The playoff picture is starting to take shape as we enter the final stretch of the regular season. Some early-season favorites are stumbling and other teams who were counted out in September are currently sitting in a playoff spot.
We no longer have any winless teams and a few other feats were accomplished in a notable Week 13:
Overachieving Team of the Week: Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs seemed to have turned a corner in recent weeks, winning five in a row and covering the spread in their last three contests. At 8-4, they are tied for the best record in the AFC, but are seeded fourth in the playoff picture thanks to their abysmal conference record.
However, Sunday night's victory didn't instill much confidence that Kansas City is truly out of the funk that plagued the first two months of their season. Patrick Mahomes set a new career-low in passer rating and endured his second-straight game with zero passing touchdowns, which is the longest such streak of his career.
In fact, outside of his five-touchdown outburst against the Raiders, Mahomes hasn't thrown multiple touchdowns in a game since Week 6. The 22 points scored on Sunday night were also the lowest in the Mahomes era against the Denver Broncos.
Denver bailed out the Chiefs sub-par offense on Sunday night with a pair of interceptions and a muffed punt that led to 10 Kansas City points. But perhaps the biggest miscue was not capitalizing on a 20-play, 83- yard drive in the second quarter. The Broncos marched from their own 3-yard line to the Chiefs' 8-yard line, but walked away empty-handed after using up 11 minutes of clock.
Certainly the Chiefs defense deserves credit for turning things around after a historically bad start to the season, but Teddy Bridgewater might be the worst quarterback they play until they travel to Denver in the season finale.
However, Kansas City has the benefit of hosting the ice-cold Raiders in Week 14 just four weeks removed from beating them 41-14 on the road.
Underachieving Team of the Week: Baltimore Ravens
The Ravens' once-dynamic offense has become a liability in recent weeks, failing to top 20 points in each of their last four games, turning the ball over eight times in the process.
Things have gotten so bad that John Harbaugh didn't feel confident in Lamar Jackson going toe-to-toe against the Steelers in overtime yesterday, passing on a game-tying extra point in favor of a potentially game-winning two-point conversion.
While the analytics community applauded Harbaugh for the aggressiveness and it certainly led to a thrilling ending for those who didn't care about the final result, it certainly felt like the head coach let his opponent off the hook, even if the ending was a result of poor execution and not a bad play-call.
Baltimore was a four-point road favorite that held Pittsburgh to just three points through three quarters. While the defense did start to fall apart, it isn't often you see a superior team act so aggressively, borderline desperately, in a high-leverage situation, especially with the GOAT kicker on your sideline.
Things don't get any easier for Baltimore with three more divisional games, plus a pair of games against the Rams and Packers remaining on their schedule. With just a one-game lead over the Bengals with five games remaining, the Ravens need to figure out how to jump-start their anemic offense.
Overachieving Player of the Week: Eagles Quarterback Gardner Minshew
It took only six plays for Minshew Mania to sweep Philadelphia and only 22 for the Eagles offense to score 21 points under the guidance of their backup quarterback. Minshew completed his first 11 pass attempts, finished the first half with a perfect passer rating, and when the dust settled, the Eagles rode off into the bye week on the highs of a 33-18 win over the Jets.
The Eagles didn’t just soar (sorry) with Minshew, they succeeded because of Minshew. Nick Sirianni called pass plays on 60% of the snaps during the Eagles' three touchdown drives and just 28% of the snaps on the Eagles' other possessions that resulted in four field goals and a punt.
Minshew became the first Eagles QB to complete 80% of his passes since Nick Foles in 2018 and his 133.7 passer rating is the highest for the franchise in the last eight years.
Obviously, the level of opponent played a factor on Sunday. The Jets rank 31st in net yards per attempt allowed this year and dead last in points allowed per drive, but this is an Eagles offense that has struggled to pass with Jalen Hurts under center. In fact, the Eagles hadn't topped 240 passing yards since a Week 4 loss at the hands of Kansas City.
Heading into the bye, Sirianni has already made it known that Hurts is the starting quarterback as long as he's healthy and the Eagles are happy keeping Minshew on the bench for now. But with a playoff berth within reach and the airwaves of sportstalk radio determined to turn this into a controversy before the Eagles take the field again, things could get very interesting down the stretch.
Underachieving Player of the Week: Vikings Quarterback Kirk Cousins
The Vikings will be a punch line this week after being the first team to fall victim to Dan Campbell's band of knee-biters. Even after allowing 20 unanswered in a disastrous second quarter, the Vikings fought back, taking a lead after a 21-3 outburst of their own.
Kirk Cousins, who has quietly put together a great season, was efficient as always, completing 75 percent of his passes and averaging 8.5 yards per attempt. He was even third among QBs this week in completion percentage over expectation, trailing only Minshew and Justin Herbert.
Cousins did lose a fumble that led to a Lions touchdown, but the bigger concern was that it took Minnesota seven trips into Lions territory before they finally found the end zone. And Cousins shouldn't be blamed for the Vikings' questionable defense on the final play that resulted in the game-winning TD.
Cousins is enjoying the best stretch of his career, throwing 18 touchdowns and just one interception in his last seven games. However, the Vikings are just 3-4 in those contests and are now on the outside of the playoff picture right now.
Bad Beat of the Week: Jimmy Garoppolo over 29.5 pass attempts
Jimmy Garoppolo entered the 49ers' final drive with just 21 pass attempts and needing to drive 98 yards to force overtime against the Seahawks following Gerald Everett's goal-line fumble. The Niners put together maybe the most impressive drive of the week, gaining 115 yards of offense on 12 plays.
With over four minutes on the clock when they took over, Kyle Shanahan didn't mind mixing up his calls, leading to Garoppolo needing two more pass attempts to hit the over while staring down first and goal.
With time still on their side, the 49ers attempted a pair of run plays that gained minimal yardage, setting up third and goal inside the final minute. Garoppolo threw a pair of incompletions on the final two plays from scrimmage, the second one getting batted down at the line, sealing the victory for Seattle and the victory for those who bet the over on his pass attempts.