The good, bad, and ugly from Week 11 in the NFL

With a ton of starters either banged up our out of action for this one, Green Bay yielded an absurd 515 yards of total offense. Now, during their four-game losing streak, the Packers are giving up an average of 38.3 points and 421 yards per outing. Even with Aaron Rodgers playing tremendous football on Sunday night, that's simply not going to get it done.

Unfortunately, the Packers now find themselves at 4-6 and pretty much out of the NFC Playoff race heading into Week 12. And while most of the focus has been on the team's offensive struggles, it's the defense that's led to this downfall. We're just not too sure Green Bay has the healthy bodies to turn this one around.

And so begins the ugly from Week 11 of the NFL season.

“One must be poor to know the luxury of giving."

* Now in his fourth NFL season, Blake Bortles has had 10 interceptions returned for touchdowns in his career. That's bad. Really bad. It's also historically significant. His latest wasn't really the Jaguars' quarterback's fault. Instead, it came on a batted ball in which Detroit Lions defensive back Rafael Bush made one heck of a play.

Still, Bortles' turnover issues is one of the primary reasons his Jaguars team is now 2-8 and in the midst of another disastrous season. Through 10 games, the former first-round pick has turned the ball over 16 times. To put this into perspective, the Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders have turned the ball over a combined 17 times on the season.

That right there is the difference between contention and bottom-feeding status in an NFL where parity seems to be the name of the game.

* Speaking of bottom-feeding status, what in the world is Los Angeles Rams head coach Jeff Fisher doing? His team played a heck of a game for three-plus quarters on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. Unfortunately, due to an incredibly horrendous game plan that called for the most conservative offense we've seen in ages, the Rams dropped a stunner by the score of 14-10.

It came with rookie No. 1 overall pick Jared Goff making his first start under center. And with the Rams up 10-0 with less than seven minutes remaining, it sure looked like the team was going to find a way to reach .500 on the season.

That's when Ryan Tannehill and the Dolphins' offense woke up big time, scoring touchdowns on drives of 77 and 75 yards respectively to steal the win.

Sure we should place some of the blame on the Rams' defense. After all, this unit had dominated all game before going weak in the final part of the fourth quarter. We can also blame Goff for a less-than-stellar NFL debut. But it's all correlated here. And it's pretty much all on Fisher himself.

After putting up a touchdown on their second drive of the game, the Rams went a full seven possessions without scoring a point. In between, the conservative mentality of the team's offense took hold. From calling for screen passes on third and short to four-step drops on third and long, the really wasn't any rhyme or reason to the strategy here.

So instead of being up by three or four scores late in the game, the Rams gave Miami enough life to pull off the miraculous comeback. In the process, Los Angeles dropped to 4-6 on the season while the Dolphins won their fifth consecutive games.

There's a lot of issues here. But more than anything, here's the one we have to focus on. If Fisher didn't trust Goff to run the game game plan we saw under Case Keenum, then why is Goff being thrown out there to look bad? What's the reasoning behind this? That's the question Fisher should be answering between now and the team's next game.

* Stop flipping the bird. Really, NFL players, this isn't something we need to see on Sunday's. Vontaze Burfict of the Cincinnati Bengals going with the double bird and Seattle Seahawks wide receiver motioning to the camera with the same sign. Why? What's the point behind this? Do you guys really think this makes you look better?

Not to sound like a part of the no fun league or be an old man (I am not) that doesn't like entertainment. That's not me. But this has no room in the NFL. And these players should be embarrassed.

Speaking of being embarrassed, this is a perfect transition to San Francisco 49ers fans at Levi's Stadium. Sure your team is in the midst of an eight-game losing streak. Sure the weather was horrible at Santa Clara on Sunday Afternoon. Sure there were likely New England Patriots fans willing to pay a high price to attend the game.

But this is not acceptable.

We know the franchise is a hot mess and CEO Jed York should be thrown out the back door quicker than a raccoon going after your wine. We get that. But show your team some support. You know, the guys going to battle every Sunday on the gridiron? This is the same fan base that complained to no end about Candlestick Park for so many years.

So when the 49ers get a brand new state of the art venue in Silicon Valley, these very same fans let the opposing team's diehards take over? C'mon now. And in reality, the wine drinking, cheese eating 49ers fan didn't even have the "hot weather" to blame for the lack of support here.

Maybe fans in San Francisco are getting exactly what they deserve. A bad product for a fan base that's increasingly becoming a butt of its own joke.

Now to the good from NFL Week 11.

"I feel like we all have two battles or two enemies going on. One with the man across from you. The second is with the man inside of you."

* Those words were spoken by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo when he pretty much handed the team over to Dak Prescott last week. They are sobering words, and words it appears the rookie signal caller is taking to heart.

Prescott is doing battle against defenses that should be better equipped to succeed on Sundays. He's doing so as a rookie fourth-round pick. And he's doing so with an entire nation of fans inspired by his performance thus far.

Dallas is 9-1 on on the season and has won nine consecutive games. Prescott himself has tallied 20 total touchdowns compared to two interceptions. Fellow rookie Ezekiel Elliott has put up 1,382 total yards in 10 games. These are some absolutely outstanding numbers right here.

But what the Cowboys did Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens might have been their best accomplishment on the season. Facing  the league's No. 1 rushing defense and No. 4 passing defense, the Cowboys were able to put up 417 total yards and 27 first downs in a 27-17 victory.

For his part, Prescott put up a dominating second half performance after starting the game slowly. He completed 20 of his final 21 passes in the game, ultimately leading the Cowboys to 17 points on their final three possessions to put the game away. Now with the best record in football heading into Thanksgiving, Dallas has to be considered Super Bowl favorites.

* Returning to the Bay Area to play his favorite childhood team for the first time where he grew up, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady did not look tremendous early on against the San Francisco 49ers. In fact, the one-win 49ers were down just 13-10 after three quarters.

That's when Brady took this team to task and rebounded big time from last week's loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He led the Patriots to 250 total yards in the fourth quarter and finished the game with four touchdown passes. Now through the first six games of his season, Brady has put up 16 touchdowns compared to one interception.

Interestingly enough, the best comparison we can draw to Prescott thus far this season is Brady himself. That's how good the rookie quarterback is playing, and both quarterbacks seem to be raising the bar even more as the season progresses.

* It might have been against an injury-plagued Green Bay Packers squad, but Washington's offense came to play big time at home on Sunday night. In the process, the Redskins might have very well made a statement in the NFC. It was precision like for the Redskins throughout the entire game, but what they were able to do in the fourth quarter was even more exceptional.

All said, Washington put up 226 total yards and three touchdowns in the final stanza to overcome solid play from Green Bay's offense and Aaron Rodgers in what ended up as a lopsided 42-24 win.

Cousins completed 21-of-30 passes for 375 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions. Undrafted rookie free agent Rob Kelley scored three touchdowns on the ground. Meanwhile, both Jamison Crowder and Pierre Garcon each tallied over 100 receiving yards through the air.

This couldn't come at a better time for the Redskins, who now take on the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving riding a pretty darn solid performance.

* Speaking of solid, the Seattle Seahawks continue to prove their worth among the best teams in the NFL. After defeating the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium last week, Seattle absolutely dominated the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

It was a tremendous team-wide performance, as Seattle's defense held Carson Wentz to under 100 passing yards through three-plus quarters while picking off the rookie quarterback twice.

Offensively, Seattle tallied 439 total yards and completely beat down an Eagles defense that had previously held the Pittsburgh Steelers, Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings all to season low point totals.

When all was said and done Sunday afternoon in Seattle, Pete Carroll's squad came out on top 26-15. But more than the final score, it's readily apparent that the Seahawks have put Dallas on notice in the NFC.