NFL Sunday awards: Josh Allen stops Patrick Mahomes, Taysom Hill takes over, Justin Herbert joins MVP race and Ben Johnson shines in latest audition

The man to stop Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, a new MVP contender in Hollywood and more Detroit Lions destruction – it’s Week 11 awards time in the NFL!

Story of the day…

The situation could not have been more perfect. Fourth-and-two at the Chiefs’ 26-yard line with 2.17 left and just a two-point lead: does Sean McDermott and the Bills play it safe with the field goal or put the ball in the hands of their mutant quarterback, go for it and try putting the game to bed for good? Patrick Mahomes was waiting on the sideline, Andy Reid was waiting on the sideline, Travis Kelce and DeAndre Hopkins were waiting on the sideline, the back-to-back defending Super Bowl champions were waiting on the sideline; you go for it, you have to go for it.

The decision-making process in that scenario is always different now when the Chiefs are standing across from you, for nobody lurks with an aura of inevitability quite like the league’s threepeat-chasing winning machine, who seem to revel in the face of time-ticking pressure. Josh Allen and the Bills had the opportunity to not only snap the Chiefs’ unbeaten 9-0 record, but make a statement as to how you go toe-to-toe with the best, having been on the receiving end of late drama far too many times in recent years. Conservative is never the answer.

It was all too fitting that Allen would do it himself, dropping back to pass only to instead decide he would be letting no other soul have a say in the conclusion this time as he took off and rumbled through the Chiefs defense like the season was on the line for a 26-yard game-winning touchdown. Upon dropping back, he had just a 1.2 per cent chance of reaching the end zone, according to NextGen Stats.

It is why he is MVP. Nobody in the league is currently elevating their offense or strapping a team to their back in the same defining manner as Allen. Nobody in the league rivals his cocktail of cannon-armed destruction and bulldozing rushing ferocity, one of the NFL’s most gifted passers also representing his team’s most potent ground threat. He is the ultimate problem for even the most savvy defensive minds like that of Spagnuolo.

“The Josh Allen experience, with this magnitude, has been phenomenal, man,” said wide receiver Amari Cooper. “He’s a great player. The old adage, big-time players make big-time plays in big-time situations, and that’s exactly what he did.”

Allen finished 27 of 40 for 262 yards, a touchdown and one, admittedly ugly, interception, while rushing for 55 yards and a score from 12 carries. He and Patrick Mahomes have now accounted for 491 touchdowns since 2018, eclipsing every other quarterback in the league in that period.

They will meet again and again and again as one of the staple duels of the modern era. Quite possibly as soon as January.

The new MVP contender of the day

If Allen is the MVP frontrunner, then Justin Herbert might be the MVP newcomer. It is amazing and yet so very unsurprising what the correct and competent coaching set-up can do for a player, and right now Jim Harbaugh is beginning to look the perfect level of bonkers to extract the nuclear best of his quarterback.

The blend of personalities has been fascinating, from the camera-swerving self-effacing demeanour of Herbert to the brash and chest-bumping intensity of Harbaugh. They say opposites attract, and the Chargers are reaping the rewards of as much as Herbert continues to grow in confidence and his own sense of bravado.

Herbert was mesmerising at times on Sunday, orchestrating the 15th game-winning drive of his career as the Los Angeles Chargers swerved an embarrassing blown lead to oust Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals 34-27. He continues to make jaw-dropping throws to a young, make-shift group of receiving options with league-leading velocity to his passes, crossbody hutzpah and pinpoint accuracy from off-platform stances.

He went 17 of 36 for 297 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for a team-high 65 yards, his 27-yard strike to Ladd McConkey in the face of pressure setting up JK Dobbins’ game-winning rushing touchdown in the final seconds. Having spent the first half of the season establishing a stout and long-lost rushing threat through Greg Roman and Dobbins, the Chargers are now teeing off from as much with a passing game developing in aggression and cohesion. Finally, Herbert may find himself piloting a balanced offense, all within a star-lacking roster.

“Start the MVP talk,” Dobbins said.

The ‘is it that time again?’ of the day

There seems to come a moment in every season that Taysom Hill decides to become the most dangerous player in the NFL. Sunday might have been that day.

The New Orleans Saints look rejuvenated behind interim head coach Darren Rizzi, whose popularity among his players has brought a fractured locker room together since the dismissal of Dennis Allen. Positive vibes call for Hill magic, and the Saints’ famed utility man delivered with seven carries for 138 yards and three rushing touchdowns alongside eight catches for 50 yards and a 42-yard kick return.

He capped his day with a 75-yard touchdown run from a direct snap as the Saints made it back-to-back wins in a 35-14 victory over the Cleveland Browns, the NFL’s Rubik’s Cube lighting up the Superdome with one of the most dominant individual performances the league will see all season. There is nobody quite like him.

Audition of the day

The Detroit Lions are the living embodiment of the ‘Stop, stop, he’s already dead!’ Simpsons meme. Dan Campbell’s side continued to look like the best team in the NFL on Sunday as they crushed the Jacksonville Jaguars 52-6, the second time this season they have scored 50 points in a game as they improved to 9-1 as the class of the NFC.

Jared Goff completed 24 of 29 passes for 412 yards and four touchdowns as the only quarterback in NFL history to record multiple games of 400-plus passing yards and a perfect 158.3 passer rating. He leads an offense that now ranks first in points scored and touchdowns while sitting second in points differential, with Goff having posted a passer rating of 140.0 in a tied-record four games among qualifying quarterbacks (minimum 15 attempts per game) this season.

David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs dazzled again out of the backfield as they combined for 218 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns, the Lions becoming the ninth team in history to rush for 100-plus yards and a touchdown in each of their first 10 games in a season. What’s more, Amon-Ra St Brown has now scored a receiving touchdown in eight straight games, the longest single-season streak in Lions history.

With Detroit’s dominance came the latest audition for offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who will have his pick of the most appealing head coaching vacancies, and the biggest money, come January – should he wish to. It marked an insight into what the Jacksonville Jaguars could pursue to ignite the career of Trevor Lawrence, should they move on from Doug Pederson and Press Taylor.

Midnight thought of the day

Perhaps we owe Sean Payton, Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos more credit. Not only did they just storm to a 38-6 win over the Atlanta Falcons, but saw Kirk Cousins benched for Michael Penix Jr in the process as they moved to 6-5 to stay on the tails of the Chargers.

Nix was outstanding again as he went 28 of 33 for 307 yards and four touchdowns as the first rookie in NFL history to complete at least 80 per cent of passes while throwing for 300-plus yards and four scores. He has now averaged 257 passing yards and thrown 11 touchdowns over the past four games, his growth in confidence underlined by more tight-window throws and willingness to climb and escape the pocket as route concepts develop. The game is slowing down for him, he looks more poised in the pocket and he is beginning to diagnose the field quicker by the week. Hard not to be impressed by the Broncos.

Denver’s social team might have also won the weekend with their Brock Lesnar-inspired celebration after beating all four NFC South teams this season.

Monday morning coffee thought of the day

For as impressive as Sam Darnold has been, and for as absorbing as his comeback story has been, it felt like much of the league has been waiting for some kind of debilitating regression from the Minnesota Vikings quarterback, such has been the nature of his career. Barring some turnover issues in the last couple of weeks, it hasn’t really come.

Darnold was efficient again on Sunday as he completed 20 of 32 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns without an interception to lead Minnesota to a 23-13 win over the Tennessee Titans, leaving them 8-2 and in a strong position to make the playoffs. Kevin O’Connell continues to be a master game-planner as he finds ways to place Darnold on a platform for success.

Questions had also been asked of just how sustainable Brian Flores’ blitz-heavy defense would be as the season advanced and teams became smarter to it. They were rampant again on Sunday with five sacks and an interception; they might be fine.

Given the uncertainty with which the Vikings entered the season in the post-Kirk Cousins era, reaching the postseason alone would feel like a major win.

The ‘lost my job without even playing’ of the day

The Daniel Jones era in New York could officially be over. It was reported on Monday that the Giants will bench their starting quarterback and run with Tommy DeVito when they take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Sunday.

Brian Daboll’s side were on a bye this week following last Sunday’s overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers in Munich, which seemingly marked the final straw for former first-round pick Jones, who has thrown for just 2,070 yards and eight touchdowns to seven interceptions in 10 starts this year.

It has been coming, a reluctance to admit as much likely based on the four-year $160m contract they awarded Jones for his one good season that led the Giants back to the playoffs, notably with the help of Saquon Barkley. The Giants roster is full of holes, but ultimately Jones never asserted himself as a long-term route back to contention for the organisation.

DeVito, who was one of the stories of 2023 alongside his charismatic agent Sean Stellato, is far from an answer himself, but could at least provide Giants fans with something to smile about over the second half of a torrid campaign.

Week 12 begins on Thursday night when the Pittsburgh Steelers face the Cleveland Browns from 1.15am in the early hours of Friday, live on Sky Sports NFL