Almost through Week 13, and we have more on the Bengals and on the Dolphins as part of coverage, too, and here are your takeaways …
Buffalo Bills
The Bills are in a fascinating spot. They could still win the AFC East—they’re two games back of the Patriots in the loss column, but get New England again in Week 15. They could be on the road in the first round. They could miss the playoffs altogether.
Accordingly, there are different forms they could take when (if?) they get to the playoffs.
Will they be the world-beaters that knocked out the Chiefs and the Bucs? Or the team that barely showed up in Atlanta and Miami?
Weirdly, on Sunday against the Steelers, we saw it all. The good. The bad. Everything. In the first half, a long drive was short-circuited by a Brandin Echols pick of Josh Allen, a penalty slowed the next drive, then came a three-and-out, and then another turnover (a James Cook fumble). At the break, Buffalo was down 7–3. And then the second half started with a Bills defensive touchdown and ended without Buffalo having to punt once.
The final result was a 26–7 win over another contender, highlighted by a 23–0 second half. But how it went down wasn’t exactly to script.
“We just …” corner Christian Benford said over the phone, trying to find the best way to describe it. “There’s nothing wrong. We’re human, so if things don’t happen, there’s going to be a lot of things said behind closed doors, a lot of things that not everybody’s going to see that’s going to happen. But that’s life, nobody’s perfect.”
Now, the upshot is that the team absolutely responded when it needed to.
Another loss probably would’ve ended the Bills’ pursuit of a sixth consecutive division title, meaning they would have to go on the road in the playoffs. Another loss also probably would’ve done some damage that’s harder to quantify, just in the rut it would put the team in, when compounded with the Houston loss.
Instead, the Bills came out of the locker room with a familiar message from coach Sean McDermott’s staff—“to stay fine-tuned in our technique and our fundamentals, and make sure we play complementary football.” That happened, of course, with the defense repeatedly setting up the offense, with Benford even scoring a touchdown for that unit, with the offense closing out the game, controlling the ball for nearly 10 fourth-quarter minutes and going on drives of 15 and 14 plays.
What would be even better? If the Bills’ performance in the last 30 minutes on Sunday showed up more consistently. McDermott and his coaches are trying to help the players find that gear more often, to be sure. The players, for their part, believe that everything is in place for another run at the whole thing, despite all the bumps.
“Yeah,” Benford said, “I do.”
Which is great. The Bills can’t wait forever to find that gear. They have the Bengals on Sunday, and the Patriots after that. It’s gotta be go time sometime soon.
“It’s just staying true to ourselves, making sure we stay true to our technique and our fundamentals,” Benford continued. “And having that dog mentality. That’s going to keep us where we are on the path.”
That path got them to a good place on Sunday. It just took a while to end up there. And you can interpret either of those facts however you’d like.
Carolina Panthers
It’s probably time to start taking the Panthers seriously. I’d still pick the Buccaneers to win the NFC South. But Carolina’s rolling into its Week 14 bye, only a half game back of the four-time defending division champs, with two shots at Tampa coming over the season’s final four weeks. And after beating the Rams on Sunday, it’s fair to say they’ve got every right to feel pretty good about how things are going to go the rest of the way.
Mostly, because the numbers would indicate that this 31–28 win over a team many regarded as the NFL’s best wasn’t a fluke.
• QB Bryce Young finished with an efficient 206 yards, three scores and a 147.1 rating.
• The Chuba Hubbard/Rico Dowdle–fueled run game churned out another 164 yards (including 23 from Young).
• The defense picked off Matthew Stafford twice (including a pick-six) and stripped him to finish the game.
• Homegrown top-10 picks—Young, Derrick Brown and Tetairoa McMillan—made big plays.
After it was over, I talked to veteran corner Mike Jackson, who was with coach Dave Canales in Seattle and came to Carolina via trade two summers ago, about how this all came together. And he swore to me that, having been in-house for over 15 months now, arriving just before Canales’s first regular season kicked off, he’s not surprised to see things turn.
“I knew it back in training camp,” Jackson said. “At the end of the day, we’re a very good team. It’s just consistency was our problem. So we had to focus on that.”
And that part, well, it isn’t completely worked out yet. The Panthers won three in a row, then got blown off the field by the Bills. They rebounded by winning at Lambeau, then lost at home to the Saints. Even the win over the Rams came off a loss—albeit to a good 49ers team.
That said, there’s still plenty to like, and mostly how there’s (finally) rising young talent in Charlotte and, even better, rhyme and reason to how it was put together.
“It’s just guys that want to come in and work and that’s confident in themselves, but at the same time, understand that it takes all of us to win,” Jackson said. “Once you’re on the field, it’s kind of like, bring your energy, bring your swag, let people know who you are and where you’re from. And I feel like we’re doing that. We just got to do it more.”
And coming out of the bye, they’ll have the chance to do it with the Saints at the Superdome up next—a game that will test the Panthers’ focus and, in turn, yes, their consistency.
“Right now, everybody’s patting us on the back and telling us how good we are. We’re going to hear all about it,” Jackson said. “And last time we played there, they put 40 on our head. So we got to come in with the right mindset to get that one.”
If they can, that’ll be another step in what’s been a season full of them for Canales’s crew.
New York Jets
The Jets deserve some credit for their resilience. On Oct. 19, they were 0–7. On Nov. 4, after their first win, new GM Darren Mougey traded two of their most decorated players, both former first-team All-Pros in their mid-20s, for a warchest of picks, plus Adonai Mitchell and Mazi Smith. It would have been easy for the players, looking at all that and coming off a Week 9 bye, to figure the team’s brass wasn’t into the 2025 season.
And yet, here we are, less than a month later, and Aaron Glenn’s first team back in Jersey has won three of its last five, while being plenty competitive in the two losses, both of which against likely playoff teams.
On Sunday, coming off those tough losses against the Patriots and Ravens, and on a dreary, cold day in a half-empty stadium against the Falcons, Glenn, his staff and his players summoned what they needed to drive 65 yards to tie the game at 24, with a Tyrod Taylor touchdown the equalizer with 1:53 left. Then, they got two stops and drove again for a 56-yard Nick Folk game-winner as the clock hit zero. The reality: This could’ve been a fold-up-the-tent game for the Jets, and it wasn’t.
“I mean, there’s a really resilient group of guys in this locker room who come to work every day, work their tail off, try to get better,” said Folk, a 19-year vet. “And I think you’re seeing that from everyone. We’re playing better football. It’s not obviously the best football, not where we want it, but it’s getting better. And A.G. is doing a great job of keeping us getting better, keeping us headed in the right direction.
“And I just think there’s a lot of promise for the future of this organization.”
It’s happening, too, with just so-so quarterback play—with Justin Fields until last week, and now Taylor, who finished Sunday 19-of-33 for 172 yards and a touchdown.
The key working has been a defense full of players who were part of the Jets’ top-five units the past few years, and a run game that at least helps the Jets control the pace and tenor of the action. And while the reward won’t be a playoff berth, it’s easy to look at the Jets’ progress and contrast it to Glenn’s early work in Detroit under Dan Campbell, where that staff’s first Lions team started 0-10-1 in 2021 and finished 3–3 to get to 3-13-1.
The easiest parallel to draw? There’s an edge to the program.
“The biggest thing is his belief, number one,” Folk said. “And number two, he’s very truthful with you. And he’s not going to blow smoke or anything like that. He’s very truthful about everything that’s going on around the building. He’s truthful to every player, whether you play good, bad [or] indifferently. And I think guys respect that.”
Which is starting to show in the results.
Houston Texans
We dove into the excellence of the Texans’ defense last week. This week, in a huge win over the Colts, the offense showed real signs of life. And if they can build on how it looked with C.J. Stroud back in the saddle against a good Colts team, Houston could be a real threat in an AFC that’s still deep, but may be a touch weaker at the top this year.
I’ll give you two reasons for hope.
The first is the presence of rookies in the Texans’ offensive mix. Second-round left tackle Aireontae Ersery has settled in, and the offensive line is far less of an issue than it was. Second-round receiver Jayden Higgins is becoming more viable as an option opposite Nico Collins by the week, going for 65 yards on five catches Sunday. And fourth-rounder Woody Marks continues to emerge as a real replacement for Joe Mixon.
The other rookie in the equation, of course, is coordinator Nick Caley, whose system is intricate and has brought better results of late (364 yards against a good Colts defense).
And that ties into the second reason for optimism, and that’s the mere presence of Stroud. Backup Davis Mills did a nice job filling in for three weeks, but he doesn’t have near the ceiling as Stroud, and now Stroud has added experience in Caley’s offense, and got the chance to look back and self-correct a bit while he was shelved with the concussion.
He sailed a ball over Xavier Hutchinson’s head and into Cam Bynum’s midsection for a pick in the second quarter, but other than that he was efficient and in control in his return.
And, yes, the defense for Houston was, well, what the defense for Houston is and has been. But Sunday showed how the offense can help—thanks to clock-chewing drives of 14 and 12 plays, the Texans were able to limit the Colts to three possessions in the second half, and answered an Indy touchdown that tied the game at 13–13 with a touchdown of their own. That meant the Colts were playing from behind every time they had the ball after the break.
Which, of course, only underscores the sort of style the Texans are equipped to play.
Now, we’ll see whether they can sustain it.
Los Angeles Chargers
Two weeks ago, the Chargers got pushed around, and that didn’t happen this week, as they came off their bye, which is a credit to what Jim Harbaugh has built. We detailed the tail-kicking by the Jaguars when it happened, and it felt, to me anyway, like the kind of thing that, when combined with their injury woes, signals “it’s just not your year.”
Now, the opponent this week was the Raiders, and it’s not like that didn’t help.
But the Chargers ripped off 192 yards on 43 carries in their 31–14 rout of Vegas at home. And they did it with Jamaree Salyer at left tackle, Trey Pipkins III at right tackle, and (mostly) Kimani Vidal at tailback, rather than the planned-for trio of Rashawn Slater, Joe Alt and Omarion Hampton at those spots. They sustained two drives of 14 plays—one that ended as you’d like (touchdown) and another that didn’t (interception)—to start the game.
They were, quite simply, the Chargers, and in a spot, without those foundation pieces, where the temptation would be there to stray from Jim Harbaugh’s tried-and-true formula.
“It was built in training camp,” Vidal told me, after rushing for 126 of those yards and a score on 25 carries. “That’s our identity; that’s what we want to do. At our core, that’s who we are. So, that stuff, I mean, we have to keep going and keep doing it.”
Having it in their bag didn’t hurt, either, when Justin Herbert broke his left hand on the second of those long drives, allowing for the team to organically limit its QB physically.
From here, we know the Chargers will get Hampton back but won’t have either tackle. But who they are won’t change. Because if that was going to happen, we’d have seen it already. And at 8–4, it’s not like they’re crumbling.
Chicago Bears
The Bears’ rebirth started up front. Because it’s always about the quarterback, people are going to make this about Caleb Williams. But for Ben Johnson to get the most out of this Chicago team in his first season, he had to do what he was a part of in Detroit: making the offensive and defensive lines his and GM Ryan Poles’s top priority from the jump.
So they traded for guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson, signed center Drew Dalman, and drafted Ozzy Trapilo on offense. They also signed Dayo Odeyingbo and Grady Jarrett, and took Shemar Turner with a second-round pick on defense. Because of injuries, that emphasis has tracked better on offense than defense.
Johnson’s approach has permeated everything in Chicago. And that was clear on Black Friday, as the Bears stuffed an Eagles team that plays this game better than anyone in a locker.
Chicago rushed for 281 yards to the Eagles’ 87, becoming the first team to triple up Philly on the ground in almost two years. It’s one of the 20 best rushing days in the franchise’s 106-season history—and two of those 20 days came this November. They’re also the two highest rushing totals the Bears have had since 1984.
So, starting with the players, there’s plenty to be proud of there.
“It’s never really good to chase the results—I feel like it’s much more about our process and our approach,” Dalman told me. “It felt like we played with great effort and execution today. And so I think that’s the thing to be proud of most for us. Guys are playing hard. We’re finishing to the ball. We’re picking up the ballcarrier.”
There’s plenty for the coaches and front office to be proud of, too.
For Poles, assistant GM Ian Cunningham and crew, their plan of using the cap space created by having Williams on a rookie deal has come to fruition. It allowed the Bears to outbid everyone for Dalman. Johnson’s ties to Jackson from Detroit helped, as did Poles being with Thuney in Kansas City. Then, there was the draft day pursuit to get a second second-round pick.
And on the coaching side, Johnson, OC Declan Doyle, Press Taylor and Dan Roushar have put together a run game that marries to the pass game, captures leverage and angles through scheme, and slows defenders down by constantly moving their eyes.
“It’s been an awesome effort from the coaches to put us in great spots,” Dalman said.
Having the team where it is now—after Johnson fed everyone with a firehose on his vision in the offseason—has taken an awesome effort all the way around.
Clearly, the Bears are getting that. Now, imagine if Williams starts to turn the corner.
Coaching searches
The Giants’ and Titans’ coaching searches are steadily moving along. Both remain very much in the research phase, but that doesn’t mean having a jump on everyone else hasn’t helped.
In Tennessee, that’s meant watching a lot of tape on a lot of candidates, and using the know-how in the room—beyond just the Packers roots of president of football operations Chad Brinker, and the Chiefs roots of GM Mike Borgonzi, the Titans also have former GMs Dave Ziegler and Reggie McKenzie on board.
The initial thought, post–Brian Callahan, had been to find more experience and someone who could work with Cam Ward. Along those lines, and tied into the networks of the guys on hand, ex-Bears coach Matt Nagy (who has ties to Borgonzi) or ex-Cowboys and Packers coach Mike McCarthy (who has ties to Brinker) could wind up being the guy. But that hasn’t stopped the Titans from looking at a wide array of candidates, even guys such as Chargers DC Jesse Minter and Rams DC Chris Shula, who don’t fit into the above box.
At this point, Tennessee has studied and discussed plenty of prospective coaches as the brass keeps working toward having a narrowed-down list by the end of the season.
As for the Giants, they’re also in the research phase, watching tape and talking things over, so they can be prepared for January. That said, they do want to give interim coach Mike Kafka a real run at the job. Going into Monday night’s game in Foxborough, and through two games, Kafka’s shown an ability to juggle play-calling and be the head coach, with the offense having run up 517 yards and 27 points in Detroit last week, and 336 yards and 20 points on a high-end Packers defense the week before without Jaxon Dart at QB.
Kafka’s on a pared-down list of about 10 candidates that GM Joe Schoen has built, a list that Schoen has curated over the years on the advice of mentors who’d tell him that a good GM would always keep one. That doesn’t mean the Giants won’t add to the list. But it does mean that, while they’re researching a wide range of options, they won’t interview the whole football world for a job that will be highly coveted in the industry.
Both teams still have the benefit of time, with the end of the regular season still five weeks away.
Broncos vs. Commanders
Weird things happen when former staffmates meet, so I’ll chalk part of Denver’s defensive struggles up to DC Vance Joseph having to defend Kliff Kingsbury—his old boss from Arizona who knows, and practiced against, his scheme. Washington ran for 143 yards, and Marcus Mariota nearly threw for another 300. Zach Ertz, Deebo Samuel and (especially) Terry McLaurin got loose. Denver’s vaunted pass rush was largely ineffective.
And so 3–8 Washington was able to force overtime, and nearly snap the eight-game winning streak that the Broncos rode into town with.
Fair to say, there’s a lot to clean up there. But there’s also this: After a game-ending stop for Denver and a game-tying (or winning, if they went for two) touchdown were overturned because of penalties, Washington converted a third-and-14 on a dime to Deebo Samuel for 38 yards. That put the ball on the 3, and Mariota would find McLaurin on a pick play for the score, to set up a two-point conversion to win it.
And that’s when Joseph reached into his bag and pulled out a pressure that got Nik Bonitto, perhaps his second-best player, a free run at Mariota, which basically ended the game. My guess is we’ll look back on the call from Joseph, who should be in the mix for at least a couple of open jobs next month, as a real difference-maker for the Broncos, one big enough to, potentially at least, determine where a playoff game or two is played.
Quick-hitters
Plenty left to chew on, after Thanksgiving weekend. So here are the quick-hitters …
• The Jaguars are now 8–4, tied with the Colts atop the AFC South. And every week, it feels like Liam Coen’s crew is doing it a different way. (Imagine if Trevor Lawrence took a big jump over the next month.)
• The Seahawks are for real, and so are the Cowboys.
• Speaking of the Seahawks, they made the Max Brosmer–led Vikings look really bad. And now you see why the Vikings tried to get insurance on J.J. McCarthy, in making offers to Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones to stay (both got competitive offers from Minnesota, but the Vikings couldn’t offer the same clear path to being a multi-year starter that the Seahawks and Colts could). And it sure looks like Darnold and Jones will get that runway.
• This doesn’t mean everyone in Minnesota is completely out on McCarthy. It’s just that the Vikings, loaded with accomplished veterans, don’t have leeway to sacrifice a season to quarterback development, and aren’t positioned to just take McCarthy’s lumps with him. As such, if things don’t change, I bet there’ll at least be competition arriving in the Twin Cities for McCarthy in the spring and summer.
• Lots of tough guys this week, none more so than Baker Mayfield and Jones for playing through, respectively, a separated shoulder and fractured fibula.
• The 49ers keep chugging along, now 9–4.
• The Browns, on the other hand, will be criticized this week for not letting Shedeur Sanders loose on San Francisco from a play-calling standpoint. The reality: The weather stunk, and the coaches called the game to protect the rookie quarterback. My guess is he’ll get a little more rope against the Titans next weekend.
• The reasoning behind the firing of Giants DC Shane Bowen? Pretty simple. The defense ranked 30th last year and is back in that spot again despite the additions of Paulson Adebo, Jevon Holland and Abdul Carter, among others. Also a factor was the Giants squandering five fourth-quarter leads through 12 games.
• That was a bad loss for a Falcons team that looks directionless right now.
• Ditto for the Titans and Raiders.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Week 13 NFL Takeaways: Bills Still Searching to Find That Extra Gear Consistently.
