The Seahawks’ offense got a spark from running back Rashaad Penny and dropped 33 points on the Texans, while the Titans got an important victory in their bid for the AFC’s top seed, shutting out the Jaguars at home.
Dallas’ defense made big plays to help it narrowly beat Washington and bring a division title a little closer, and the Falcons beat the Panthers, who used both Cam Newton and P.J.
In the late games, the Chargers handled the Giants to set up a Thursday night showdown with the Chiefs.
Plus, they each look at the bigger picture with their current team confidence rating — a 0-10 grade of how they feel about a team’s outlook coming out of the week.
All of that happened in the first half, and it doesn’t included a muffed punt return by Packers rookie Amari Rodgers that got wiped out by a Bears penalty and a botched onside kick late in the fourth.
When they lost right tackle Billy Turner to a left knee injury in the second quarter on Sunday, it left them with only one of their preferred starters.
As long as their special teams doesn’t cost them and the injuries don’t become too much to overcome, they’ve got a legit chance to win it all.
Despite the loss, Chicago’s offense looked the best it has in a while against one of the NFC’s top defenses, and Fields has plenty to build on over the final four games.
The O-line only allowed Fields to be sacked twice, and although rookie Teven Jenkins had a rough outing — earning four penalties in place of injured left tackle Jason Peters — the experience he gained is a plus for the future.
The Bears are in action next Monday, when they host a Minnesota team that hasn’t won all that often at Soldier Field.
But they surrendered 100 yards to Allen on the ground and gave up three touchdowns and a field goal in the second half, while the offense mustered three points in the second half of regulation, with too many missed connections.
As far as playoff seeding, because of the Packers’ late kickoff against the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals’ Monday night game against the Rams, the Bucs won’t know if they’ve moved into the second seed until later, but they took care of their own business.
Allen finished with more than 100 rushing yards for the third time in his career and became the first player in Bills history with at least 250 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in a single game, per ESPN Stats & Information.
After losing two straight for the first time this season, where do the Bills go from here? Luckily for the Bills, the remaining slate features one opponent with a winning record — the AFC East-leading New England Patriots.
Getzenberg’s confidence rating : 7.2, down from 7.5.
Sunday’s win in Cincinnati wasn’t particularly impressive other than San Francisco’s ability to step out of the way and let the Bengals make myriad mistakes — and not return the favor while tight end George Kittle dominated.
How significant is the injury to linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair? Al-Shaair has been one of the Niners’ most improved players and emerged as an emotional leader for a defense that has gotten better as the season has gone along.
But there are still many flaws here that make it hard to believe they can achieve much more than that.
Cincinnati has little to no room for error in its final four games if it wants to make the playoffs.
But Sunday’s game highlighted Cincinnati’s offensive inconsistency that has plagued the team the entire season.
What to know: After Friday’s practice, Broncos coach Vic Fangio said the team would be “ready to pay tribute” to former wide receiver Demaryius Thomas, who was found dead in his Georgia home this week.
Will the Broncos’ coaches keep Sunday in mind moving forward? The numbers continue to tell the tale this season: When the Broncos play with patience in the run game and use play-action in the passing game, they are a far more difficult offense to deal with.
Legwold’s confidence rating : 6, up from 5.
Coming off its first win of the season, Detroit couldn’t recreate that same magic during its loss to the Broncos with quarterback Jared Goff throwing for minus-7 yards in the first quarter.
Should the Lions consider shutting down running back D’Andre Swift for the remainder of the season? The Lions were officially eliminated from playoff contention Sunday and continue to strengthen their chances of selecting first in the 2022 NFL draft.
Backup receiver Joshua Palmer and second-string running back Justin Jackson both stepped up when needed, receiver Mike Williams played well again and receiver Jalen Guyton caught a big touchdown pass from Justin Herbert at the end of the first half.
The Chargers believe in their methods and approach, but having players such as Allen, James and Ekeler active would make their job easier against the Chiefs.
Those five QBs combined to complete 68% of their passes for an average of 282 yards with 13 touchdown passes and four interceptions.
Is coach Joe Judge’s job in jeopardy? It’s all but a lock that general manager Dave Gettleman will be gone after this season.
Defensive end Randy Gregory’s sack and forced fumble of WFT quarterback Kyle Allen with 2:24 to play was as needed as Gregory’s first-quarter interception of Taylor Heinicke that turned into a Cowboys’ touchdown.
Prescott had two interceptions and a case could be made three other passes could have been picked.
Even with the defense playing at a higher level than anybody could have expected, this team needs the offense to function at a high level.
Nobody felt that more than quarterback Taylor Heinicke, who played his worst game and eventually left in the fourth quarter because of a knee injury.
Is Washington too banged up? The team has been banged up for a while, but it’s gotten worse and now it’s worth wondering what it has left for the final four games.
Choosing Penny 27th overall over Nick Chubb in 2018 was and will remain one of the most regrettable personnel decisions the Seahawks have made under coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider, with Penny suffering one injury after another.
Is quarterback Russell Wilson all the way back? Wilson’s starting to look like himself as opposed to the version who struggled with accuracy and made a few bad decisions in his return from finger surgery.
Mills completed his first 14 pass attempts against the Seahawks, the most consecutive passes completed to start a game by a rookie since at least 1991 and the most by any player in Texans history.
After injuries and another poor rushing performance, what does this mean for Texans’ options at RB? The Texans’ running game took another hit on Sunday after Rex Burkhead left the game because of a groin injury.
What to know: The up-and-down Browns jumped back into the AFC North race with a ragged victory over the division-leading Ravens.
Subtract Myles Garrett’s defensive touchdown Sunday and — once again — the Browns failed to top 17 points, a big reason Baltimore was able to hang around without Lamar Jackson.
It would’ve been easy for the Ravens to fold when Jackson left early in the second quarter with a right ankle injury.
Is the Ravens’ season in jeopardy? The severity of Jackson’s ankle injury was unknown by the end of the game, and Baltimore still has a 46% chance of winning the AFC North, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index.
The passing offense was still pretty lackluster, but the defense was great, as New Orleans stopped a five-game losing streak to keep faint playoff hopes alive.
How tight is Taysom Hill’s grip on the starting QB job? It probably didn’t get any tighter or looser Sunday — even though he did put a nice exclamation point on the victory with his 44-yard touchdown run in the final minutes and finished with 73 rushing yards and two rushing TDs.
This game could’ve been called “The Replacements.” One of them, running back Ty Johnson, dropped three passes in the first quarter alone.
In some ways, this is worse because this is the era of parity, with free agency and quick fixes.
They had a relatively stress-free game heading into Thursday night’s showdown with the Chargers, who beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium in September.
Can the Chiefs win out and get the AFC’s top playoff seed? If they play like they did against the Raiders, they will.
The Raiders became the first team to lose four fumbles in a game this season, including one by Josh Jacobs that was returned for a TD on the first snap of the game.
With tight end Darren Waller missing his second straight game since suffering back and knee injuries on Thanksgiving, the most unassuming Raider had the biggest day.
What to know: Coach Arthur Smith has been saying for weeks the Falcons wanted to be playing meaningful football in December — and here in Charlotte, in the middle of the month, was a chance to do exactly that.
For the first time since 2018, Atlanta has topped 100 yards rushing in three straight games — once again led by 58 yards from perhaps the NFL’s most improved player, Cordarrelle Patterson.
Rothstein’s confidence rating : 4, up from 3.6.
Newton was a great feel-good story for a week, but he’s 0-3 as the starter and has lost 11 straight with the Panthers.
While it seems Rhule is safe until 2022, if the Panthers lose out and finish 5-12 after a 3-0 start, he might be on a very short leash with owner David Tepper.
What to know: The Titans got back to the positive side in the turnover column, and it was no coincidence they won the game.
Can a healthy Julio Jones eventually emerge as a threat in the passing game? Jones played 32 snaps for the Titans.
The Titans did what they were supposed to do by disposing of a lifeless Jaguars team.
The end result: the fourth shutout loss in franchise history and the first since a 41-0 beating in Seattle in Week 5 of 2009.
He’s also taking a beating every week, holding on to the ball too long at times, and forcing throws, though part of that is because he’s trying to get something going on offense.
Had Harrison Smith and Xavier Woods not broken up a terrific tight-window throw by Ben Roethlisberger to Pat Freiermuth on the final play of the game, we could be talking about the embarrassment of Minnesota allowing the largest regular-season comeback in NFL history, and possibly the beginning of a coaching search.
The Vikings play the 4-8 Bears twice in their final four games, so that should help, although the Lions proved no opponent should be taken for granted.
The Vikings finished with 5.1 yards per rush before contact, marking only the fourth time in the past 10 seasons the Steelers have allowed that many yards before contact.
The offense comes alive only once it finds itself at a significant deficit and goes into its no-huddle look, and it often hurts itself with unforced errors and penalties .
Pryor’s confidence rating : 2.3, down from 3.5.