It was a week of shifts in the NFL with plenty of shock results and some surprising individual efforts.
Kansas City is now staring down the barrel of their first road playoff game in the Patrick Mahomes era while that win for Green Bay thrust them back into the NFC playoff mix.
Over in the AFC Houston earned a massive win for their playoff hopes while simultaneously dealing a blow to Denver’s chances.
Those were just some of the takeaways from Week 13 and we’ve got our five big ones below.
1 – Wet weather does not dampen offensive production
We’ve been hearing all season long that scoring is down and there have been plenty of theories espoused as to why.
Plenty of it comes down to the lack of practice time in the preseason and restrictions on in-season work, but in the last few weeks teams are starting to find their groove offensively.
Even on a day where weather impacted a lot of games, it did not stop one of the higher scoring weeks of the season unfolding.
In Pittsburgh the game was delayed twice due to lightning in the area resulting on one of the longest games of the season.
The home team’s offence struggled with the delays (and an injury to Kenny Pickett), but Arizona managed it perfectly, capitalising on their lead early in the third quarter with this plunge from fromer Steelers running back James Conner.
Field conditions in Washington were not great but it did not stop the Dolphins putting up 45 in their best road performance of the season.
Admittedly the weekly points total did get aided by high scoring games under the domes in Detroit and Los Angeles, but some of the offences are starting to come to life.
2 – Happy travels for many
Travelling at this time of year sucks for many, but not NFL teams in Week 13 with only three home teams picking up wins in Monday morning’s slate of games.
Some did it easy like Miami in their cruising victory over the Commanders.
Others did it in less pretty ways like the Falcons and Chargers.
Normally we’d include highlights of those two games but… there weren’t any.
Overall on the day, away teams went 7-4 which is a pretty solid number considering the way some of them played.
3 – Special Teams still matter
Just ask the Indianapolis Colts who wouldn’t have won their game without a number of big plays from “the other guys” on their roster.
This blocked punt late in the third quarter gave them the lead in their back and forth battle in Tennessee.
On the next possession they did it again, turning the ball over deep in Titans territory.
That collision resulted in Titans punter Ryan Stonehouse leaving the game with a leg injury and disrupting their entire kicking operation.
Nick Folk had to deputise as the punter while former starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill took over as the holder on what could have been the game winning extra point.
They sorted it out for the go-ahead field goal in extra point but that could have been avoided entirely under normal circumstances.
Then Gardner Minshew called game.
4 – The Rams are poised for a playoff run
They might be a shell of the team that won the Super Bowl two years ago, but the Rams are in position to get back into the playoffs in 2023.
Their win over the Browns today not only moved their record to 6-6, but left them with the same record as other teams in the NFC’s wild card spots.
Nothing is certain and things can change in an instant, but the Rams seem like a better chance than the statistics are suggesting.
Matthew Stafford has a couple of reliable targets in Puka Nakua and Cooper Kupp who know how to get open and find the end zone, while running back Kyren Williams has returned to the lineup with a bang.
Even though it came against the Joe Flacco lead Browns, that defence came to play at the end of the game, helping put it away.
Next week against Baltimore is potentially their hardest remaining game outside of Week 18 in San Francisco who might have nothing on the line for that one and rest their starers.
Outside of that, they should be able to beat Washington, New Orleans and the Giants which would get them to nine wins which, based on the current picture could be enough, ten definitely would be.
5 – San Francisco kept the NFC interesting
Originally this was going to be presented as “San Francisco blew the NFC wide open” but they really didn’t.
Their commanding victory in Philadelphia just stopped it from being an Eagles procession through the playoffs.
Right now you’d have to say that only those two teams have the capacity to roll through the postseason no matter what, plus Dallas and maybe even Detroit can win under the right circumstances.
This one meant so much to the 49ers after the way their season ended at the Linc back in January and they put a lot into getting bragging rights over the Eagles.
Deebo Samuel in particular backed up his pregame bravado with a monster effort.
Sure there are excuses for the Eagles, coming off the back of a pair of emotional wins but at the end of the day they just got outplayed.
It sets up an interesting run home for Philadelphia at 10-2, they are still one game clear of the 49ers in the race for the top seed but the tiebreaker now sides with San Francisco, so one more dropped game could send them out west for any potential playoff matchup.
That dropped game could come next week as they face another challenge as they head to the 9-3 Cowboys on Sunday Night Football next week.
A Dallas win would not guarantee anything for the Cowboys with both they, and the Eagles having to navigate another four weeks of football afterwards, but it would send it right down to the wire.