What we learned in NFL Week 13: NFC playoff potential for 49ers, Tyreek target on the horizon and more

It was clear how much the San Francisco 49ers wanted this, how much the scars of that afternoon last January remain etched in their minds, a chance at a Super Bowl berth effectively lost the moment their starting quarterback dropped 22 snaps in the game. .

49ers star receiver Deebo Samuel made no secret of it during the offseason, admitting what a few of his teammates were surely thinking: With no healthy quarterbacks, the 49ers were effectively playing a man in the NFC Championship Game Last year against the Eagles in Philadelphia.

In other words: they never got a fair shake. That made the 31-7 loss even harder to swallow.

Eleven months later, the 49ers returned to Lincoln Financial Field and beat the defending conference champions 42-19, further clouding the NFC playoff picture while reminding the rest of the league just how tough Kyle Shanahan’s team can be when they’re at their best.

“All the games are the same, but we understand how good this team is,” Shanahan said after the win, referring to the Eagles. “We understand their record, and that always makes it a little bigger.”

And so was the statement. The 49ers are going to be a tough team in January. Or February.

The win moved the 49ers, now 9-3, to within one of the conference-leading Eagles (10-2) with five to play. The Cowboys and Lions are also 9-3, setting up a four-team race for the conference’s top seed and the only bye.

In New Orleans, the Lions led 21-0 before the end of the first quarter, then almost took the lead in the second half. In the end, Detroit outscored the Saints 33-28 to remain in control of the NFC North and on track for its first home playoff berth since 1994.

But don’t count out the Packers just yet. At 6-6, Matt LeFleur’s team is one of the best teams in football, currently sitting in seventh place in the NFC playoff picture.

The 6-6 Falcons continue to lead the NFC South as an eminently winnable team after a less than convincing 13-8 win over the Jets. But the Bucs and Saints (both 5-7) somehow didn’t make it out of this.

As for the AFC, Patrick Mahomes played his first game at Lambeau Field on Sunday night and came away with a 27-19 loss that knocked the Chiefs out of the top seed.

The Texans and Colts both kept their wild card playoff hopes alive with last-second wins.

In Washington, the Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill stayed on track for history as Miami embarrassed the reeling leaders, 45-15.

In Pittsburgh, a disgusted Mike Tomlin summed up his team’s afternoon this way: “That was a terrible day at the office.” The Steelers coach saw nothing to like in the humiliating 24-10 loss to the lowly Cardinals. Making matters worse: Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback, Kenny Pickett, went out in the first half with an ankle injury and could miss several weeks, further derailing the Steelers’ bid for a playoff spot.

Joe Flacco’s debut for the Browns began with a 24-yard touchdown throw and ended in a 36-19 loss to the Rams. Not only is Cleveland losing quarterbacks, it’s losing games, and the Browns’ playoff odds are increasing.

Here’s what emerged from Sunday of Week 13:

The NFC playoff race is getting interesting

Thirteen weeks into the season, San Francisco now has its two most impressive wins of the year: It defeated the Cowboys 42-10 at home in Week 5, then dominated the Eagles 42-19 on the road on Sunday night.

This was a tough game from the start, with players on both sides – and even Eagles coach Nick Sirianni – exchanging words before kickoff, and then more than once during the game. Among the most heated moments arrived midway through the third quarter, when 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw threw Eagles wideout DeVonta Smith hard down the sideline, drawing a flag and inciting a heated reaction from the Philly sideline, including… That’s from Eagles head of security Dom DeSandro. After Greenlaw and DeSandro shouted at each other, and Greenlaw forcefully pointed his finger in DeSandro’s face, they were kicked out.

“I can’t believe someone who’s not involved in a football game could taunt our players like that, put his hands in our guy’s face,” Shanahan later said.

DiSandro walked off the field to applause from the Philly fans.

Count it among the few highlights for the home crowd: This was a methodical defeat that saw Shanahan and the 49ers flex their considerable muscles. He was called a play caller, and his offense scored touchdowns on six straight drives, three of them by Samuel, who waved goodbye to Eagles fans more than once. The defense allowed just 19 points, the Eagles’ lowest production since Week 6.

“If you don’t go out and play your best game against the players and coaches, it’s going to look like this,” Sirianni said.

San Francisco on a midseason three-game losing streak? dead. buried. date. This team is among the Super Bowl favorites and may, by the end of the season, have the coveted No. 1 seed in the NFC and the first-round bye that comes with it.

Brock Purdy, coming off the NFC Championship Game in January, was excellent again, throwing three touchdown passes and earning a passer rating of 148.8, the fourth time he’s done so this season. Only Tom Brady (2007) and Aaron Rodgers (2011) have done that in a single season in NFL history.

Love, Packers keep it rolling

Jordan love on tear. That’s what the Packers are.

The Green Bay quarterback’s last five games: 11 touchdowns, just two interceptions and, most importantly, four wins.

However, the Packers are not only alive in the NFC playoff picture, but currently in the final wild card spot, a stunning turn of events from where they were just over a month ago. Remember: Green Bay started the year 2-5, the franchise’s worst start since 2005.

They are now 6-6 after Sunday night’s 27-19 win over the Chiefs. Looking to the future, the Packers won’t see another team that currently has a winning record the rest of the way.

Trailing by eight with 79 seconds left, Mahomes led a wild final drive that saw Isiah Pacheco ejected for a hit on a play that was eventually overturned, a blatant pass interference penalty that was missed and an unsuccessful Hail Mary that also drew plenty of contact. . . But in the end the Packers escaped. Matt LeFleur remains perfect, 16-0, as Green Bay’s head coach in December.

It was Mahomes’ fourth career loss in December, a defeat that knocked the Chiefs (8-4) out of the top seed in the AFC playoffs. They now trail the Dolphins, Ravens and Jaguars, who each have three losses. Jacksonville hosts Cincinnati on Monday night.

The Texans and Colts are positioning themselves for the big finish

It’s been 11 years since a team featuring a rookie coach and a rookie quarterback has reached the postseason, and that was a storybook season in Indianapolis in 2012, with top pick Andrew Luck and interim coach Bruce Arians leading the Colts to 11 wins while Chuck Pagano He fought leukemia at a local hospital.

The line could be in jeopardy this season if the Texans continue to play like this. With their 22-17 win over the Broncos on Sunday, Demico Ryans’ squad has won five of its last seven games and is in the AFC playoff picture for the first time in five years.

It starts with exciting rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, who now leads the league in passing yards (3,540) and is the third-most by a rookie in league history through 12 games, trailing only Patrick Mahomes (3,912) and Luck (3,596).

But it extends further than that. Ryans has his entire team playing well. It was Houston’s defense that came up with the deciding play late in the fourth quarter on Sunday, when safety Jimmie Ward picked off Russell Wilson in the end zone with nine seconds left to seal the win — Wilson’s third interception of the day. Another Texans rookie, Will Anderson, had his best game as a pro, hitting Wilson four times, sacking him twice, and sending a fourth-quarter pass that ended up in the hands of Houston cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., one of two picks he earned. in the game.

The only downside for Houston: standout rookie receiver Tank Dell went down with a broken fibula in the first half and did not return. He is headed to injured reserve and expires this year, a league source said The athlete.

Another AFC playoff contender stayed hot in Nashville as the Colts upped their winning streak to four with a 31-28 overtime win over the Giants. For Indianapolis, it’s their longest winning streak since 2018, which also happened to be the last time the Colts swept the Giants.

As of this point, the Colts (7-5) have the final wild-card spot in the AFC thanks to their Week 2 win over the Texans, who are also 7-5, but the two teams meet again in Week 18.

Tyreek Hill is on the pace of history

Take a minute to appreciate what Tyreek Hill and the Dolphins (9-3) are doing on offense this season:

» Hill is on pace for his first 2,000-yard receiving season in NFL history. His 1,481 is the most by a player in 12 games in a single season in the Super Bowl era. Only four others – Charlie Hennigan (1961), Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch (1951), Lance Alworth (1965) and Calvin Johnson (2012) – have had more than 1,400 at this point. Currently, Hill is on pace to finish with 2,098 yards.

» Hill has 16 career games with at least 150 rushing yards, tied with Hall of Famer Jerry Rice for second place by a player in his first eight seasons. Only Alworth (17) had more. He is also the fifth player in league history with five or more goals in a season, joining Rice (1995), Tim Brown (1997), Antonio Brown (2017), and Roy Green (1984).

» Miami is also one of three teams in the Super Bowl era with 25 touchdown passes and 22 rushing scores in 12 games in a season, joining the 1998 Denver Broncos and 1975 Buffalo Bills.

The Leaders, Jets and Patriots continue to slide, but to what extent?

The wheels are falling off in Washington.

A little more than a month after trading two defensive starters in Montez Sweat and Chase Young, and a week after firing defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, the Chiefs suffered their second embarrassing loss in a row, this time 45-15 to the Dolphins at home.

Nothing works. Throw in their Thanksgiving Day loss to the Cowboys, and the Leaders have been outscored 90-25 in consecutive weeks.

“When you score 21 points for a very good football team, you’re going to struggle,” Rivera said, referring to the 24-point gap the leaders found themselves in before halftime.

Rivera’s seat seems to be getting warmer by the minute. His team, which once held a 2-0 lead, has now lost four in a row and is 4-9. It’s not hard to see the new ownership group, led by Josh Harris, wanting to start over in 2024 after missing the playoffs for the third straight season.

The Jets, who fell 13-8 to the Falcons on Sunday, may make Aaron Rodgers’ bid to return this year a moot point. New York (4-8) has lost five straight games and sat another quarterback, Tim Boyle, in a game in which it failed to score a touchdown. So far, the Jets have scored just 10 points all season — the fewest of any team through 12 games in at least three decades.

Meanwhile, their AFC East counterpart, the Patriots, suffered another ugly loss in ugly circumstances in Foxboro, losing 6-0 to the Chargers. This was the lowest-scoring game in the NFL since the Jaguars beat the Colts by the same score in 2018.

At least they made some history along the way: The Patriots became the first team since the 1938 Chicago Cardinals to lose three straight games despite allowing 10 or fewer points in each loss.

(Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images)

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