Uncover the Shocking Truth Behind the Headlines You Thought You Knew

Week 11 in the NFL was nothing short of a rollercoaster, packed with jaw-dropping performances and outcomes that left us scratching our heads. From Sam Darnold’s unexpected meltdown in one of Seattle’s most crucial games, to Myles Garrett rewriting the history books with relentless sack after sack, this weekend had it all. And who could forget Josh Allen’s electric display in Buffalo—proving once again why he’s the MVP, while also shining a light on the Bills’ lurking defensive troubles. Injuries tested teams’ depths, rookie debuts stirred hope, and surprises kept the playoff races wide open. So tell me—can any team truly claim momentum this season, or is unpredictability the only certainty? Dive into the wild twists and stat-packed stories from Week 11 that you simply can’t miss. LEARN MORE

Like every weekend on the slate, Week 11 had some incredible performances and some wildly perplexing outcomes. We take a look at some of the highlights, lowlights, news and stats from NFL Week 11.

Down and Out in LA

If you looked closely enough, there was evidence that the writing was on the wall for a Sam Darnold clunker.

Unfortunately, it happened in what was probably the Seattle Seahawks’ biggest game to date. 

Darnold completed just 65.9% of his 44 attempts and threw four interceptions – tying a career high – in a 21-19 road loss to the Los Angeles Rams (8-2) with first place in the NFC West on the line. 

After leading the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 finish a year ago, Darnold had gotten off to another great start with the Seahawks (7-3) this season. He threw for nine touchdowns and three interceptions while Seattle won three of its first five games. 

The underlying was also positive through five weeks. Darnold led the NFL with a 91.3 well-thrown percentage and only had the three pickable passes in his 127 adjusted attempts (no spikes or throwaways) for a 2.36% pickable pass rate that was seventh in the league. 

But Darnold’s performance began to slip in a dangerous fashion starting in Week 7. Though his well-thrown rate remains decent, though not as sharp at 84.4%, his pickable pass percentage over this span was an alarming 6.25 heading into Week 11. 

That’s the fifth-highest rate among quarterbacks with at least 50 adjusted attempts since Week 7. Of course, that mark only got worse after Sunday’s meltdown in LA.

Darnold, who has now thrown an interception in four straight games since Week 7, will have to get back to keeping the ball out of harm’s way if he hopes to keep Seattle in the playoff hunt. 

History in Cleveland

With his first of four sacks on Lamar Jackson in Sunday’s 23-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Myles Garrett solidified his place as one of the best pass rushers of this generation on Sunday. 

As if he needed more proof.

The star edge rusher has racked up 11.0 sacks over his last four games, raising his total to 15.0 on the season. With that, he’s become the first player in NFL history to record at least 12.0 sacks in six consecutive seasons. 

Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor had a five-year streak from 1985-89 for the Giants.

Since he entered the league in 2017 to 2024, no one had more adjusted sacks than Garrett (135). He also had the third-highest pressure rate (24.1%) over that span, behind only Micah Parsons (27.4%) and Nick Bosa (25.2%), and second in adjusted sack rate (5.5%), behind Parsons (6.1%).

Though he’s in his ninth season, Garrett has shown no signs of slowing down. He’s just one sack away from his career high set in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Heading into Week 11 of 2025, Garrett still ranked in the top five in pressures, knockdowns and adjusted sacks.

Garrett finished the 2024 regular season with a 1-on-1 win rate of 63.0%. How good is that? The average edge rusher in the NFL wins about 26% of the time.

He’s been even better this season. He had won 69.5% of his matchups entering Week 11 (which is sure to go up), with the league-average edge winning just 31.0% of the time. 

The Good News in Buffalo

We’ve seen it play out multiple times now throughout the 2024 NFL MVP’s career, but not quite to this level. 

In a wild affair on Sunday afternoon in Orchard Park, Allen put the Bills on his back in a historic performance while carrying them to a 44-32 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

The superstar quarterback threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 40 yards and three scores. They rallied from 32-31 down early in the fourth quarter with two Allen TD runs in the final 9:06.

He overcame two interceptions by matching his own record after he had become the first player in NFL history to throw for three touchdowns and run for three more in a 44-42 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Dec. 8, 2024. 

Alvin Kamara (2020) and Tua Tagovailoa (2022) are the only others who have totaled six scores in a game since the start of 2020, but Allen is the only player to do it twice. 

The Bad News in Buffalo

But can the Buffalo Bills continue to rely on Josh Allen to cover up some of their weaknesses as we move into the second half of the 2025 NFL season? 

Allen’s heroics masked some of the underlying issues surrounding the team as it stood in danger of losing for the fourth time in six games after a 30-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 10.

At 6-4, Buffalo would have fallen well back of the 9-2 New England Patriots in the AFC East. 

There’s only so much Allen can do if the Bills continue to struggle stopping teams on the ground. Sean Tucker, who is third or maybe fourth on Tampa Bay’s depth chart at running back, ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries as the Bucs totaled 202 rushing yards. 

It was the fifth time in 10 games that an opponent has finished with 189 or more yards on the ground. Entering Week 11, the Bills were giving up the third-most rushing yards per play (5.3), had the league’s 10th-worst run success rate allowed (39.7%) and were giving up the fifth-highest explosive play rate (7.1%) on the ground.

Out of the 10 teams that allowed the most rushing yards in 2024, only one made the playoffs – the Washington Commanders. Those Commanders allowed opponents to total 176 or more yards five times – but across 17 games.

At the start of the season, the Opta supercomputer gave the Bills a 24.3% chance of reaching the Super Bowl. That was the highest probability of any team in the NFL. Now the supercomputer has Buffalo’s chances at 11.4% with its serious weakness holding them back. 

And there’s only so much Allen can do about it. 

Scary Moments, Mostly Happy Endings

There were several tense moments throughout the course of the early Sunday games. Most of them occurred when quarterbacks had to leave with worrisome injuries. 

Carolina Panthers QB Bryce Young was forced out of a back-and-forth clash with the Atlanta Falcons due to an ankle injury. He was questionable to return, but he did more than that. 

Young completed 31-of-45 passes for a career-high 448 yards and three touchdowns in perhaps the best performance of his young career to lead Carolina to a 30-27 overtime win. 

The Panthers, who our supercomputer gave an 18.8% probability of making the playoffs at the start of the season, have been one of the NFL’s biggest surprises. And at 6-5, they’re only a half-game behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South. 

The supercomputer now has them with a 39.4% chance of reaching the postseason for the first time since 2017. 

In New York, Jordan Love went to the locker room with a shoulder injury in the second quarter but returned and helped the Green Bay Packers avoid their third straight loss with a 27-20 win over the Giants. 

Love hit Christian Watson on the 17-yard go-ahead score with 4:02 remaining. At 6-3-1, the Packers kept pace with the first-place Chicago Bears, who pulled out a 19-17 win over the Minnesota Vikings. 

The news, however, wasn’t so good for workhorse running back Josh Jacobs, who had to leave the game with a knee issue. He wasn’t able to return and his status is uncertain for Green Bay’s Week 12 contest against the visiting Vikings. 

Aaron Rodgers’ status is also up in the air after he had to leave Sunday’s 34-12 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. The veteran QB suffered a hand or wrist injury in the third quarter and gave way to Mason Rudolph with Pittsburgh nursing a 10-9 lead.

The backup played well in relief, completing 12-of-16 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown. Kenneth Gainwell also stepped up in place of Jaylen Warren, who went out with an ankle injury. He had 62 rushing yards on 10 carries and seven catches for 81 yards and two touchdowns. 

There was no happy ending in Jacksonville after Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers left Sunday’s game twice after taking a big hit in the second quarter. The franchise QB did return after the initial blow in the third quarter, but he only went 10 of 18 for 81 yards and an interception before going out again late with the game out of reach.

The Week 12 bye will come at a good time for the 7-4 Chargers, giving Herbert extra time to recover from a rough Sunday. 

Dillon Gabriel of the Browns was ruled out of Sunday’s 23-16 loss to the Ravens due to a concussion. That paved the way for the much-anticipated debut of rookie Shedeur Sanders.

Sanders, however, struggled with just four completions in 16 attempts for 47 yards. He also threw an interception as Cleveland couldn’t hold a 16-10 lead in the fourth quarter.

For more coverage, follow along on social media on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook and X.

The post NFL Week 11 Recap: Reacting to Some of Sunday’s Biggest News and Numbers appeared first on Opta Analyst.

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