NFL Week 12 Takeaways: Give Lamar Jackson The MVP Now

1. 49ers bounce back in big way

San Fran made a statement on Sunday Night Football and bounced back in a big way with a convincing 37-8 win over the Green Bay Packers. George Kittle’s return to this offense was a godsend for this San Fran offense and it was on full display Sunday night. The defense was also able to get to Aaron Rodgers and keep him from getting in a groove all night. Rodgers was sacked five times and lost a fumble before he was finally relieved in the 4th quarter. The 49ers defense held the potent offense of the Packers to just 198 yards. Jimmy Garoppolo played very well putting up 253 yards and completed 14 of his 20 pass attempts.

San Fran will now travel to Baltimore for a meeting of potential Super Bowl contenders before having to go to New Orleans the following week which will present yet another challenge. This is a tough pair of road games for this 49ers team and it will be interesting to see how they respond.

A thing of BEAUTY. @JimmyG_10 to @gkittle46 for the 61-yard TD 🙌#GoNiners pic.twitter.com/Ldv9SocBpa

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) November 25, 2019

2. Jets trounce Raiders

The Raiders three game winning streak came to an abrupt end on Sunday afternoon in the Meadowlands. As good as this team has looked the last month, they looked that bad (if not WORSE) on Sunday. Derek Carr played so poorly that he was yanked for Mike Glennon late in the game.

Oakland’s defense made Sam Darnold look like the guy we all watched play at USC. Darnold had a great day completing 20 of his 29 attempts and throwing for over 300 yards. He also added a third touchdown with his legs, capping off a great day for the New York signal caller.

The Raiders now sit at 6-5 and their playoff hopes which were very real going into the Jets game now seem very bleak.

#Jets fans:

Sit back and enjoy 60 seconds of QB1 throwing darts all over the field.

Sam Darnold makes throws that only that elite tier of QBs can make. We’re talking Rodgers, Mahomes type stuff.

This kid is special 😍🤯 pic.twitter.com/PHl3aPL87S

— Luke Grant (@LukeGrant7) November 25, 2019

3. QB change in PITT

There has been a change at QB in Pittsburgh following some strongly worded comments about QB Mason Rudolph made by head coach Mike Tomlin. When asked about the recent change at QB and the reason for the change Tomlin responded, “He has not killed us.” Something you rarely hear from a head coach is this flat out strong criticism but to Tomlin’s defense it really does not feel like a major stretch of the imagination.

Rudolph has thrown nine interceptions in his nine games this season. The timing is also interesting considering the opponent, the Steelers will host the Browns on Sunday afternoon and given the events of two weeks ago it may be better if Mason Rudolph is in a ball cap on the sidelines. Regardless of who plays QB there is bad blood and tension between these two teams and I am sure we will see that play out on Sunday.

Mike Tomlin: “We met as a staff. We’ve decided that we’re going to start Duck this week.” pic.twitter.com/3eJB865CHv

— Matt Freed (@mattfreedpghpg) November 26, 2019

4. Give him the MVP now

Just give him the MVP right now. First QB to throw for five touchdowns on his Monday Night Football debut, and an absolute THROTTLING of the Rams with the weight of the world watching. Lamar Jackson is truly special and I know I have talked at nauseam about him but its not stopping anytime soon and I apologize for nothing. This Ravens team is a very scary team given how solid they are defensively combined with the ultimate offensive weapon that Lamar Jackson has proven to be thus far this season. Lamar led this offense to scores on all six of his drives last night before ultimately being relieved for backup RG3. The Ravens became just the fourth team in the last fifteen seasons to win four straight games against winning teams by 14+ points.

Meanwhile, as well as things are going for Baltimore right now they could not be going poorly for the Rams of LA. They just seem lost on both sides of the ball right now and the offensive output has been very disappointing. This club looks like a shell of the team we saw last year reach the Super Bowl. Goff threw two interceptions and the questions about his and McVay’s future may begin to swirl.

All love for No. 8️⃣@Lj_era8 | @Ravens | #RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/D1mNsdMLm0

— NFL (@NFL) November 26, 2019

5. Cowboys blow it

Well, stop me if you have heard this before but the Cowboys got too conservative and they lost a game they had a great shot at winning. All too often for Cowboys fans it must seem as though they get in their own way.

Sunday was another great example of this as well as yet again places head coach Jason Garrett on the hot seat. Most will point to his decision to kick a field goal down seven from the Patriots eleven yard line with just six minutes remaining.

It was not just the fans who were not happy as Jason Garrett voiced his displeasure with the head coach and the teams play in general. This really may finally be the year the Cowboys finally move on from Jason Garrett as things seemed to have come to a head with Jones comments following the game about being disappointed with the effort from the coaching staff, but in reality the more likely scenario is that Cowboys will retain Garrett, fire the coordinators and slap some new tires on the broken down car that is the Cowboys driven by the clapper, Jason Garrett.