Week 12

HOUSTON TEXANS (23) vs. BUFFALO BILLS (19)

Many fans thought the Bills would win this game in a blowout. They saw that Josh Allen was undefeated on Thursday Night Football while the Texans hadn’t won a game on that stage in their history. However, there is another fact that nobody seemed to talk about: the reigning MVP has not won a game at NRG Stadium in his career and spoiler alert, that streak is still alive.

Buffalo could not have asked for a better start on Thursday night. Their defense forced a quick three-and-out, while James Cook took a 45 yard run to the house for an early lead! Sure, Matt Prater missed the ensuing extra point, but it felt like things would be smooth sailing for them moving forward. However, little did anyone know that this was the only time the offense reached the end zone the entire night. 

How do I put this delicately? Josh Allen got punked! Not only did he throw two interceptions to Calen Bullock, but he got sacked a career-high eight times by the ferocious Houston front! It felt like every time Allen dropped back to pass, either Will Anderson or Danielle Hunter would be instantly flying off the edge, causing the quarterback to just run for his life. Yet, it was a one-score game for 60 straight minutes.

Davis Mills was decent in the first half with a couple touchdown drives, but afterwards, it just felt like he was doing everything he could to give the Bills a chance to win the game. The Texans offense only totaled 35 yards in the second half with just three points scored, which was thanks to a fumble from Khalil Shakir. Despite the amount of injuries Buffalo’s defense dealt with that night, they gave their offense the ball back multiple times to close the deal! Yet even with a 97 yard kickoff return score from Ray Davis Jr., along with a successful hook-and-lateral on fourth and 27, their offense failed. 

What we witnessed on Thursday night was the best defense in football completely neutralizing one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League. This was by far Houston’s most impressive victory of the season and one they needed to legitimize themselves as a sneaky Wild Card contender. This was their third straight victory and it is without CJ Stroud in the lineup, so just imagine what they could be when he returns!

As for Buffalo, they’re only the seventh seed in the playoff picture! Just think about that for a second. The Patriots are running away with the AFC East, while the Chargers and Jaguars hold a tiebreak over the Bills for win percentage in conference games. This team has been alarmingly inconsistent since their 4-0 start. One week, they look like legitimate Super Bowl contenders and then afterwards, they find themselves losing to teams like the Falcons, Dolphins and Texans! Buffalo already had their bye week so the fact this is continuing just tells me it is going to be a miracle for them to make it past the second round, let alone win the AFC. Their defense is incredibly flawed, while the offense solely relies on two guys to bail them out of jeopardy. These guys have to get out of their own heads now because if these struggles continue, they might not even make the playoffs, which will be a catastrophic failure!

The Texans pull off a resounding win on Thursday night and are over 500 again at 6-5, but will take the road for another challenge as they take on the Indianapolis Colts. The Bills get stunned once again to finish the week 7-4 and will stay on the road for a must-win showdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (23) vs. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS (20)

Should anybody be really surprised that the Chiefs were able to beat the Colts at home? Yes, they were down 20-9 in the fourth quarter. Daniel Jones had a tremendous first half and Indianapolis’ defense had themselves an impressive performance against a quarterback that many, including myself, believe is still the best in the NFL. Yet as I kept looking at the score and the clock, I just had a feeling that Kansas City was going to come back. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened. Allow me to explain.

The Colts got off to as great of a start as you would have wanted them to have. Their defense intercepted Patrick Mahomes inside his five yard line, which set up an easy touchdown pass to Michael Pittman Jr. Through the rest of the first half, the Chiefs had no trouble moving the football, but only settled for three field goals from Harrison Butker. Indianapolis, on the other hand, was able to reach the endzone again to maintain their lead and entered the locker room up 14-9. At that point, Jones threw as many touchdown passes as incompletions, which was two. As long as their offense didn’t shut down at the worst possible time, the win was going to be in their hands. 

Indianapolis settled for field goals on their first two drives of the second half, but the defense was able to force two punts and even a turnover, giving their offense a chance to officially put the dagger in! Unfortunately after the Colts went ahead 20-9, they totaled just 13 more yards of offense and went three-and-out on four straight possessions. They even got the ball to start overtime and they still couldn’t go anywhere. The more they stalled out, the more breathing room Mahomes had and per usual, he put the team on his back to lead them to victory. Once he got the ball with a chance to win, I knew it was game over. 

Mahomes was valiant in the comeback win, but one unsung hero was running back Kareem Hunt. He carried the ball 30 times on Sunday afternoon, something that I don’t think has happened since 2017 or 2018, but he ran for over 100 yards and came up with several clutch conversions to keep the team’s chances of winning alive. Yes, he had the lost fumble in the fourth quarter, but more than made up for the mistake down the stretch. Personally, I felt like the Chiefs should have won this game by a lot more if it were not for the early red zone struggles, but they figured it out and proved that they are not going away just yet. 

Now we get to the huge elephant in the room. How did the Colts manage to lose a big lead to the Chiefs on the road? Well, that answer is very simple. No it was not the defense falling apart. I’m not even going to blame them because they did whatever they could to try to win. There is only one player I am going to hold accountable and that is Daniel Jones. Before the game, I said the Chiefs defense will do what it takes to shut down Jonathan Taylor and make Jones win the game by himself. Taylor only ran for 58 yards on 16 carries, which meant it was time for Indianapolis’ quarterback to show what he was truly made of moving forward. In the first half, he was solid and near perfect. Then the third quarter started and he only completed nine more passes on 19 attempts. Not only did he fail to score another touchdown, but every time he was in position to put the game away or finish the job, he just simply handed it right back to Patrick Mahomes. This was the week for Jones to prove something, yet all it tells me is that if the Colts cannot run the football, their quarterback is nothing more than a complimentary piece.

The Chiefs get a much needed win to stay in the playoff hunt at 6-5, but will take the road on a short week for a Thanksgiving showdown against the Dallas Cowboys. The Colts come up short in overtime but are still 8-3 and will head back home for a must-win game against the Houston Texans.

CHICAGO BEARS (31) vs. PITTSBURGH STEELERS (28)

Unfortunately, Aaron Rodgers was not healthy enough to play in Sunday afternoon’s matchup against the Bears, so Steelers backup quarterback Mason Rudolph made his first start of the season. To nobody’s surprise, this came down to the wire and Chicago ended up hanging on for their eighth win in the last nine weeks, but there were a few tweaks made to the script this time around.

For once, the offense capitalized off their turnovers early in the game. On Pittsburgh’s second play of the game, Rudolph heaved an interception down the sideline to Nahshon Wright, who snagged his fifth of the season. Instead of stalling out for a punt or settling for a field goal, Caleb Williams drove his offense down the field and found DJ Moore open down the post for the first touchdown of the afternoon! Pittsburgh would end up tying the game on their ensuing possession, but once Williams got the ball back, he got strip sacked in the end zone by TJ Watt and Nick Herbig recovered it for the go-ahead score! The Bears had a chance to redeem themselves on their next drive, but D’Andre Swift got the ball punched out at the last second on a third down handoff. Normally, this would signal a game getting out of hand. However, the Steelers decided to go for it on fourth and one at the 30 yard line instead of kicking a field goal to go ahead by 10. Attempting to run the Tush Push with Connor Heyward, Chicago blew the play up in a hurry and once again, their offense took advantage of the opportunity by scoring a touchdown to even the score! But once again, Pittsburgh responded with another drive ending in the end zone, taking a four point lead at the end of the half. 

The Steelers got the ball to begin the third quarter and punted on their first possession thanks to a sack from Montez Sweat. It only took the Bears offense five plays to score another touchdown as DJ Moore got all alone for the go-ahead touchdown, but consecutive three-and-outs from both sides gave Pittsburgh a chance to get back in front. Unfortunately for them, Rudolph got strip sacked off the rush from Montez Sweat and Chicago recovered it close to midfield! Once again, instead of letting the opposition hang around, their offense found a way to go ahead by double digits thanks to a simple power run by Kyle Monangai. However, the euphoria wouldn’t last too long as Pittsburgh scored a touchdown on a 17-play drive that took nearly eight minutes off the clock, so this game was far from over.

It turned out that the Bears offense waited until the final two drives to keep things close as they went three-and-out on back-to-back drives, totaling just 11 yards with over two minutes taken off the clock. Down 31-28 with 1:29 on the clock, Rudolph had a chance to be an unsung hero and either send the game into overtime or win the game with a touchdown! The good news was that he was able to get the Steelers across midfield, but no more than a few yards as the offense turned the ball over on downs to lose by three.

Who knows if the outcome would have been different if Rodgers was healthy enough to play, but knowing that the Bears capitalized off their opponent’s miscues without him, it’s hard to believe the Steelers would have won. From Pittsburgh’s perspective, this was a winnable game that slipped away by their own doing. From Chicago’s point of view, however, this was the win they needed to keep their division title hopes alive. Not only did the defense make multiple plays to give the team a spark, their offense returned the favor by scoring touchdowns afterwards! Chicago didn’t even have their three starting linebackers or two of their top corners and the team still held on! A truly positive sight, indeed. Having said that, their schedule does not get easier from this point forward, so let’s see if they are capable of beating the tougher teams in their conference.

The Bears win their fourth straight game to stay atop the NFC North at 8-3, but will take the road for a huge showdown against the Philadelphia Eagles on Black Friday. The Steelers come up short as they lose their division lead to slump to 6-5, with a trip back home for a must-win game against the Buffalo Bills.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (26) vs. CINCINNATI BENGALS (20)

This was a very frustrating win for the Patriots, but it was even more of an agonizing defeat for the Bengals. It’s very rare for a game to have both sides feel like they lost, but with all that happened on Sunday afternoon, it was very clear why everything played out the way it did. 

New England’s offense surprisingly looked really flat. Against the worst defense in the National Football League, they scored just one touchdown thanks to a defensive breakdown and had to settle for four field goals off the leg of Andy Borregales. They had several plays inside the opponent’s five yard line with a chance to put the game out of reach, yet they kept getting pushed backwards by a front without Trey Hendrickson. From Cincinnati’s perspective, this was the best game they saw from their defense all season long. Sure, the Patriots had a few big plays that kept them ahead, but this game was not out of reach. So, how did the Bengals still come up short? Their offense.

Their struggles had nothing to do with Ja’Marr Chase not being on the field. Outside of a late drive in the fourth quarter, Joe Flacco was pathetic. Six of Cincinnati’s 13 points scored in the first half were due to two field goals made by Evan McPherson, one of them a 63 yarder to end the period! His pick six to Marcus Jones on the previous drive not only gave the Patriots the lead, but the Bengals failed to jump in front for the rest of the afternoon. When they actually did have a chance to pull off a shocking upset on the last drive, they failed to reach the end zone and could not convert on fourth down to keep their hopes alive. Despite a 100+ yard afternoon for Chase Brown, the offense went three for thirteen on third down and only scored 13 points. Don’t give me the injury excuse because New England had a ton of their players get hurt as well.

It’s hard for me to say that the Patriots were just the better football team because both sides were incredibly sloppy from start to finish. I guess all I can say is New England had a little more confidence moving the football and their defense saved the day, but Cincinnati’s offense really let the team down in a winnable game. 

The Patriots hold on for their ninth straight win to take the number one seed in the AFC at 10-2 and will head back home for a Monday night matchup against the New York Giants. Meanwhile, the Bengals bungle the game away once again for the fourth straight week to fall to 3-8 and will take the road on a short week for a Thanksgiving showdown against the Baltimore Ravens.

BALTIMORE RAVENS (23) vs. NEW YORK JETS (10)

Some Ravens fans were legitimately worried that they would lose to the Jets at home, mainly in the first half. Their offense didn’t score a touchdown as they could only muster up three points and their defense let Tyrod Taylor march down the field midway through the second quarter to give New York a 7-0 lead. However, I didn’t panic. All Baltimore needed was a good 10 to 15 minutes to get their focus back, make any necessary adjustments on either side of the ball and the rest would take care of itself.

Sure enough, Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry engineered two straight touchdowns to begin the second half, while the defense forced multiple turnovers and fourth down stops to put the game out of reach. There were a few hiccups that gave the Jets chances to trim their deficit, but Baltimore never relented. The only silver lining for New York is that this game would most likely have been worse if they didn’t play Tyrod Taylor over Justin Fields, but that’s just like saying one garbage bag looks more stylish than the other. All the Ravens had to do was show somewhat of a pulse and not turn the ball over, essentially the bare minimum of winning a football game. Was this their best performance? Absolutely not. However, it could have been a lot worse.

The Ravens win their fifth straight game for the division lead at 6-5 and will stay home for a Thanksgiving night matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. Meanwhile, the Jets suffer yet another loss to fall to 2-9 and will head back home to play the Atlanta Falcons.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (30) vs. TENNESSEE TITANS (24)

It’s easy for me to say the Titans did a good job making this a one-score game against one of the tougher teams in the NFC, but don’t let the final score deceive you. The Seahawks were up 30-10 midway through the third quarter and the only touchdown Tennessee scored at this point was off a punt return. The two times their offense did reach the end zone were essentially in garbage time, so you could pull out all the empty calorie stats you want, but the Seahawks had the momentum from beginning to end.

All it really took was a 67 yard touchdown shot down the sideline to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for the Titans to know that this was going to be a long afternoon. The league’s leading receiver totaled 167 more yards on just eight receptions with two scores. For the season, he already has over 1300 yards and 21 big plays, both of which lead the NFL. Don’t get me wrong, Sam Darnold looked a lot better than he did the week before, but JSN is the one that gives this Seattle offense a spark and identity. 

As for Tennessee, I don’t even know what to say anymore because I’ve been repeating myself every week. Cam Ward had his moments, but he got sacked four more times and was the only source of life their offense truly had. When your second leading receiver is castoff James Proche II, there is a serious issue with your depth. This offense couldn’t run the ball, they were six for seventeen on third down, and the ironic part was that they won the time of possession 37-23. Having said that, I think the time for their second win is going to come pretty soon. They still might be the worst team in the league, but they at least kept things close over the last two weeks. We might not expect it when it happens, yet I’m not going to be disappointed.

The Seahawks take care of business on the road for a bounce-back victory to improve to 8-3 and will head back home to play the Minnesota Vikings. Meanwhile, the Titans are still at rock bottom as they fall to 1-10 and will stay home to welcome the Jacksonville Jaguars.

GREEN BAY PACKERS (23) vs. MINNESOTA VIKINGS (6)

This game told me everything I needed to know about both teams. The Packers are a playoff contender with a limited offense but a very strong defense. The Vikings, on the other hand, are a subpar football team because of their quarterback. Neither team looked impressive on Sunday afternoon, but to Green Bay’s credit, they didn’t screw up and it turned out to be enough.

Jordan Love only threw for 139 yards with no touchdown passes, but without Josh Jacobs, the offense still managed to run the ball effectively with Emmanuel Wilson totaling over 100 yards on 28 carries. The Packers were also a healthy 50% on third down and held the ball for 37 minutes, so while they showed room for improvement, they didn’t have to do too much to win the game. It was sure a hell of a lot better than what I saw in the fourth quarter against the Browns in week three.

Green Bay’s defense took over this game from start to finish. JJ McCarthy got sacked five times and threw two more interceptions on Sunday, which is starting to make people label him a bust. The Vikings only scored six points off of two field goals from Will Reichard in the first half, while getting shut out in the second. To keep this in perspective, the only touchdown Minnesota’s defense gave up after halftime was off a muffed punt. Their offense only picked up 10 first downs and totaled 145 yards, single-handedly costing the team a game they felt they could have won.

 I think it’s time we start questioning if the Vikings got duped last year because “Nine” has been more of a liability than a solution. McCarthy only has six touchdowns with ten interceptions, he has the second worst completion percentage and passer rating, he’s the third worst in yards per attempt, and he’s dead last in QBR! Now he is in the concussion protocol, according to head coach Kevin O’Connell. I get that this is a serious injury for an NFL player to be diagnosed with, but it seems like every time McCarthy plays horribly, there is an injury that gets reported. After getting embarrassed by the Falcons in week two, he had an ankle injury. When he lost to the Ravens at home, his hand got banged up. None of them have to do with his poor decision-making, though. McCarthy has a talented running back tandem of Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason, one of the best receivers in the NFL in Justin Jefferson, a highly talented receiving corps, a really strong defense, and the reigning Coach of the Year. He has a supporting cast most quarterbacks would dream to have, but his play has been unacceptable and it’s costing the team a chance to make it back to the playoffs.

The Packers do enough to win at home and are now 7-3-1, but will take the road on a short week for a huge Thanksgiving showdown against the Detroit Lions. Meanwhile, the Vikings have lost five out of their last six games to fall to 4-7 and will take the road for a do-or-die matchup against the Seattle Seahawks.

DETROIT LIONS (34) vs. NEW YORK GIANTS (27)

I’m going to pull out the same checklist I did for the Bears game last week, but this time, it will be for the Giants. Heavy underdogs against a legitimate opponent. Check. Play well on both sides and take a lead in the fourth quarter. Check. The defense falls apart and the offense makes a couple mistakes to lose the game. Check. It’s not as bad as the loss to Denver, but this was still a heartbreaking defeat nonetheless. 

Jameis Winston made his second start of the season and put up strong numbers. He threw for 366 yards, had a couple touchdown passes and even had a 33 yard receiving score on a reverse pass from Gunner Olszewski! Up 27-17 in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, New York once again had this game in their control… until they blew it. The defense proceeded to give up a 49 yard touchdown run to Jahmyr Gibbs that cut the Detroit deficit to three, before Winston threw an interception on the next play from scrimmage. The Giants defense then forced a huge three-and-out with plenty of time left in the fourth quarter, but the offense faced a fourth down at the six yard line. Once again, instead of taking the points, they went for it and it failed. That allowed the Lions to just get inside field goal range for Jake Bates to make the tying kick from 59 yards away. Now New York had to play an overtime period, when they were up 10 points less than 15 minutes ago.

On Detroit’s first play of the extra period, Gibbs took a 69 yard run to the house, capping off a 219 yard afternoon with three touchdowns! However, the game was not over thanks to the new rules, so the Giants were going to get a shot to make some magic of their own. Winston was able to drive the offense into scoring range, but couldn’t seal the deal. On fourth and five at the Detroit 27 yard line, he got sacked by Aidan Hutchinson and the Lions defense saved the day to win the game. 

You can say that Detroit was the better team and they just made more plays down the stretch, which is not wrong. However, this game was more about New York because this is roughly the fifth time this has happened for this football team. A lot of their fans want to cope and say they could easily be 7-5 right now, but the Giants have nobody to blame but themselves for the record they have. As a result, defensive coordinator Shane Bowen lost his job. This honestly should have happened after the choke against the Broncos but I guess it’s better late than never. I never really liked the Bowen hire in the first place. I understand the reason why they brought him in was because Daboll vibed with him better than he did with Wink Martindale, but it was a downgrade from the start. There was a reason why Bowen got fired in Tennessee: their secondary was atrocious. Unsurprisingly, that is the biggest flaw for New York’s defense right now. Knowing the NFL, he’ll get another job somewhere else, but his career as a coordinator might be over. Now what?

The Lions survive an overtime thriller to improve to 7-4 and will stay home for a Thanksgiving matchup against the Green Bay Packers. Meanwhile, the Giants lose their sixth straight game to fall to 2-10 and will stay on the road to take on the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS (27) vs. ARIZONA CARDINALS (24)

How am I not surprised this turned out to be a game that went down to the wire? Since Jacoby Brissett has been the starting quarterback, this is the third game where they had a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter but the offense sank into quicksand and the defense fell apart. Not only did it happen again on Sunday, but this was probably their most agonizing loss. 

Trevor Lawrence turned the ball over four times in a must-win road game. The first was a scoop-and-score that allowed Arizona to tie the game at seven late in the first quarter. The final three were interceptions with the last one setting up a go-ahead touchdown with close to seven minutes remaining in the game. There was even a bone-headed fourth down attempt on fourth and one with 1:44 remaining on the clock, when Jacksonville could have just kicked a field goal to increase their lead to six. At the same time, however, it wasn’t like Lawrence was completely horrible. He still threw for over 250 yards and had three touchdown passes. To his credit, he got the Jaguars back in front near the end of the fourth quarter and more importantly, he gave his team the lead on his lone possession of overtime. It was the definition of an average performance: moments that were promising, others that just made everybody scratch their heads in frustration. 

All of this makes it even more frustrating from Arizona’s perspective. Yes, they got in the end zone twice off of two turnovers, but went three-and-out on the other two. Sure they tied the game to send it into overtime, yet they were somewhat lucky thanks to Jacksonville playing over their heads. You know what else could have saved them? Chad Ryland not missing a 33 yard field goal to end the first half. Once again, Brissett had a scrappy performance with over 300 passing yards, yet failed to deliver in the biggest moments. It didn’t help that this was the fourth time in the last five weeks where he got sacked five or more times. Arizona was close, but not close enough.

The Jaguars survive on the road to stay alive in the playoff hunt at 7-4 and will stay on the road to play the Tennessee Titans. Meanwhile, the Cardinals get their hearts ripped out once again to fall to 3-8 and will take the road for a chance to play spoiler against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

CLEVELAND BROWNS (24) vs. LAS VEGAS RAIDERS (10)

Shadeur Sanders made his first NFL start against the Raiders on Sunday, which finally gave Mel Kiper a reason to be happy about the 2025 season. Given the circumstances, he played a lot better than expected. Outside of a bad interception he threw to Charles Snowden in the second quarter, he did his best to manage the game. The best throw he made was a 52 yard shot down the right sideline to Isaiah Bond that set up an easy touchdown run for Quinshon Judkins to go ahead 14-0. Later on in the fourth quarter, Sanders threw his first touchdown pass on a simple screen pass to the other rookie running back Dylan Sampson, who took it 66 yards to the house to put Cleveland ahead 24-3. Personally, I feel like they could have scored more points if it were not for a fumble by Jerry Jeudy because he slowed down on a 39 yard completion. However, that wasn’t the biggest story of the game.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Raiders offense is a dumpster fire. There is no hope left. Geno Smith is cooked. Ashton Jeanty gets sent into a raging mess week after week. The only good receiver they have is Brock Bowers. They have no offensive line whatsoever. The play-caller is a hack that deservingly got fired 24 hours later. All of it was on full display in their house on Sunday afternoon. Smith got sacked not once, not twice, not thrice, but TEN TIMES! Three of them were from Myles Garrett, who already has 18 sacks this year. Yeah, just give him the Defensive Player of the Year award tomorrow because barring any injuries, he is on pace to beat TJ Watt’s single season sack record. I hate to say this but it’s time to bench Geno Smith. If Pete Carroll wants to salvage any dignity he has left with this team, he has to give Aidan O’Connell or Kenny Pickett a chance to end the season strong. I know those aren’t great options, but the Geno experiment has completely failed and if the Raiders get crushed again, who knows if Mark Davis wants to keep Carroll around the rest of the year?

The Browns get a feel-good victory on the road to finish the week 3-8 and will head back home to see if they can play spoiler against the San Francisco 49ers. Meanwhile, the Raiders lose their fifth game in a row to fall to 2-9 and will take the road to play the Los Angeles Chargers.

ATLANTA FALCONS (24) vs. NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (10)

Oh so now the Falcons decide to win a football game! When everyone loses expectations for them, they finally manage to show up for once. It’s too bad it was in a meaningless game against the Saints. Congratulations, you didn’t choke and disappoint for once.

Atlanta’s offense was really average on Sunday. Kirk Cousins had a couple of solid touchdown passes that kept Atlanta in front, but he only threw for 199 yards and gave New Orleans their only touchdown with a pick six to Justin Reid. The Falcons allowed a few sacks, they went three for twelve on third down, they only had three first downs in the second half, but the weirdest part was that they hardly ran the ball after halftime. Fortunately, their defense carried the team from beginning to end.

I truly thought Tyler Shough could have a decent performance. I said to myself “if he can play well against the Panthers, who is to say he can’t do the same against Atlanta?” Instead, the offense couldn’t do anything. They even had a chance to score at the one yard line to begin the second half and failed to score a touchdown. Their running game was non-existent, Shough only had 243 yards on 30 completions and turned it over twice, but the worst part was seeing Blake Grupe miss two field goals in what would be his last game with the team. 

Overall, this was probably the least watched matchup of the Sunday afternoon slate. Neither team is going to make the playoffs, New Orleans was expected to be bad at the beginning of the season and Atlanta just doesn’t have a lot of hope left for the rest of the year. Good job on finally ending your losing streak but it’s too little too late. 

The Falcons manage to get a win on the board to finish the week 4-7 and will stay on the road to see if they can pick up where they left off as they play the New York Jets. Meanwhile, the Saints are still near the bottom of the pit at 2-9 and will take the road to play the Miami Dolphins.

DALLAS COWBOYS (24) vs. PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (21)

After the first three drives of the game, the Eagles were ahead 21-0 over the Dallas Cowboys. In the Kelly Green jerseys, their offense looked proficient and the defense forced multiple turnovers and a fourth down stop. Sure, Dallas scored a touchdown to trim the deficit to 14, but Philadelphia was making a statement that they were not going anywhere any time soon. Little did we know that we completely misinterpreted what they were trying to say.

Throughout the second half, the Eagles were almost literally doing everything they could to just give the Cowboys the win. They had six total drives and punted on four of them. Another was a missed field goal and one more ended with a lost fumble from Saquon Barkley. Even Xavier Gipson coughed the ball up on a punt return! It just felt inevitable that Dallas was going to pull off a comeback victory and to their credit, they made so many big plays when it mattered most. There were a couple of hiccups; Brandon Aubrey missed a 51 yard field goal and there was a goal-line stand with less than four minutes left in the game. However, Osa Odighizuwa flew in with a crucial sack on the first play after the two minute warning and all it took was a 24 yard catch-and-run by George Pickens to set up the winning field goal for Aubrey. 

I knew the Eagles were going to lose this game, but to do it like that was incredibly humiliating. All I kept getting were flashbacks to 2023, where their offense went completely one-dimensional late in the season and eventually fell apart in the Wild Card round. I get that their offensive line is banged up, but when you still have this much talent, there is no excuse for them to average approximately 16 points in their last three games. The fact that Kevin Patullo is still calling plays is startling, but then again, how many more offensive coordinators can Jalen Hurts have in his career?

As for Dallas, I have to say that I am actually starting to buy into this team a little more than I did at the beginning of the year. Since they made the trade for Quinnen Williams, their defense looks ten times better and stronger. When you combine that with an offense that has been efficient all year, that is the sign of a promising playoff contender. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high because this is the Cowboys we are talking about, but they just completed the largest comeback in franchise history because after going down 21-0, nobody backed down for a second. This was the first home game for the team since the passing of Marshawn Kneeland and he would have been proud to see a win like that take place.  

The Cowboys pull off their most impressive win of the year and are now 5-5-1, but will be back in AT&T Stadium shortly to take on the Kansas City Chiefs on Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, the Eagles completely choke as they finish the week 8-3 and will head back home for a must win game against the Chicago Bears on Black Friday.

LOS ANGELES RAMS (34) vs. TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS (7)

I think it’s safe to say the Rams are officially the best team in the NFL right now. This was by far their most complete performance of the season and when I look at the rest of the playoff picture in the NFC, there aren’t too many teams that will stop them from reaching the Super Bowl. At the beginning of the year, I said Philadelphia and Detroit, but now both of them have serious flaws that could get in the way. This latest victory against Tampa Bay was not just a statement, it was a flat out clinic.

Matthew Stafford threw three more touchdown passes, bringing his total to 30 for the season. Did I mention he only has two interceptions and hasn’t thrown one since week three? Right now, he is the undisputed favorite for MVP. At 38 years old, Stafford is having the best season of his career and if LA ends up winning the Super Bowl, he will be a lock for the Hall of Fame. Their offense scored on their first four drives of the night and the score should have honestly been a lot worse, but this is where the defense comes into play.

I knew the Rams had a well-improved defense, yet I didn’t think they were going to be this great. Forcing four interceptions against Sam Darnold was one thing, but to shut Baker Mayfield down is something else. He only completed nine of nineteen passes with two interceptions, one of them a pick six by Cobie Durant. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, their quarterback got knocked out at the end of the first half with an injury to his left shoulder, which forced Teddy Bridgewater to play the final two quarters. Once that happened, there was no chance of a comeback. It wasn’t shocking that LA won, but to do it in this fashion was just flat out stunning.

The Rams win their sixth straight game to take the top seed in the NFC at 9-2 and will take the road for a business trip against the Carolina Panthers. The Bucs still hold the lead in their division but are only 6-5 and will head back home for a must win game against the Arizona Cardinals.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ers (20) vs. CAROLINA PANTHERS (9)

This was supposed to be a highly competitive Monday night showdown but instead, we got one of the sloppiest games of the entire week. The fact that Brock Purdy threw three interceptions and still managed to win the game by double digits is abhorrent for the Carolina Panthers because any other team would have won in a heartbeat. However, the 49ers defense led the way from beginning to end, while Christian McCaffrey got the last laugh against his former team.

Purdy had a very awful first half. On passes 15 or more yards down the field, three of them were picks and only one of them was caught by one of his wide receivers. Two interceptions were credited to Jaycee Horn, who didn’t play in the second half due to a concussion, while Mike Jackson got his hands on the ball as well. However, the Carolina offense only scored three points off of those miscues. Bryce Young completed just six passes for 28 yards and at the one yard line, he threw a bone-headed interception of his own to Ji’Ayir Brown that gave San Francisco the break they needed. In a half where Carolina should have been ahead, they were down by seven at halftime. 

Through the rest of the game, Purdy settled down and in fact, didn’t even throw an incompletion in the second half. More importantly, thank goodness he had Christian McCaffrey in his backfield. Kyle Shanahan gave the All Pro running back a heavy workload on Monday night against his former team. He touched the ball 31 total times and totaled over 140 yards from scrimmage with a rushing touchdown. Yet the only touchdowns the 49ers offense scored were in the beginnings of both halves. Carolina had multiple chances to stay in the game and pull off the upset, but their offense was stymied by a sturdy San Francisco defense.

I truly believe defensive coordinator Robert Saleh should win Assistant Coach of the Year, which is an award that honestly deserves more recognition than it does right now. You can say that Carolina’s offense has been mediocre all year, but on Bryce Young’s first career prime time game, the 49ers made him look like a rookie. The former number one overall pick had just 169 yards with two interceptions, while Rico Dowdle and Chubba Hubbard only combined for 54 rushing yards. Any time Young did drop back to pass, hardly any of his throws were down the field. The Panthers went one for seven on third down and only picked up 12 first downs. Their defense did just about everything they could to keep this game within reach, but they eventually wore out as they were on the field for 38 total minutes. Overall, this was a really frustrating game to watch from both sides, but San Francisco’s defense really took charge and never kept their foot off the gas.

The 49ers find a way to win at home as they stay in the Wild Card race at 8-4 and will take the road to hopefully not fall into a trap game against the Cleveland Browns. The Panthers are back into the purgatory known as mediocrity at 6-6 and will head back home for a huge challenge against the Los Angeles Rams.