NFL Week 15 letdowns: Floundering Falcons and shattered playoff pipedreams...

There were some colossal beatdowns in Week 15. Some of these routs restored confidence for teams hoping to make a postseason run, and others cost people their jobs. Certain results, and how they came to be, left franchises wondering how they’ll turn it around next week, and in the offseason.

The schedule started with an unforeseen demolition of the Los Angeles Chargers. Sure, the team was without starting quarterback Justin Herbert, but no one expected them to give up 63 points to a Las Vegas Raiders team that was shutout in their prior game. The embarrassing outcome cost head coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco their jobs.

Atlanta doesn’t exact play in a gauntlet of a division, and had the easiest matchup on paper against the Carolina Panthers. Weather conditions were inclement to say the least, but the Falcons needed to come away with a victory in that spot. Instead, they lost the game on a last-second field goal, and find themselves looking up at the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South.

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It was difficult to know what to make of the tilt between the Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. For most of the afternoon, it felt like the Browns were going to squander a golden opportunity to remain in the playoff race. A Hail Mary thrown by Bears quarterback Justin Fields nearly ended up in Darnell Mooney’s hands, but the receiver couldn’t secure the ball.

The New York Jets were battered and beaten by the Miami Dolphins, and the defeat officially knocked them out of postseason contention. It’s not necessarily the fact that New York’s offensive line was a sieve on Sunday that is the most depressing anecdote. The last time the Jets made the playoffs was 2010, and that misery will only extend into the offseason.

After a coming out party in Week 14, Tennessee’s rookie quarterback came back down to Earth a bit against the Houston Texans in Week 15. Still, Levis had a chance to drive the Titans down the field for a win. Unfortunately, he took a gruesome sack that contorted his leg in an unnatural position. If it was the final game for Levis in 2023, it’s a brutal way to go out.

The Cowboys’ Week 14 clash with the Philadelphia Eagles was one of the most hyped games of the NFL season, and Dallas won emphatically. It seemed like the team may not have come out with as much focus this week against the Buffalo Bills, who handled Dallas quite easily. If the Cowboys continue to slip up down the stretch, their win against Philadelphia may not mean much.

The Tommy DeVito storyline has been an enjoyable one for Giants fans to follow, but the unheralded passer really has played competently for the last month or so. However, that run came to an end against the New Orleans Saints, who knocked the young player around. With two games against the Eagles in the next three weeks, we’ll see if DeVito is still The Godfather of the city at season’s end.

Sports fans would be hard pressed to come up with a topic that has been discussed at nauseum with little to no chance of happening than the Aaron Rodgers recovery. New York’s drubbing at the hands of the Dolphins all but puts to bed the logic that Rodgers should come back and play in 2023, but the story continues to have legs.