Thirteen weeks in, the 2025 season has unfolded just as we thought it would … with the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots — winners of a combined nine games last year — as two of the top teams in the league.
In Chicago, the Bears can’t stop winning. Friday’s statement victory over the reigning (and reeling) Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles extended their current streak to five — after a four-game win streak earlier this year — and had coach Ben Johnson ripping his shirt off in the locker room afterward. The Patriots, meanwhile, will ride their nine-game win streak into Monday night’s matchup with the New York Giants, looking to strengthen their chances of earning that coveted first-round playoff bye.
The Indianapolis Colts, a team that just a few weeks ago was in contention for that bye, is now in trouble: After a 20-16 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday, the Colts are no longer in front in the AFC South. The Jacksonville Jaguars, also 8-4, currently own the tiebreaker over Indianapolis. And don’t forget the surging Texans, winners of four straight, who are still in the hunt for a third consecutive division crown.
On Sunday night, the Denver Broncos survived the Washington Commanders in overtime, 27-26, to join the Patriots as the league’s only other 10-2 team. That’s nine straight for the Broncos, who have won seven straight one-score decisions dating to early October.
It was an impressive effort from the Commanders, who are still without quarterback Jayden Daniels. Not only did Washington summon a 71-yard drive in the final three minutes to force overtime, but also, after giving up a go-ahead touchdown in the extra session, Marcus Mariota hit Terry McLaurin for a pivotal touchdown.
Washington elected to go for two and the win, but Mariota couldn’t get the ball over the outstretched arms of Denver linebacker Nik Bonitto, who deflected the pass to seal another last-second victory. The Broncos’ sideline erupted. Mariota crumbled to his knees. Running back Jeremy McNichols was wide open for what would’ve been a walk-in, game-winning score. Instead, the Commanders’ misery continues. Washington is 3-9.
No doubt, January’s playoff field will have some new blood — and some old blood will be watching from home for the first time in a long time. After dropping a Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas, the Kansas City Chiefs are staring at the possibility of missing the postseason for the first time since 2014, Andy Reid’s second season there. According to The Athletic’s playoff simulator, the Chiefs (6-6) have less than a 50 percent shot to return to the playoffs.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, beat both of last year’s Super Bowl teams, the Eagles and Chiefs, in a span of five days. Dallas is playing its best football of the season and remains in the hunt in the NFC playoff picture.
The Carolina Panthers earned one of the franchise’s biggest wins in a decade, stunning the Los Angeles Rams 31-28 in Charlotte. This was Bryce Young at his best, the player he was drafted to be, dicing up the vaunted Rams’ defense on third and fourth downs with the game on the line. The Panthers, 7-6 heading into their bye, are just a half-game behind the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who won their first game in a month, defeating the Arizona Cardinals 20-17.
Baker Mayfield shrugged off his left shoulder sprain to throw a touchdown to his left tackle, Tristan Wirfs, and running back Bucky Irving returned with a touchdown of his own. With some more pieces on the way back — including wideout Mike Evans — the Bucs might be getting whole just in time.
Two more NFC contenders, the Seahawks (9-3) and Packers (8-3-1), are just behind the Bears and Rams. Seattle rolled the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, and Green Bay won a tight one over the Lions in Detroit on Thanksgiving.
In the AFC, the Buffalo Bills rebounded with a much-needed 26-7 win over the fading Pittsburgh Steelers. Playing without both starting offensive tackles, the Bills bullied the Steelers throughout the second half, piling up more rushing yards (249) by game’s end than Pittsburgh’s defense has ever allowed inside Acrisure Stadium, which opened in 2001. Josh Allen’s 76th career rushing touchdown pushed him past Cam Newton for the most all-time by a quarterback.
In Seattle, the Minnesota Vikings saw what it looks like when you trot out an undrafted rookie quarterback against one of the most vicious defenses in football. Poor Max Brosmer. He threw four interceptions in a 26-0 Seahawks rout. It was the Vikings’ sixth loss in seven games and their first shutout since 2007.
In Los Angeles, Justin Herbert missed some first-half snaps with an injured left hand — the quarterback suffered “a break in the back of his hand,” according to coach Jim Harbaugh, and will have surgery Monday — but returned in an easy 31-14 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. Despite mounting injuries, Harbaugh’s team has won four of five and remains in the thick of the AFC playoff picture. After the game, the QB seemed less concerned than his coach. “I’m treating it as if I’m playing Monday,” Herbert said. The Chargers host the Eagles next week on “Monday Night Football.”
In Cleveland, Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers spoiled Shedeur Sanders’ first home start, beating the Browns 26-8. San Francisco, now 9-4, has quietly weathered a litany of injuries to hang in the NFC playoff hunt. The Browns’ Myles Garrett, meanwhile, stayed on his absurd tear: He now has 14 sacks in his last five games, and needs just four more to set the NFL’s single-season record.
In Miami, the Dolphins won their third straight, 21-17, by escaping a late charge from the New Orleans Saints. Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick saved Miami with a pick and score on a Saints’ two-point conversion attempt that would have tied the game at 19 late in the fourth quarter. The Dolphins, now 5-7, matched their longest win streak of the past three seasons.
In East Rutherford, N.J., the New York Jets won for the third time this season, beating the Atlanta Falcons 27-24 thanks to a stellar special teams effort that included a game-winning 56-yard field goal from Nick Folk. After a 3-2 start and a prime-time victory over the Bills, the Falcons have fallen apart: Atlanta has dropped six of seven and is 4-8.
Here’s what we learned across Week 13 in the NFL:
Panthers purring
When Dave Canales gathered his players for a team meeting Saturday night, he kept it real. In a matter of hours, the Panthers were facing one of the most complete teams in football, a bona fide Super Bowl contender with the hottest quarterback in football.
“We’ve seen the Rams’ best football, they’ve been playing amazing,” Canales told the room. “No one’s seen our best yet.”
By Sunday afternoon, the Rams had. Canales outcoached Sean McVay, Bryce Young outplayed Matthew Stafford and Carolina had one of the organization’s biggest wins in a decade, a 31-28 upset over the team that entered Sunday atop the NFC standings. Six days after a dispiriting loss to the 49ers on “Monday Night Football”, the Panthers responded like a legitimate playoff contender should. “The ability to just go blow-for-blow with an amazing team … that’s what we needed,” Canales said after his biggest win as a head coach. “We needed that kind of challenge.”
They met it, and Sunday’s win spoke to a team that could be primed for its first playoff berth in eight years.
It was Young, not Stafford, seizing the late-game stage, hitting Jalen Coker for a 33-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-3 to put the Panthers in front in the fourth quarter. Then it was Young again, later in the quarter, finding rookie sensation Tetairoa McMillan for a 43-yard touchdown on fourth-and-2. Then, with the game on the line, Young went back to Coker for a 10-yard completion that sealed it.
The celebration was on in Charlotte. The Panthers haven’t been in the hunt like this since 2017, the last time they made the playoffs. Young, just 24, surpassed Buffalo’s Allen as the youngest quarterback in NFL history with 11 game-winning drives.
Stafford threw for two touchdowns but had two interceptions, including a pick-six, and fumbled with 2:25 left. The Rams never touched it again.
Los Angeles is behind Chicago in the NFC standings based on conference record. Just behind them, Philadelphia might be the most frustrated 8-4 team in NFL history. The 7-5 Bucs are just ahead of the 7-6 Panthers in a two-team race for the NFC South crown.
Jags, Texans muddy AFC South race
Eleven years. Andrew Luck’s third NFL season. That’s how long it’s been since the Colts won the AFC South.
But for the better part of three months this fall, it felt like the division was Indy’s to lose. The Colts were cruising, off to an 8-1 start, thanks to Daniel Jones’ revival and Jonathan Taylor’s MVP campaign. Indy went bold at the trade deadline, too, dishing two first-round picks for cornerback Sauce Gardner, hoping to shore up one of its few perceived weaknesses.
The rest of the AFC South? The Titans fired their coach after six games and remain on track for a second straight No. 1 overall pick. The Texans started 0-3, and later lost C.J. Stroud for several weeks due to a concussion. The Jaguars started 4-1, then lost three of four. By Week 8, Indianapolis led the division by three games.
Then came the Colts’ midseason skid. And Jones’ calf injury. And the offense’s regression (Indy started 0-for-5 on third down conversions Sunday and is 8-for-23 over the last two weeks). Add in the calf strain that Gardner suffered in the first quarter on Sunday, which will likely cause him to miss some time, and this team is facing serious questions not only about winning the division but also about making the playoffs at all.
Indianapolis has suddenly dropped three of four, and the division race is wide open for the first time since September. Thanks to Sunday’s win in Tennessee, it’s the Jaguars who sit atop the AFC South at the moment by virtue of a common games tiebreaker. Houston is playing its best football of the season and is right in the thick of it.
AFC South race
TeamOverallDivisionCommon GamesGames Left
8-4
2-1
6-2
vs. IND, vs. NYJ, at DEN, at IND, vs. TEN
8-4
2-1
5-3
at JAX, at SEA, vs. SF, vs. JAX, at HOU
7-5
4-1
at KC, vs. AZ, vs. LV, at LAC, vs. IND
This race is just heating up. The Colts and Jaguars will meet next week in Jacksonville, where the Colts haven’t won since … 2014. Go figure.
Jacksonville has won three straight and four of five. The Texans, meanwhile, are scripting one of the best turnaround seasons of any team this season: Houston won three straight with Stroud’s backup, Davis Mills, and finds itself 7-5 after Sunday’s victory. Stroud is back, and the Texans have the most punishing defense in football. They’ve held opponents under 20 points nine times this season, most in the league, and are on pace to allow the fewest yards by any defense since the 2009 Jets.
Steelers’ mettle tested
T.J. Watt sat at the dais and let his frustrations pour out.
“I’ve never seen a team run the same play as much as they ran it tonight and have as much success as they had,” the Steelers’ All-Pro defensive end said, “I mean, I’m out of words for it.”
That was only part of the story Sunday in Pittsburgh. The Bills kept running it down the Steelers’ throat, and Pittsburgh never found an answer. James Cook had a career-high 32 carries and finished with 144 rushing yards. Ray Davis added 62. Allen had 38. The Pittsburgh fans let the home team hear it. The boos rained down.
“Man, I share their frustrations tonight,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “Not a lot needs to be said. That’s an awful performance by us.”
It was another disconcerting loss in a season that’s going the wrong direction. The Steelers started 4-1. They’re 2-5 since. Aaron Rodgers is hurt. The defense can’t be trusted. It feels like their best chance to win the AFC North has come and gone.
“You can talk about the talent that we have, you can talk about everything that we have, but right now we don’t have a kick-ass defensive group, and that’s all I can speak on,” Watt added.
“I believe in the coaching staff, I believe in Mike Tomlin, that’s why I came here,” Rodgers said. “Players need to take accountability, myself included, and I will. I will play better.”
But how much better can this group play? How much does Rodgers have left? The quarterback is 41, hasn’t thrown for 250 yards all season and is battling a broken left hand — not to mention the bloodied nose that caused him to miss a series Sunday. Bills edge rusher Joey Bosa strip-sacked Rodgers on the first play of the third quarter, and the rout was on from there. Pittsburgh managed just 63 yards of offense the rest of the way. The defense, meanwhile, allowed 26 first downs. The Bills had over 41 minutes of possession.
These Steelers look tired, old and out of answers.
Meanwhile, the AFC North is getting more crowded by the week. The Cincinnati Bengals (4-8) have their star quarterback back and got a big win Thursday night in Baltimore. The Ravens (6-6) have clawed their way back after a disastrous 1-5 start. If Pittsburgh has another gear, it’s time to find it. Otherwise another hot start will be wasted by season’s end.
