Across the Shield: Vonn Bell, Michael Thomas and Ted Ginn Jr. Lead Saints to OT Win & Joey Bosa Continues to Dominate

Joey Bosa Eats Buffalo

If you follow the NFL, you likely heard of Nathan Peterman's less-than-stellar debut where he threw five interceptions. You might be interested to know that Joey Bosa's pass rushing had a hand in no less than three of those picks – the last three, to be exact.

Nathan Peterman nearly killed by Joey Bosa, threw it up ... another INT.

2 Bills drives, 2 INTs.

— Jason McIntyre (@jasonrmcintyre) November 19, 2017

Bosa finished the day with a sack, three quarterback hits and three more quarterback hurries, all on just 28 pass rush attempts.

Oh, and that one sack happened to be a strip sack of Tyrod Taylor, who the Bills inserted to stop the bleeding, that resulted in a Los Angeles score.

Joey Bosa is now receiving mail in the Bills' backfield.pic.twitter.com/9SHNUlGT9k

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 19, 2017

The former Buckeye was dominant from start to finish, earning him an 88.0 overall grade from Pro Football Focus. Turns out, he's pretty good.

Joey Bosa since Week 5:
212 pass rushes
8 sacks(most for 4-3 DEs)
8 hits
28 hurries(most for 4-3 DEs)
16.5 pass rushing productivity(best for 4-3 DEs)

— Nathan Jahnke (@PFF_NateJahnke) November 20, 2017

The hidden story here is, Buffalo traded Cardale Jones this offseason. This would have been his team, right?

Saints Win Thriller

If you're a Buckeye fan without a favorite NFL team, might I suggest the New Orleans Saints?

There's no other team in the league that relies so heavily on former Buckeyes for their success on both success on both sides of the ball. The Saints' two leading receivers are Michael Thomas and Ted Ginn Jr. while Marshon Lattimore has emerged as the team's top cornerback as just a rookie and Vonn Bell is an x-factor at safety.

This week, the Saints pulled off a thrilling win, and it should come as no surprise that the former Buckeyes played no small part.

Thomas and Ginn each had six catches on the game, with Thomas accounting for 91 receiving yards and Ginn 87. And somehow, they didn't even have the best game out the former Buckeyes. That honor would go to Bell.

Bell stuffed the stat sheet on Sunday, finishing with a team-high 13 total tackles, one sack, one quarterback hit and a crucial forced fumble on the final play of regulation.

What a play from Vonn Bell. The Saints would go on to win the game in overtime.pic.twitter.com/7oxFW9rT28

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 19, 2017

That strip sack sent the game to overtime, where New Orleans won 34-31.

Notably absent from that rundown was Marshon Lattimore, which is curious because earlier this week, Pro Football Focus tabbed Lattimore as the best cornerback in the NFL this season while BleacherReport wrote a lengthy feature – which is required reading – comparing the former Buckeye corner to Darrelle Revis.

Rookie Marshon Lattimore is currently our highest graded cornerback. Here's a map of all throws into his coverage this season: pic.twitter.com/THDE4n7mFI

— Zoltn Buday (@PFF_Zoltan) November 14, 2017

Lattimore didn't simply disappear, he injured his ankle in the first half and re-aggravated the injury immediately in the second half.

Marshon Lattimore came back for start of the second half. Cousins targeted him on first throw and Lattimore aggravated ankle injury.

— Chris Wesseling (@ChrisWesseling) November 19, 2017

The injury does not appear to be serious, but it kept Lattimore out the majority of the game.

Cameron Heyward Dominates Titans

Former Buckeye pass rusher Cameron Heyward is having the best season of his career thus far, and that continued on Thursday night when he was nearly unblockable against the Titans.

Heyward loaded up the stat sheet, finishing the game with three sacks, 2.5 tackles for a loss, 3 quarterback hits, and three hurries, earning him an 83.5 overall rating from Pro Football Focus.

Here's PFF's evaluation of Heyward's performance on Thursday:

Cameron Heyward was too much to handle for the Titans offensive line, as he recorded three sacks, a hit, and three hurries. A lot of the damage was against Quinton Spain, who was unable to deal with the strength of Heyward.

Prayers Up For Annie Apple

Eli Apple was a healthy scratch for the Giants this week because he was visiting his mother, Annie, as she recovers from brain surgery.

From this picture though, we're not sure how much visiting he's actually doing.

Hes my My best friend, my nurse and a part time ninja...@EliApple13. Thanks for being by my side every step of the way pic.twitter.com/8G5DBa3Ua7

— Annie Apple (@SurvivinAmerica) November 19, 2017

In all seriousness, we all wish Annie the speediest of recoveries and are sending our thoughts and prayers.

Ohio Against the World

I'm going to be frank with you, I'm not going to win a game without Ezekiel Elliott unless I get close to record-breaking performances from almost everyone else.

This week, I got what I can expect from Michael Thomas and Ted Ginn Jr., a good 24 points from the Chargers defense and 11 points from Mike Nugent.

I'm still going to lose by about 60.