Doug Pederson: bye-bye at the bye? Justin Jefferson looks even better; Lions roar, Chiefs lose, Trump Dance going viral | NFL Week 11

It didn’t happen after the Jaguars lost in Philadelphia, as it probably should have. It didn’t happen after a close loss to the Vikings, which made sense, since the Jags were only a week from the bye. But it’s almost certain to happen now that the Jags are on a bye … right?

“If it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen,” said Doug Pederson, the Eagles’ legendary coach and Jaguars’ most recent bust. He spoke, of course, of his imminent dismissal.

It seemed like a natural marriage. Pederson is a Washington native who went to college in Louisiana and whose best years came in Philly, but he became a Florida transplant after the Eagles canned him in 2020. After a year spent on on his boat collecting a reported $6 million in salary the Eagles still owed him, Pederson took over a moribund franchise with a hotshot rookie quarterback, and things went well; the Jags made the playoffs in 2022, Trevor Lawrence looked promising, 2023 started off well at 8-3, and Pederson’s resurrection seemed complete.

However, the Jags now have lost 14 of their last 17 games, stand at 2-9, and just visited the Lions, the best team in the NFL, who set records in a 52-6 embarrassment.

Except Pederson didn’t seem embarrassed.

He seemed resigned to his fate, and he sounded philosophical about it.

As well as the 8-2 Eagles are playing, the 9-1 Lions remain a demonstrably better team. The Eagles hosted Jacksonville on Nov. 3 and emerged with a solid 28-23 win, hanging on after they took a 22-0 lead.

The Lions hosted the Jaguars on Sunday and won, 52-6. They set franchise records with a 42-point margin of victory, 644 net yards, and 38 first downs.

» READ MORE: How Lane Johnson’s domination, Jalen Carter’s impact, and Reed Blankenship’s steadiness have helped the 8-2 Eagles

After a five-interception day in a win at Houston last week that probably cost him any MVP chances he had, Jared Goff — who’d compiled a 140.1 passer rating in the six games leading up to Houston — threw for 412 yards and four touchdowns for a perfect 158.3 rating against the Jags, his second career perfect game. He now is the only player with two perfect ratings in 400-yard games.

Both the Eagles and Lions have some challenging games remaining, but they’re on top of the conference. If they stay there for the next few weeks, the Lions have tougher finishing games: at San Francisco, and hosting the 8-2 Vikings. The Eagles finish the regular season by hosting the Cowboys and Giants.

The NFL borrowed a tweet from Larry Csonka to mark the end of this year’s undefeated season watch. Csonka was the star running back on the 1972 Dolphins, the last team to run through a regular season and playoff schedule without a loss.

The Chiefs were 9-0 entering Buffalo on Sunday, where Josh Allen embellished his MVP campaign in a 30-21 win, punctuated by his punishing, 26-yard touchdown run just before the two-minute warning. (To the delight of the analytics cult, the Bills, who led by two points, chose to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Chiefs’ 26-yard line instead of kicking a 44-yard field goal and a possible 5-point lead. But I digress.)

It was a shaky 9-0 for the Chiefs, who’d won games by one point, two points, and five points, and who repeatedly benefited from bad calls and non-calls from officials, which had theorists screaming about a pro-KC conspiracy. Had the Chiefs won Sunday that outrage would have continued, since officials missed a blatant facemask call in the second quarter that might have cost the Bills a chance at a touchdown (they later kicked a field goal).

The Chiefs might have been undefeated but they certainly weren’t dominant, so the more relevant story line involves the matchup. Allen now is 4-1 against the Chiefs in the regular season and is the only QB with four wins against otherworldly Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. However, Allen is 0-3 against Mahomes and the Chiefs in the playoffs.

» READ MORE: Mike Sielski: Nick Sirianni says Eagles have ‘so much faith’ in Jake Elliott

We can only hope the 9-2 Bills and the 9-1 Chiefs meet again in late January. Mahomes seems to think it will happen. He was caught in the pair’s postgame embrace saying, “We’ll do it again, baby.”

Anyone who lived through the 2020 NFL draft in Philadelphia always will follow the career of Justin Jefferson, whom the Eagles declined to draft with the 21st pick, instead opting for Jalen Reagor. The Vikings, astounded at their good fortune, took Jefferson 22nd.

Jefferson on Sunday passed Randy Moss, then Torry Holt, in receiving yards in his first five seasons. Jefferson has 6,801 with seven games to play in his fifth season. He averages 97.2 yards per game, an NFL record among players with at least 70 games. Calvin “Megatron” Johnson is second, more than 11 yards behind.

» READ MORE: Eagles stats: Saquon Barkley’s blinding speed, Quinyon Mitchell’s shutout key win over the Commanders

Moss is, arguably, the best receiver in history, with due respect to Jerry Rice, and Moss is in the Hall of Fame. Holt averaged 1,385 yards for eight consecutive seasons, and probably should be in the Hall. Jefferson is well on his way. He has 912 receiving yards and 59 catches this season.

Postscript: Reagor lasted two seasons in Philly and now is with the Chargers, his fourth team in as many seasons. He has 83 catches and 1,013 yards in his career. Jefferson averaged 98 catches and 1,475 yards in his first four seasons.

Aaron Rodgers and the Jets on Sunday fell to 1-5 since Rodgers got head coach Robert Saleh fired. Meanwhile, the Packers are 2-1 since they hired Saleh as an offensive consultant. … Sunday Night Football featured a shootout between Justin Herbert, who has the NFL’s best arm, and Joe Burrow, who has the NFL’s best smirk. Herbert’s Chargers (7-3) beat Burrow’s Bengals (4-7), and served as a reminder as to how deep a QB draft 2020 was: Burrow went first, Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa went fifth, Herbert went sixth, Green Bay’s Jordan Love went 26th, and Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts went 53rd. … A week after Donald Trump endorser and 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa mimicked one of the President-elect’s odd dances in celebration, four more NFL players copied the artless gyrations, too. Sigh. Whatever happened to the Ickey Shuffle?