December 01, 2025
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Blame Nick Sirianni for his atrocious offense, not his decision to go for two.
Week 13 is in the books, or at least it is for the NFC teams that are still in contention for the playoffs. There were some upsets, as the Rams, Eagles, and Lions all lost as favorites. We have no new obituaries this week.
None.
10) Panthers (7-6): The Panthers knocked off the Rams, which made them very popular among Seahawks, Bears, Eagles, Packers, and 49ers fans. And it's not like their win over the Rams was fluky or anything. They made big plays all day. What a weird team this is:
The Panthers lost to the Saints, have two losses of 25+ points, scored 13 or fewer points in 6 games, had a 30-0 blowout win, and now have wins over the Rams and Packers.
— Robert Mays (@robertmays) November 30, 2025
Very normal team.
Last week: 10
9) Lions (7-5): The Lions have the third-best point differential in the NFC, and the sixth-best point differential in the NFL:
But, since Week 5, they have gone W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L, and they now sit at 7-5, two games back in the NFC North and 1.5 games back in the wildcard hunt. This is probably the appropriate place to show what the NFC standings look like at the moment:
| Seed | Team | Record |
| 1 | Bears | 9-3 |
| 2 | Rams | 9-3 |
| 3 | Eagles | 8-4 |
| 4 | Buccaneers | 7-5 |
| 5 | Seahawks | 9-3 |
| 6 | Packers | 8-3-1 |
| 7 | 49ers | 9-4 |
| 8 | Lions | 7-5 |
| 9 | Cowboys | 6-5-1 |
| 10 | Panthers | 7-6 |
| 11 | Falcons ☠️ | 4-8 |
| 12 | Vikings ☠️ | 4-8 |
| 13 | Cardinals ☠️ | 3-9 |
| 14 | Commanders ☠️ | 3-9 |
| 15 | Saints ☠️ | 2-10 |
| 16 | Giants ☠️ | 2-10 |
The Lions' next two games are against a hot Cowboys team and then in L.A. against the Rams. If they fail to win either of those games, they're probably done.
There's a little bit of a "1 seed curse" happening in the NFC lately, by the way:
| Year | 1 seed | The next year... |
| 2021 | Packers (13-4) | 8-9, no playoffs |
| 2022 | Eagles (14-3) | 11-6, epic collapse, one-and-done in playoffs |
| 2023 | 49ers (12-5) | 6-11, no playoffs |
| 2024 | Lions (15-2) | 7-5, currently the 8 seed |
8) Buccaneers (7-5): The Bucs have the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL, per Inpredictable:
• Week 14: Saints
• Week 15: Falcons
• Week 16: At Panthers
• Week 17: At Dolphins
• Week 18: Panthers
As long as they manage at least a split with the Panthers they should pretty easily win the NFC South for the fifth straight season.
On a side note, both the NFC South and AFC North have no teams with a positive point differential.
Last week: 8
7) Cowboys (6-5-1): Cowboys, so hot right now. Cowboys.
Last week: 9
6) 49ers (9-4): The 49ers keep beating bad teams, blah blah blah...
I'm more interested in the quote of the year from the Browns' Shelby Harris about Niners WR Juaun Jennings, via Camryn Justice:
Lol.
Last week: 7
The counterpoint would be the human element of a team’s mindset/mentality only being down one score instead of two.
Right or wrong, there is some unquantifiable aspect to the belief & confidence of knowing you’re only down one score.
This isn't a perfect analogy, but it's similar to playing blackjack, and staying on, saaayyyyy, 13, with the dealer showing a face card. You're already likely to lose, but mathematically, the clear play is to hit. Of course, if you hit, there's a decent chance you'll bust, and you lose before the dealer has to even show their other card. If you stand on 13, you're even more likely to lose, but at least you had the illusion of staying alive a little longer by getting to see the dealer's card and hoping they bust instead.Nick Sirianni made the right decision to go for two... definitively.Criticism of that decision distracts from what should be the real focus of Sirianni's shortcomings, which is that the Eagles' offense is a rudderless abomination and the staff rolls out the same uncreative, predictable, boring garbage every week that hasn't worked all season.Last week: 2
4) Bears (9-3): After stripping Jalen Hurts on a Tush Push, the Bears' offense took the field and had the following drive:
Kinda reminds me of what the Eagles used to do.
Last week: 6
3) Packers (8-3-1): Micah Parsons has 6 sacks in his last 3 games and now 12.5 on the season. He was everywhere on Thanksgiving against the Lions:
HUGE NFC North matchup Week 14: Bears at Packers.
Last week: 5
2) Seahawks (9-3): The Seahawks had arguably the most dominant defensive performance of the season on Sunday, when they racked up five takeaways (including a pick-six), four sacks, and a shutout of the Vikings.
The funniest turnover that they forced was Riq Woolen's INT of Max Brosmer late in the fourth quarter -- Brosmer's fourth INT of the day -- that Woolen fumbled back to the Vikings during his INT return.
It was almost as if the Vikings were like, "Oh no, we have to stay on the field and get torn apart some more?" And sure enough, the Vikings were sacked twice on the ensuing possession, and went four-and-out.
1) Rams (9-3): The Rams lost in Carolina. Meh. As noted above, it's not as though the Rams were just garbage in that game, and handed away a win. I thought the Panthers just kinda played their asses off. The Rams will be fine, and in my opinion are still the best team in the NFL right now.
Having said that, the margin between the Rams and (fill in whatever contending team you'd like) is pretty thin. There are no juggernauts in 2025, and frankly no teams that are even close. It's wide open, in both conferences.
Last week: 1
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