By The NFL season is nearing the home stretch, but many teams won’t even be playing in Week 14.
Six teams are on a bye this weekend, with the Houston Texans, Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, Washington Commanders and Baltimore Ravens all off.
Here are five things to know for Week 14:
The Chiefs survived a rain storm and an injury scare to quarterback Patrick Mahomes to defeat the Buccaneers 30-24 in overtime and improve to 8-0 on the season.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2239″ loading=’lazy’/>
The best photos from the 2024 NFL season
The game of Week 14 is actually taking place on Thursday this week when the 11-1 Detroit Lions host the 9-3 Green Bay Packers.
Detroit is tied with the Kansas City Chiefs for the best record in the league and have won 10 straight. They beat the Packers earlier this season in Green Bay, 24-14, but this time around, the Packers may have been given an inside track thanks to a social media misstep by Detroit running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
The 22-year-old posted a picture on social media with a meeting room white board in the background and, on the white board, code words for plays used by the Lions were included in the photo. Seems like Gibbs would be in big trouble for that!
Well, Lions head coach Dan Campbell doesn’t seem too worried, saying on a radio interview: “I don’t really give a crap.
“I mean, if we’re going to lose because of code words, then we’re not good enough anyway. So, I think we’ll just post the whole freaking playbook out there and every code word we’ve got. It doesn’t matter. It’s not going to hurt us, it won’t affect us. It’s all good.”
Campbell’s opposite number on Thursday, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, also played down the importance of Gibbs’ misstep.
“I’m sure our guys aren’t going to sit there and study every code word they have in their offense,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “I mean, you can get this stuff from the TV copies. I mean, there are certain things you can pick up off the TV copies.
“That’s why most teams, I would say probably every team in the league, listen to what they’re putting out there as well as what the opponent is putting out there and you try to piece it together. Personally, I think it’s probably a little bit overrated.”
The 10-2 Vikings host the 6-6 Falcons on Sunday and this will be Kirk Cousins’ first game back in Minnesota since signing with Atlanta over the offseason.
Cousins played for the Vikings for six seasons before moving to Georgia and signing a big-money contract with the Falcons.
But the quarterback returns to Minneapolis in a bad slump having thrown four interceptions in Atlanta’s Week 13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
The 36-year-old now has no touchdown passes and six interceptions in the Falcons’ previous three games, all of which were losses.
Cousins now leads the NFL with 13 picks on the season leading to grumblings that first round draft pick Michael Penix Jr. could replace Cousins as the starter.
This Vikings game could be his last chance to hold on to his job. A benching would certainly be tough to stomach for the Falcons after they gave Cousins $100 million guaranteed this past offseason.
If I were to have told you before the season that first place of the NFC West division was on the line in Week 14, you might have asked me: ‘Who are the San Francisco 49ers playing?’
But San Francisco is enduring a nightmare Super Bowl hangover season and looks to be done as a playoff contender at 5-7 and with injuries piling up.
While the Niners host the Chicago Bears on Sunday, two of their division rivals – the Arizona Cardinals and the Seattle Seahawks – will clash in Phoenix for the top spot.
It’ll be the second matchup between these two in the past three weeks with Seattle beating the Cards, 16-6, a few weeks ago.
Those six points were the Cardinals’ lowest offensive output all season, so expect QB Kyler Murray and Arizona’s offense to fare much better this time around at home.
Murray said he and the rest of the Cardinals learned that the Seahawks are a “good team” from playing them so recently.
“I think they’re playing with a lot of swag right now. Their confidence is through the roof,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “They’re making plays, they’re playing fast. Obviously, a new coach, first year, but (has had) a lot of success.
“We just played them a couple weeks ago. I think it’s a divisional opponent, there’s going to be a lot of emotion. It just comes down to execution. We can’t allow the highs and lows of the emotions and the situation of the game and whatnot to affect how we communicate and execute.”
Will the Bears get the new coach bump that some teams get after making a midseason change?
The franchise will be hoping so after it fired Matt Eberflus after some disastrous clock management in a Thanksgiving loss to the Lions.
Thomas Brown is now the Bears interim head coach which means he’s gone from passing game coordinator to offensive coordinator to head coach all in one season! Quite the rise.
The question though is: can he get this young talented Bears team to play up to its potential?
They’ve now lost six in a row going into the 49ers game on Sunday, but Brown says he’s focused on taking things day-by-day.
“I think my goal has always been the same from day one. As far as being in a leadership position, my goal is to make people and situations better,” he told reporters on Wednesday after the first day of practice at the helm.
“Being consistent every single day with my message, being deliberate, find out ways to challenge the group, but also uplift them because I do believe in them. I told them a minute ago after practice that now there is no confidence loss at all as far as what I think about them. Don’t care what everybody else thinks about them because I think we have a very talented football team, and it’s about just putting the work in every single day. And give us an opportunity to go win.”
The season from hell continued for the Niners in the snowy blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 13.
They not only lost the game but also their top two running backs – Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Mason – for the season.
The 49ers are out of time to turn things around and a playoff run would have to start with a win over the Bears on Sunday.
The Cincinnati Bengals taking on the Dallas Cowboys in Texas certainly looked like a great matchup before the season. Joe Burrow vs. Dak Prescott. Ja’Marr Chase vs. CeeDee Lamb.
What could go wrong? Well, lots.
These may be the two most disappointing teams this season, after the New York Jets, of course.
The Cowboys are 5-7. The Bengals are 4-8. But you can’t blame Burrow for Cincinnati’s poor record as he leads the NFL in passing yards with 3,337 and passing touchdowns with 30.
Burrow has the worst record ever for a quarterback with 30 or more touchdowns and five or less interceptions through 12 games. Remarkably, the second-worst record after this year’s Bengals’ 4-8 is 9-3.
The Bengals defense has really let Burrow and that offense down.
While this isn’t a great matchup anymore, we should get to see lots of scoring as the Cowboys have given up the most points at home this season with 207. Second on that list are the Bengals who have given up 200.
One of the bright spots for the Cowboys has been the play of linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, who got his first career pick-six on Thanksgiving.
Overshown missed his rookie season last year due to a torn ACL and, in his first season in the NFL, has steadily improved to provide an impact for the middle of Dallas’ defense.
In the build-up to the game against the Bengals, Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer sung the praises of the 24-year-old.
“You don’t want to take a guy like that off the field if you can help it,” Zimmer said.
“When he first came back, we were trying to get him settled in with one personnel group. He’s proven that he’s one of the better players that we have. We’re trying to use him in as many ways as we can, he’s got a unique asset of strength and speed and power.”
Away @ home
Thursday
Green Bay Packers vs. Detroit Lions – 8:15 p.m. ET
Sunday
New York Jets vs. Miami Dolphins – 1 p.m. ET
Atlanta Falcons vs. Minnesota Vikings – 1 p.m. ET
New Orleans Saints vs. New York Giants – 1 p.m. ET
Carolina Panthers vs. Philadelphia Eagles – 1 p.m. ET
Cleveland Browns vs. Pittsburgh Steelers – 1 p.m. ET
Las Vegas Raiders vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 1 p.m. ET
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Tennessee Titans – 1 p.m. ET
Seattle Seahawks vs. Arizona Cardinals – 4:05 p.m. ET
Buffalo Bills vs. Los Angeles Rams – 4:25 p.m. ET
Chicago Bears vs. San Francisco 49ers – 4:25 p.m. ET
Los Angeles Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs – 8:20 p.m. ET
Monday
Cincinnati Bengals vs. Dallas Cowboys – 8:15 p.m. ET
