Having already written about the Chiefs’ thrilling win over the Colts and how the Cowboys came together after the Marshawn Kneeland tragedy, let’s put a wrap on our Week 12 Sunday coverage with the takeaways. Let’s dive in …
Detroit Lions
The Lions weren’t at their best Sunday, and still won, proving a lot in doing so. Watching Detroit’s 34–27 win over the Giants, I recalled a lot of things from their playoff ouster against Washington in January. I remember how this dominant, physical, tough team didn’t have it that day, and couldn’t reel things back in against a red-hot Commanders team. Every time they’d come close, something else would go wrong.
Similarly, Sunday’s game against the Giants got away from the Lions several times.
Detroit fell behind by 10 in the first quarter, then again in the second quarter, and finally once more in the fourth quarter. New York interim coach Mike Kafka emptied his bag of tricks on the Lions, fooling them on a double-pass flea-flicker that ended with Jameis Winston throwing a 39-yard touchdown pass to Wan’Dale Robinson. Then, Kafka did it again on an end-around throwback, resulting in a 33-yard scoring strike from Gunner Olszewski to Winston, who broke a tackle to score.
Meanwhile, Jared Goff threw a red-zone interception at the end of the third quarter that bounced off Amon-Ra St. Brown’s hands, and the defense allowed the Giants to drive from their own 8-yard line to the Lions’ 2 in the game’s waning moments.
A work of art, this was not. But on a day that may have felt like the last game of their banner 2024 season, this time, the Lions never let go of the rope.
“Absolutely, I think the fact we did all the bad stuff and let up all those plays, offense and defense, special teams, and still won the game? That’s really great,” defensive end Aidan Hutchinson told me after. “When you aren’t playing your best ball and you’re still winning football games, that’s the mark of a good team. We gotta build off that. It’s when adversity strikes, players coming through, making plays and getting us out of those games.”
Even better, the guys who bailed the Lions out were their best players. Jahmyr Gibbs gave the offense the spark it needed in the fourth quarter, making a couple of guys miss in the hole, in very tight quarters, before busting loose for a 49-yard touchdown. St. Brown caught three balls from Goff on Detroit’s 13-play, 53-yard drive to set up Jake Bates’s game-tying 59-yard field goal.
Then, Gibbs went 69 yards for a score on the first scrimmage play of overtime, and Hutchinson sacked Winston on fourth down to end it on the Giants’ only possession.
“That’s what good football teams do,” Hutchinson said. “When the fire gets a little bit hot, your best players have to step up and make plays in those moments. No matter how tired or deep in the game it gets, it’s gotta be there. And we did that today; that’s why we won. We are super happy we got this one in. Now, we are going to move on and get ready for the Packers.”
With the NFC North race bunched up—the Bears are 8–3, the Packers are 7-3-1 and Detroit is 7–4—that one, on Thanksgiving, now takes on a little more meaning. And the Lions might feel a little more prepared for that, after surviving what they did Sunday.
Houston Texans
Will Anderson Jr. is more than just a Defensive Player of the Year candidate—he’ll be worth every penny the Texans pay on the megadeal he will have coming. And if Houston is as aggressive as it was in signing All-Pro corner Derek Stingley Jr., who got his monster second contract as he became eligible for one after his third season, it’ll happen this offseason.
I’m having a hard time seeing why Houston wouldn’t extend him now, which is as much about who Anderson is as a person as it is about him as an incredible football player.
To fully explain it, I’d go back to the Friday column we did on a Houston Texans defense that’s challenging the Eagles and Broncos to be considered the NFL’s best, and is hitting some historical high-water marks along the way. The main character in that story was Anderson, who fully embodies what DeMeco Ryans and Nick Caserio want their football team to be, from the weight room to the practice field to the game field, and legitimately everywhere in between.
“Every single time that kid puts on a helmet, he plays that way and approaches it that way and trains that way and everything,” defensive coordinator Matt Burke told me. “So if you’re somebody else on this team, and I don’t think we have a lot of guys that are like that, but you’re someone else on this team who needs it, it’s like, Hey, if Will’s willing to do that, why aren’t you? He doesn’t need to say anything. It’s not like Will has to call people out.
“He just works.”
And that work pays off. Anderson is fourth in the NFL with 10.5 sacks, a half-sack behind teammate Danielle Hunter. He’s had a sack in six consecutive games, which tied a team record by Mario Williams, and he’s already fifth in Texans history in career sacks. On Thursday, he joined J.J. Watt as the only players in NFL history to have 2.5 sacks, two tackles for losses, three quarterback hits and a pass defensed in multiple games.
Yes, that last one is a bit convoluted. However, it also illustrates how Anderson has become a complete and relentless player.
“I mean, Will is a rare, rare person and rare player for all those reasons—the mindset and the approach and mentality,” Burke said. “He’s unlike anyone I’ve been around.”
Soon enough, he’ll be handsomely rewarded for it.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
If Anderson’s the DPOY, his draft classmate Jaxon Smith-Njigba might be the league’s Offensive Player of the Year. The Seahawks’ star has been so good that you almost forget how solid he was in 2024—because the jump has been that significant.
Last year, he made his first Pro Bowl, with 100 catches for 1,130 yards and six touchdowns.
This year, through just 11 games, he already has 80 catches for a team-record 1,313 yards and seven touchdowns. That puts him on pace for 124 catches, 2,029 yards and 13 scores. The yardage would make him the first 2,000-yard receiver of all-time, with the 12th-most catches a receiver has ever had.
So, statistically, he’s on an entirely different level than he was in 2024. But he’d tell you that what’s around him in ’25 that’s made that difference, and not some quantum leap he’s made from a personal standpoint.
“It’s just more opportunities, honestly,” he told me, after Seattle beat the Titans. “A fresh start with a new offense, with [OC] Klint Kubiak coming in, and Sam Darnold, they’re telling me, We’re gonna give you more opportunities to make plays. Just a lot of hard work in the offseason. It’s a lot of preparation just to be ready for when my time comes, and whenever my team needs me. I just put it on that, try to come through whenever my team needs me.
“And I’m just trying to make the most of it.”
We’ll have more about how JSN is pacing toward NFL history in our Tuesday notes. But in short, he attributed Kubiak’s scheme to stressing defenses by covering every blade of grass on the field, which makes it challenging for opponents to double him, and Darnold’s early offseason efforts to open lines of communication and build a rapport with his top target.
The results have been noticeable. On Sunday, it added up to 167 yards and two touchdowns on eight catches, and of course, another Seahawks win. And if you listen to Smith-Njigba, there’s plenty of room for improvement in both the individual department and for a team, which moved to 8–3 by bouncing back from last week’s heartbreaking loss to the Rams.
“A lot is left; I’m 23,” he said. “My goal is to always make it to the playoffs, make a deep run in the playoffs, to get a championship ring. That’s what really matters and motivates me. I’ve said that since the beginning. All the accolades and other stuff usually trickles down and comes to me while I’m chasing the big goal.”
And this year, it happens to be trickling down in buckets.
Los Angeles Rams
After Sunday, my feeling that the Rams are the best team in football was only affirmed. Last week, Jared Verse told me, after L.A. won that showdown with Seattle, “I don’t think we have any ceiling.” And that was after a two-point win over a team that, as good as the Seahawks have looked, hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2022.
Sunday night was different, giving more credence to Verse’s words.
The Buccaneers were coming into SoFi Stadium, having won the NFC South for four consecutive years and the Super Bowl the year before that streak started. Tampa Bay also arrived in Los Angeles a little bit desperate, having lost two straight and three of four, with the Panthers suddenly breathing down their necks in the division at 6–5.
And the Rams treated them like a directional school picking up a fat check to play at an SEC powerhouse over Labor Day weekend. Los Angeles went up 21–0 with 10:46 left in the first half, and at that point had 152 yards on 22 offensive snaps and 11 first downs, while the Bucs could muster only 28 yards on 17 offensive snaps with three first downs.
The final ledger didn’t look nearly as lopsided, but Tampa left for its cross-country trip back home with a third straight loss, and a quarterback, Baker Mayfield, with his left arm in a sling. Conversely, if you really listened to Sean McVay, you know he knows what he has.
“The only thing that would matter is if the season ended right now,” the coach said at his press conference, hiding a smirk that said how he felt. “Do you remember who was in first place with six weeks left last year? Me, either.”
He’s right to say what he did, by the way, even with an MVP candidate at quarterback and a loaded roster—the old NFL adage says the real contenders are revealed after Thanksgiving.
Still, to answer his question, the Eagles and Chiefs were atop the NFL at this point last year.
And then wound up in the place where it looks like these Rams are headed.
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders are in an interesting spot. Pete Carroll’s crew didn’t just lose to the Browns on Sunday. They were noncompetitive, which is pretty alarming, given Cleveland’s 3–8 record and struggles this season. And I’d say not to panic, because it’s just Year 1 of a rebuild—and the new guys in town inherited a messy roster that wasn’t going to be fixed in a single year.
But on Sunday night, they fired a coordinator for the second time in three weeks.
On Nov. 7, it was special teams coordinator Tom McMahon. On Sunday night, after Vegas’s 24–10 loss to the Browns, the Raiders released offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, only 10 months after luring him from Ohio State with a deal at $6 million per year.
That means going into Year 2, Carroll will be looking for at least two new coordinators. Which, of course, begs the question of whether he’ll make it that far himself.
For what it’s worth, even with Carroll at 74, the people around the coach have a hard time envisioning a scenario in which he decides to retire after this year. As challenging as the season has been, his passion for coaching and desire to coach remain apparent to everyone who works with him. That said, with new ownership (Tom Brady included) surrounding Mark Davis, it’s fair to wonder what the next steps will be, and whether that group will want to reinvest with Carroll in a set of brand-new assistants he brings aboard.
I will say it’s easy to love Carroll as a coach. Spend five minutes around him and you’ll get that. What’s harder to see now is the road he’s paving for the Raiders in Vegas.
It’d be good to see one over the next six weeks.
Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens are back in first in the AFC North, and no one should be surprised. If you looked at the team’s inactive list in October, and the schedule from there through Thanksgiving, you’d get what I was saying. It’s not often that you can predict a 1–5 team winning five consecutive games but, in this case I did that, because it seemed like it was pretty apparent that it could, or even would, happen.
So now what? Well, the Ravens’ defense hasn’t allowed an opponent to score 20 points since before Columbus Day. But on the other side of the ball, it’s fair to have some concern.
The team rushed for over 150 yards in the first four games of the five-game win streak, but the Jets held the Ravens to 98 on Sunday. And Lamar Jackson had a third consecutive game with a completion percentage under 60% and a passer rating lower than 90—which is a pretty significant dip from where he usually is, and was earlier this year.
Is there something wrong? Well, a couple of those games were against good Cleveland and Minnesota defenses, and the Jets’ unit that Baltimore beat on Sunday does have talent.
But if the Ravens are going to make the playoffs, they’ll have to be better than that on offense.
We’ll see if that happens on Thursday. Speaking of which …
Joe Burrow
I do wonder what the calculus is for Joe Burrow on Thursday. The Bengals fought valiantly Sunday against a 10-win Patriots team, losing 26–20 without three of their four highest-paid players—Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Trey Hendrickson—and the fourth, Tee Higgins, left with a concussion in the fourth quarter. Cincinnati dropped to 3–8, putting the team’s playoff hopes on its last legs.
Should Burrow play Thursday night?
Last week, he practiced in full on Wednesday. Coming out of it, the prevailing feeling was that there wasn’t much more he needed to show before being cleared to play. So he practiced in full again on Thursday. And while there was some soreness on Friday, there were no setbacks, so by Thursday night, many in the organization felt like he’d play on Sunday.
Then, Friday morning, the staff met with Burrow again, and the decision was made to give it another week—in part because the team had to play two games in five days—and to give Joe Flacco that day’s practice reps. Burrow wanted to play. In many ways, Zac Taylor, who’s had a relationship with the Burrow family for a long, long time (through their mutual Nebraska ties), had to protect Burrow from himself.
So here we are now, and it’s fair to say that the Bengals might’ve beaten the Patriots on Sunday if Burrow had played, and Cincinnati has the Ravens on Thursday. Things have been trending toward Burrow returning for the Thanksgiving night clash.
Should he? I’d say if he wants to play and is cleared, you have to let him compete. But I’d understand if the team exhibited more caution than that.
Chicago Bears
I like how Ben Johnson and the Bears are developing Caleb Williams. Chicago has managed to set things up so Williams doesn’t need to be a superstar but also doesn’t have a restrictive set of training wheels, allowing him to grow and for the team to win week in and week out.
Williams has only completed over 60% of his passes four times this year. Sunday was just his third game with a 100 quarterback rating.
Yet, the Bears have won eight of nine and are all alone in first place in the NFC North.
And they’re still getting game-winning plays from their star quarterback. You had the touchdown throw down the seam to Colston Loveland to beat the Bengals in Cincinnati. You had the twin scrambles to come back from behind on the Giants. Sunday was a mixed bag—you had a strip-sack in the end zone to T.J. Watt that he shouldn’t have taken, resulting in a Steelers touchdown, but also a go-ahead touchdown throw to DJ Moore in the third. There was more good and bad in between and, importantly, a quarterback who was willing to put his name on all of it.
“Today, in the beginning, it didn’t feel like I got into a good rhythm,” Williams said. “I was missing passes, and it was kind of weird. I wasn’t too frustrated like a couple of weeks ago, when I was missing passes and got extremely frustrated and things like that. I understood, and I wrote in my notes to stay positive for myself but also for the guys. I think I did a solid job with that this week.”
It was easy to doubt Williams earlier this year.
But, at this point, it’s worth having faith in the second-year quarterback, and based on how he is developing, Johnson knows what he’s doing, and the quarterback will figure it out.
Shedeur Sanders
Shedeur Sanders earned a second look. A lot of people are going to make Sunday out to be more than it was—the Browns’ rookie threw for 209 yards, a touchdown and a pick, completing 11 of his 20 throws. He only took one sack, and didn’t put the offense behind the sticks like we saw in the preseason or last week against Baltimore, and that’s real progress. He had bumps, too, which is to be expected.
So if I were Kevin Stefanski or Andrew Berry, I’d want to see more, just in an effort to get more information on where I stand at the most important position on the field going into 2026, with plenty of information gathered already on Dillon Gabriel through Gabriel’s six starts.
Now, from a big-picture perspective, I’d still very much bet that the Browns’ quarterback for 2026 isn’t on the roster yet. But from here, it’s on the team’s brass to get a clear picture out of what is on the roster now (and that includes Deshaun Watson, as I see it). And as for what there is to like on Sanders’s Sunday, we’ll have more on the site on Monday.
Quick-hitters
Time for the quick-hitters. Let’s go …
• I’ll reiterate what I said last week: The Cowboys’ decision to invest in the defensive tackle position is paying off in a big way, and I have no reason to believe Osa Odighizuwa, Kenny Clark and Quinnen Williams won’t sustain what they’ve accomplished the past few weeks.
• Can’t wait for Thursday’s Chiefs-Cowboys matchup. NFL folks told me in May that the intention of putting the Chiefs in Dallas on Thanksgiving was to try to break television viewership records, and both teams are coming in playing for a lot. Both also played well on Sunday, which should help the league in its effort here.
• The Patriots are at 10 wins, but if the loss of rookie tackle Will Campbell is for more than just a couple of weeks, that’d be a major problem.
• Green Bay’s defense continues to churn along without much notice, notching five sacks and generating three turnovers in the Packers’ convincing home win over the Vikings. Micah Parsons, by the way, now has 10 sacks.
• I’ll say this for Liam Coen: His Jaguars team has a physical edge. Jacksonville went over 130 yards rushing for the sixth time this year on Sunday, held an opponent under 90 yards for the eighth time in 11 games, and doubled up the other team in rushing yards for the third time in four games. That’s how you get to 7–4 when your quarterback is struggling.
• Kirk Cousins looked good enough in the Falcons’ 24–10 win over the Saints on Sunday that I could envision him starting for someone in 2026. Particularly with a draft class coming that looks increasingly mediocre.
• Eagles-Bears on Friday should be a good gut check for Philly. A lot of times, these stand-alone games can alter team’s narrative.
• The NFL’s two interim coaches, Tennessee’s Mike McCoy and the Giants’ Mike Kafka, are now 0–7.
• Random thought: Dak Prescott’s playing really well right now.
• Big spot for the Panthers on Monday night against the wounded 49ers.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Week 12 NFL Takeaways: How the Lions Can Build Off the ‘Bad Stuff’.
