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Eagles flying high after earning sixth straight win. Plus, your NFL Week 11 preview 🏈

Jim Reineking   Paste BN

This is the Paste BN Sports NFL newsletter, 4th and Monday. If this newsletter isn't already getting conveniently delivered to your inbox, click here to subscribe.

NFL Week 11 is here. Our full-flavored weekly NFL preview buffet includes (but is not exclusive to):

➤ About last night: Philadelphia Eagles 26, Washington Commanders 18 — For the first time since 1970, there are three games in Week 11 that pit a pair of teams with seven or more wins against each other. "Thursday Night Football" featured the first one, the Eagles emerging with their sixth consecutive victory. But it wasn't easy. Philly overcame a painfully slow start, eventually pulling away on the strength of Saquon Barkley's legs and some timely defensive plays.

➤ Game of the week: Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills — This isn't just the game of the week. This is the game of the season so far. The Chiefs enter this showdown of AFC powers undefeated, with the Bills representing one of the few hurdles toward the first 17-0 regular-season finish. Kansas City has ended Buffalo's season in three of the past four years, including last season's divisional playoff and one of the greatest playoff games in league history three seasons ago. The Chiefs come in after having barely salvaged their unbeaten 9-0 mark with a last-second blocked field goal to win last week against the Denver Broncos. The Bills are 8-2 for the first time since 1993, the last time the team advanced to the Super Bowl.

➤ Sneaky-good game of the week: Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers — This is less "sneaky-good" and more "game of the week 1B." One of the NFL's best rivalries renews Sunday with much at stake. The Ravens (7-3) are coming off one of the wildest wins of the season. The Steelers (7-2) are silencing doubters who thought Russell Wilson was past his prime. Could Wilson sneak into the NFL MVP conversation, one highlighted by Ravens QB Lamar Jackson's quest for consecutive MVP awards? Last week's last-minute win over the Commanders opened a challenging final half of the season for the Steelers, who face the Ravens twice, the division rival Bengals and Browns twice, the Eagles, as well as the Chiefs on Christmas Day.

➤ Dreadful game of the week: Indianapolis Colts at New York Jets — The Colts (4-6) desperately need wins to remain in the thick of the AFC playoff race, and the team continues to play musical chairs with its quarterbacks, reinserting Anthony Richardson as starter on Wednesday. The Jets (3-7) are a dumpster fire who are in contention for a top-10 pick in the 2025 NFL draft.

➤ Game I'm mildly interested in, and not just because I have Ladd McConkey on my fantasy team: Cincinnati Bengals at Los Angeles Chargers — Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert dueling in prime time is always must-watch. A few weeks down the line, we might be pointing to this game as deciding which teams secure wild-card playoff berths. The Chargers (6-3) would be in the playoffs if the season ended today (which, thankfully, it doesn't). The Bengals (4-6) still are very much in the hunt, but really need to start stacking some Ws. While the focus will be on the young, talented quarterbacks, defense could set the tone here, as the Chargers are just the fourth team since 1990 to allow 20 or fewer points in each of their first nine games of a season.

➤ Just going to rank some games I'm interested in watching without giving any context:

  1. Atlanta Falcons at Denver Broncos
  2. Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears
  3. Houston Texans at Dallas Cowboys
  4. Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers
  5. Cleveland Browns at New Orleans Saints

📸: Fans, mascots, cheerleaders and celebrities at NFL games

NFL Week 11: Pigskin prognostications, betting tips, rankings

➤ Week 11 picks: This is where Paste BN Sports' panel of experts has provided fans with the great public service of making prognostications for every game this weekend, both straight up and against the spread.

➤ NFL Week 11 betting odds: Which teams are favored this week?

➤ Best bets for Week 11: Lorenzo Reyes is back with his favorite NFL bets for Week 11, including why he likes lines involving the Packers and basically anybody playing the Cowboys.

➤ Power rankings: See how all 32 teams stack up after 10 weeks of play. The undefeated Chiefs remain at No. 1 as the top four stays intact.

NFL news, notes and analysis

➤ 2024 NFL coaches diversity report: At the beginning of the 2024 season, nine of the NFL's 32 teams were led by a head coach of color — the most in league history. But the complete picture of coaching diversity within the NFL is more nuanced, and complex.

➤ Contender is quieting doubters of surprising QB move: Mike Tomlin was widely questioned for turning to Russell Wilson amid a 4-2 start. Now, Pittsburgh is on a 3-0 run and shutting down critics, Jarrett Bell writes.

➤ Bears will ruin Caleb Williams if they're not careful: Given how abysmally Caleb Williams’ rookie season is going, Nancy Armour writes that there ought to be a healthy level of concern about whether the No. 1 overall pick is destined for the same downward spiral as Justin Fields and Mitch Trubisky.

➤ Mock draft: The top of the order still looks volatile, with 11 teams having either two or three wins. There also is a shortage of surefire top-10 selections. Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz presents his latest first-round projection.

Fantasy football: Rankings, start 'em/sit 'em and other lineup needs

There's precious little time remaining to mount a fantasy football playoff push. If you're currently in a playoff position, you'll want to stay there. Pay attention to all of the valuable fantasy advice offered up below.

➤ Fantasy rankings for Week 11: For your convenience, these position-by-position rankings were updated for this week's games.

➤ Start 'em ⬆ and sit 'em ⬇ for Week 11: Here is where we list eight players to start, and eight to sit, this weekend. Find out why you should sit Joe Burrow., but start Matthew Stafford.

➤ Start 'em/sit 'em by position: QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs | Kickers | Defenses/special teams

➤ Waiver wire: If you haven't already done so, these are the players to consider adding to your roster this week.

➤ Risers and fallers: Find out why QB Brock Purdy, RB Kenneth Walker III and WR George Pickens are looking up 📈, and QB Jayden Daniels, RB D’Andre Swift and WR Davante Adams are trending down 📉.

➤ Fantasy injury report: There are some key fantasy football players on the injury report for Week 11. Here's what we know about their status. 🩹

➤ Fantasy trade value charts: These charts have been updated for Week 11 and can be used as your very own fantasy football trade analyzer in standard, half-PPR (point per reception), and full PPR leagues. 📊

Week 11 NFL schedule

(All times Eastern)

Thursday

Sunday

Monday

Bye week: Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

📅: Complete 2024 NFL schedule

From the YouTube algorithm

This is where we reprise some NFL lore and recall a classic, memorable game from yesteryear that featured Week 11 opponents.

The Chiefs-Bills 2021 AFC divisional playoff classic is too obvious … and too recent. Yours truly enjoys an NFL classic in grainy non-HD, preferably from the pre-score bug era.

This week, "Sunday Night Football" features a quarterback duel between the Bengals' Joe Burrow and Chargers' Justin Herbert, two of the game's finest young forward passers. Our classic from a bygone era featured the Bengals' Ken Anderson and Chargers' Dan Fouts in the 1981 AFC championship game. Unfortunately in this game, the 1981 NFL MVP and the man who broke his own single-season passing yardage record had to perform in what famously became known as the "Freezer Bowl."

The Freezer Bowl rivals the Ice Bowl for the coldest playoff game in NFL history.

Fouts and the high-octane offense of "Air Coryell" were no match for the arctic cold and Bengals on that brutal day at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium. The Bengals prevailed, 27-7, to advance to their first Super Bowl, where they were defeated by Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers.

The late-70s/early-80s Chargers were left wondering "what if?" after another lost Super Bowl opportunity. This AFC title game defeat was particularly painful, given that the team won the "Epic in Miami" in the South Florida heat a week earlier in the divisional playoffs.

📸: NFL teams wearing alternate or throwback uniforms

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