Week 12 losers: Bad QB play for Jets, Patriots; Sean McDermott holding Bills back

New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones (10) throws against the New York Giants in the 1st half at MetLife Stadium.

With most of the Week 12 games completed, let’s take a look around the league at some of the biggest losers from the week.

Ron Rivera, head coach, Washington Commanders. At this point it just seems to be a matter of when, and not if, the Commanders make a head coaching change. The Rivera era in Washington has been a complete failure, and with one more less this season it will clinch four consecutive losing seasons on his watch.

The past two games have been especially bad for Washington as it allowed Tommy DeVito to score 31 points two weeks ago and then got completely humiliated on Thanksgiving, 45-10, by the Dallas Cowboys. Rivera made changes to his defensive coaching staff on Friday, but the Commanders need way more changes than that.

Seattle Seahawks playoff chances. The Seahawks are trending in the wrong direction with three losses over their past four games, including a 31-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Thanksgiving night. They are now 6-5, have a defense that is reverting back to the poor form it displayed a year ago, and is now facing a brutal upcoming schedule.

Seattle’s next three games are against Dallas, San Francisco and Philadelphia, with the first two of those games being on the road. They will be underdogs in all three games and it is not a stretch to imagine them beig 6-8 when that stretch ends.

David Tepper, owner, Carolina Panthers. Tepper was reportedly infuriated after the Panthers’ latest loss, and it could lead to significant changes in the very near future. While Tepper’s anger is certainly justified given how disappointing his team has been, he needs to take a long look in the mirror at himself.

Pretty much every move he has made since purchasing the team in 2018 has failed to pan out. The front office has changed. The coaches have changed. The players have changed. The only constant has been him.

Sean McDermott, head coach, Buffalo Bills. The Bills had every opportunity to win Sunday’s game in Philadelphia. Instead, it turned into a 37-31 overtime loss to drop them to 6-6, put them in 10th place in the AFC standings and leave them with a daunting schedule over their next two games that includes Kansas City and Dallas.

McDermott deserves heat for kneeling on the ball with 20 seconds to play in a tie game and settling for overtime, not giving Josh Allen a chance to get into field goal range, and then watching as his defense was absolutely torched in the second half and in overtime.

The Bills have a franchise quarterback in Allen and have outscored their opponents by 101 points for the season. Despite those two things the playoffs seem like a real long shot at this point.

That has to fall on the head coach. McDermott is consistently overly conservative and makes baffling in-game decisions that always seem to be the difference in close games.

New England Patriots quarterbacks. The Patriots gave Mac Jones another chance and had no other choice but to bench him after yet another brutal showing. Bailey Zappe did not fair any better as the two combined for 136 yards passing on 35 attempts and three interceptions.

The Patriots are now 2-9, have an argument for being the worst team in football and have lost back-to-back games where their defense allowed just 10 points in each game. They will almost certainly have one of the top-three picks in the 2024 NFL Draft and will have a chance to maybe address the position.

Tim Boyle, quarterback, New York Jets. It is not entirely his fault, but Boyle looks to be in over his head as a starting quarterback in the NFL. He threw for just 179 yards on 38 pass attempts in the Jets’ 34-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Friday, threw two interceptions (including a Hail Mary that was returned for a touchdown at the end of the first half) and fumbled twice.

The fact the Jets would rather stick with him is a testament to how bad the Zach Wilson experience has been going.

Baker Mayfield, quarterback, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mayfield has been a bright spot for the Buccaneers offense this season, but he did not play his best game on Sunday in a 27-20 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. He turned the ball over twice as the Buccaneers lost for the fourth time in five games and continued to let a very winnable NFC South division slip through their fingers.

They are now 4-7 and a game behind both the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons.

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