Giants to decide Sterling Shepard's status after pregame warm-ups
New York Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepardis unlikely to play in Sunday's home game against the Kansas City Chiefs, but the team wants to test him in pregame warm-ups before making any determination, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
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Fantasy football injury outlooks for Week 11
Wondering what you can expect from players who are dealing with injuries in Week 11? Injury expert Stephania Bell gives her thoughts on each notable player.
Shepard, 23, was added to the team's injury report Saturday with an illness.
He missed two games earlier this season with an ankle injury but returned in Week 9 and stepped in as the No. 1 receiver for the Giants, who have lost Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall for the year.
In two games since his return, Shepard has totaled 16 catches for 212 yards, including 11 catches for 142 yards in last week's 31-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Giants have lost three straight and enter Sunday with a 1-8 record.
ESPN Staff Writer
Taking a spin around the NFL to get you ready for Week 11:
The big questions
Can Dak slay the first-place Eagles without Zeke?
From the moment Dak Prescott began tasting success in this league, he has had his share of doubters who ask: Is he really that good, or is he being lifted up by one of the best offensive lines and running backs in the game?
Sunday night presents a perfect opportunity to silence the skeptics, as Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys host the 8-1 Philadelphia Eagleswithout the services of Ezekiel Elliott(suspension) and perhaps left tackle Tyron Smith (groin). Missing both players last week, Prescott was sacked eight times and Dallas was handled by the Atlanta Falcons 27-7. The loss dropped the Cowboys to 5-4 on the year.
One thing they do have going for them is that they're 2-0 in the NFC East, and with two games remaining against Philly, they have a chance to single-handedly pull the division leaders back to the pack. It won't be easy. Smith is a major question mark for Sunday. His replacements, Chaz Green and Byron Bell, yielded a combined six sacks last week. The news isn't much better on defense, with standout linebacker Sean Lee(hamstring) expected to miss multiple games.
Prescott's counterpart, Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, has been arguably the biggest breakout player of 2017. He leads the league with 23 touchdown passes and has been downright lethal in the red zone (15 TDs, 0 INT, 0 sacks).
This is the third installment of a budding rivalry. Prescott (18 wins) and Wentz (15 wins) have 33 combined career wins heading into their Week 11 matchup. That is the most combined wins by quarterbacks entering a meeting within their first two seasons in the Super Bowl era.
If Prescott can find a way to outduel Wentz and carry the Cowboys to victory Sunday, he'll keep Dallas in the thick of the playoff race while showing that he is quite capable of shouldering the load.
Which playoff hopeful -- the Seahawks or Falcons -- will take the hit?
In a Week 11 slate filled with big games, Monday night's matchup between the Seattle Seahawks(6-3) and Atlanta Falcons (5-4) is near the top of the heap.
The game will have a major impact on the NFC playoff race. Consider the following from ESPN’s Football Power Index: A win by the Falcons would put their playoff chances at 40 percent, while a loss in Seattle would drop the defending conference champions' odds to 16 percent. Seattle, meanwhile, would soar to an 81 percent playoff probability with a victory, compared to about a 50-50 shot should it falter at home.
These teams met last season in the divisional playoffs, with the Falcons winning 36-20. Atlanta has been fighting a Super Bowl hangover this season, however, and has struggled to find the tonic in the absence of former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, now the head man in San Francisco.
This is the end of a rough stretch of games for the Falcons, who have played four of five on the road. The final stop is a daunting one. The Seahawks are an NFL-best 37-7 (.841 winning percentage) at home since the start of the 2012 season. Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll are 10-1 in home prime-time games. Since 2012, that’s tied for the most wins by a quarterback-head coach combo. But Seattle will be operating without cornerback Richard Sherman (Achilles) for the first time since January 2011.
Numbers that matter
270: Career wins for New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. He is tied with Tom Landry for the third-most wins by a head coach in NFL history. He'll move ahead of the Cowboys legend with a victory over the Oakland Raiders in Mexico City this week. Belichick trails only Don Shula (347) and George Halas (324) on the all-time list.
2006: The last time the Green Bay Packersdropped three straight at home. They'll have to take care of business against the Baltimore Ravens this week to avoid matching that rare Lambeau Field slide. This is a critical game for the Brett Hundley-led Packers. A loss moves their chances of making the playoffs down to 8 percent, according to FPI.
4-7-1: The Packers' record without Aaron Rodgers since 2008. They are 94-47 when Rodgers starts.
98.5: The Jacksonville Jaguars' chances of making the postseason. They are favored to win all seven of their remaining games, including this week's matchup against the woeful Cleveland Browns. Jacksonville's overall point differential of plus-92 is the best in the AFC. Don't sleep on the Jags.
11: The consecutive number of wins for the Seahawks on Monday Night Football, which is the second-longest streak in history behind the Raiders' 14-game streak from 1975 to 1981. Talk about a trend.
What we'll be talking about after Week 11
The Saints making history
The New Orleans Saints have won seven straight following an 0-2 start. According to Elias Sports Bureau research, the only team in NFL history to win eight straight immediately after a start of 0-2 or worse was the 1947 Bears. The Saints can match that feat with a home win against the Washington Redskins on Sunday. They are eight-point favorites.
What you need to know in the NFL
• Statistics
• Scoreboard
• 2017 schedule, results
• Standings
An 8-2 start would be one of the best in franchise history. The Saints have made the playoffs each of the other three seasons in which they opened with a record of at least 8-2, including their Super Bowl season in 2009 when they won 10 straight out of the gate.
It's not just the hot streak, but the way the Saints are finding success that makes them interesting. Quarterback Drew Brees, typically the team's bellwether, has thrown for 2,398 yards in nine games, putting him on pace for 4,263, which would be his fewest in a season since 2005 when he was with the Chargers. And yet the Saints have the No. 2 offense in the NFL.
They're getting it done on the ground. Led by Mark Ingram (672 yards, 7 TDs) and Alvin Kamara (6.5 yards per attempt, 4 TDs), New Orleans boasts the No. 3 rushing attack in football (142 yards per game). Couple that with a defense that ranks fifth in points allowed per game (18.3), and you have a reinvented Saints team that seems well equipped for late-season football.
The race for the NFC's No. 1 seed
The four NFC division leaders all are at 7-2 or better (the Eagles are 8-1, while the Vikings, Saints and Rams are 7-2). According to Elias Sports Bureau research, this is only the second time that all four leaders had this high of a winning percentage in Week 10 or later since the NFL went to four divisions in each conference in 2002.
Two of the teams will square off this weekend when the Vikings host the Rams. It's the first time that two teams with at least seven wins and no more than two losses will meet in the regular season since Week 12 in 2015, when the Patriots (10-0) lost to the Broncos (8-2) in an AFC Championship Game preview.
The Rams have been one of the real surprises of 2017. Credit goes to first-year head coach Sean McVay, quarterback Jared Goff (16 TDs, 4 INTs) and others for the turnaround. But it's going to get tough for them from here out. They have played the second-easiest schedule in terms of opponent winning percentage (.398) to this point, and they have the second-toughest remaining schedule (.609 opponent winning percentage). With the 6-3 Seahawks right behind the Rams in the NFC West, there's not a ton of room for error.
The Eagles have been out in front just about all season, but a loss in Dallas will quickly change the dynamic, especially with games at the Seahawks and Rams highlighting a challenging homestretch.
With the 4-5 Redskins on the docket, the Saints are the only NFC division leader not facing an opponent with a winning record this week. It's shaping up to be one heck of a competitive finish for home field in the conference
FRISCO, Texas -- As Tony Romo approached the podium on Nov. 15, 2016, nobody knew what he was going to say. Not the Dallas Cowboys' front office. Not coach Jason Garrett. Not his teammates.
“Feels like we just did this yesterday,” Romo joked at the news conference, knowing he had not spoken publicly since suffering a compression fracture in his back in a preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks.
He took a swig of water and deflected an attempt by a reporter to ask a question and then went on to read a speech he put together that led to one of the best moments of his career and helped define the Cowboys’ success in 2016.
When Romo got hurt, the assumption was he would get his job back, but then the Cowboys won eight of their first nine games. Instead, rookie Dak Prescott played better than anybody could have expected. Two days earlier, Prescott stared down Ben Roethlisberger and his two Super Bowl wins by throwing for 319 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-30 Cowboys victory at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field.
Romo had been informed the team would be sticking with Prescott.
He was upset, frustrated and disappointed, but instead of potentially tearing apart the team, Romo acquiesced and for six minutes gave a moving speech that came to define him as much as his fourth-quarter comebacks or playoff losses.
“I don’t think he needed to do it, but it speaks volumes to who he is as a person that he did do that,” Cowboys safety Byron Jones said recently. “Just incredibly selfless and showed what he did by allowing Dak to continue to start throughout that season. I remember a few things from the speech, but he basically said Dak was very deserving to get that starting position.
"As a guy who’d been playing for 14 years and played at a very high level, that’s hard to say and hard to do. That takes a lot of courage.”
Romo crafted the speech the night before mostly by himself. A close friend helped edit it, tinkering with some phrases, but Romo’s message was unchanged:
"To say the first half of the season has been emotional would be a huge understatement. Getting hurt when you feel like you have the best team you've ever had was a soul-crushing moment for me. Then to learn it's not three to four weeks but 10 is another blow. And through it all, you have a tremendous amount of guilt on having let your teammates, fans and organization down. After all, they were depending on you to bring them a championship. That's what quarterbacks are supposed to do; that's how we're judged. I loved that. I still do. But here you are, sidelined without any real ability to help your teammates win on the field. That's when you're forced to come face-to-face with what's happening.
"Seasons are fleeting. Games become more precious. Chances for success diminish. Your potential successor has arrived. Injured two years in a row and now in the mid-30s. The press is whispering. Everyone has doubts. You've spent your career working to get here. Now we have to start all over. You almost feel like an outsider. The coaches are sympathetic, but they still have to coach, and you're not there. It's a dark place. Probably the darkest it's ever been. You're sad and down and out, and you ask yourself, 'Why did this have to happen?' It's in this moment when you find out who you really are and what you're really about.
"You see football is a meritocracy. You aren't handed anything. You earn everything, every single day, over and over again. You have to prove it. That's the way that the NFL, that football works.”
Romo wanted to play, badly, but he said, “Something magical is happening to our team.”
“He’s earned the right to be our quarterback,” Romo said of Prescott.
Prescott didn't know Romo was going to make a speech, but Romo pulled him to the side to repeat what he said publicly. Prescott eventually saw the speech on Twitter.
“I don’t know if it affected our locker room one way or the other,” Prescott said. “We all know how great Tony is and the way he approached that situation last year; I can’t thank him enough, the organization can’t think him enough. It was cool. It was important for him to do that, but we didn’t have any problems.”
Like Prescott, a lot of teammates saw replays of the speech on their phones.
What you need to know in the NFL
• Statistics
• Scoreboard
• 2017 schedule, results
• Standings
“I think he handled it unbelievably well,” linebacker Sean Lee said. “It was a tough situation. He was a guy who’s an elite quarterback, dealing with injuries, unfortunately. But he still came to practice. If you looked at him, he was still Tony Romo making plays. He could still really play, so I know it was tough for him, because obviously he felt like he could play in a lot of ways.”
Romo would play in only one series last season, in Week 17 at the Philadelphia Eagles, completing 3 of 4 passes before hitting Terrance Williams with a 3-yard touchdown. He quickly pumped his fist, jogged off the field and was done for the day.
Months later, Romo was released by the Cowboys and joined CBS to be their lead football analyst all in the same day. His work alongside Jim Nantz so far this season has been acclaimed by just about everybody.
“Tony is a stand-up guy. For all his great talents as a player, he’s just a great person, too,” Garrett said. “He felt like that was important for him to do at that time, and it certainly helped get himself to a place that helped him understand what his role was at that time, and it certainly helped our football team. I thought he handled it the right way, and I thought he handled the work the rest of the season the right way, as well. Our team did a good job last year staying focused on what they needed to do each week, and Tony did that on that particular day.”
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