Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills head to New England looking for their first division win of the season.
Week 13 is loaded with several playoff-type matchups, starting with the Bills (8-3) visiting the Patriots (6-5) on Thursday night. Five other games on Sunday also feature winning teams playing against each other.
The Bills already lost to Miami and the New York Jets and will face all three of their division rivals over the next three weeks as the jumbled AFC East has a chance to send four teams to the playoffs.
Buffalo has won two straight on the road against the Patriots. Extending that streak won’t be easy. The Bills are dealing with illness that has forced several players to miss practice and won’t have edge rusher Von Miller because of a knee injury.
“It’s a really good football team,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “They do pretty much everything well. Good on offense, good on defense, good on special teams.”
Both teams are coming off games on Thanksgiving. Buffalo earned a last-second win in Detroit while the Patriots lost a tight game in Minnesota. Mac Jones threw for 382 yards and two touchdowns in a 33-26 loss to the Vikings.
The Patriots are 4-point home underdogs, per FanDuel Sportsbook.
Pro Picks expects a close one.
BILLS, 23-20
Kansas City (minus 2 1/2) at Cincinnati
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs (9-2) aim to avenge their loss to the Bengals (7-4) in the AFC championship game.
BEST BET: CHIEFS, 30-23
Washington (minus 1 1/2) at New York Giants
The Giants (7-4) try to snap a two-game losing streak and prevent Taylor Heinicke from buying another pair of Air Jordans.
UPSET SPECIAL: GIANTS, 20-17
Cleveland (minus 7) at Houston
Deshaun Watson’s return to the NFL should feature plenty of handoffs to...
Two years after no team in the NFC East won more than seven games, all four have pulled off the trick with six weeks to go.
Washington (7-5) beat Atlanta on Sunday to join Philadelphia (10-1), Dallas (8-3) and the Giants (7-4) with winning records, giving the division a combined winning percentage of .711 for the best mark through 12 weeks by any division since the merger.
Making the performance more impressive is the turnaround from 2020, when Washington won the NFC East with a 7-9 record.
The AFC East isn't far behind this season, with all four teams in that division also posting winning records, with Miami and Buffalo tied for the top spot at 8-3, followed by the Jets (7-4) and Patriots (6-5).
Before this season, the only times since the league went to eight divisions in 2002 when all four teams in a division had winning records through 12 weeks came in the 2021 AFC West, the 2014 AFC North, and the AFC East and NFC South in 2008.
The NFC South is at the other end of the division standings, with Tampa Bay (5-6) in the lead despite having a losing record. The only other times since 2002 when every team had a losing record through 12 games came in the 2020 NFC East, the 2015 NFC East, the 2014 NFC South and the 2010 NFC West.
According to projections from Football Outsiders, there is a 16% chance that the entire NFC East makes the playoffs and a 15% chance that happens for the AFC East. It's more likely both divisions will have four teams with winning records, with the NFC East doing that 52% of the time and the AFC East 60% of the time.
Football Outsiders projects all four NFC South teams to have a losing record 35% of the time.
300 CLUB
Josh Jacobs punctuated the best day of his career in memorable fashion.
Jacobs scored on an 86-yard run in overtime to lead the...
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Threatening to overshadow an intoxicating weekend in the NFL that began with a trio of Thanksgiving classics and included two successful do-or-die 2-point conversions was all the drama that happened off the field in Week 12.
Mike Purcell got up in Russell Wilson’s grill and screamed right in his face at the Bank of America Stadium sideline, channeling plenty of Broncos fans weary of the robotic quarterback’s inability to shake off a season-long slump that tilts his big trade from Seattle more toward the Seahawks by the week.
Lamar Jackson blasted a fan on Twitter for suggesting the Ravens let the quarterback leave in free agency following Baltimore's 28-27 loss to the Jaguars. That drew a rebuke from his coach who called it unwise to jump on social media after a loss and from the LBGTQ community for his offensive language.
The Washington Commanders drew ire on social media after unveiling a memorial to the late Sean Taylor that looked more like a mannequin from the team store than a statue of the beloved safety who was killed 15 years ago by an intruder.
And free agent Odell Beckham Jr.'s return trip to the NFL from a knee injury last year's Super Bowl took a slight detour Sunday when he was removed from an aircraft before takeoff at Miami International Airport after failing to respond to requests to buckle his seatbelt and appearing to be unconscious.
“Fearing that Mr. Beckham was seriously ill, and that his condition would worsen through the expected 5 hour flight, (flight crew members) called for police and fire rescue,” Miami Dade police officer Luis Sierra said in a statement. “As they tried to wake (Beckham) to fasten his seat belt, he appeared to be coming in and out of consciousness."
A Twitter post attributed to Beckham appeared to...
RENTON, Wash. (AP) — It was a feel-good story for a while surrounding the Seattle Seahawks.
But then came expectations as that story got better and a team most believed would struggle to win five games suddenly surged to the top of the NFC West.
Now, the next stage has arrived: concern and worry after two straight losses that have left Seattle on the outside of the playoff picture along with issues from earlier in the season that seemed solved resurfacing in a troubling way.
The second straight loss came on Sunday when the Seahawks were run over by the Las Vegas Raiders in a 40-34 overtime loss that was capped by Josh Jacobs’ 86-yard game-winning TD dash.
The Seahawks allowed 283 yards rushing — a franchise record — and 576 total yards to a talented Las Vegas team that had underachieved through the first half of the season.
“We didn’t come out of the bye as sharp as we would like to,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said Monday. “I have no idea if that had to do with the bye or not, but we just didn’t play well enough upfront and that’s where our focus will be here.”
This Seahawks team was always going to play with a thin margin where one major deficiency in a game was going to be difficult to overcome.
That was the case on Sunday. Seattle’s run defense was obviously putrid watching Jacobs run wild.
And even though Geno Smith threw for more than 300 yards, the Seahawks failed to have any successful run game of their own and committed a pair of turnovers, including a fumble at the Las Vegas 23-yard-line early in the fourth quarter.
WHAT’S WORKING
While the balance of the offense was not what Seattle wanted, Smith continues to show he can handle the load if the Seahawks need to lean on the pass game. Smith threw for 328...
SEATTLE (AP) — During a four-game win streak that vaulted them to the top of the NFC West, the Seattle Seahawks appeared to have fixed their problems stopping the run.
Perhaps those games were just a mirage and nothing was truly repaired.
Seattle’s defense was run over again on Sunday, giving up a franchise-record 283 yards rushing in a 40-34 overtime loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. Seattle was already having problems slowing down Josh Jacobs before he sprinted nearly untouched 86 yards for the game-winning touchdown in overtime.
There were clear issues for Seattle (6-5) on both sides of the ball as the Seahawks lost their second straight and fell one game behind division-leading San Francisco.
But nothing stood out as a bigger issue than the run defense.
“We gave up way too much in the running game. We did not play the run worth a darn in getting that done,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “We didn’t rush the passer as well as we needed to, either. That’s just what happened in this game. I give them credit. They outplayed us and got their win. But it’s really frustrating because the game was there to be won.”
Jacobs’ 229 yards rushing were the most ever against Seattle, topping the 221 yards by Bo Jackson on Nov. 30, 1987 in the old Kingdome. The game-winning TD run by Jacobs brought back memories of Jackson rumbling 91 yards for a TD and down a tunnel inside the old concrete cavern that was imploded to make room for the stadium where Jacobs set records on Sunday.
It’s not what Seattle envisioned coming back from its bye week and beginning what it hoped would be a playoff push with five of its final seven games at home. Instead, the Seahawks raised questions that not long ago seemed to be answered.
“We have to fix it. Everybody’s going to expose it if we don’t fix...