Don’t look now but the Patriots and Chiefs are the two hottest teams in the AFC right now after both starting the season 2-3. Both teams found the win column again by knocking off division foes. Week 13 didn’t have a surplus of great games, but it did have some nice moments including the return of two Arizona stars, a Steelers’ pulse, and the Detroit Lions finding their first win of the season against the Vikings just as the Football Gods intended. Please enjoy my thoughts on the past football weekend while I stare deeply into the bottom of this glass of bourbon…
Patriots Increase Gap Between Them and Buffalo
As football can be, the conditions were not pleasant for this primetime matchup between the top two teams in the AFC East. New England extended their win streak to seven games and guaranteed they will hold first place in the division until at least their Week 16 rematch again the Bills. With snow flurries and wind gusts that hovered around 25-35mph for nearly the entire game, Mac Jones only threw three passes the entire game, but the Pats’ 222 rushing yards and red zone defense proved enough to earn the 14-10 win. For Buffalo, it now drops an early season Super Bowl favorite to the final wild card spot in the AFC. The Bills’ final five games include a trip to Tampa Bay next week and their second game against the Patriots as they travel to Gillette Stadium. Suddenly a team who appeared to be a guaranteed playoff team might be a risk to miss the postseason entirely.
Cards Return To Dominance With Healthy Murray and Hopkins
It only took about four minutes before the Arizona Cardinals’ biggest offensive stars connected for a touchdown as quarterback Kyler Murray and wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins returned after missing three straight games. Although the Arizona offense was efficient, it was the defense’s ability to force four turnovers and put the other unit in short field positions that made quick work of the floundering Chicago Bears in their 33-22 win. Beyond the opening touchdown, it was a relatively quiet day for Hopkins, but Murray returned to his electric form by combining for four total touchdowns (2 passing, 2 rushing). As we continue to be unsure of just about every team in the NFL week after week, this was a good reminder that the Cardinals are still the number one seed in the NFC while seemingly hiding in the shadows without their stars several weeks. With a nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football next week, the Cardinals will have an opportunity to remind everyone just how good they are.
Ravens End Up On Wrong Side of Gamble, Lose to Steelers
John Harbaugh has some cojones, I’ll give him that. In a physical game in which both defenses were playing quite well and Lamar Jackson was sacked seven times, the choice of going for a two point conversion instead of kicking an extra point to send the game to overtime was an interesting decision. In the end, Harbaugh was about Mark Andrew’s fingers being four millimeters longer from looking like a genius, but the Ravens tight end was unable to corral a would be passing score from Jackson to earn the win and keep the Ravens in first place of the AFC. The fact that Baltimore held first place makes the decision to go for the win an interesting one, but considering Harbaugh and Jackson’s history of taking risks it shouldn’t be terribly surprising. The final score was 20-19 in a must win game for Pittsburgh, who keeps some small threads of hope that they can earn a trip to the playoffs. Considering the nature of the game, Ben Roethlisberger had one of his stronger performances of the year by throwing for 236 yards, taking only 1 sack, and connecting with Diontae Johnson for the Steelers’ two touchdowns. The Steelers now find themselves one spot out of the playoffs with a Thursday game against the Minnesota Vikings, a likely must win for both teams.
Chiefs Offense Struggles, But Continues Climb Up AFC
It’s still not necessarily pretty, but Kansas City is getting wins. With a 22-9 win at home against Denver, the Chiefs have now won five games in a row and have a pretty favorable schedule in their final five games. Kansas City once again relied on their defense, which hasn’t given up more than 17 points during their win streak, to get the job done as the offense once again struggled. Pat Mahomes only threw for 184 yards and an interception, but did find the end zone on 10 yard run. Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, Mahomes’ favorite weapons, only combined for five catches and 59 yards. I’m not sure anyone can dissect exactly what this Kansas City team is. Considering the playoffs look likely, Chiefs fans should be hoping that the defense continues to play like it has in recent weeks while the offense finds even half the consistency it has had in the past three years by the time the postseason rolls around.
Herbert Outplays Burrow as Chargers Swap Places With Bengals
Justin Herbert won round one in the battle between 2020 first round quarterback picks as he threw for 317 yards, three touchdowns, and one pick compared to Burrow’s 300 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. The Chargers defense got to Burrow early and often and ended up sacking the second year quarterback six times. Los Angeles jumped out to a 24-0 lead by the second quarter, but Cincinnati fought back with 22 straight points. Unfortunately for Bengals fans, Tevaughn Campbell became the Tiger King as he recovered a Joe Mixon fumble and returned it 61 yards for a touchdown. The Chargers never looked back as they chalked on ten more points on their way to a 41-22 win. Los Angeles, who has now traded wins and losses for six straight weeks, finds themselves as the top wild card in the AFC. The Bengals are behind them as the second wild card spot, just in front of the final playoff spot team, the Buffalo Bills.
Lions Hold Off Until Final Moment To Find Win Column
The Detroit Lions will not go winless for an entire season for the second time in their history after winning 29-27 over the Minnesota Vikings. Amon-Ra St. Brown caught the game winning 11 yard touchdown pass from Jared Goff as time expired to clinch Detroit’s first win of the season. Subconsciously, I knew this would happen. In a year where my favorite team, the Vikings, played to the level of their opponent no matter how good or bad they were, it was inevitable that they finally got burned at some point. Sunday was that day. Detroit held a 20-6 lead at halftime and held on to a lead until 1:50 to go in the 4th quarter when the Vikings took a 27-23 lead off of a Justin Jefferson touchdown catch. That amount of time was plenty for Goff to lead the Lions down the field with some major help from a heavy cushioned Vikings’ prevent defense, which included an alarmingly open St. Brown on the winning catch. Quite frankly, the Lions deserved the win as equally as much as Minnesota deserved to lose. The Vikings stole an early October win against the Lions on a similar game winning drive. In eight total quarters of football, it feels like the Lions have played better than the Vikings in about six of them. While an uplifting win for Head Coach Dan Campbell and his team, the Vikings now find themselves at very serious risk to not make the playoffs with this unexpected loss.
Looking Ahead to Week 14
This week will provide some interesting games either because there are several good match ups or games that pit two teams against each other that are in must win mode.
The Thursday night game between the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers, two of the most schizophrenic and frustrating teams in the NFL, is a perfect example of one of those must win games. An unexpected Steelers win against the Ravens keeps them in the playoff race while the Vikings unexpected (maybe to non-Vikings fans) loss to the Lions creates a recipe for a game that neither team can afford to lose. Trust me, it will be a doozy.
The Ravens will travel to Cleveland with the intent to have a second opportunity in two weeks to essentially put an AFC North foes’ playoff hopes to an end. With Cleveland healthier than they’ve been, having played Baltimore only two weeks ago, and coming off a bye, I’d expect the Browns to put up a good fight.
Dallas vs Washington is suddenly an important NFC East match up as a Washington win at home would put them within one game of snagging the top spot in the division. I’m not sure that means much when compared to the other NFC teams, but hey, it’s something.
The 49ers and Bengals are two teams holding wild card spots in their conferences. For obvious reasons that will be an interesting game to watch as the loser will put themselves at serious risk of finding themselves on the outside looking in heading into Week 15.
The Buffalo Bills travel to Tampa Bay in a game that many people probably gambled on being the Super Bowl. Although the Bills currently look like they are not quite at the level Tampa is playing at, it has the making of being a high octane offensive match up.
The Bears and Packers meet on Sunday night. If it weren’t for the rivalry, this game would have no business being on Sunday Night Football. Chicago is awful and I’d imagine the Packers get an easy win. Hopefully the NFL flexes for the Bills/Bucs.
Monday Night is another good game featuring the top two NFC West teams, Arizona and Los Angeles. The Cards completely outplayed the Rams earlier in the year at SoFi Stadium and looked great over the weekend with the return of Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins. We will see what type of adjustments Sean McVay has made since the first game.
The playoffs are just around the bend, but there is still a lot at play. With so many crucial games, Week 14 will have an important card to play in deciding whose seasons will survive into Week 15.