play0:20Panthers force and recover late key fumble in win over RamsMatthew Stafford is sacked, fumbles the ball and D.J. Wonnum recovers for the Panthers late in the fourth quarter.
play0:28Zach Charbonnet punches in a TD for SeahawksZach Charbonnet uses a good block from the O-line and runs in the touchdown.
play0:27Brock Purdy fakes out the Browns, runs in a TD himselfBrock Purdy pulls the ball on a fake, and he takes it himself for a touchdown to extend the 49ers’ lead over the Browns.
play0:26Bucky Irving scores a TD in his first game back from injuryBucky Irving runs in a 13-yard touchdown to extend the Buccaneers’ lead on the Cardinals.
play0:24Panthers go ahead in 4th on Young’s 43-yard TD pass to McMillanBryce Young airs out a 43-yard touchdown pass to Tetairoa McMillan to put the Panthers ahead in the fourth quarter.
play0:19Trevor Lawrence slings it to Jakobi Meyers for a Jags TDTrevor Lawrence throws short to Jakobi Meyers for a touchdown to put the Jaguars ahead 7-3 over the Titans.
play0:24Sauce Gardner helped off field early in first quarterSauce Gardner is injured on the Colts’ first defensive drive and exits the game.
play0:19Nico Collins runs in a go-ahead TD for TexansNico Collins gets the ball and finds the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown.
play0:48Joey Bosa’s strip sack leads to a Bills TDJoey Bosa forces Aaron Rodgers to turn the ball over and Christian Benford recovers for a Bills touchdown.
Ryan Clark: ‘The Baltimore Ravens are cooked’ (1:07)Ryan Clark predicts that if the Ravens make the playoffs they’ll be “one-and-done.” (1:07)
Panthers force and recover late key fumble in win over RamsMatthew Stafford is sacked, fumbles the ball and D.J. Wonnum recovers for the Panthers late in the fourth quarter.
Matthew Stafford is sacked, fumbles the ball and D.J. Wonnum recovers for the Panthers late in the fourth quarter.
Zach Charbonnet punches in a TD for SeahawksZach Charbonnet uses a good block from the O-line and runs in the touchdown.
Brock Purdy fakes out the Browns, runs in a TD himselfBrock Purdy pulls the ball on a fake, and he takes it himself for a touchdown to extend the 49ers’ lead over the Browns.
Brock Purdy pulls the ball on a fake, and he takes it himself for a touchdown to extend the 49ers’ lead over the Browns.
Bucky Irving scores a TD in his first game back from injuryBucky Irving runs in a 13-yard touchdown to extend the Buccaneers’ lead on the Cardinals.
Panthers go ahead in 4th on Young’s 43-yard TD pass to McMillanBryce Young airs out a 43-yard touchdown pass to Tetairoa McMillan to put the Panthers ahead in the fourth quarter.
Bryce Young airs out a 43-yard touchdown pass to Tetairoa McMillan to put the Panthers ahead in the fourth quarter.
Trevor Lawrence slings it to Jakobi Meyers for a Jags TDTrevor Lawrence throws short to Jakobi Meyers for a touchdown to put the Jaguars ahead 7-3 over the Titans.
Trevor Lawrence throws short to Jakobi Meyers for a touchdown to put the Jaguars ahead 7-3 over the Titans.
Sauce Gardner helped off field early in first quarterSauce Gardner is injured on the Colts’ first defensive drive and exits the game.
Nico Collins runs in a go-ahead TD for TexansNico Collins gets the ball and finds the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown.
Joey Bosa’s strip sack leads to a Bills TDJoey Bosa forces Aaron Rodgers to turn the ball over and Christian Benford recovers for a Bills touchdown.
Joey Bosa forces Aaron Rodgers to turn the ball over and Christian Benford recovers for a Bills touchdown.
The 2025 season feels like the supreme example of NFL parity. We’re somehow sitting here in Week 13 with two teams hitting double digits in the win column: the 10-2 Broncos, who held on for dear life to beat the Commanders on Sunday night, and the 10-2 Patriots, who play on “Monday Night Football” against the Giants. There are bad teams because there are always bad teams, of course, but this has been a year where we can poke a hole in any franchise with Super Bowl aspirations.
The upside in a league without many great teams is that there are a lot of pretty good teams competing for division titles. This time last season, it felt like three divisions in the AFC and one in the NFC had already been decided, and there were only seven teams in the AFC with a winning record, all of whom would eventually make the playoffs.
This season? It feels like every division might still be up for grabs. The biggest divisional lead with five weeks to go is two games (Broncos in the AFC West and Patriots in the AFC East). Teams such as the Chiefs and Lions — unquestioned Super Bowl contenders before the season — are on the outside looking in for the postseason. There’s still so much to be decided as we hit December, and that’s going to make for some exciting playoff races down the stretch.
Let’s take a look at the closest of those races and how Week 13 impacted what’s to come. I’ll hit the two closest races in both the NFC and the AFC. And I’ll start in the NFC West, where a team that appeared set to pull away from the pack fell right back into a three-team fight for both the division title and a potential first-round bye. (I included chances to win the division for each team via ESPN’s Football Power Index, or FPI.)
It’s easy, in some ways, to rationalize the loss as a fluke. Stafford threw as many interceptions on Sunday as he had all season. The Panthers went 3-for-3 on fourth downs, turning two of them into long touchdown passes. Those things aren’t going to happen every week, and when the Rams don’t shoot themselves in the foot, they’re going to be the better team.
That might be true, but this game also spoke to the realities the Rams must face as they set their sights on another Super Bowl. Though Stafford has played very well this season, there have certainly been dropped interceptions and other near-picks helping to maintain that streak along the way. He throws into tight windows at the sixth-highest rate in the league, sometimes (quite famously) without needing to even look where the ball’s going.
The weakness in the Rams’ defense, meanwhile, has always been at cornerback. The pass rush has done a great job of covering up those issues, and coordinator Chris Shula does a great job disguising coverages and muddying up the picture for opposing quarterbacks. But the losses the Rams have had typically involve teams attacking their CBs and creating big plays.
Panthers force and recover late key fumble in win over Rams
Sunday was a rough day for Emmanuel Forbes Jr., who has played really well since being quasi-benched against the 49ers in Week 5. Forbes didn’t play terribly or make awful mental mistakes, but he was facing a bigger, more physical group of Panthers receivers. And Carolina’s big plays on fourth down came against the 173-pound Forbes.
First, on a fourth-and-3 in the third quarter, Jalen Coker beat Forbes off the line, stacked the corner and caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from Young. Then, on a fourth-and-2 with the Rams playing in what looked to be a form of Cover 3, rookie Tetairoa McMillan was able to disengage from Forbes with the ball in the air, separate and run away from the corner on a crossing route for a 43-yard touchdown.
The problem for the Seahawks, especially after the past few weeks, is what happens when the defense doesn’t spot them a touchdown and hold the opposing offense to 162 net yards. Sam Darnold threw four interceptions against the Rams in heart-wrenching fashion, but even in games the Seahawks have dominated, he has flirted with disaster.
The Seattle running game also struggles to find any semblance of consistency. The Seahawks are 22nd in the NFL in success rate and 24th in EPA per play on designed rushes this season, as a backfield led by Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet has struggled for explosiveness. On Sunday, their 27 carries against the Vikings produced 108 yards and a score, but the two backs mustered only a 41% success rate.
Zach Charbonnet uses a good block from the O-line and runs in the touchdown.
Sunday’s game against the Browns was another one, though, where the 49ers could not get their run game going. Christian McCaffrey turned his 20 carries into just 53 yards, and while the Browns are very good against the run, this has been a yearlong issue for Kyle Shanahan’s team. The 49ers are 15th in success rate on designed rushes. In 2023, when a McCaffrey-led run game helped the 49ers to the Super Bowl, they were third by that measure.
One of the excuses for the run game — and other issues throughout the lineup — has been injuries. McCaffrey has been healthy, but elite blocking tight end George Kittle was injured earlier in the season. Purdy’s absence made the passing attack less vertical. Dominick Puni, a revelation at guard as a rookie, wasn’t the same in the first half as he played through a knee injury. Maybe the rush attack wasn’t going to get right until the right players were all on the field together.
Brock Purdy fakes out the Browns, runs in a TD himself
Sunday’s win over the Cardinals ended what had been a frustrating three-game losing streak for Baker Mayfield and Tampa Bay. Since beating the 49ers to go 5-1, the Bucs had lost four of their ensuing five games, albeit while dropping games against teams whose combined records are 34-13. Sunday was a turning point for the Buccaneers. They had faced the league’s eighth-toughest schedule through Week 12, but they are also projected to play the league’s second-easiest schedule from Week 13 onward.
Injuries have blighted the ceiling for the Bucs offense all season. Wirfs (knee) was out early in the season, as was fellow tackle Luke Goedeke (foot). Bucky Irving was out for two months with foot and shoulder issues, while Mike Evans (collarbone) has been limited to just 177 snaps. Godwin, returning from his fractured ankle, played two games before going back to the inactive list with a fibula injury and didn’t make much of an impact after returning last week against the Rams.
It wasn’t a great day for the offense, but the returning players made their presence felt. Irving turned 17 carries into only 61 yards, but the second-year back did score from 13 yards out and had a second touchdown called back via penalty. Godwin had his best game of the season, with three catches for 78 yards, though he left a would-be score on the field with a drop.