• This Week's Crazy Stats Game
  First downs: Vikings 24 Cowboys 24
  Total plays: Vikings 61 Cowboys 64
  Total yards: Vikings 430 Cowboys 376
  Yards per play: Vikings 7.0 Cowboys 5.9
  Possession: Vikings 31:49 Cowboys 28:11
  Turnovers: Vikings 2 Cowboys 1
  Score: Cowboys 31 Vikings 28
• Tua's Education Continues
  Sunday was Tua Tagovailoa's fourth start for the Dolphins, but he was benched in the fourth quarter of the 20-13 loss to the Broncos in favor of veteran Ryan Fitzgerald. Tua had completed 11-of-20 passes for just 83y and 1 TD. Miami coach Brian Flores made clear that Tua is still his starting QB and he was just trying to create "a spark" for his stagnant offense. Fitzpatrick said afterward, "There's no controversy. This is Tua's team. He's going to lead this team." Tua took it well. "It was a great learning experience," he said. "I felt like I was holding the ball a little too long."
• Colts Won Despite Themselves
  Saints fans were rooting for the Colts over the Packers so our heroes could move to the #1 seed in the NFC. Leading 31-28, Indy received a punt on their 34 with 3:06 left. Run the ball and at least take some time off the clock, forcing Green Bay to use up their timeouts, right? By the 1:55 mark, the Colts had moved to the GB 23, close enough to at least kick a field goal and force the Packers to score a touchdown. The Pack called their first timeout at that point. Then the possession began to fall apart for the Colts. A holding penalty set them back 10y and in effect gave GB a free timeout. Then Philip Rivers threw an incompletion to stop the clock again. On the next snap, another holding flag pushed the ball back to the 43. A 4y run forced the Packers to call their second timeout. Instead of running the ball, Rivers tried to pass but was sacked for a 7y loss and fumbled, Green Bay picking up the pigskin and running for a TD. Fortunately, replay reversed the call and ruled it an incomplete pass, which again stopped the clock. Now out of FG range, the Colts punted to the six with 1:25 on the clock. That's too much time to give Aaron Rodgers, who completed passes of 47, 14, 18, and 7y to set up the tying field goal as time expired. Fortunately, the Colts recovered a fumble on the GB 30 on the opening possession of overtime and kicked the winning field goal.
• Support for Burrow
  Joe Burrow was a candidate for Rookie of the Year before tearing his ACL and MCL in Sunday's loss to Washington. What was gratifying for LSU and Bengals fans was the outpouring of support from around the league - a testimony to what a fine individual Joe is in addition to being an outstanding player. (I just realized that Burrow has gone from playing for the "Bayou Bengals" to playing for the "Bengals.")
• "Flashy debut at QB, for Tight End"
  That's the headline on one Internet site discussing Week 11 results. Many Fantasy Football sites freeze rosters just before the Thursday night game that starts the new week. Since Sean Payton hadn't announced his choice for QB for the Falcons game yet, many Fantasy players were stuck with Jameis Winston as a QB and/or Taysom Hill as a TE.

Huge game for the Saints this afternoon but fraught with uncertainty.

• Taysom Hill will apparently start at QB, but will Jameis Winston spell him just as Hill as spelled Brees at times these past few years? NO Or will there come a time during the game when Hill isn't producing, and Sean Payton yanks him for Jameis? NO Payton reportedly agonized over the decision to start Hill, and many in the organization wanted Winston. So does Sean have packages for each of them to alternate them in order to keep the Falcons off balance? Wasn't needed.
• No one can replace Drew, but can Taysom at least pass proficiently enough to keep the offense productive? YES; 18/23 233y 0 TD 0 INT
• You know Payton will crank up the running game to take the pressure off Hill and Winston. So Alvin Kamara and Latavius Murray will play an even bigger role in the offense without Brees. And Taysom always presents a running threat as well. The Falcons are tied for 10th in rushing yards/attempt surrendered. (The Saints are second.) Saints ran for 168y.
• The good news is the Falcons have been asking themselves these same questions all week. So the element of surprise is in the Saints favor. But that will wear off by the second half. If the Saints aren't leading at halftime, it may be a long afternoon for our heroes. Saints took the lead 10-9 right before the end of the half.
• The Falcons have played much better since the coaching change. After losing their first five games, they have won three of four, although none of the victims was the caliber as the Saints.
• The solace for me is that our defense has been playing exceptionally well the last two games when the entire starting lineup has been in action. But Lattimore will miss this game, and Matt Ryan will try to exploit that. We need our front four to apply pressure the way they have against the Bucs and 49ers the last two weeks. 8 sacks but some of them were coverage sacks as Ryan couldn't find an open receiver. Marvelous example of TEAM defense.

Finally, we knew Drew Brees was a Superman in black and gold. But we didn't know he was made of kryptonite until we learned that he has eleven broken ribs. So he must have been playing with broken ribs going back to at least last season.
So it's appropriate to ask: Has Drew Brees played his last NFL game? Or, at the very least, if he returns before this season ends, will this be his last season?
Brees said in his exclusive interview on CST Sunday night that he hopes to return as soon as possible.