Week 11 NFL Sunday was a wild one.

Betting favourites rolled in the early slate of games, going a combined 5-2 straight up and against the spread.

However, the underdogs rallied in the later games with a 4-1 ATS mark, including outright upsets by the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys.

Here is the Morning Coffee for Monday Nov. 23, 2020.

It’s Taysom Time In New Orleans

For all of the negative reaction that “Taysom Hill as a starting quarterback” got this week, I have to admit I was impressed by his performance in his first NFL start.

I even laughed when I saw this:

Believe me, it was purely a matter of circumstance.

Three days ago, I was furious when I found out that even just one of my fantasy football opponents for Week 11 had scooped up Hill off the waiver wire and was set to start him at tight end.

Hill delivered with 284 total yards and two rushing scores.

Fortunately, my opponent got next to nothing from Matthew Stafford, Julio Jones and the Miami Dolphins defence, while Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and yes, even Michael Thomas, lit it up for me.

Thomas had a season-high nine receptions for 104 yards on 12 targets, giving me hope that he can finish strong and reward my faith in him in the fantasy football playoffs.

The Saints get the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings in Weeks 14 through 16, which projects to be a favourable schedule for Thomas in the fantasy postseason.

I have Thomas in three of my four leagues. And I won’t have to play another opponent that has Hill slotted in at their tight end spot.

What could go wrong?

Mahomes Rallies Chiefs Past Raiders

Speaking of the Chiefs, it took a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter to pull out a 35-31 win over the rival Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday Night Football.

Patrick Mahomes, who had been held to 273 yards with a touchdown and an interception up until that point, went 5-of-6 for all 75 yards and the winning score on that drive, which took just a minute and 15 seconds.

Head coach Andy Reid improved to 19-3 straight up all-time coming off a bye week.

The Raiders covered as seven-point underdogs to improve to 6-0 against the spread in their past six games against divisional opponents.

At 9-1, Kansas City is still just one game back of the Pittsburgh Steelers for that coveted No. 1 seed in the AFC.

The Chiefs have another highly anticipated matchup on their schedule next week when they travel to face Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

Bengals Lose Burrow

For as much fun as Sunday was, it was terrible to see Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow suffer a season-ending knee injury in a 20-9 loss to the Washington Football Team.

It was bad enough to see his rookie season come to an abrupt end. The bigger concern is wondering can we expect from him moving forward in 2021.

With Ryan Finley set to take over at quarterback, we can expect some major immediate downgrades to the fantasy stocks of Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd and A.J. Green.

After all, Finley is no Taysom Hill.

Survive and Advance

There were some significant upsets in Week 11.

None was bigger than the Cowboys earning their first win without quarterback Dak Prescott this season with a 31-28 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

I feel compelled to share that on Thursday I locked in the Vikings as one of my remaining Survivor Pool picks.

On Sunday morning at 11:43 a.m. ET, I changed that pick to the Los Angeles Chargers.

It’s rare that I go all-in with one team in fantasy pools, but the Chargers play was as much a decision to fade the New York Jets as it was any measure of confidence in Los Angeles to secure the win.

Could you imagine how I would have felt if I took the Vikings and then saw this after they lost to Dallas?

For those that did take Minnesota, You Got Screwed!

 

Monday Night Spotlight

Week 11 wraps up with Brady and the Buccaneers set to host Jared Goff and the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football across the TSN network.

While Tampa Bay is the favourite at -4, it’s the Rams that will put an intriguing streak on the line in this game.

Since Sean McVay was hired as head coach in 2017, Los Angeles is 6-0 straight up and 6-0 against the spread in regular-season games in the Eastern Time Zone.

Will that trend continue tonight?

Brady is 8-1-1 against the spread in his career on Monday Night Football when his team is a favourite of seven points or fewer.

It will be particularly interesting to see how Brady and that Buccaneers offence fares against the Rams defence in a key prime-time NFC showdown.