Week 12 Around the NFL: Drama, Surprises, and Standout Performances

Texans 23 Bills 19: The Texans got to Josh Allen 8 times in this game, totaling 70 yards. It cannot be understated enough how difficult it is to sack Josh Allen once, let alone 8 times. We all knew the Texans had the best defense in the NFL, but this was a next-level performance (oh, they also picked him off twice). Davis Mills played a more-than-serviceable game for a backup, logging 16-30 for 150 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. You can’t ask for much more than that from your backup against a good Bills defense. For some reason, the Bills cannot win in Houston — they haven’t won there since 2006 (they’ve played 6 times in Houston since then). The Bills nearly staged an epic comeback, especially after a genius 4th-and-27 play call to keep their hopes alive, but Josh Allen could not get the job done on the next 4th down, sealing the game for the Texans.

Chiefs 23 Colts 20: In what felt like a must-win game for the Chiefs, they were able to pull off the win in overtime. Things weren’t looking that way for the first 3 quarters as they trailed 20-9 going into the fourth without much offense to show for it, but things came alive for them in the fourth — not to mention the Colts offense going stone-cold as well (they had a grand total of 6 yards in the fourth quarter to go along with 7 in OT). That allowed the Chiefs to come back and march 87 yards down the field to tie it up at the end of regulation, taking all five minutes off the clock without leaving the Colts a chance to cook up a game-winning drive of their own (not that they would have anyway the way their offense was playing…). The Chiefs were somehow able to hold Jonathan Taylor to 58 yards rushing on 16 carries (very unclear why a leading MVP candidate only carried the ball 16 times), which is saying a lot given the monster year he is having. In truth, the Colts didn’t deserve to win this game, as they only tallied 10 first downs on 11 total drives, and the Chiefs dominated time of possession: 42 minutes to 25 minutes (although depending on how you spin it, the Chiefs didn’t deserve to win the game either — taking a last-second field goal to force overtime in a game so one-sided to your advantage!).

Bears 31 Steelers 28: Yet again, the Bears had a game come down to the wire. And yet again, they came away with a win. There’s a different hero every game, and this time it was the defense that held the fort at the end of the game. Caleb Williams’ stat line makes it seem like he played a really good game, but he continued the concerning trend of missing wide-open receivers badly. He went 19-35 for 239 yards and 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. A bit of a shame (entertainment-wise) that Aaron Rodgers did not play this week, as I’m sure he would’ve been able to come away with a win in Soldier Field, which seems to be his favorite thing to do in the entire world.

Patriots 26 Bengals 20: The Bengals nearly pulled off the upset as they had the game-winning drive in their hands with less than a minute to go in Patriots territory, but Joe Flacco was unable to complete the job, and the Patriots squeaked away with a win to keep their undefeated road record alive. They are sitting pretty at 10-2 atop the AFC East and hold the number-1 seed as well.

Ravens 23 Jets 10: The only thing noteworthy about this game was that Lamar Jackson continues not to look great since coming back from his injury. He does just enough to get his team the win, but that is not going to play in the playoffs. Either way, the Ravens are back above .500 after being 1-5 through their first 6 games. It may not look perfect, but something is obviously working for the Ravens.

Lions 34 Giants 27: Last week I wondered what is up with the Packers against bad teams. Now I’m starting to think the opposite with the Giants: what is up with the Giants playing well against good teams only to come up just short almost every time? The season has been gut-wrenching for any Giants fan, as they make it so close every game yet almost never come away with a W. The cycle of hope and despair must be hard to experience. The Lions continue their up-and-down looking season, which at times has them looking absolutely dominant and at others has them looking barely like a playoff team. But for all the talk, they sit at 7-4.

Jaguars 27 Cardinals 24: The Jaguars came away with a win in overtime despite Trevor Lawrence throwing 3 interceptions, as he continues to not exhibit the qualities often expected of a highly regarded draft pick. This was a highly entertaining game even though nobody had much interest in it. Welcome to the NFL.

Browns 24 Raiders 10: Congrats to Shedeur Sanders on his first NFL win (and subsequent promotion to starter as a result). He had an up-and-down game, as should be expected in your first NFL start, but he threw a beautiful dime 52 yards down the field to Isaiah Bond. The world will continue to watch his progress and see if he can make anything out of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Myles Garrett had another 3 (of 10 that the Browns had!) sacks, putting him at 18.0 on the season and inching him closer to the NFL’s single-season sacks record of 22.5. That guy is redefining unstoppable this year. Such a shame his talent is wasted in Cleveland…

Cowboys 24 Eagles 21: The Eagles are looking less and less scary with each passing week. They’re playing sloppy, Saquon Barkley is nowhere to be found, there seems to be a lot of internal strife in the locker room, and nobody really believes in them anymore to repeat as Super Bowl champions. The Cowboys played with grit and fought until the end as Prescott broke Tony Romo’s franchise record for passing yards in an epic comeback victory for the Cowboys to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Rams 34 Bucs 7: Another primetime football game, another highly anticipated matchup resulting in unentertaining, one-sided football. I can’t believe I keep on falling for this every week during prime time. The better the matchup, the worse the game it seems to be.