NFL Week 13 recap: Highlights & analysis (2024)

Week 13 kicked off with the Cowboys beating the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football! Check in with The Athletic for all the latest NFL news, game previews, injury updates and analysis.

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• Bengals def. Jaguars in OT on Monday Night Football
• Complete NFL Week 13 schedule | Updated playoff standings
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The San Francisco 49ers scored touchdowns on six straight possessions, out-rushed the Philadelphia Eagles 146 to 46 and had no turnovers, yet they lost the time-of-possession battle 31:39 to 28:21.

How is that possible? Well, they only had the ball for a little more than two minutes in the wobbly first quarter. They also struck quickly on some of their touchdowns. For instance, their possession on their final score, Deebo Samuel’s 46-yard catch and run on a tunnel screen, lasted two plays and 14 seconds.

The offense logged 59 snaps while the defense had 72, though most starters were on the sideline for the last five minutes of the game. Here’s how the individual snaps were divided.

We shouldn’t have been talking about NFL officiating Sunday night and Monday morning.

We could have devoted our energies to discussing Packers quarterback Jordan Love’s apparent coming of age in the 27-19 upset of Patrick Mahomes and the world-champion Chiefs. We could have been talking about Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur’s masterful engineering of a season turnaround that has his 6-6 Packers squarely in the playoff hunt.

Instead, these were the emotions late Sunday night in the initial moments following the Packers’ win: confounded, befuddled and, at the same time, not at all surprised that the game officials had once again made themselves a major part of the story.

The multiple officiating blunders of the final minutes of the contest continued to dominate conversation Monday morning on the usual recap television, radio shows and podcasts. The hand-wringing spilled over into our group texts.

Sunday night represented what seems like a weekly reminder that the NFL, in this modern age, continues to have a flawed officiating system. And after it’s now painstakingly clear one of two things must happen.

Welcome back, folks. The bye week is over. The Minnesota Vikings, sitting at 6-6, will now embark on what figures to be a roller-coaster ride in the back half of the season.

Five games remain. Questions abound. Many of you were curious about who head coach Kevin O’Connell will start at quarterback this week and how the first 12 weeks of the season would shape the franchise’s offseason decisions.

Let’s get to the answers.

It may only be early December, but many New York Giants fans have already begun daydreaming about the player their team might pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Despite back-to-back wins entering their Week 13 bye, a top-10 pick remains a more realistic outcome for the Giants than a playoff berth. According to the projection model created by The Athletic’s Austin Mock, New York’s playoff odds currently stand at 0.4 percent.

So, with the postseason likely out of reach, we’ll turn our attention — in this story, at least — to the draft, with The Athletic’s draft analyst, Dane Brugler, releasing his first mock draft of the season. In Brugler’s mock, the Giants selected LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers with the No. 6 pick. Following Sunday’s slate of games, the Giants actually now own the No. 7 pick, but their positioning will continue to fluctuate throughout their remaining five games. We’ll simply use Brugler’s mock as a starting point as the draft conversation continues to heat up. So let’s break it down:

The Lions could be missing some key pieces this week when they take on the Chicago Bears. Center Frank Ragnow, a Pro Bowler last year, suffered a knee injury and was ruled out for the rest of Sunday's game vs. the Saints. Campbell said the team received "good news" on Ragnow's injury, but it could still keep him out of action this week.

Third-year defensive tackle Alim McNeill, one of the better defensive tackles in the league this season, could also miss Sunday's game. He appeared to bump knees with Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson Sunday vs. the Saints and briefly left the game. McNeill downplayed his injury in the locker room after the game but Campbell's comments suggest lingering concern. The good news is it sounds like there's a chance the Lions could get starting LB Alex Anzalone back this week. He missed Sunday's game with a hand injury. We'll monitor their practice workload this week

The Bears returned from their bye ahead of a rematch with the Lions, and that loss was probably top of mind when Matt Eberflus was asked about the goal over the final five games.

“You talk about finishing. It starts with the first game. You got to really finish,” he said. “I was proud of the way the guys finished the last game. That’s in the past. Now you got to look forward. To me, that’s what it’s about. The NFL is about finishing in the two-minute, four-minute process in the end of the halves, end of the games. We’re certainly looking to improve on that.”

A few more things we heard at Halas Hall on Monday…

• Eberflus said the team is healthy, including cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, who missed last Monday’s game against the Vikings with an ankle injury. Eberflus said they feel good about where Stevenson is at, and that we could still see a rotation between Stevenson and fellow rookie corner Terell Smith.
• The Bears are on pace to exceed last year’s penalty count by a wide margin. Eberflus isn’t too concerned about some of the defensive holding or pass interference penalties, ones that are a little more subjective, but he said he wants to see improvement with pre-snap flags. The Bears have 20 false start penalties — they had 18 last year.
• Tight end Cole Kmet talked about the reality of the NFL, and how the Bears are just a couple blown leads away from being in the playoff conversation. That also shapes the way he views the final five weeks. “At the end of the day, you’re still kinda in it even though it’s been not a great start to start the season out here,” he said. “You got five games to finish this thing off. And we’ll see where it lays, if we can get to 9-8 here.”

The Colts outlasted the Titans in overtime Sunday for their fourth straight win as they continue their remarkable climb into playoff contention. Indianapolis is 7-5 despite multiple starters being sidelined for extended periods of time this season, most notably rookie QB Anthony Richardson, who underwent season-ending shoulder surgery. However, the team received a big reinforcement Monday with the return of Grover Stewart.

The Colts’ starting nose tackle was cleared to rejoin the team’s active roster after completing a six-game PEDs suspension. Indianapolis went 4-2 in Stewart’s absence, but it was very evident how much the team’s run defense suffered. The Colts’ opponents averaged 3.7 yards per carry and 113.5 yards per game from Weeks 1-6 with Stewart in the lineup. Those numbers increased to 4.7 yards per carry and 153 yards per game from Weeks 7-13 while he was out.

Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said it’s “huge” to get Stewart back and that could be interpreted figuratively and literally, considering Stewart stands 6-foot-4 and weighs 314 pounds. The seven-year pro has 20 tackles, two tackles for loss and five QB hits in six games this season. He’ll appear in his seventh game this upcoming Sunday at Cincinnati as the Colts try to extend their winning streak to five.

“He’s obviously a pro, so he’ll be in shape,” Steichen said of Stewart's conditioning. “He’ll be ready to go this week, so we’re fired up to have him back.”

The team that has been the biggest source of demons for the Dallas Cowboys flung the door open for them Sunday. The San Francisco 49ers dominated the Philadelphia Eagles 42-19 Sunday evening, setting the table for a mad dash to the finish in the NFC.

Before the Cowboys can think about the conference, they have to worry about winning the division. As Eagles week begins, the NFC East is now legitimately in play.

Since the two teams squared off in Philadelphia, the Cowboys and Eagles had schedules on opposite ends of the spectrum. The Cowboys cruised for three weeks, beating bottom-of-the-barrel opponents, topping it off with a quality win over the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday. As much as the Cowboys have talked about “running our own race,” they would have appreciated some help from Eagles’ opponents during a brutal stretch in which the Eagles eked out wins against the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills before getting blown out by the 49ers.

Read more here.

One bad throw turned into an interception that went a long way toward sinking the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Joe Flacco still has a big arm, and maybe he trusted it too much there — especially because it was the first play of a new series in a one-point game with just under seven minutes remaining.

But Flacco, playing on a practice squad elevation just 13 days after the Browns pried him from his New Jersey home, also turned that trust in his arm into some hits Sunday. Mostly, he played with the poise and presence you’d expect — stuff the Browns needed — from a 16-year veteran, and it was immediately clear that Flacco had both kept himself ready for this opportunity and done what had been necessary in the six real days of prep he had for this game.

The Browns are teetering. After winning three straight in November, they head home Sunday night losers of two straight. A game that felt like anybody’s at the start of the fourth quarter, and even much of the way through it, ended in a 36-19 Los Angeles Rams victory. The Browns drop to 7-5 and find themselves in a very Southern California-style traffic jam of teams trying to claim one of the AFC’s three wild-card spots.

A lot of what the Browns put out there Sunday reaffirms that the playoffs are no guarantee. They are still sloppy, penalty-prone and heavily reliant on an attack-style defense that keeps getting cooked by misdirection. But with any thought of living in an ideal offensive world long gone, Flacco showed he could at least get the Browns to the postseason. He’s played in these games and been in these playoff pushes before. He’s a little grayer now, but he can still fling it.

Read more here.

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel announces he has fired special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman, a day after two punt blocks contributed to the Titans' 31-28 overtime loss to the Colts, the second of which resulted in Ryan Stonehouse suffering a season-ending knee injury that requires surgery. Special teams assistant Tom Quinn will take over. This is the first time Vrabel has fired an assistant coach during a season.

Vrabel added that running back Derrick Henry has no symptoms today and is not in concussion protocol and DT Jeffery Simmons will be "out a couple weeks" after Simmons left Sunday's loss to the Colts with a knee injury.

Kenny Pickett writhed in pain on the turf at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday.

On third-and-goal late in the second quarter, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback took off running. As he extended the football toward the end zone, Pickett’s foot got trapped under an Arizona Cardinals defender, injuring his ankle and forcing him out of the game for the fifth time in his 24-game tenure as a starting QB.

Enter Mitch Trubisky. The backup quarterback was inserted into the game just in time to hand the ball to Najee Harris for a failed fourth-and-goal attempt from the 1.

That sequence summed up a day full of injury and insult, as the Steelers’ offense failed to produce a touchdown until garbage time in a 24-10 letdown to a previously two-win Arizona team in rebuilding mode.

Read more here.

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh had already knelt with his players in prayer following their 20-10 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. He gave out some game balls and recognized individual accomplishments. He raised the volume in an already celebratory visiting locker room at SoFi Stadium by telling the players they had the full bye week off.

But Harbaugh had one more thing to say before veteran defensive tackle Broderick Washington broke down the postgame huddle. Harbaugh’s words fell somewhere between a request and a demand. They could have been interpreted as a vow, too.

“We come back Monday,” Harbaugh said, “we come back roaring.”

To a man, the Ravens said their Week 13 bye came at a perfect time. After playing for 12 consecutive weeks, they were banged up. After back-to-back prime-time games, two West Coast trips and a weeklong stay in London, they were tired, too.

Read more here.

A year ago at this time, the Los Angeles Rams were imploding. Their quarterback, Matthew Stafford, was broken. So was their top receiver, Cooper Kupp. Their star defensive tackle Aaron Donald, had just gutted through an ankle injury in a game at Kansas City and then was shut down for the season. The middle class of their roster had disappeared. Their offensive line had crumbled, also in large part to injury but they didn’t have enough talent up there overall, either.

Their coach, Sean McVay, was at rock bottom.

I am thinking about that time a lot this week. How lost McVay seemed after the Week 12, 2022, game in which he gave up play calling and stood, reeling, in the cement bowels of the Chiefs’ stadium unsure where to go next. How steep and dreadful the crash from the mountaintop of the previous season was. How quiet the locker room was. How hurt everybody was, and the mental toll it took on them. How the end of everything, including the McVay era, was coming. It had to be.

And then, it didn’t.

Sunday, the Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 36-19. They have won three games in a row, are 6-6 and have a real shot at the playoffs.

A game like this, against a physical and well-coached defense that has been at the top of league statistics for much of the season, was the product of a million steps before it ever kicked off.

Steps that began when the head coach decided not to quit in his worst moments.

Read more here.

After the rain stopped dumping on Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, the slightest glimmer of sunshine appeared for the Carolina Panthers: an offensive touchdown and a lead against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It was gone 10 seconds later.

That’s how long it took for former Panthers quarterback Baker Mayfield to find perennial Panthers killer Mike Evans on a 75-yard touchdown late in the third quarter. Just like that, the Panthers lost the lead, Brian Burns lost his cool and Carolina was on its way to its 11th loss in 12 games — a 21-18 decision in the first game of the post-Frank Reich era, such as it was.

Bad teams find ways to lose. Tampa Bay (5-7) is not a particularly good team. The Panthers are the NFL’s worst. And while interim coach Chris Tabor wanted players to stay loose and have fun over the final six games, there’s been nothing fun about the 2023 Panthers.

Read more here.

Gardner Minshew dropped back to pass, surveyed the field and stepped up in the pocket. The Indianapolis Colts trailed the Tennessee Titans by seven points on Sunday with just under two minutes left in the second quarter, and Indianapolis’ quarterback was trying to make something happen from Tennessee’s 5-yard line.

But after Minshew evaded the first wave of pressure, he didn’t anticipate the second. As he continued looking toward the end zone, he was strip-sacked from behind by former Colts defensive end Denico Autry, and cornerback Elijah Molden recovered the fumble.

No throw. No touchdown. No points.

As Minshew walked to the sideline, linebacker Zaire Franklin slapped hands with him, tight end Will Mallory tapped him on the helmet and even rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson — still wearing a sling due to season-ending right shoulder surgery — reached out with his left arm and gave Minshew a fist bump. The typically stoic Minshew sat on a cooler, flipped his hair back and took a deep breath.

Then, for a brief moment, he let his frustration out. Minshew balled his right hand into a fist and pounded it into his left hand. He knew that was a pivotal play in the game, but he also knew he had to forget it.

“Playing quarterback in this league at easy,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said of Minshew. “You’re going to have good plays. You’re going to have bad plays. But when you do have bad plays, you come to the sideline and keep marching on.”

There was a lot of time left, including an eventual overtime period, and by the end, Minshew would unleash an entirely different emotion following a 31-28 victory: joy. The backup QB danced around the locker room as his teammates hyped up their leader who, regardless of some tough moments, refuses to quit and continues to find a way to lead the team to wins.

Read more here.

He won’t allow himself to go there. Not right now, at least. There’s too much at stake, too much to play for, too much that can knock him off his trajectory if he begins to look ahead or make this about himself. Not that he would anyway.

But Detroit Lions rookie tight end Sam LaPorta is aware of the year he’s having, playing in this league, playing this position, this quickly. After a nine-catch, 140-yard outing — propelling the Lions to a 33-28 win over the New Orleans Saints — it’s hard not to be.

Even then …

“After the season,” LaPorta said, when asked when he’ll begin to appreciate what he’s doing. “You don’t wanna get caught up in all that. It just kinda muddies your vision, clouds your vision for the team and the success that we hope to have moving forward.”

If the Lions — now 9-3, with a three-game lead in the NFC North — are to have that success he hopes is coming, LaPorta is going to be directly involved. That sounds like a given now, but it wasn’t always so. Think about where he came from. Once ranked as the nation’s 1,170th-best prospect and the No. 55 tight end in his high school class, LaPorta’s 247Sports profile pic shows an unassuming teenager with curly hair, pimples and little facial hair to show for. Who would’ve thought a three-star prospect out of Highland, Ill., would develop into one of the best in the world at what he does?

Read more here.

After the San Francisco 49ers took down the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, it became official: the top seeds in both the NFC and the AFC are still up for grabs. Week 13 saw plenty of movement in the NFL playoff picture, and there is still plenty of time for it to change.

Let’s take a look at where things stand with one game left to go in Week 13.

We all know how the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the two-win Arizona Cardinals, one of the NFL’s worst teams, on Sunday: sloppy pre-snap penalties, turnovers, bad snaps, a missed field goal, injuries, red zone woes, lack of offense, poor defense, etc.

That’s how all teams lose, so who cares about the how? We all should be more intrigued with the why … as in why did the Steelers once again play their worst football of the season against a team that, frankly, stinks?

I am not interested in Mason Cole saying that the Cardinals are a “good football team” regardless of what their record says.

No, Mason, they stink … stank … stunk.

Tight end Zach Ertz wanted out so badly that he asked to be cut earlier in the week, and the Cardinals immediately obliged. I dare you to name more than one player on their defense. Hell, I dare you to tell me who their head coach is, and as a bonus, where did he coach last year?

You don’t know. Not many do, so don’t feel too bad about it.

That’s what makes Sunday’s 24-10 whipping by the Cardinals — likely one of the three worst home losses of Mike Tomlin’s tenure (along with Tampa Bay in 2014 and Oakland in 2009) — so troublesome.

Read more here.

Ron Rivera understood the score before the season began.

New ownership officially purchased the Washington Commanders one day before the 2023 training camp commenced in late July. The group, led by managing partner Josh Harris, had zero time to affect any football decisions. They would the following offseason.

Unless the team, at a minimum, achieved its first winning season since 2016, Rivera’s four-year tenure as head coach and front-office lead would end, and new football people would take over. If that’s how the scenario unfolded, Rivera wanted it known he had left the situation better than how he found it.

“If we go 8-8-1 this year and (Harris) fires me, and next year they win the division and 40 of the 53 players we drafted and it’s the same quarterback, I’m vindicated,” Rivera told ESPN in August. “Send me my Super Bowl ring.”

Four months later, including nine losses in 13 regular-season games, don’t expect the next brain trust to send Rivera a thank-you card. The roster’s improvement, sincere at times over the past four years, has faded. This team doesn’t need a retool or a refresh, but a rebuild. The final four contests won’t change that assessment, whether Rivera stays through Week 18 or not.

Read more here.