NFL Week 12 Takeaways for Each Team in 2023 Thanksgiving Day Games
We've reached an epic juncture on the annual NFL schedule. It's Thanksgiving Thursday, and three interesting divisional matchups were on the menu to kick off Week 12.
We reacted to all the action while you juggled pigskin, turkey bits and everything in between.
Here are key takeaways from matchups between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, Washington Commanders and Dallas Cowboys, and San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks.
Do the Packers Actually Have a Shot?
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The Packers lost just one game in the month of November and are now within reaching distance of the playoff race at 5-6. In a short-rest, shorthanded road victory Thursday over a superior team, quarterback Jordan Love completed 22 of 32 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns in a turnover-free performance.
They've now gone eight quarters without a turnover, and in Love's last four games he's completed 65 percent of his passes, thrown eight touchdown strikes to two interceptions, and he's posted a 103.1 passer rating.
If Love truly is finding a groove in the midst of his first season as an NFL starter, the Packers could rise from what felt like the grave in October and make a playoff run. The top-10 scoring defense has surrendered just 18.3 points per game since the start of October, so the ingredients are there.
And most critically, the NFC wild-card pool is wide open. They're now just one game back of the Kirk Cousins-less Minnesota Vikings and the stumbling Seahawks for the final playoff spots in that conference.
The Packers will be well-rested for a Week 13 home meeting with a more-beatable-than-usual Kansas City Chiefs team, and beyond that the schedule is extremely soft. In fact, the 6-5 Vikings are the best team the Packers play after Week 13.
It's absolutely within the realm of possibility.
Do the Lions Make Too Many Mistakes to Contend?
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Even with the 29-22 loss in a game they had no business losing, the Lions maintain a multi-game lead on the remainder of the flawed NFC North. Still, a team that looked like a potential Super Bowl contender for much of the first half of the season is showing cracks in the armor as they embark on the home stretch.
At home against a limping and inferior opponent Thursday, the Lions committed three turnovers and took seven penalties—one of which wiped out a David Montgomery touchdown.
The Lions are 8-3, but they've now committed seven turnovers in a five-day span. They were fortunate to hang on at home against the Chicago Bears on Sunday but weren't so lucky at the same site against Green Bay.
What does that indicate they're in for when the schedule stiffens up? They still have to travel to New Orleans, Minnesota and Dallas, and in Week 15 they host the surging Denver Broncos.
This team has progressed beautifully throughout the Dan Campbell era, but a recent rash of miscues could indicate the Lions are still at least a year away from truly being a trustworthy Super Bowl contender.
With Dak Prescott Rolling, These Cowboys Can Win the Super Bowl
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But this year is starting to feel different.
After hammering the Commanders 45-10 on Thursday, the Cowboys have now outscored their opponents 127-37 in their last three games. At home this season, they're now 5-0 with a scoring margin of 205-60.
Sure, we're talking about soft opponents like 4-8 Washington as well as the New York Giants, Carolina Panthers and New England Patriots. But you can't control who you play and the Cowboys are proving to be on another level entirely.
Remember, they nearly beat the Super Bowl favorite and reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles on the road earlier this month.
The key? Quarterback Dak Prescott is simply playing the best football of his career. In his last six games, the 30-year-old two-time Pro Bowler has completed 70 percent of his passes and has thrown 18 touchdown passes to just two interceptions for a passer rating of 122.6.
He's healthy, he's in his prime, the talent is there, and the support is there. Nothing's guaranteed but the Cowboys have it in them, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were to beat Philadelphia in Week 14 and go on to capture the top seed in the NFC.
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Time For the Commanders to End the Ron Rivera Era
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Meanwhile, following that embarrassing Turkey Day loss, the Commanders are essentially toast at 4-8. Fans will surely begin to think more about what this team ought to look like in 2024 and beyond.
As usual, those questions will focus on the head coach.
It's entirely possible they move on from Ron Rivera soon, as the veteran head coach is now practically ensuring a fourth consecutive season without a winning record in Washington. Dating back to his days in Carolina, this would actually mark the 61-year-old's sixth consecutive campaign as a head coach with a non-winning record. He hasn't won a playoff game since the Panthers went to the Super Bowl in 2015.
Rivera admittedly wasn't dealt the finest hand this season, and that was exacerbated when the team traded both Chase Young and Montez Sweat at the deadline. But quarterback Sam Howell has flashed and has plenty of offensive support. Four wins entering December is disappointing no matter how you break it down.
New Commanders owner Josh Harris may indeed want to wait out the season before making a move, but Rivera should officially be a lame duck at best following a double-digit-point home loss to the terrible New York Giants before that joke of a showing in front of a national audience on Thursday.
If it were my choice, I'd cut bait with extra time off ahead of Week 13 and start planning for the future.
Seahawks Are Playoff Pretenders Showing True Colors at the Worst Time
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The Seahawks have serious issues.
It's never good when you get smashed by a three-score margin at home by a division rival operating on short rest. It's even worse when that represents a third loss in four games, with the only victory coming by a field goal at home against a weak Washington team.
That's the state of the Seahawks, who scored one total offensive touchdown in three November losses to the Baltimore Ravens, Los Angeles Rams and 49ers.
Really, we have to conclude that the Seahawks simply aren't a good team. They're still in the hunt at 6-5, but narrowly defeating teams like Washington and the Cleveland Browns at home doesn't amount to much, and their only truly impressive win this season came back in Week 2 when they beat the Lions in overtime.
Quarterback Geno Smith's completion-to-sack ratio was merely 3-to-1 in another generally ineffective performance Thursday. He entered the day ranked in the middle of the pack pretty much across the board in terms of rate-based stats, and he did nothing to improve that with 180 passing yards and an interception as the Seahawks were held to fewer than 17 points for the third time this month.
It's becoming increasingly likely that Smith's standout 2022 season was an anomaly.
Seattle couldn't sustain drives on offense, while a vulnerable and mediocre defense was gashed yet again.
This team is going nowhere fast, and its next three games come against Dallas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
Good freakin' luck.
49ers' Victory Shows the League's Three Best Teams Come from the NFC
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It's both coincidental and terrifying that those next three aforementioned Seahawks games come against the Cowboys, 49ers and Eagles. Because our final takeaway from Thursday's action is that those three NFC juggernauts have emerged as the league's three primary pace-setters entering the home stretch. San Francisco's spoiled top-rated quarterback worked it around to all four of his elite weapons as the 49ers won by 13-plus points for the seventh time in just 11 games. And we already covered the dominance in Dallas. With those victories in the books as the tryptophan sets in, the 49ers and Cowboys have now outscored their opponents by 140 and 162 points, respectively. Only one other team (Baltimore) is above plus-104 in that metric, and that squad is a week removed from an upset home loss to Cleveland as it reels from a cluster of pass-catcher injuries.
Meanwhile, following Detroit's slip-up Thursday, only one team in the league—9-1 Philadelphia—has fewer than three losses at this point. It'd be pretty hard for anyone to justify leaving the Eagles out of the top spot, period, let alone the top three.
We just touched on the Lions and Ravens. The defending champion Kansas City Chiefs are, of course, always in consideration, but they just lost to Philly at home and something's been off all year for Patrick Mahomes and Co.
Also with three losses are the Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins. Cleveland is without its franchise quarterback the rest of the year; Jacksonville just isn't at that level and was crushed by the Eagles earlier this month; and the Dolphins have laid eggs in each of their three headline matchups with contenders Buffalo, Philadelphia and Kansas City.
The AFC possessed most of the hype all offseason, but on Thursday it became clear that a the Super Bowl is likely to go through one of three super-hot teams from the NFC.
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