Justin Jefferson for the top five but he still had a phenomenal game. Hockenson was an absolute magnate for the ball, snatching a pass a career high 13 times, which is the third most catches of anyone in a single game this year only behind Cooper Kupp and Marquise Brown who each have a game with 14 catches. Of course he also made the most of those catches translating them to 109 yards and two touchdowns. He became just the 14th player with over 100 yards receiving and multiple touchdowns this year.
Honorable Mention: Marcus Jones
Patriots rookie cornerback/ return man/ utility guy on offense is having a heck of a season. Even though his normal position is cornerback, he already has a 48 yard receiving touchdown and an 84 yard game winning punt return touchdown. If you only saw his biggest plays, you might not even know his real position. This week might change that, while he still had a 15 yard catch in the fourth quarter, his biggest plays were on defense. With four minutes left in the 3rd quarter and down 22-0 the Bengals had the ball on the Patriots side of the field and were looking to ice the game. Instead the opposite happened, Jones picked off an errant Joe Borrow pass and returned it 69 yards for a touchdown creating new life for the Patriots. Also with just 3:17 left in the fourth quarter after Matt Judon forced Ja’Marr Chase to fumble it and Jones, and his knack for finding the football, recovered it to set up the Patriots on the Bengals’ 43, down just four points for a chance for the win. While the Pats couldn’t take advantage it was still a huge play. Marcus Jones was all over the entire game making a career high 14 tackles including two tackles for loss. It’s safe to say even though the Patriots couldn’t complete the comeback and lost 18-22, they would have lost by a lot more if it wasn’t for Jones’ play.
#5 Justin Jefferson
While you can make a very strong argument that Jefferson’s teammate TJ Hockenson should hold this spot, ultimately Jefferson gets it due to his timely catches and the importance of his catches. Whenever there was a really big moment, Kirk Cousins had eyes for one man, and that guy just happens to wear number 18. In the second half, Justin Jefferson made four 3rd down conversions, with two of them being on the final drive of the game. Including a 17 yard screen pass to Jefferson which set up a game winning 61 yard field goal with no time remaining to win 27-24. In the game Jefferson caught 12 passes for 133 yards and a touchdown. He also passed Randy Moss for most receiving yards in a single season in Vikings history with 1,756 yards. Maybe the most impressive record, is the fact that he just recorded his 24th 100 yard game (out of 48 games in his career) which is the most 100 yard games for anyone in their first four seasons, of course Jefferson is still in his 3rd season. Another big week for the receiver, I would not be surprised if he makes it on this list again before the year is over.
#4 Cam Akers
Cam Akers and the L.A. Rams absolutely destroyed the Denver Broncos, 51-14. When you get a beatdown of this magnitude, you can choose multiple people from the winning team, but ultimately Akers had the best individual game. He sliced through the normally stingy Broncos defense for 23 carries for 118 yards and three touchdowns. Akers became just the ninth player to rush for three touchdowns in a game this year and the fifth to have 118+ yards to go with the touchdowns. He also chipped in in the passing game, catching two passes for 29 yards. His 147 total yards is the second most he has ever had in a game. With the help of Cam Akers huge game, the Rams scored on every single one of their drives and dropped 51 points on a Broncos defense which was previously letting up only 18.1 points per game.
#3 Nick Bosa
Nick Bosa is a wrecking ball, he just blows through whatever offensive line is in front of him. This week it was the Commanders and Taylor Heinicke and Carson Wentz who had to deal with him, it did not go as they wanted. Bosa was everywhere throughout the game, making a personal season high seven tackles as he pushed lineman out of the way on the path to the running back. But the reason why he makes it this high on the list is the pressure he applied on the quarterbacks nearly every drop back. Even with extra attention focused on the star defensive end, Bosa was able to get home for two sacks, including this huge forced fumble in the fourth quarter. He also hit the quarterback two more times, with both very nearly being sacks but Heinicke was able to just get the ball away both times. Of course maybe his best play of the day is one that doesn’t even go in the stat sheet. The Commanders just scored a touchdown to make the score 20-30 with 5:25 left, to have a realistic chance of coming back the Commanders needed the two point conversion to make it a one score game. Of course Bosa wasn’t just going to sit back and let that happen, he exploded through the line to sack Carson Wentz and shut down any real chance the Commanders had to come back. On the year, Bosa is now leading the NFL with 17.5 sacks, two ahead of the second most (Matt Judon). Being on one of the best defenses in the NFL, Bosa’s case for defensive player of the year is getting very strong.
#2 Dak Prescott
The Cowboys won a wild back and forth game with their rival the Philadelphia Eagles 40-34 and a huge reason why was the play of their quarterback. Prescott did start the game about as poorly as it could, throwing a pick six to Josh Sweat as he didn’t quite loft the pass high enough over the Eagles’ defensive end. After the Cowboys were put in the 10-0 hole, Prescott played fantastic the rest of the game. After a back and forth first half, where the Eagles led 20-17, the Eagles were able to strike first in the 3rd quarter, extending their lead to 10, 27-17. At this point, the Cowboys offense took over, in their final five drives of the game, Prescott and the Cowboys scored on every drive as they went on a 23-7 run to close the game. In the game, Prescott was fantastic going 27-35 for 347 yards and 3 touchdowns, he also made a handful of plays on the ground running six times for 41 yards. What makes the performance even more impressive is the fact that it was against the previously staunch Eagles defense who was letting up only 19.1 ppg before the meeting. Overall, Prescott had 388 total yards, 3 touchdowns, and a double digit second half comeback against the best team in the NFL, record wise, who has one of the best defenses in the NFL. It was Dak Prescott’s best game of the season so far, it was also his first 300 yard game this season, let’s hope we can see round three of these two teams in the playoffs. If we do, you know the Cowboys are hoping to see this version of Dak Prescott showing up, except maybe without the early pick six.
#1 Panthers O-line
Let’s give some love to the big fellas, the Panthers offensive line had a nearly perfect game against the red hot Detroit Lions who had won six of their last seven games. The first half was just domination in the run game, against a Lions team that was holding teams to 84 rushing yards per game over the last five games, the Panthers ran for 240 yards in the first half alone. They got both running backs D’Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard going as they became the first pair of running backs to each run for over 100 yards in the first half since Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor in week 14, 2006 against the Colts. In the game, the Panthers finished with 320 rushing yards and Foreman finished with a career high 165 yards and Hubbard finished with a career high 125 yards. The offensive line continually opened up huge holes for both of the running backs to go through, the Panthers’ backs combined for 8 runs of 15 plus yards, nearly one every drive (they had ten drives in the game). When it came to pass blocking, again the offensive line was amazing. Panthers’ quarterback Sam Darnold was never sacked and rarely even under pressure. No Lions player even registered a quarterback hit. With the offensive line dominating to the degree that they were, the Panthers scored on seven of their ten possessions to blow out the Lions 37-23.