Week 12 felt the unofficial start of the stretch run. A dynasty wobbled. Contenders survived. Five of the day’s first seven games were decided by seven points or less. Two went to overtime. And we get to do this all over again in four days.
Here is what to know.
The Chiefs are not going quietly
For a wide swath of Sunday afternoon, Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback who reached the AFC championship game in each of his first seven seasons as a starter, the golden child who crafted an all-time career before turning 30, appeared more likely to miss the playoffs than make them.
The Kansas City Chiefs’ offense stalled all afternoon. The Indianapolis Colts created more open space and moved the ball with greater ease. Late in the fourth quarter, trailing by a field goal, the Chiefs faced first and 13 on their own 3-yard line.
For all the team’s starry luster and recent struggle, Kansas City is a champion. When necessary, with their season hanging by a thread against a worthy opponent, the Chiefs played like it. They outlasted the Colts for a 23-20 overtime victory, their first win this season in a one-score game after five losses. Kansas City improved to 6-5 and avoided a defeat that would have reduced its playoff odds to roughly 25 percent.
The Chiefs won on Harrison Butker’s chip-shot field goal after a procession of clutch plays from Mahomes and wideout Rashee Rice. But as in so many of their close victories last season, Steve Spagnuolo’s defense made it possible. Kansas City held Indianapolis’s explosive offense to six points in the second half and finished the game by forcing four straight three-and-outs, including in overtime after the Colts won the toss and took the ball.
Spagnuolo’s group gave Mahomes enough chances to win the game. Against defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, his nemesis when the Cincinnati Bengals toppled him in the 2022 AFC championship game, Mahomes didn’t throw a touchdown pass, but he did enough.
In overtime, Mahomes overshot wide-open Travis Kelce with a pass that could have pushed the Chiefs close to midfield. Two plays later, darting forward in the pocket, he fired a laser beam on third and seven to Xavier Worthy for 31 yards, vaulting Kansas City to the verge of field goal range. It was an apt sequence. The familiar architects of a modern dynasty have malfunctioned at crucial times. Even when they don’t consistently play like it, though, they are still themselves.
The Chiefs are not yet in the clear. They lost guard Trey Smith to an ankle injury Sunday, and whether he can return to play the Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving is in question. They’re still sitting outside of playoff seeding in the AFC. They’re also capable of anything — their plus-76 point differential ranks third in the conference, better than the AFC West-leading Denver Broncos. Kansas City is not going away, at least not yet.
The Lions almost got Jameis’d
When Jameis Winston steps behind center, the preposterous is inevitable. He will invariably keep his team and the opponent in the game. He’s thrilling, bold, hilarious, reckless and guaranteed entertainment. On Sunday, he passed for 366 yards, caught a touchdown pass and pushed the Detroit Lions to the limit.
The New York Giants lost, 34-27, in overtime, but Winston was the protagonist. He flipped an end-around handoff to wideout Gunner Olszewski, then rolled around the left end. Olszewski danced around a tackler, sprinted forward and zipped a pass to Winston down the left sideline. He snared the ball with linebacker Derrick Barnes closing in. Winston stutter-stepped and spun, shaking Barnes’s tackle before he danced into the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown reception that doubled as perhaps the sweetest play of the entire season.
JAMEIS WINSTON RECEIVING TD FROM GUNNER OLSZEWSKI. NYGvsDET on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/A5D17S03R3
— NFL (@NFL) November 23, 2025
The Giants rode the Jameis-coaster all game. In the fourth quarter, Winston forced a pass to Wan’Dale Robinson — who, as this year’s recipient of the Jameis Winston Wideout Lottery caught nine passes for 156 yards — and Thomas Harper intercepted it. Backed up to his end zone on New York’s next possession, Winston heaved a 30-yard lollipop to Isaiah Hodgins. A few minutes later, he escaped a sack on third and 17 and threw deep to tight end Theo Johnson for a first down.
Jahmyr Gibbs single-handedly dragged the Lions to victory. He racked up 264 yards from scrimmage, which included a 69-yard touchdown run on the first play of overtime. But something is off with Detroit. Three weeks ago, Coach Dan Campbell took over play-calling from offensive coordinator John Morton, whom Campbell hired in the offseason to replace Ben Johnson. The Lions couldn’t move the ball against the Philadelphia Eagles last week. They trailed at home for most of Sunday against the two-win Giants. Detroit’s Thanksgiving game against the Green Bay Packers — who held Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy to 87 passing yards Sunday — could be an inflection point in their season.
Are the Bears good?
The Chicago Bears are the most confounding team — pleasantly so, for success-starved Chicagoans — in the NFL. They lead the NFC North at 8-3, but it’s not clear whether they’re any good.
Their 31-28 nail-biter over the Pittsburgh Steelers gave them their first victory over an opponent that currently owns a winning record, and it came against a team quarterbacked by Mason Rudolph. (Does Aaron Rodgers still own the Bears? Thanks to his broken left wrist, we may never know.) Six of their victories have come by five points or less, and in the first five they trailed in the final two minutes. Their point differential is negative-three.
Caleb Williams is the perfect Rorschach quarterback to lead this team. Squint and you can see either a franchise playmaker or a disaster waiting to happen. Williams made an unforgivable play that surfaced the worst of his tendency for carelessness. He drifted out of a clean pocket into the end zone, letting the ball dangle as T.J. Watt closed in. Watt wrapped him up and shook the ball loose, and Nate Herbig dove on it for a Steelers touchdown. (The play nudged Watt past his brother J.J., who was calling the game for CBS, on the all-time sack list.) But Williams took no other sacks, didn’t throw an interception and tossed three touchdown passes.
If the Bears have staying power, it owes to their defense. Chicago held Pittsburgh to seven points in the second half, and its emerging pass rush suffocated the Steelers’ offense. The Bears’ Black Friday showcase game in Philadelphia against the Eagles will provide the clearest evidence yet of whether they are legitimately ascending or propped up by close wins over lightweights.
The Tush Push is evolving
The tush push may or may not survive another offseason of competition committee debate and backroom campaigning. But further proof is arriving that the play has lasting quality as a stratagem. It has been around long enough that offenses can use the threat of it against defenses and call counterpunches off it.
Last week, the Baltimore Ravens scored a 35-yard rushing touchdown when tight end Mark Andrews took a snap in push formation, twirled and scampered around the end, a play the team called “Hurricane.” On a fourth and inches late in the first half Sunday, the Steelers lined up in their push formation, with tight end Connor Heyward under center. Heyward spun and handed the ball to Kenneth Gainwell on a counter play, and Gainwell sprinted 55 yards to the Chicago 1.
Huge gain for Kenneth Gainwell on the fake tush push PITvsCHI on CBS/Paramount+https://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/Dq3uwPLanU
— NFL (@NFL) November 23, 2025
Maybe the tush push isn’t an aesthetic pleasure. But watching how offensive coaches leverage the threat of it is a delight.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba should win offensive player of the year
Nobody at any position is playing better this season than Seattle Seahawks wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who in a 30-24 victory over the Tennessee Titans produced the kind of sublime performance that he has made routine. Smith-Njigba caught eight passes for 167 yards and two touchdowns, another argument that he belongs among the best wideouts in the NFL.
Smith-Njigba has already set the Seahawks’ franchise record with 1,313 receiving yards, which led the NFL by more than 400 yards after Sunday’s early slate of games. He has combined explosiveness with remarkable consistency. In his worst game of the season, he caught four passes for 79 yards and added three rushes for 11 yards. Even elite wideouts suffer from off games — defenses can double-team them, and they are the mercy of their quarterback. Smith-Njigba has been a force every time he touches the field.
NFL kickers are out control
More evidence arrived Sunday that field goal kicking has reached an unprecedented level. In the early wave of games, kickers made 31 of 31 field goal attempts, perfection across seven games that included game-shifting performances. Detroit’s Jake Bates forced overtime with a game-tying 59-yarder in the final minute of regulation. Butker’s 5-for-5 performance included chip shots that forced overtime and walked it off. Cincinnati’s Evan McPherson booted a 63-yarder, and Minnesota’s Will Reichard blasted a 59-yarder.
The NFL has allowed kickers to soften up balls during the week, which has helped them make kicks from greater distances than ever before. But they are also bigger, stronger and better than ever.
The Patriots are a wobbly front-runner
The New England Patriots have been one of the stories of the season, an emerging power rising from a dismal stretch behind first-year coach Mike Vrabel and MVP candidate Drake Maye. The Patriots improved to 10-2 with a 26-20 victory over the Bengals, but some cracks emerged in their armor.
New England has feasted on a weak schedule, and its struggles against a three-win Cincinnati team won’t placate doubters. While Maye passed for 294 yards, his MVP candidacy took a hit when he launched a pick-six. But the most alarming part came when rookie left tackle Will Campbell, the fourth overall pick and protector of Maye’s blind side, was carted off the field with a towel over his head after suffering a right knee injury.
“I hope it’s not as bad as we think,” wideout Stefon Diggs told reporters afterward.
If it is, the Patriots’ dream season may be turning in the wrong direction.
The post What to know from NFL Week 12: The Chiefs aren’t going anywhere appeared first on Washington Post.
