It was a boost that Dak Prescott needed, and perhaps the Dallas Cowboys too.
On the road against a Super Bowl contender and with a six-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
Seventeen plays and 69 yards later, Prescott had his defining moment, fleeting as it was, a beautiful, arcing throw into the corner of the end zone that Brandin Cooks scooped up for the go-ahead points. It capped a drive that featured some of the best performances from the Cowboys' MVP candidate.
Dallas was suddenly ahead of the Dolphins 20:19. But there were still over three minutes left.
In the end it would prove to be too much time. Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins spoiled the Cowboys' Christmas Eve in Miami by using their own 12-play, 49-yard drive to set up Jason Sanders' game-winning 29-yard field goal.
The Dolphins' 22-20 win – at least for a week – calms the narrative that Miami can't beat the league's elite teams. And it reinforced the belief that the Cowboys simply don't have the same team on the road at AT&T Stadium this season. Dallas (10-5) has lost two games in a row and is now 3-5 on the road this season.
Elsewhere in the NFL, the Lions won their first league title in 30 years.
The Browns and Joe Flacco just keep winning. Three in a row means Cleveland is 10-5 and has all but secured a spot in the AFC playoffs. The New York Times puts the Browns' playoff odds at over 99 percent.
The Jaguars, once in the running for the AFC's top spot, have suddenly lost four straight, and Trevor Lawrence is injured – again. The good news for them: Neither the Colts nor the Texans gained ground in the AFC South race on Sunday.
The Bucs are on the rise, winning four straight and are the only team in the NFC South over .500.
A few hours after it was announced that owner Woody Johnson intended to retain coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas for at least another season, the Jets escaped with a 30-28 victory over the Commanders after Greg Zuerlein's 54-yard Field had drilled goal five seconds before the end.
The Seahawks rushed for 53 yards on 14 plays and scored a game-winning drive at Tennessee, Seattle's second thrilling win in six days. Nearly a week after Drew Lock led a thrilling last-second win over the Eagles, Geno Smith returned to the lineup and led his own comeback, this time with a 20-17 victory over the Titans, beating Seattle in the NFC playoffs -Race keeps you on your toes.
And on Sunday night, the Patriots stunned the Broncos with a 26-23 upset. New England earned its fourth win of the season in wild fashion, rallying after the Broncos erased a 23-7 second-half deficit to tie the score late. Bailey Zappe completed a game-winning drive of 43 yards and Chad Ryland, after missing a field goal and an extra point early in the game, was perfect from 56 yards with two seconds left to give the Patriots an unexpected victory. The loss nearly destroys any chance the Broncos have of reaching the postseason.
So far, six of the NFL's 14 playoff spots have been secured: the Ravens and Dolphins in the AFC and the 49ers, Eagles, Cowboys and Lions in the NFC.
Here's what we learned from Sunday's NFL Week 16:
1. Cowboys open door to Eagles in NFC East
What would have been a gutsy road win for the Cowboys – something they haven't really accomplished this season – has once again slipped through their fingers, adding to the very legitimate concerns about this team's run into the playoffs. At this point, with the Eagles leading the NFC East, Dallas is on track to open the postseason on the road, where the Cowboys have been consistently exposed this season.
Sunday was the final chapter: early turnovers in the red zone, followed by late penalties that cost them dearly. Dallas' vaunted defense, which didn't get a sack until the fourth quarter, couldn't put the game away late and aided the Dolphins with a brutal facemask penalty on the final drive.
To win the NFC East, the Cowboys, now 10-5, will have to hope the Eagles (10-4) lose one of their final three games.
Philly faces the Giants twice, including on Monday afternoon, with a date with the lowly Cardinals in between. At the end of the season the Cowboys face the Lions and Commanders.
Meanwhile, it was an important win for the Dolphins, who remain in the race for the AFC's top spot. With a Ravens loss on Monday night in San Francisco, Miami and Baltimore would have identical 11-4 records heading into their Week 17 showdown.
The Dolphins' 11-4 start is the franchise's best since the days of Dan Marino.
“We are not finished yet. We’re not done yet,” said defensive end Bradley Chubb, who played one of his best games of the season on Sunday. “We’re changing the narrative to what we want it to be.”
For the first time in franchise history, the Dolphins have a 4,000-yard passer (Tagovailoa), a 1,000-yard rusher (Raheem Mostert) and two 1,000-yard receivers (Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle) in the same season.
2. Lions are NFC North champions for the first time ever
Enjoy, Detroit. You've been waiting for this for a long time.
On Sunday, the Lions captured their first-ever NFC North title – the franchise's last division title was in 1993, when they still played in the NFC Central. The drought was the third-longest in football.
But now it's history, thanks to the vision of Brad Holmes and the leadership of Dan Campbell and the revival of Jared Goff, who, after being discarded by the Rams three years ago, wrote a rousing second act in the Motor City that takes a downtrodden team out of Detroit NFL afterthought on NFC contender.
“This is just the beginning for us,” Goff said after Sunday’s 30-24 win over the Vikings.
“This is something special. This is something special. “It’s something you can’t always do,” Campbell said. “It’s always special to win a division. I don't care how many of them you get because of the work that goes into it. To do something for a team that hasn’t been done in 30 years is special.”
The win moves the Lions to 11-4 on the year and means they will host their first playoff game since January 1994. Detroit is seeking its first postseason win since 1991, the year Barry Sanders led the team to an NFC championship game appearance.
After going 8-2 last season, the Campbell's Lions are 19-6 in their last 25 games. The Coach of the Year candidate had two successful seasons in Detroit.
3. Flacco, Browns move closer to a playoff spot
No coach in football has weathered the storms of adversity better this season than Cleveland's Kevin Stefanski, whose Browns have their fourth starting quarterback yet are 10-5 and on the edge of an AFC playoff berth.
Sunday's 36-22 win in Houston brought them closer, a game the Browns were in control throughout and built a 36-7 lead early in the fourth quarter. The main reason was a record-setting day from wideout Amari Cooper, whose 265 receiving yards on 11 catches set a new franchise record and were the most receiving yards by any receiver in a game this season. “Special,” Stefanski called him. Cooper added two touchdowns and more than one highlight reel grab along the way, securing the Texans' second-place finish.
He joins Lance Alworth, Calvin Johnson, Don Hutson, Jerry Rice and Charlie Hennigan as the sixth player in NFL history with four career games with at least 200 receiving yards.
Since the 38-year-old Flacco earned the starting job a month ago, the Browns are 4-1. (Flacco has thrown for 1,307 yards, the most for a Browns quarterback in his first four starts.) All told, the team has won six of eight, and despite losing Deshaun Watson this season and then joining PJ Walker and Dorian Thompson- Robinson prevailed, Cleveland has its sights set on a playoff spot for the first time since the 2020 season.
The Browns can secure it with a win on Thursday against the Jets.
4. The Jags' slide continues as AFC South teams sit at 0-4
Sunday was a downer for the AFC South.
The good news for the teams in this division after a 0-4 afternoon? Nobody gained ground.
The bad news? The path to a potential playoff spot will be much more difficult for whoever doesn't win the division.
The Colts were beaten 29-10 in Atlanta.
The Texans lost 36-22 at home to Flacco and the Browns.
Then, in one of the most surprising results of the day, the Jaguars lost 30-12 in Tampa. Jacksonville, once 8-3 in the race for the AFC's top spot, hasn't won a game in December and has lost its last two (against the Ravens and Bucs) by a combined score of 53-19.
Last but not least, the division's fourth team, the Titans, lost 20-17 to Seattle.
The Colts began the weekend ranked No. 6, but fell to No. 7 with their loss and Buffalo's win. Currently, five AFC teams are 8-7 and are in the mix: the Colts, Jaguars, Texans, Steelers and Bengals.
Something is wrong with the Jaguars. Lawrence struggled with a slew of injuries toward the end of the season and left Sunday's game after injuring his right shoulder. He battled a high ankle sprain two weeks ago and then made it through concussion protocols just in time to play this week.
The offense, as expected, hasn't been particularly sharp, committing 10 turnovers in the last three games, including four on Sunday. The defense was no better, allowing nearly 30 points per game while the Jags lost four games.
The Jaguars, Colts and Texans entered the day tied at the top of the division. All three are now 8-7, with the Jags owning the tiebreaker over both. But the way Jacksonville is playing, it seems like this division is up for grabs.
The Jags will finish with the Panthers and Titans. The Colts face the Raiders and Texans, and the Texans will face the Titans before traveling to Indy to finish the regular season.
5. A Christmas present: more football
There are three more playoff-related games on Monday's schedule.
The Chiefs, who have lost three of four games but are still fighting for first place in the AFC, will host the Raiders at 1 p.m. ET. Kansas City can secure a spot in the playoffs with a win.
The Eagles, who benefited from Sunday's loss to the Cowboys, will face the Giants at 4:30 p.m. ET
And in the nightcap, one of the best matches of the season: The current top seed in the NFC, the 11-3 49ers, hosts the current top seed in the AFC, the 11-3 Ravens.
(Photo by Jameson Williams, Stephen Maturen/Getty Images))
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