Week 13 NFL Players of the Week: Lions Players?

 That's right, you read the headline right, there might just be a Lion who takes home honors this week. I know that's enough to get you thinking, so let's get right into the players of the week for week 13.

OFFENSIVE Player of the Week: Jared Goff, Quarterback, Detroit Lions

Statline: 296 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT passing

You are reading this. Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff has won player of the week. I don't think anyone would believe this coming into the week, let alone the entire season. One of the bigger bust no. 1 overall picks in recent memory may be starting to find his footing in Detroit coming off of the performance of a lifetime. Behind Goff's poised play in the Lions wild first win of the season, this team battled back from a late deficit. Goff tossed nearly 300 yards to go along with an elite 3 TDs passing to just 1 INT. With under 2 minutes to go in the game and no timeouts, Goff led the lowly Lions offense on a magical length of the field drive only to toss the game winning TD as the clock expired. With the win to secure Detroit its first of the season, Goff will be immortalized in Motown. His first career win with former HC Sean McVay. Just a big win and performance for Goff and the Lions for SO many reasons. The NFL world (aside from Viking fans) loved to see it and with all of this comes Jared Goff's first OPOTW award win!
// Last Week's Winner: Leonard Fournette (RB, Buccaneers)

DEFENSIVE Player of the Week: TJ Watt, Edge Rusher, Pittsburgh Steelers

Statline: 3.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 6 total tackles, 3 for loss

There genuinely would and could be some kind of strike of some sort if TJ Watt is blocked from winning DPOY again this season. In his young career, the younger Watt defensive star has improved drastically each year. We don't know how this is becoming possible as some of the numbers he's put up are already pretty much as well as you can play for an edge rusher. Watt is having a season for the ages. Despite missing multiple games, Watt leads the NFL in sacks with 16! That's two more than second place and again, he's missed MULTIPLE games. It's just wild what he has been and continues to do. In my lifetime, I've never seen a defensive player that has as much of an impact in every game like Watt. Maybe only his older brother. In the game against the Ravens, as you can tell by his beyond-elite statline, he was EVERYWHERE. His 3.5 sacks spurned the Ravens on many drives and his forced fumble was massive in the grand scheme of the game. A stat that is harder to track is just how involved he is on every play. He was pressuring on almost every single play if he didn't finish the sack. That pressure made it tough for Lamar Jackson all game long including the potential game-winning 2-pt conversion try in which a paranoid Jackson barely overshot an open Mark Andrews in the end-zone to seal the win for the Steelers. TJ Watt is already a hall of famer in my book and along with winning his second DPOTW of the season, he deserves the lock for DPOY on this year too. He joins last week's winner Rasul Douglas as the only other defensive player to win this weekly award twice so far this season!
// Last Week's Winner: Rasul Douglas (CB, Packers)

SPECIAL TEAMS Player of the Week: Travis Homer, Special Teamer/RB, Seattle Seahawks

Statline: 73-yard fake punt rushing TD, 1 fumble recov. on special teams

As far as a week goes for a special teamer (non kicker or punter) Homer had pretty much as good of a game as possible. It had an early start when the Hawks decide to call his number on a fake punt following going three and out on the very first drive of the game. Deep in their own territory they snapped it right to Homer who exploded down the left side of the field and scampered the entire way to the endzone, well-blocked and untouched for the TD. Starting out the game 7-0 was massive for the Seahawks to give them some momentum en route to winning their first game in a month. Just that one play would have been enough for Homer to take home ST POTW, but he also jumped on a fumble on the opening kick for the second half in which Niners KR Travis Benjamin coughed it up. The Seahawks got the ball right in the redzone after that thanks to another great special teams effort for Homer. The Hawks boast maybe the best overall special teams in the league and Homer is one of the key players on it. He wins his first Special Teams POTW of the season and his young career!
// Last Week's Winner: Daniel Carlson (K, Raiders)

ROOKIE of the Week: Javonte Williams, Running Back, Denver Broncos

Statline: 23 carries for 102 yards rushing | 6 receptions for 76 yards, 1 TD receiving

For the second straight week, a Denver Broncos top draft pick is the rookie of the week. After first round CB Patrick Surtain II had a big game that won him the honor last weekend, Javonte Williams said hold my beer and turned in an even better performance this last week! In his first career start with Melvin Gordon out with a hip injury, Javonte Williams showed the entire NFL world why he was an early second round pick. The elite tackle breaking ability mixed with game breaking speed that he showcased at North Carolina all season last year was in obvious evidence all night in Kansas City. Williams was an absolute force on offense. He averaged 4.4 yards per carry on 23 carries to the tune of a whopping 102 rushing yards but that wasn't it. He added another 6 catches for 76 yards and a TD. 178 scrimmage yards for a rookie in his first career start. That performance is one of the single best RB performances by anyone all season, let alone a rookie making his first career start and also playing in one of the toughest road environments in football on primetime! C'mon! Williams is a beast. This performance cemented Williams into the future of this Denver offense. Even if Gordon returns from injury for this weekend, Williams deserves to get pretty much all the carries after what he showed off. He is looking like he may already be the best player on Denver's shotty offense. Javonte Williams is your rookie of the week!
// Last Week's Winner: Patrick Surtain II (CB, Broncos)

TEAM of the Week: Detroit Lions (1-10-1)

Beat Vikings (5-7) by a final score of 29-27

In the most shocking result of the season so far, the Detroit Lions beat the Vikings and have subsequently taken home their first team win of Team of the Week on the season (and maybe in NFL history). This is pretty much the first time all year that we've had a non-playoff team win the weekly best team honor, but some things are just too important that you have to adapt. With another great gameplan set up by underrated rookie HC Dan Campbell, the Lions were in the drivers seat for much of this game. Even with Vikings WR Justin Jefferson going off, Detroit was still able to hang on for most of the way. Then with 4 minutes to go, the Lions went for it on 4th & 1 in their own territory and didn't get it. Minnesota burned a ton of clock and all of the Lions' timeouts before scoring a TD to go up 4. It looked like yet another heart wrenching loss coming the Lions' way. Then Jared Goff and co. went all the way down the field and scored the game winning TD to rookie A'Mon-Ra St. Brown as the clock hit double-zeros. The Lions were winless no more! What a team win, what a win period. It felt so good to see guys like Goff and Campbell get a win under their belts in Detroit! Lions happily are our team of the week!
// Last Week's Winner: New England Patriots

Honorable Mentions:
-Vikings WR Justin Jefferson
-49ers TE George Kittle
-Cardinals QB Kyler Murray
-Cardinals LB Jordan Hicks
-Lions WR A'Mon-Ra St. Brown
-Falcons DT Marlon Davidson
-Seahawks DE Carlos Dunlap
-Eagles QB Gardner Minshew