Sportsnaut
NFL Week 3 kicked off with the Houston Texans sending a message to the rest of the AFC by taking down the Buffalo Bills. That set the tone for an entertaining slate that included the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions rallying for OT wins and the Green Bay Packers making their own statement at home.
Let’s dive into the NFL Week 13 power rankings, providing analysis on all 32 teams following Sunday’s game. We’ll provide updates after Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football.
The Los Angeles Rams have the MVP front-runner in Matthew Stafford, a top-five offense in points per drive (2.59), and the league’s No. 2 defense in EPA per play (-0.071). Last week, they overcame a tough test against the Seahawks to position themselves as the front-runner for the NFC West crown and a potential first-round bye. There are some injuries right now — Rob Havenstein, Quentin Lake, and Ahkello Witherspoon — but this remains the best NFL team right now.
The 26-20 victory over the Bengals on Sunday came at a painful cost for the New England Patriots. Standout rookie left tackle Will Campbell was carted off the field with an injury, and left guard Jared Wilson also was ruled out with an injury. New England still came out of this with a victory, and its defense should be good enough to beat the Giants on Monday Night Football. If those are long-term absences on the left side, however, the losses are coming in December.
The Seattle Seahawks can come out of Sunday’s win over the Titans seeing room for improvement (punt coverage) and be excited about what’s to come. Kenneth Walker looked explosive in Week 12, with Seattle finding explosive plays and consistent gains for the first time in weeks. Now at 8-3, the Seahawks get to throw this defense at J.J. McCarthy next week**,** plus a little revenge for Sam Darnold against his former team.
Bo Nix ultimately determines if the Denver Broncos are a Super Bowl contender. Losing J.K. Dobbins is a huge blow for an offense that was already averaging just 78.8 rushing yards per game and a 3.4 yards-per-carry average in its last eight contests. With Pat Surtain returning, Denver absolutely boasts a championship-caliber defense. It’s just a question of consistency with Nix.
Winning that one without Josh Jacobs, Quay Walker, Jayden Reed, and Matthew Golden is pretty big for the Green Bay Packers. It had been weeks since the Packers looked like a dominant team, and Jordan Love wasn’t necessarily great on Sunday, but that was a dominant second-half by that defense at Lambeau Field. Jacobs, Walker and Golden could all be back for a critical Thanksgiving matchup versus Detroit.
So it’s not just the Packers who got a tough fight from the Giants. If not...
