ICYMI: The Best Stories You Missed from NFL Week 14

REYNOLDS WRAP

The NFL had a ridiculous 11 games in last Sunday's 1:00 PM ET block, so the nation's football watching was severely regionalized until the later games, when everyone was watching one of two different contests. A lot of great football stories went completely unnoticed outside their home market, including a game-sealing interception of Tyrod Taylor by Ed Reynolds II.

Who?

Reynolds was drafted out of Stanford by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fifth round of the 2014 draft. He didn't even make the final roster that year, and instead was signed to the practice squad. After spending all of 2014 on the practice squad, Reynolds was determined to make the roster in 2015.

Despite a two-interception performance in the first week of the preseason, Reynolds didn't make the final cut this fall, either. A fifth-round draft pick who can't even make the team in his second try doesn't normally get a third. Yet Reynolds was again signed to the practice squad, where he stayed the first 10 weeks of the season. It took Jerome Couplin, the former Detroit Lions practice-squadder who beat Reynolds out for the final safety spot, hitting season-ending injured reserve on November 20 for Reynolds to finally get his shot on the active roster

Rotating in on big nickel and dime packages, when starting safety Malcolm Jenkins typically mans up on a receiver, Reynolds recorded one tackle in his NFL debut, the Thanksgiving Eagle-roast in Detroit. His second game went a little better: he played 89 percent of defensive snaps, per Pro Football Reference, and recorded four tackles and an assist as the Eagles knocked off the previously undefeated New England Patriots.

Against the Bills, Reynolds was used just 51 percent of the time, likely due to the Eagles using fewer defensive backs overall. Yet he was in for, and made, the game's decisive play.

With 1:49 to go, the Bills took over on their own 31. A seven-yard LeSean McCoy run, an incomplete pass, and a false start later, the Bills faced third-and-eight. Taylor went deep for Robert Woods down the right sideline—a little too deep:

Prior to Reynolds' game-winning pick, Taylor had thrown only four interceptions all season. Even now, Taylor's 1.6 interception rate is fifth lowest in the NFL, behind Alex Smith, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Josh McCown.

Just as with his two-pick preseason game, Reynolds making a great read and intercepting one of the NFL's most careful quarterbacks doesn't guarantee him a future on Philadelphia's active roster. He's proved once and for all he can play at this level, though, and even if Eagles football impresario Chip Kelly doesn't see Reynolds as a long-term fit, he's sure to get long looks elsewhere this summer.

TICKLING THE IVORY

I've spent weeks trying to shoehorn Chris Ivory into this column, because he keeps being very good and nobody ever talks about him.

He keeps being very good without being amazing, and keeping-being-very-good hadn't translated into any kind of stat or number or ranking or list where I could point and say, "There, you see? Chris Ivory."

After 14 weeks of NFL football, Ivory's slow-but-steady, power-with-wiggle, actually-kind-of-has-some-hands game has compiled respectable numbers. In fact, after putting up 101 yards against the Tennessee Titans, he's now the AFC's leading rusher.

There, you see?

With 914 yards on the ground in 12 games played, Ivory's on pace to come very close to cracking 1,000 yards in Week 15. He's not useless through the air, either: he ranks seventh among all running backs in total yards per scrimmage even though Bilal Powell, Zac Stacy, and Stevan Ridley have vultured 106 carries and 62 receiving targets so far this year. Though Ivory's 4.2 yards-per-carry average isn't astounding, it's plenty effective.

Ivory's solid, credible production is punctuated by the occasional "wow" moment:

Ivory balances the Jets' increasingly explosive passing offense, extending drives and keeping defenses honest in between Ryan Fitzpatrick YOLO balls to Brandon Marshall and company. As the Jets continue to steamroll wannabes like the Titans en route to their Week 16 showdown with the Patriots, doff your cap to the man who's the engine of their offensive machine.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

It was such an unworthy, unremarkable, unwatchable game that the NFL's Red Zone channel didn't even bother to shoehorn the Detroit Lions-St. Louis Rams game into their overloaded full-screen score-update graphic.

There was one headline-worthy performance, however: fourth-year cornerback Trumaine Johnson, pressed into the No. 1 spot after Janoris Jenkins was ruled out with a concussion, did nothing less than shut down Calvin "Megatron" Johnson.

Calvin Johnson, carrying a 131-game streak of having at least one reception, was shut out by the young defender for 57 minutes. He had only five targets all game long, per Pro Football Reference, partially because his second target resulted in a Trumaine Johnson pick-six.

Calvin Johnson needed just 35 yards to put up his sixth straight 1,000-yard season; he didn't even get halfway there. His one-catch, 16-yard effort in the face of Trumaine Johnson's coverage wasn't enough for any kind of personal glory, let alone lead the Lions past the Rams in a game where pride was the only thing on the line.