Rightfully so, the AFC is the more high profile conference in the NFL. With teams like the Chiefs, Bills, and Bengals, and players like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelce, it’s the more elite feeling conference. This week was about the best in the NFC though. Philadelphia is taking their game to another level, Dallas keeps winning, and San Francisco is basically living their own version of The Replacements at quarterback. This was an impressive weekend for the best in the NFC and no, it kills me to say that doesn’t include the Vikings.
Eagles First to Clinch Playoff Berth in Convincing Fashion
The Philadelphia Eagles became the first team in the NFL this season to clinch a playoff spot and they did it in a dominating fashion, blowing out the Giants in New York, 48-22.
This was the first of two meetings between the Eagles and the playoff hopeful Giants, with round two taking place on the final weekend of the regular season. New York has greatly improved from non-playoff team to borderline playoff team, but are well behind the Eagles improvement of wild card team to best team of the regular season. As weeks have gone by, Philadelphia’s claim to be that best regular season team seems more and more confirmed.
Philadelphia now finds themselves with a 12-1 record and have a two game lead in both the NFC East and NFC Conference standings. The Eagles have bounced back from their home loss to Washington several weeks ago to go on another win streak of four games and have averaged over 40 points per game over their last three wins. Jaylen Hurts has taken his game to another level and may very well be the current front runner for MVP now.
There’s still four weeks left in the regular season so plenty can happen, but in a NFC conference that seems like Philadelphia, Dallas, and San Francisco are on another level compared to the rest, these Eagles should be the favorites to be playing in Glendale come February.
Quarterback Musical Chairs in San Fran Keeps Leading to Wins
Okay, San Francisco is just playing plug n’ play now. Despite Brock Purdy playing well last week after filling in for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo, once the Garappolo injury was confirmed to be serious, many expected Purdy to fold under the pressure of leading a Super Bowl hopeful team as a seventh round rookie. At least one game later, that couldn’t be more off base.
Respectfully, the 49ers defense may have more to do with the 35-7 win over Tom Brady and Tampa Bay, thanks to causing three turnovers and holding the Bucs to just 322 yards and seven points.
The defense was great, but Purdy was also impressive in his first NFL start in a game facing off against Tom Brady. Purdy came out and outplayed Brady on Sunday with 185 yards passing and two touchdowns on a high completion percentage. Purdy also showed some strong escapability to extend plays to avoid being sacked even once on the day.
With a multitude of good skill position players, Purdy has immersed himself into the offense well. He completed passing touchdowns to both Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk, while McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel both had rushing touchdowns.
The 49ers have now won six games in a row, the longest streak in the NFL, and are a win against Seattle next weekend away from winning the NFC West title. If Philadelphia is keeping an eye on any potential NFC playoff opponent, it’s probably Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers.
Seattle’s Surprising Season Starting to Slide Away
The back end of the NFC playoff race is a wild and crazy place, but it now looks like one of the early NFL season’s strongest and most surprising teams may be slowly sliding out of that race. That team would be the now 7-6 Seattle Seahawks who have lost three of four games and are now one spot out of the playoff picture.
The Seahawks, who were expected to have a rebuilding year this season, but caught the league off guard by getting off to a 6-3 start, haven’t been able to end up on the winning side of close games very often as of late. Sunday’s game was more of the same story as the Seahawks suffered a 30-24 home loss to the Carolina Panthers, who are playing for their own postseason berth in the NFC South.
The Seahawks felt the major loss of their rookie running back Kenneth Walker III on Sunday as he was out with an ankle injury. The Seahawks produced just 46 rushing yards. This has been a team that been able to run one of the league’s stronger offenses thanks to the balance in the passing and running game. Geno Smith threw for 264 yards, but had two picks and the threat of running the ball decreased more and more as the game carried on.
If Seattle intends to clinch a playoff spot, it may take winning a game or two they are not expected to win. The Seahawks final four games are against San Francisco, at Kansas City, the New York Jets, and the Los Angeles Rams. A 9-8 record might get it done for Seattle, but to really ensure a playoff spot it will probably take a win over the 49ers or Chiefs, two of the hottest teams in the NFL. This surprise Seattle season may be finally coming back down to Earth.
Questions After Week 14
The NFC South has four losing teams with only two games separating first and last place. Who is going to win this division?
All season it has been a waiting game on Tampa Bay figuring things out and stringing several wins together to pull away from the inferior teams in the NFC South. That waiting game has never ended and we now know that the Buccaneers are no different than the rest of their division opponents, an inferior team to most NFL teams. There’s not a soul on planet Earth who could confidently claim they feel good about any team winning this division, but let’s look at their remaining games and try to make a prediction.
Tampa Bay (6-7): Cincinnati, @ Arizona, Carolina, @ Atlanta
Carolina (5-8): Pittsburgh, Detroit, @ Tampa Bay, @ New Orleans
Atlanta (5-8): @ New Orleans, @ Baltimore, Arizona, Tampa Bay
New Orleans (4-9): Atlanta, @ Cleveland, @ Philadelphia, Carolina
With the Saints needing to gain two games in the next four just to be tied with Tampa Bay, while also being 1-3 in the division and having to travel to Philadelphia, let’s eliminate New Orleans.
Atlanta is also 1-3 in the division and their only remaining games against divisional opponents are with New Orleans and Tampa Bay, teams they’ve already lost to. The Arizona game is winnable, but they will travel to Baltimore to play a Ravens team who has plenty of motivation to win that game as they are in their own division race. The Falcons could potentially avoid playing Lamar Jackson, but they would still need plenty of things to go their way. This also seems unlikely.
This division really feels like it’s coming down to Tampa Bay and Carolina and in particularly their Week 17 matchup. Carolina needs to gain a game just to have the same record as the Bucs. That could happen as soon as next weekend with the Panthers playing Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay playing a red hot Cincinnati team. From there, the Panthers will have a tough Week 16 game against a Detroit team battling for their own playoff spot. Realistically, the Panthers could even lose that game and earn it back by defeating Tampa Bay in their Week 17 game. That very thing happening would give Carolina the division tie breaker over Tampa after sweeping them before heading into the final weekend of the regular season. Carolina has played well enough lately where there is a legitimate and reasonable path for the Panthers to somehow find a way into the post season.
Unfortunately the NFC South has been anything, but consistent and there’s no reason to believe things will workout as expected. Although unlikely, Tampa may get a win over Cincinnati and then go play a terrible game in Arizona. There’s just no way of predicting a division that hasn’t had one team win more than two games in a row the entire season. I feel strongly that the winner will be either Tampa Bay or Carolina, but have no clue how one will separate themselves from the other. For now, I think the safest bet is to just bet on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This has nothing to do with Tom Brady, the defense, the receivers, or anything stats related. This is a bad football team, but in the NFC South it seems like the safest bet is to just predict the team who is leading the standings at this very moment. Knowing the 2022 NFC South, that will probably change again before the end of the regular season.
“Everybody Loves to Hate-read Power Rankings so Go Ahead and Hate-read” Power Rankings
- Philadelphia Eagles (12-1)
- Buffalo Bills (10-3)
- Kansas City Chiefs (10-3)
- Dallas Cowboys (10–3)
- Cincinnati Bengals (9-4)
- San Francisco 49ers (9-4)
- Minnesota Vikings (10-3)
- Miami Dolphins (8-5)
- Baltimore Ravens (9-4)
- Washington Commanders (7-5-1)
- Tennessee Titans (7-6)
- New York Jets (7-6)
- Seattle Seahawks (7-6)
- Los Angeles Chargers (7-6)
- New York Giants (7-5-1)
- New England Patriots (7-6)
- Detroit Lions (6-7)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-7)
- Carolina Panthers (5-8)
- Cleveland Browns (5-8)
- Las Vegas Raiders (5-8)
- Green Bay Packers (5-8)
- Pittsburgh Steelers (5-8)
- Jacksonville Jaguars (5-8)
- Atlanta Falcons (5-8)
- Arizona Cardinals (4-9)
- New Orleans Saints (4-9)
- Indianapolis Colts (4-8-1)
- Los Angeles Rams (4-9)
- Denver Broncos (3-10)
- Chicago Bears (3-10)
- Houston Texans (1-11-1)
Week 15 Game Watchability Rankings
16. Cardinals vs Broncos: The only game of the week that doesn’t feature at least one team that will likely be in the playoffs. Outside of draft position, this game provides no reason to watch it. The 2023 season can’t come soon enough for Arizona and Denver.
15. Chiefs vs Texans: Denver gave Kansas City an unexpected fight, but it’s unlikely the Chiefs let a much inferior team hang with them in back to back weeks. On a similar note, Houston won’t likely give a far superior team a tough battle for the second straight week. This one may get out of hand very early.
14. Eagles vs Bears: At this point Philadelphia is worth tuning into just for “16-1 Watch”. With four games remaining, it looks like Week 16’s game in Dallas might be the only serious threat to the Eagles the rest of the way. Chicago’s season is a wrap, but taking a win over the best team of the season would be a nice way to close this season.
13. Rams vs Packers: Green Bay is in win or go home mode now. The Packers know they will have to go 4-0 the rest of the way to even have a shot at the playoffs. With games against Miami, Minnesota, and Detroit, Matt LeFleur’s team will have their easiest game next week against Los Angeles. The Rams came out with a win Las Vegas, but it’s hard to imagine this team taking wins in back to back weeks. The Packers may not be good this season, but they are not nearly as bad as this Rams squad has been. I’d expect Green Bay’s season to survive another week.
12. Falcons vs Saints: Now probably the two least likely teams to represent the NFC South in the playoffs, but this game will likely be the kiss of death for the loser. Prior to the season, most people believed Tampa Bay would run away with this division. Both Atlanta and New Orleans weren’t left in the dust by the Bucs, but can that really be viewed as a positive when you’re 5-8 or 4-9?
11. Steelers vs Panthers: Carolina looks like they may be this season’s team that comes back from the dead like The Undertaker. They’ve won three of four and are a game back of Tampa Bay with a win in hand over them. This NFC South isn’t likely going to be decided until the final weekend and no one in the division may feel better right now than the Panthers. The Steelers are a similar type team with a decent defense, good skill players, but don’t have any current consistency at quarterback. The only real difference is that Pittsburgh doesn’t have the benefit to play in the worst division in football.
10. Cowboys vs Jaguars: Dallas snuck by with a win over Houston in Week 14, but will need to get back to their usual selves in order to beat Jacksonville. The Jaguars don’t have wins to show for it, but they have had moments where they look like a legitimately good football team. Unfortunately Jacksonville also looks like their usual top 10 draft pick selves a lot too. If Trevor Lawrence plays as well as he did this past weekend, this could be an exciting game.
9. Patriots vs Raiders: Right when Las Vegas was turning a corner, they blow a game against the lowly defending champion Rams. That should do it for the Raiders, but they have an opportunity to spoil New England’s season by delivering a loss. Longtime Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel will face off against Bill Belichick so the storylines are there as well. Unfortunately, the Raiders blew an opportunity to make this game one between two teams in playoff contention.
8. Colts vs Vikings: Minnesota is 10-3, but is a -1 in point differential on the season. That’s a crazy stat. The Vikings are one win away from clinching a playoff spot, but have plenty of concerns. Minnesota’s defense is legitimately one of the worst in the NFL, a unit that is essentially turnover or bust and they aren’t getting nearly enough turnovers to make that style work. Indianapolis has been its own type of mess this season, but didn’t come away with many wins like the Vikes. Will this be good football? Probably not, but it could be entertaining football for those who are not fans of the Vikings or Colts.
7. Ravens vs Browns: This game could’ve been Lamar Jackson vs Deshaun Watson, but Jackson won’t likely be healed up yet and Watson hasn’t looked very impressive in his return. Baltimore looks like it will be in the playoffs, but it’s all about holding on to the division lead with Tyler Huntley filling in at quarterback. A road game against division rival Cleveland won’t make that road easy.
6. Titans vs Chargers: Los Angeles is like the killer in a horror movie. Just when you think they are officially dead, they comeback to alive. Their win over Miami on Sunday night has them slotted into the AFC’s final playoff spot. Can the Chargers put together two straight wins against likely playoff teams? Tennessee may not be the cream of the crop in the AFC, but they are a strong enough to make the Los Angeles have to really earn a playoff spot. These are also two of the class “winning teams who can play some of the worst football imaginable on a given night” teams.
5. Lions vs Jets: Jared Goff and this electric Detroit offense going up against one of the best defenses in the league. Not necessarily a description many would’ve expected for this game back in September, but nonetheless the truth now. Both these teams are a game or tiebreaker out in their conference’s wild card race. Late season NFL matchup storylines just write themselves. A huge game for these two teams hoping to return to the postseason for the first time in years.
4. Bengals vs Buccaneers: Joe Burrow and Cincinnati have extended their winning streak to five games and are on the heels of Baltimore for the AFC North division lead. The Bengals look like a top four team in the loaded AFC. They will catch a Bucs team that still hasn’t confidently taken over the brutally bad NFC South and is coming off their worst loss of the year in San Francisco. This could be a great game or Cincy could be another team to blowout Tampa Bay.
3. 49ers vs Seahawks: The 49ers are really feeling like one of the best teams in the league and it doesn’t seem to matter whose at quarterback. Is it possible that Brock Purdy might’ve made them even better? Seattle is now two games back of San Francisco in the NFC West with only four games to go. With San Francisco already winning the first game, another win over Seattle will clinch the division crown for the Niners. More than anything, the Seahawks just need a win to stop the bleeding. They’ve lost three of four games after winning four straight prior. The third quarter of the season has been a disaster for Seattle so they will need a good start to the final quarter in order save themselves from missing the postseason.
2. Giants vs Commanders: After tying in Week 13 and New York getting obliterated on their own field by Philadelphia to put these teams at matching records, this is the biggest game of the season for both. With Dallas all but clinching the top wild card position, New York and Washington are battling Seattle, Detroit, and potentially Green Bay for the final two playoff spots. A win for either would put them in a great position, but a loss could be devastating if some of the other playoff hopefuls keep winning.
1. Dolphins vs Bills: Some good games in Week 15, but this is the easy pick for the best game. Miami and Buffalo are on the short list of true Super Bowl contenders and are in the middle of tight race for the AFC East division title. Miami won the first matchup way back in Week Three. More than anything, Buffalo wants to hold onto the top seed in the AFC and earn home field throughout the playoffs.