Here’s a look at some of the big games from NFL Week 12.
NFL Week 12: Philadelphia 37, Buffalo 34 (OT)
The Philadelphia Eagles have the NFL’s best record because it makes plays at winning time seemingly every week.
The Eagles beat Buffalo because kicker Jake Elliott made a 59-yard field goal in a driving rainstorm as time expired to send the game to overtime as the Eagles rallied from deficits of 17-7, 24-14, 31-28, and 34-31.
They won because Jalen Hurts, four of 11 for 33 yards and an interception in the first half, was magnificent in the second half and won the game with a 12-yard touchdown run with 2:37 left in overtime.
Hurts finished with 200 yards passing, three touchdowns, and an interception. He also ran 14 times for 65 yards and two touchdowns.
“We found a way at the end and made it happen,” Hurts said after the game.
Hurts has won seven consecutive games when his team has trailed by 10 points or more, the longest streak in the league since the NFL began tracking it in 1991. He also has 13 consecutive wins against teams with winning records, which is also an NFL record.
“You know he’s clutch. been clutch for us, clutch for this city, and clutch for this team for the last three years now,” coach Nick Sirianni said after the game. “He just kept going, put his head down and worked.”
The Eagles have two wins by double-digits this season. Their other wins have come by five, six, three, nine, seven, five, four and three points.
Philadelphia has trailed at halftime in its last four games but has won each of them.
Philadelphia is 3-0 during the toughest part of its schedule. It’s beaten Dallas (8-3), Kansas City (8-3), and Buffalo (6-5) the last three weeks. It plays San Francisco (8-3), Dallas (8-3), and Seattle (6-5) the next three weeks.
“I know it doesn’t always look pretty but it always looks pretty with a W,” Darius Slay said after the game.
NFL Week 12: Pittsburgh 16, Cincinnati 10
Pittsburgh fired beleaguered offensive coordinator Matt Canada before NFL Week 12. Then the Steelers went out and gained more than 400 yards for the first time in 58 games.
Oh, they won the game too.
The Steelers racked up 421 yards, the first time they gained more than 400 yards since Week 16 of the 2018 season, when they gained 429 yards in a 31-28 loss to New Orleans.
The Steelers gained more than 400 yards eight times that season.
Running backs coach Eddie Faulkner put the game plan together and quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan called the plays. The biggest difference is the Steelers emphasized getting the ball to their best players.
The result? Kenny Pickett passed for a season-high 278 yards and Najee Harris gained 99 yards on 15 carries. Tight end Pat Friermuth caught nine passes for 120 yards.
“I’m not going to paint with a broad brush and act like, ‘Eureka!’” Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin told reporters. “We did what we needed to do to win today, and we’ll keep pushing. That’s our job, and we did it. I’m happy that we won.
“We did what we needed to do. We spread the ball around. Changed some things up schematically. We attacked down the field when there were split safeties.”
NFL Week 12: NY Giants 10, New England 7
Bill Belichick doesn’t have a quarterback, which means New England doesn’t have much chance to win.
Quarterback Bailey Zappe replaced Mac Jones for the fourth time in the last eight games as the New York Giants beat the Patriots 10-7.
Kicker Chad Ryland missed a 35-yard field goal attempt with six seconds left that would’ve tied the score.
Belichick declined to name a starter until just before game time. His quarterbacks combined to complete 21 of 35 passes for 143 yards and three interceptions. Zappe finished 9 of 14 for 54 yards. Jones, who has started every game for New England this season, was 12 of 21 for 89 yards.
“We turned the ball over too many times,” Belichick said after the game. “The game got away from us, even the few times we didn’t turn it over. We missed an opportunity at the end of the game to put it into overtime. Not good enough.”
The New York Giants have their own quarterback issues – Daniel Jones is out for the year with a knee injury – but Tommy DeVito passed for 191 yards and a touchdown to win their fourth game.
The loss means New England will have a losing season for the second consecutive year. That hasn’t happened since 1992 and 93, which capped a stretch of five consecutive losing seasons.
NFL Week 12: Denver 29, Cleveland 12
Somehow, Sean Payton didn’t lose the Broncos after net embarrassment of allowing 70 points in week 3.
Or after ripping former Denver coach Nathaniel Hackett and losing to his new team – the woeful new York Jets – two weeks later.
Now, the Broncos have won five straight games, Russell Wilson is playing well and the Broncos are in the midst of the playoff hunt. It’s Denver’s first five-game winning streak since they started out 7-0 in 2015, when they last reached the playoffs.
“I’ve never doubted in our football team and where we can go,” Russell Wilson said after accounting for two
touchdowns in another unalluring but satisfying performance — 13 for 22 for 134 yards, a TD and no interceptions.
“We’re starting to learn what it takes to win.”
It helps that Wilson has a passer rating of 103.4 with 20 touchdown passes and just four interceptions. The unit that allowed 70 points in a loss to Miami has allowed just 80 points during its five-game winning streak. It has also forced 16 turnovers during that stretch.