Five things we liked and five things we didn’t like in NFL Week 13

Oh, how quickly things change in the National Football League. At this time last year, the Bears and the Patriots not only had questions about their young quarterbacks, but if they could surround them with the infrastructure — the coaching, the weapons, the offensive line — for success.

Now, Chicago and New England lead their respective conferences. Ben Johnson’s offensive scheme has lifted Caleb Williams and a rushing attack that has the highest success rate in the league. Drake Maye has ascended to stardom with Stefon Diggs recapturing his earlier form. Both offensive lines have been overhauled, the personnel has improved, and the coaching has gone from among the league’s worst to its best.

If you think those turnarounds are quick, just consider the developments of the past few weeks. The Cowboys have won three straight and defeated the past two Super Bowl champions in a span of five days. The Colts, once the toast of the NFL for their resurrection of Daniel Jones, have lost three of four, no longer lead even their own division and are in a dog fight for a playoff berth. The Panthers alternate between looking like one of the NFL’s worst teams and one of its best.

There are 20 teams .500 or better, tied for the most through 13 weeks in NFL history. The teams with the top four shortest preseason odds — the Lions, Chiefs, Ravens and Eagles — all lost in Week 13. The drama is high, the margins are narrow, and the next five weeks should be thrilling.

And we like that a lot.

Five things we liked in Week 13

Cowboys fight fire with fire

Want to know how to beat the Chiefs? Don’t back down. Not once. Don’t worry about the clock — Patrick Mahomes once managed a field goal drive in 13 seconds, remember? —  don’t play for field position. The way to beat Patrick Mahomes is to not let him have the ball.

That’s exactly what the Cowboys did in their 31-28 Thanksgiving Day win. Each of Dallas’ final four drives either scored points or ran the clock out. The last one featured throws on second-and-8 (George Pickens drew a pass interference), second-and-9 (CeeDee Lamb caught an 11-yard pass) and third-and-2 (Pickens caught a 13-yard pass). Three first downs. Mahomes never touched the ball again.

The Pickens trade has been a revelation for Dallas. Having Lamb already made the Cowboys dangerous. Pickens is not only terrific individually, but he makes it impossible to focus solely on Lamb. Dallas has life.

Packers defense shows off its speed

Remember last week, when we heaped praise upon Jahmyr Gibbs? The Packers made sure it didn’t happen again. After 219 yards on just 15 carries (14.6 yards per rush!), Gibbs managed 68 yards on 20 carries (3.4 yards per rush). Overall, Lions running backs had 100 yards on 28 carries (3.6 yards per carry).

Green Bay’s rush defense has been one of the NFL’s best all season, but it shined in particular against Detroit on runs to the edges. The Lions are averaging 6.1 yards per carry to the right, second in the NFL; Thursday, they ran that way six times for -3 yards. Yes, negative three.

Watch how the fast the defense is. My favorite play is Edgerrin Cooper hawking down Gibbs with a combination of speed, athleticism and strength few linebackers possess.

That sort of speed permeates this defense.

On the first play, Isaiah McDuffie beats Trystan Colon to the spot. On the second, Evan Williams comes in like a heat-seeking missile, flying past Isaac TeSlaa. On the third, Micah Parsons holds up well against Penei Sewell, and Ty’Ron Hopper wins his one-on-one, giving McDuffie a free shot in the hole. in the fourth clip, it’s Parsons taking on and beating two different blockers to give McDuffie another clear shot.

This season, the Lions have averaged 5.4 yards per carry on runs to the right or left against teams not named the Packers. They’ve averaged 2.8 on those runs against Green Bay.

At long last, the tush push is officiated correctly

The Bears’ win over the Eagles was impressive for a variety of reasons: a punishing rushing attack that helped them control the clock, a strong run defense, a terrific third-down efficiency and, overall, a strong statement from both sides of the ball.

But much to the relief of not just Bears fans but NFL fans was the tush push being officiated correctly.

You may recall back in Week 8 when the Giants made a similar play, but officials ruled Jalen Hurts’ forward progress had stopped.

Here’s what I wrote in that week’s version of this column:

“Jalen Hurts is quite literally pushing his body and the ball forward. If that’s not forward progress, what on Earth is?! The tush push is already impossible to defend and even harder to officiate. The Eagles can’t get every single advantage.”

Good on these officials, good on the Bears (who were clearly ready), and good on Nahshon Wright for a heads-up play. Chicago leads the NFL in takeaways and turnover margin this season.

Alec Pierce is having a contract-year breakout

The Colts are finally getting the Alec Pierce they envisioned when they picked him in the second round in 2022. For the second straight year, Pierce is leading the NFL in yards per reception, and plays like these certainly don’t hurt.

We always knew about the speed and big-play ability. Where Pierce has grown is in the other aspects of the craft; his release, his toughness, his change of speeds, his hands. That, in turn, has made him a much more versatile wide receiver.

• This season, he has eight catches for 164 yards on “in” routes. He had seven catches for 100 yards on that route in 2023 and 2024 combined.
• This season, he has seven catches for 103 yards on “out” routes. He had eight catches for 80 yards on that route from 2022-24.

He is much, much more than a big, fast deep threat. At just 25 years old, he will be a very sought-after free agent.

Puka Nacua, Brock Bowers and Treylon Burks submit Catch of the Year nominees

For your viewing pleasure:

Three “Catch of the Year” nominees, all within a few hours of each other. It felt like we were due for a true jaw-dropping catch, and then we got three. Want to make a case for any as the best? Nacua caught it through contact. Burks reminded us of the famous Odell Beckham Jr. catch (and Beckham himself gave Burks props). Bowers went down low. Pick your favorite; you can’t go wrong

Or don’t pick at all. Comparison is the thief of joy. Just appreciate these plays and smile. They were awesome.

Five things we didn’t like in Week 13

Lamar Jackson’s surprise weakness

The Bengals game was supposed to be a get-right opportunity for the Ravens offense.

Instead, it got worse. Especially for Lamar Jackson, who completed just 17 of 32 passes, had three turnovers and took three sacks against the league’s worst defense. Jackson also ran for just 27 yards, and his legs have been as much of a non-factor as they’ve ever been: He has 48 rushing yards over his last three starts, the fewest in a three-start span in his career.

But the bigger worry, to me, is the inaccuracy. Pro Football Focus charted eight of Jackson’s 32 attempts as off-target. That’s 25%. This is a concerning trend; over the past three weeks, he has that same 25% off-target percentage. His career number is roughly half of that: 12.7%.

No one outside the Ravens’ organization can really know the full picture of Jackson’s health. It took him a while to come back from his hamstring injury. He has not looked at all like the explosive runner he was prior to the injury. Maybe it’s impacted his accuracy, too, though Jackson said it isn’t. John Harbaugh has been vague about whether or not Jackson will continue to miss practices with a variety of injuries.

Still, the misses are stunning. We’re talking layups he has hit over and over in his career, especially as he’s improved as a passer. He had a 10.5% off-target rate last year; it’s up to 15.4% this year.

Frankly, Jackson, a two-time MVP and a player I am a huge fan of, is not a good quarterback right now. He’s not a major threat as a runner. He’s missing throws NFL quarterbacks make in their sleep.

“I have to make those throws,” Jackson said. “I don’t miss them in practice, so I shouldn’t be missing them in the game.”

Texans’ red-zone offense

The Texans have won four straight and are 7-5 after an 0-3 start. It’s been an outstanding turnaround fueled by a dominant defense and an offense that is at least viable, though still not good.

The offense could reach good — or at least get closer to it — with better red zone play. The Texans are scoring a touchdown on just 43.6% of their red zone drives, 31st in the NFL. Only the Saints are worse.

It’s bad everywhere. Houston is 27th in both yards per rush and yards per pass attempt in the red zone. It’s 2.0 yards per play is 29th. Sacks (25th in sack rate) and penalties (second-most in the NFL) are wreaking havoc on an offense that already has little room for error.

Don’t believe in the Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins have now won three straight and four of five to get to 5-7 on the season. They are on the faint edges of the playoff picture, and with a manageable schedule ahead, maybe you could talk yourself into them.

Don’t.

Listen, I will commend Mike McDaniel for getting things together after they looked like a disaster. Miami fired GM Chris Grier and had a mini sale at the trade deadline. It could have all fallen apart. Maybe it was all just a matter of removing games from the locker room.

But this is a team that has beaten the Marcus Mariota-led Commanders by three and the Tyler Shough-led Saints by four. Tua Tagovailoa has zero touchdown passes and one interception in those two games against bad defenses. His 14 interceptions are tied for the league lead this season. Tagovailoa is 25th in expected points added per play this season, right behind Carson Wentz.

There was part of me that wanted to see a more serious sale at the trade deadline, but the NFL is a job security league, and selling more players likely meant more losing, which might have meant more job loss. But the Dolphins are wandering the wilderness of the NFL right now: not bad enough for a full reset, not good enough to threaten the league’s best, or really even a couple of tiers below that. It just feels like this season is prolonging the inevitable and necessary reset that will eventually happen.

A replay request

The NFL has tried to facilitate faster replay mechanisms throughout the years. The “eye in the sky,” expedited reviews and now even virtual measurements.

If we’re willing to do all that, why not take it one step further? Clear and obvious missed calls or missed calls should be able to be changed. I’m not talking about close judgment calls. I’m talking about this example from “Sunday Night Football.”

This play was already being reviewed to determine if Marcus Mariota went down by contact or was untouched (he got up and ran). Expedited review determined he was down by contact, which was correct. But it doesn’t have the power to determine if a call is blatantly missed, and to that, I say, “Why not?”

I get it would take a bit more time. But if the system is already being used to determine one aspect of a play, why can’t it look at all aspects of the play? This could be limited in scope to start, but referees already have too difficult of a job and can use all the help they can get.

The Giants keep finding new ways to mess up kicks

I have watched a lot of football. I have never seen this.

In case you were wondering, this officially goes down as a -13 yard run by Jamie Gillan.