A year ago, at this point, the Denver Broncos were on a five-game losing streak. Their highly prized quarterback played the worst football of his career. Their embattled head coach was just weeks away from being fired.
In Indianapolis, the Colts were suffering from even greater dysfunction: their head coach had been fired in early November and replaced by an ESPN analyst with no NFL coaching experience, and the team was on the verge of a seven-game losing streak, ending a season of unimaginable embarrassment.
Twelve months later, both teams are surprising contenders in the AFC playoffs, especially considering each team’s rocky road to this point. The Broncos started 1-5, but after Sunday’s 29-12 win over the Browns, they are 6-5 and currently have the longest winning streak (five) in the NFL.
After some difficult early days, it’s now hard to disagree with Sean Payton and Russell Wilson’s marriage.
The Colts had franchise quarterback Anthony Richardson for all four starts in 2023 — and actually just two complete games — before a shoulder injury cost him most of his rookie season. And yet, after Indianapolis’ third straight win, a 27-20 win over the Bucs on Sunday, the Colts are also 6-5, over .500 after Thanksgiving in a season that most pundits thought would be With everyone lost at this point, signs point to a top-five pick in next spring’s draft.
So much for that. Few coaches get more out of their roster than Shane Steichen in Indy.
Whether the Broncos and Colts remain contenders in a crowded AFC playoff race will be seen in the coming weeks, but their surprising resurgences this season – coupled with those of the Houston Texans, who are 6-5 despite a loss on Sunday and are in the middle of the pack Well – add a layer of intrigue to a conference that has seen some favorites fall short this fall.
AFC playoff picture through Week 12
The Bengals lost Joe Burrow this season and are 5-6.
The Chargers have lost three straight and are 4-7.
And the Bills, on the verge of a much-needed victory in Philadelphia on Sunday night, closed things down late and lost 37-34 after Jalen Hurts erased a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit with a 12-yard shot into the end zone in overtime the winning goal. It was a devastating loss for a Buffalo team that has suddenly lost three of four games and is coming off a bye week against the Chiefs.
The Bills are 6-6, and when it comes to the current playoff situation, they remain on the outside looking in. The Colts are currently in seventh place due to a straight win against the Texans earlier this season and a better conference record than the Broncos. But there is still a lot of football left.
The Chiefs, meanwhile, bounced back from a loss to the Eagles with a 31-17 win over the Raiders on Monday night. And late Sunday night, the Ravens defeated the Chargers four times in a 20-10 victory, becoming the first team in the AFC to record nine wins.
A Chargers team with all that talent is now tied for the second-worst record in the entire conference. A season that started with so much promise has instead turned into a season of disappointment.
Elsewhere in the NFL, the NFC South remains the worst division in the league, in what feels like a repeat of last season. Have different opinions? The Falcons moved into first place Sunday despite being a game under .500. At this point, Atlanta (5-6) is in a tiebreaker over the Saints (also 5-6) after their 24-15 win on Sunday. The two will meet again in week 18.
Five days after firing offensive coordinator Matt Canada, the Steelers reached more than 400 yards of offense for the first time in nearly five years — a span of 58 games — which was just enough to beat the Burrow-less Bengals 16-10.
Here’s what stood out in the NFL in Week 12:
The Eagles just keep winning
After 11 games, their record of 10-1 is identical to last year, but this season feels different.
Even the Eagles’ players, starting with Hurts, will acknowledge the fact that they haven’t played their best football yet. The victories are still to come, but they are less convincing and less clean.
They were also grittier.
Sunday was the newest chapter and probably the most impressive. The Eagles were six days away from defeating the Chiefs in a Super Bowl rematch. For the fourth time in a row they were behind at halftime. They trailed by double digits at two different points in the game, including early in the fourth quarter. Their kicker, Jake Elliott, had to drill a 59-yarder in rainy conditions on a sloppy field just to force overtime. Then the Bills scored first and slowly took the lead with a field goal.
And yet the Eagles found a way – once again – to pull out the win, their fifth come-from-behind win this season, with Hurts finding the end zone from 12 yards out for the walk-off victory.
“Just hang on in the moments that matter,” coach Nick Sirianni said of his quarterback.
The Eagles’ 10-1 start is the best in football and the best record by a team suffering a Super Bowl loss since the Bills in 1991.
Next up is a visit by the NFC’s other top contender, the San Francisco 49ers, in a rematch of last year’s conference title game.
At halftime on Sunday, Jalen Hurts had a passer rating of 7.0 and 55 total yards. At the end of the game, he had a passer rating of 96.2 and 265 yards with five total touchdowns. (Eric Hartline/USA Today)
Broncos extend winning streak to five
It’s not just Payton and Wilson who have revitalized the Broncos this year.
It was a stunning midseason turnaround for Vance Joseph’s defense, which gave up 70 points in a Week 3 loss to the Dolphins and scored 36.2 points per game through five weeks, easily the worst in the league.
But Joseph’s unit found something in October. Getting a few players back from injury like safety Justin Simmons helped. There were also a number of forced ball losses.
The result was a complete turnaround: Over the last six games, Denver allowed 16.5 points per game.
Picture this: The Broncos won all but one.
GO DEEPER
Toughness at the core of the Broncos’ best winning streak in the NFL against the Browns
With Sunday’s win against the Browns, the team that has had the league’s sharpest defense since the start of the season, they extended their winning streak to an NFL-best five games – tied with the Eagles. Denver allowed just two third-down conversions and recovered three fumbles. On the other side of the ball, Wilson was an efficient 13-for-22 for 134 yards and a touchdown.
Only three teams in history have come from a 1-5 start to make the playoffs, the last being the Colts in 2018, and at least the Broncos gave themselves a chance.
Jaguars and Texans show why “it will be fun for years to come”
Trevor Lawrence is like everyone else. He sees what’s happening in Houston this season.
“I want the teams in our division to be as bad as possible,” the Jaguars QB joked after his team posted a 24-21 win over CJ Stroud and the Texans. “The way they’re playing… there’s going to be some great matchups in the future. CJ plays Lights Out. To be a newbie and play like he is?
“It will be fun for years to come.”
It looks like one of the league’s burgeoning rivalries between divisions is shaping up: Lawrence’s Jaguars versus Stroud’s Texans.
On Sunday in Houston, the midseason surge that brought the surging Texans to within one game of the AFC South lead reached its limits. But that doesn’t mean Stroud didn’t make it interesting.
Because this game was only decided by centimeters.
Nine weeks after the surprising win that changed the course of their season – a 37-17 win over the Jaguars in Jacksonville – the Texans narrowly missed winning the season. Stroud, the front-runner for Offensive Rookie of the Year, led the Texans with an 11-play, 45-yard drive late in the fourth quarter that set up a potential game-winning kick by Matt Ammendola.
But Ammendola’s dead-straight 58-yard shot clipped the crossbar and missed the target, ending the Texans’ three-game winning streak and giving the Jags their seventh win in eight games.
The loss made Stroud the first rookie in league history to reach 300 passing yards in four consecutive games, and his touchdown to Tank Dell in the second quarter helped them to an impressive rise: only the sixth time in history The NFL’s rookie tandem scored six or more points in a season, the first time since Andrew Luck and TY Hilton of the Colts in 2012.
Stroud and Lawrence combined for 668 yards and three touchdowns.
The Jaguars are now 8-3 and tied with Miami and Kanas City for the second-best record in the AFC, behind only the Ravens. Jacksonville is now two games ahead in the division race, but both Houston (6-5) and Indianapolis (6-5) are still in the race.
Texans-Jaguars is quickly and unexpectedly becoming a major rivalry. (Troy Taormina/USA Today)
A shocking end and a new low in Carolina
How are things going in Carolina?
On Sunday against the Titans, the Panthers ran a bubble screen on 4th and 6 with the game on the line.
The moment he caught it, DJ Chark was swarmed by the Titans defense. Zero yardage gain. Game over.
The Panthers lost 17-10 and are now only 1-10 this season. Owner David Tepper was seen shouting a profanity as he left the locker room after the loss.
While rookie quarterback Bryce Young later took blame for the audible incident, admitting that he came into the game after spying on the defense, the result speaks to the Panthers’ offensive ineptitude in Frank Reich’s first season as coach. Carolina ranks in the bottom three in nearly every relevant offensive category, putting it a tick above teams that have been without their starting quarterback for weeks and, in some cases, months. The Panthers haven’t scored more than 15 points in a game since mid-October.
And that’s after Reich handed over control of the game to offensive coordinator Thomas Brown a month ago, only to take it back three games later.
Things just aren’t working in Carolina, and it’s fair to wonder whether Tepper — already known for his impatience — believes his franchise is headed in the right direction with this highly touted coaching staff. While context is necessary — the Panthers have a mediocre offensive line at best and are significantly lacking in talent at the skill positions — Reich hasn’t figured out how to get Young going. The first overall pick in last spring’s draft was 18 of 31 with no touchdowns. So far this season he has only thrown multiple touchdowns in a game once.
What can’t be helped is the fact that Stroud, who was taken one spot behind Young by a also-dormant franchise, is having a historic first season in Houston.
Same story in New England
In a stunning development that almost everyone expected, the Patriots’ plan to split practice reps between two mediocre quarterbacks – and not name a starter until kickoff – backfired badly Sunday at the Meadowlands. Mac Jones got the nod and once again put in an absolutely terrible performance, turning the ball over three times before being benched after a goalless first half. Bailey Zappe came into the game and had nine completions for 54 yards.
GO DEEPER
The Patriots may be the worst team in the NFL and Bill Belichick has no answers
Still, New England actually had a chance to send it to overtime, but kicker Chad Ryland failed on his 35-yard attempt and the Giants escaped with a 10-7 victory. It’s the eighth time this season the Patriots have had fewer than 20 points, and between them the two teams piled up seven punts, an interception and a fumble on the game’s first nine possessions.
“Just bad quarterback play,” Jones said after sitting on the bench for the second straight game. “If the quarterback doesn’t play well, you don’t have a chance.”
This is the story of the Patriots’ 2023 season, although the themes don’t end there. A series of draft desires, particularly in offensive skills, combined with some questionable coaching hires have turned one of the league’s most successful franchises since the turn of the century into a punchline this season. The Patriots (2-9) are on track for their first top-five pick since 1994.
(Top photo by Shane Steichen and Gardner Minshew:
Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images)
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