The Eagles’ strengths mask all of their weaknesses. Philadelphia’s offense is not right. It seems like a bizarre assertion after an epic, 37-34 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills pushed the Eagles to 10-1, two more wins than any other team in the NFL. But it’s true. Consider this: In 21 full possessions between the start of their victory last Monday over the Kansas City Chiefs and the end of the game against Buffalo, the Eagles gained 14 or fewer yards 14 times and went three-and-out nine times. They are majoring in empty possessions.
On the other seven drives, though, the Eagles scored seven touchdowns. They can hide their struggles — like Jalen Hurts’s indecision in the intermediate passing game, or the miscommunication between Hurts and running back Kenneth Gainwell that led to a brutal fumble, or defenses adjusting to previously unstoppable A.J. Brown — because their strengths are so extreme. Hurts is a remarkable deep passer, and his power running ability allows the Eagles to finish drives with touchdowns like no other team.
Hurts is not the best player in the NFL, and he has obvious flaws, but he has a strong case to be considered the most valuable player because he does so much that leads to victory.
The Eagles are expert at overcoming mistakes through sheer talent. Jason Kelce seemed to push the Eagles out of game-tying field goal range when he twice flinched for false starts at the end of regulation. Elliott made it moot with an all-time field goal, a 59-yarder through the wind and rain off wet turf. The Eagles were outgained, 505 yards to 378, and committed one more turnover than they forced. But they won because they have championship will and, more crucially, their offense puts the ball in the end zone rather than settling for field goals.
Josh Allen is still a unicorn. It has been an uneven season for Allen and the Bills, who fell to 6-6 after their brutal loss in Philadelphia. They risk missing the playoffs and have to play in Kansas City coming out of their bye. Still, Allen provided a reminder that should serve as a warning for the rest of the AFC playoff field if the Bills can sneak in: When he is playing his best, there is nobody quite like him. There are a handful of better quarterbacks, but none have Allen’s blend of speed and force as a runner and his daring and arm strength as a passer.
On the road, in the rain, against the team with the NFL’s best record, Allen utterly carried the Bills. He passed for 339 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 81 and two touchdowns. He moved with caution early this season, but now that crunchtime has arrived, he is playing with abandon and causing nightmares for defenses. The Bills’ offense has been elite in two games since Joe Brady replaced Ken Dorsey as coordinator.
Allen’s performance made Coach Sean McDermott’s decision at the end of regulation inexcusable. With 20 seconds left and a timeout, McDermott chose to kneel and go to overtime. Yes, there was risk in allowing Philadelphia’s vicious pass rush the chance at a strip sack. But there’s also risk in giving the Eagles the ball in overtime. Allen is a big play waiting to happen, and choosing to give away a possession is malpractice.
The AFC playoff race is a cluster. While the Eagles are in control of the NFC’s bye and three of its divisions have clear favorites, it will take the final six weeks to decide nearly everything about the complexion of the AFC playoffs.
The Baltimore Ravens regained the top seed with their 20-10 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night, which made them the third AFC team to hold it since Thanksgiving. The Miami Dolphins took it with their victory Friday over the New York Jets, and then the Jacksonville Jaguars seized it briefly after their nail-biting win in Houston on Sunday. The Ravens, Dolphins, Jaguars and Chiefs each have three losses, with the Ravens ahead at 9-3 because they’ve yet to have their bye, which comes this week.
It’s just as crowded at the bottom of the AFC picture. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns both have wild card spots at 7-4, but the Browns’ grip is tenuous after they lost quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson to a concussion and Myles Garrett exited with a shoulder injury in Sunday’s loss to the Denver Broncos. The 6-5 Indianapolis Colts — where did they come from? — currently hold the final card spot owing to tiebreakers. The Houston Texans and the Broncos, who have the NFL’s longest winning streak at five games, are also 6-5, with the Bills behind them. Who could have known Broncos at Texans would be one of the most crucial games of Week 13?
Jordan Love might be The Man in Green Bay. Love appeared overwhelmed through early portions of the season, inaccurate with deep passes and unable to generate either explosive plays or consistency. The past two weeks have provided season-changing and franchise-shaping promise. In victories over the Chargers and then the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving, Love has pushed the Packers into the NFC playoff hunt and reestablished a high ceiling as Green Bay’s long-term successor to Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre.
Love played the best game of his career in the Packers’ 29-22 upset of the Lions, completing 22 of 32 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns while adding 39 yards rushing. His performance was a demonstration of why the Packers traded up to draft him in the first round three years ago. He passed from varying arm angles and threaded throws into tiny spaces. The Packers bet on him because he can make throws other quarterbacks can’t, and he’s starting to show it.
The timing of Love’s emergence makes sense. All of his wide receivers are in their first or second years, and the group is growing together. Love’s connection with versatile rookie Jayden Reed is already special. Christian Watson, invisible or injured for the season’s first half, finally broke out against the Lions with five catches for 94 yards, including a 53-yard catch on the first snap of the game.
Two straight victories have nudged the Packers to 5-6, right on the edge of the NFC wild card race. Once they get past the Chiefs next week, the Packers will have consecutive games against the New York Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers and Minnesota Vikings to build a playoff-worthy record.
The Steelers’ change at offensive coordinator made an immediate difference. The Pittsburgh Steelers scored only one touchdown in their first game after Coach Mike Tomlin fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada, but their 16-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals showed why Tomlin made a rare midseason change. Though they didn’t finish drives, the Steelers moved the ball better than they had all season.
They gained a season-high 421 yards, which snapped an unbelievable streak of 58 games gaining less than 400 yards. Quarterback Kenny Pickett passed for a season-best 278 yards, the second-highest total of his career. The biggest difference came in how quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan, who is leading a collaborative play-calling approach, opened up the Steelers’ vertical passing game and more aggressively deployed wideouts Diontae Johnson and George Pickens.
Entering Sunday, Pickett had thrown the ball an average of 7.1 yards past the line of scrimmage per pass, according to Next Gen Stats, which ranked 27th in the NFL. On Sunday, 13 of Pickett’s 33 attempts traveled 10 yards past the line, including four deeper than 20 yards and two completions he threw at least 30 yards downfield. The deep passing created space for tight end Pat Freiermuth, who caught nine passes for 120 yards.
The Chiefs’ wide receiver problem looks a little better. Kansas City’s unsightly loss to the Eagles last Monday highlighted its thin wide receiving corps. But the issue was never as bad as it seemed, even after Marquez Valdes-Scantling dropped a game-winning touchdown. The only significant personnel loss from last season, when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, was the departure of JuJu Smith-Schuster in free agency. He had a good season, but replacing him shouldn’t be the difference between confetti and disarray.
The Chiefs found some answers — and stability — in their 31-17 thumping of the Las Vegas Raiders. Patrick Mahomes targeted rookie Rashee Rice more often, and he caught eight passes for 107 yards and a touchdown. Much like Smith-Schuster, Rice provides an underneath target who can help sustain drives. The more the Chiefs work him in, the better off they’ll be.
The sneakier difference came from a familiar source: Travis Kelce played like Travis Kelce. The Chiefs thrived last year because Kelce was the most powerful pass-catching force in the NFL. This year, he has played well, but not like a superstar, which has exposed the Chiefs’ lack of high-end talent outside. If Kelce, who caught six passes for 91 yards Sunday, plays to his standard and Rice continues to emerge, it’ll patch their offensive holes.
The Patriots are in contention for the first pick. And they earned their place with an abomination of a football game that followed an embarrassing week. Coach Bill Belichick declined to name a starting quarterback, splitting practice reps between Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe and telling reporters both would be ready to play against the Giants. It was a pitiful attempt at subterfuge, given the players and the stakes: a game between teams with five combined wins coming in.
Belichick chose Jones, only to bench him at halftime after a horrendous, scoreless performance. Zappe played better than Jones, but he only led the Patriots to one touchdown and a final drive that set up rookie kicker Chad Ryland for a 35-yard field goal to force overtime. Ryland, whom Belichick drafted in the fourth round, hooked the chip shot wide. The Giants won, 10-7. The football-watching public that was spared overtime earned the biggest victory.
The Patriots’ weekly succession of nadirs continued with a loss to a 4-8 team against which they entered as a four-point favorite. At 2-9, the Patriots have the worst record in the AFC by two games. They have a better record than only the 1-10 Panthers and 2-10 Arizona Cardinals. They are headed for a top-five pick, and it’s conceivable they could get the first pick.
With Jones a lost cause in New England, the Patriots may use that pick on one of the highly regarded quarterback prospects. It seems almost certain Belichick will not be the coach who makes the pick or develops the quarterback. It will be a momentous offseason in New England in more ways than one.
We’re about to find out who the Cowboys really are. They own the best point differential in the NFL, plus-162, and yet the first 12 weeks of the season have revealed little about their viability as a Super Bowl threat. Dallas annihilated the Washington Commanders on Thanksgiving, 45-10, but the ritual destruction of a bad team is worthy of a yawn. The Cowboys are 8-1 in games against teams with losing records, winning by an average of 22.1 points.
The Cowboys have played only two games against opponents with winning records, getting blown out against the San Francisco 49ers and losing close to the Eagles. Their chance to prove themselves is here. They host the reeling Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night, an appetizer to the main course over the following four weeks: Eagles, at Bills, at Dolphins, Lions.
The Cowboys have shown they can bully lousy teams, but they have been unable to stand up to the NFC’s best. They exited the playoffs with losses to the 49ers the past two seasons. If they can navigate the end of their schedule, it would suggest they have a chance to close the gap.
The Dolphins’ Super Bowl hopes took a hit. The Dolphins have slowly morphed from a team built on pyrotechnic offense to one that could also rely on an aggressive, playmaking defense. Miami had positioned itself as a real threat, so long as it could stay healthy.
In the final minutes of their 34-13 demolition of the Jets, though, the Dolphins lost one of their most important players. On the infamous turf at MetLife Stadium, outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips suffered a noncontact Achilles’ tendon injury, which appears likely to sideline him for the rest of the season. Phillips is Miami’s best pass rusher off the edge; his pressure helps defensive coordinator Vic Fangio deploy exotic coverages, because he doesn’t need to blitz to generate pressure.
As impressive as the Dolphins have been this season, it’s doubtful they’re good enough to contend in the AFC without one of their best defensive players.
Frank Reich might be one-and-done in Carolina. The Panthers have six more weeks to avoid an ultimate debacle: finishing with the worst record in the league, then sending the No. 1 pick to another team. Carolina traded this year’s first-round pick to the Chicago Bears to draft Bryce Young at No. 1 in April. They are now 1-10, and the coach hired because of his offensive background leads an inept offense with a rookie quarterback he has utterly failed to develop.
Reich has given team owner David Tepper no reason to believe he can rebuild the Panthers or salvage Young. Carolina has scored 15 or fewer points in five straight games, including its 17-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. Reich gave play-calling responsibility to offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, then took it back. Young’s line can’t protect him, and his receivers can’t get open.
Young was thoroughly outplayed Sunday by fellow rookie Will Levis, who was taken 32 picks after him. That’s one thing; Levis was widely considered a first-round talent who fell into the early second round. What’s more troubling is how difficult it is to find a rookie quarterback playing worse than Young. The Giants have won two games in undrafted Tommy DeVito’s three starts, fifth-rounder Thompson-Robinson has steadily conducted the contending Browns, and Aidan O’Connell is passing with precision and decisiveness in Las Vegas. Those are not comprehensive comparisons, but it’s an ugly snapshot for the Panthers, and especially for Reich.
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