Every week this NFL season, we will break down the highs and lows—and everything in between—from the most recent slate of pro football. This week, the NFC South race came to a sloppy end, the Steelers won the AFC North in a thriller, Myles Garrett and the Jets made different kinds of history, and more. Welcome to Winners and Losers.
Winners: Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin
“These are the games we got Aaron Rodgers for.”
Those were Mike Tomlin’s words to the Sunday Night Football crew ahead of the winner-take-all AFC North matchup between the Steelers and Ravens. Anybody who’s watched Rodgers limp down the stretch of this season may have rolled their eyes at Tomlin, especially after his 42-year-old quarterback played his worst game of 2025 in a Week 17 loss to the Browns. Hell, Tomlin’s statement sounded laughable after the first half of Sunday night’s game, with Rodgers producing just 98 passing yards on his first 27 dropbacks and the Steelers trailing 10-3 going into the break.
But, eventually, the veteran quarterback showed why Pittsburgh was willing to put its 2025 offseason on hold while it waited on Rodgers to make a decision about his future in football. He completed 72.7 percent of his second-half passes and averaged nearly 9 yards per attempt in leading the Steelers to a thrilling 26-24 win. The game featured four lead changes and ended on a missed field goal by Baltimore’s rookie kicker, Tyler Loop, as time expired. With the win, the Steelers clinched the AFC North, and they will host the no. 5 seed Texans in the wild-card round next Monday night. And the Ravens’ season from hell is over.
As well as Rodgers and Lamar Jackson played down the stretch, the Ravens and Steelers defenses made things easy for the two quarterbacks with a number of coverage busts. Pittsburgh’s secondary didn’t bother covering Zay Flowers on Jackson’s two long touchdown passes in the final quarter. Rodgers’s game-winning touchdown pass to Calvin Austin came after Ravens cornerback Chidobe Awuzie slipped in coverage, leaving Austin free down the sideline.
The Steelers secondary still had one mistake left in them, letting Baltimore tight end Isaiah Likely get free downfield on fourth-and-7 with only 21 seconds left on the clock. Likely’s catch got Baltimore to the 26-yard line with 14 seconds left and one last timeout, but instead of using it to shorten Loop’s game-winning attempt, Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh had Jackson center the ball with a kneel, pushing the attempt back an additional 2 yards. That may have made the difference as Loop pushed the kick just outside of the right upright.
There’s a lot of blame to go around for Baltimore’s loss. The pass rush couldn’t get close to Rodgers down the stretch and the defense couldn’t protect the multiple leads the offense provided. Jackson also started slow and threw a crucial interception on a tipped pass. Even holy spirits seemed to be working against Baltimore.
No matter where you want to point the finger for Sunday’s loss, the failure of this season ultimately falls on Harbaugh, whose seat was already starting to heat up before losing this elimination game. The Ravens haven’t resembled a well coached team for two years now. The defense has regressed since Mike Macdonald left for Seattle after the 2023 season, the offense has grown stagnant in Todd Monken’s third year as coordinator, and it seems increasingly common that this team is making mistakes late in crucial games. If Harbaugh wasn’t coaching for his job on Sunday night, he certainly will be in 2026.
Tomlin may also be on the hot seat next season, but this win should earn him some grace over the offseason. This Steelers roster was not nearly as talented as it appeared on paper before the season, and he still managed to squeeze another winning season and playoff berth out of it. Games like this are why you keep a coach like Tomlin around for as long as he’s willing to stay.
Winner: Mike Macdonald
The 13-3 final score doesn’t really tell the story of Saturday’s de facto NFC West title game. If not for a bad Sam Darnold sack near the goal line and a kicking disaster class from Jason Myers, the Seahawks would have put the 49ers away by halftime—sparing general manager John Schneider from sweating through the game.
The Seahawks bossed the game en route to locking up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. They demoralized a 49ers team whose offense had put up 90 points over the two previous weeks. San Francisco didn’t surpass the 90-yard mark until the third quarter. San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy finished the game with just 120 net passing yards, which could be considered a letdown for a Seattle pass defense that surrendered only 40 net passing yards to Carolina last Sunday. Yet the Niners’ run game was even less effective, producing just 32 yards on 10 designed runs. Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald has owned Kyle Shanahan the handful of times they’ve faced off—including a five-turnover stinker for the 49ers on Christmas in 2023, when Macdonald was calling the Ravens defense—but this may have been the most lopsided of their matchups.
A 10 percent success rate on the ground is embarrassingly bad on its own, but it looks even worse considering how the Seahawks deployed their defense on Saturday night. They played with at least five defensive backs on every snap and had an average of 6.5 men in the box, per TruMedia. Seattle played light, with both personnel and structure, yet the 49ers—who were without star left tackle Trent Williams, to be fair—couldn’t move them in the ground game, which had a knock-on effect on the pass game, with San Francisco playing behind the chains most of the game. Seattle was able to play its zone coverages, and the defensive line could play in pass rush mode all night. Purdy was under constant duress and had to settle for short passes underneath, and Shanahan’s play calls failed to unlock the deep parts of the field.
That’s the dream for any defensive play caller, and it’s one Macdonald has been living all season after quickly building the ideal defense to attack modern offenses. Saturday night’s win was a fitting cap to one of the most dominant defensive seasons we’ve seen in recent years.
It’s difficult to find a weak point in Seattle’s defense thanks to the emergence of linebackers Ty Okada and Drake Thomas late in the season. The defensive line is stout in the middle, with second-year star Byron Murphy II serving as the anchor of the run defense and Leonard Williams playing off him. DeMarcus Lawrence and Uchenna Nwosu are disruptive as hell on the edges. Rookie Nick Emmanwori already looks like a game-changing slot defender and gets better every week. Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen are tough, reliable corners on the outside. And then you have Macdonald crafting the game plans and calling the plays. Some of these pieces were already in place when the second-year head coach inherited the team, but his fingerprints are all over this defense—which might be the best unit in the league on either side of the ball.
Macdonald is my pick for Coach of the Year for that reason. Typically, the award is given to the coach of the team that performs best compared to preseason expectations, which explains why Mike Vrabel is still the odds-on favorite to win it. But New England also has the MVP favorite at quarterback and a possible Assistant Coach of the Year (yes, that’s an award) in offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Ben Johnson and Liam Coen are building impressive offensive attacks in Chicago and Jacksonville, respectively, but both teams still look a year away from true contention. Meanwhile, the Seahawks are the favorite to win it all in February, and Macdonald’s defense is the reason.
Loser: The NFC South
The conclusion of this season’s NFC South race was everything we had hoped for—or feared, if you’re a fan of one of these teams. The football was pure slop. The Buccaneers outlasted the Panthers in a rain-soaked game Saturday afternoon, and the Falcons spoiled the Bucs’ effort by beating the Saints on Sunday, creating a chaotic three-way tie between Atlanta, Carolina, and Tampa Bay, each at 8-9, at the top of the division. Carolina, with its minus-69 point differential, won the division thanks to an edge in a three-way tiebreaker and heads to the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
It’s been a long time coming for a Panthers fan base that’s been subjected to some horrid football since the end of the Cam Newton era, but it’s hard to feel too good about it since the team is backing into the playoffs in perhaps the most frustrating way possible. The officiating from Brad Allen’s crew on Saturday was the source of most (but not all) of that frustration. It was so bad, a missed call like this barely made waves:
Allen’s crew also called a critical defensive pass interference penalty against Carolina’s Nick Scott after Tampa Bay tight end Cade Otton tripped over his own feet.
That bad call came shortly after a 32-yard catch by Carolina’s Tetairoa McMillan was wiped off the board by a soft offensive pass interference flag for what appeared to be run-of-the-mill hand-fighting.
Then there was this comedy of errors from Allen and Co. The Bucs blew up a screen for Rico Dowdle, forcing Bryce Young to throw a backward pass that was blown dead erroneously. After realizing his crew had made a mistake, Allen ruled the play a fumble for a loss of 7 yards. As Allen explained after the game, the Panthers should’ve had the option to replay the down, which coach Dave Canales surely would have taken if it had been offered.
And despite all of those misses by the refs, the “worst call of the game” still goes to Canales for his inexplicable decision to call a red zone flea-flicker in a downpour. The Panthers predictably botched the execution, and Young couldn’t fall on the fumble to salvage what had been a promising drive with the game still in reach.
That was the third time Canales has called a trick play in the high red zone since last season, and the third time the tactic failed. Carolina ran a reverse pass with Andy Dalton against the Falcons last season in Week 6, which resulted in a tight-window throw near the sideline. Canales tried it again a few weeks later against the Bucs in Week 13, which ended with Young throwing the ball away through the back of the end zone when no one could get open.
Canales backed Saturday’s flea-flicker call after the game, calling it “an aggressive decision” and saying he liked “the opportunity it presented us.” The wide angle of the play didn’t show much of an opportunity, though. McMillan appeared to be running a hitch-and-go, but the cornerback didn’t bite, and Tampa Bay had a safety in the middle of the field there to provide some backup even if he had.
Per Pro Football Focus’s database, which stretches back to 2001, there have been only five flea-flicker-style plays called in the red zone over the past quarter century, and literally none of them have worked. Canales needs to give up on this dream.
Somehow, Carolina wasn’t done in by the egregious officiating and its own blunders—thanks to Atlanta’s intervention on Sunday. The Falcons and Saints played an equally sloppy game but didn’t have the excuse of poor weather conditions. The game started with a Falcons three-and-out, followed by a Saints fumble, a Kirk Cousins interception, a New Orleans three-and-out, an Atlanta four-and-out, and a blocked punt by the Falcons that set Bijan Robinson up for the game’s opening touchdown. And that was just the first quarter!
The quality of the game didn’t improve over the next three quarters. Saints rookie QB Tyler Shough was one of the few bright spots, but he threw the game-losing interception, halting a potentially game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter and putting Atlanta in position to stretch its lead to two possessions.
The Saints did rally for another touchdown and open up the potential for an extreme case of Falcons-ing, but Atlanta scooped up the ensuing onside kick, sending Tampa Bay to an early vacation and Carolina to the playoffs. The win was the fourth in a row for the Falcons, but it wasn’t enough for head coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot to keep their jobs; both were fired Sunday evening.
All this mess was a fitting end to the most convoluted divisional race in recent memory. Let’s do it again next year.
Winner: Trevor Lawrence
The Jaguars fell short in their long-shot quest for the AFC’s top seed when the Broncos and Patriots beat up on shorthanded teams Sunday afternoon. But Jacksonville will enter the playoffs as the conference’s hottest team after running its win streak to eight with a 41-7 dismantling of the Titans, clinching the team’s first divisional title since 2022. Jacksonville also has one of the league’s hottest quarterbacks, Trevor Lawrence, who had yet another big day. After an uneven start to the season, Lawrence posted top-five marks in EPA and success rate and finally made the leap the Jaguars have been waiting years for.
We’ve seen Lawrence string together brilliant stretches of play in the past, but his current high level of play feels more sustainable with Liam Coen’s backing. Now, it feels like Lawrence is equipped for a deep run through a questionable AFC playoff field. The spotty accuracy, inconsistent timing, and questionable decision-making—issues exacerbated by inept coaching and roster building, to be fair—no longer feel like issues for the 26-year-old QB, who just wrapped up the best season of his career. With three touchdown passes against Tennessee, Lawrence set a career high and a franchise record with 38 total touchdowns. He also surpassed the 4,000-yard mark before bowing out of the blowout to rest up for the playoffs.
The story of Lawrence’s 2025 season is far from finished, though. A two-month heater against a fairly soft schedule isn’t enough to establish Lawrence as one of the league’s top quarterbacks just yet, but he could enter that conversation over the next few weeks with a big game in the wild-card round against Josh Allen’s Bills. Either Drake Maye or Justin Herbert would be waiting for him in the divisional round if the Jags take care of Buffalo. Lawrence has already beaten Herbert in the playoffs, and he went toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes back in 2022. If Lawrence looks like he belongs over the next few weeks, you’ll start seeing his name near the top of quarterback rankings going into next season.
It will be a tough road for Jacksonville based on how the AFC bracket worked out, but avoiding Houston’s terrifying defense and a potential game against Denver may have been the best possible outcome for Lawrence and the Jags. The prospect of playing Allen, Maye, or Herbert is also terrifying, but the Bills can’t stop the run; the Patriots can’t rush the passer; and Jacksonville has already blown out the Chargers once this season. Things are perfectly aligned for a deep run for the Jaguars and a star-making month for Lawrence.
Winner: Myles Garrett
It came down to the wire, but Garrett is the NFL’s new single-season sack king. He broke T.J. Watt’s and Michael Strahan’s record when he recorded his 23rd sack of the season in the fourth quarter of Cleveland’s surprising win in Cincinnati.
That was the perfect way for Garrett to break the record. It may look like a run-of-the-mill sack, with Joe Burrow taking a bit of a dive, but don’t overlook the sheer physical talent that was required from Garrett to finish it off. Keep in mind that Garrett is 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds. No player that massive should be able to bend and dip around the corner like Garrett does to beat the left tackle and force Burrow into scramble mode. The ability to explode out of this position to pressure the quarterback …
… before making a hairpin turn to finish off the play is why Garrett is the league’s preeminent pass rusher and best defensive player. Any “fan” questioning the validity of the sack or the quality of the rush does not know ball.
Bonus Loser: Zac Taylor
Speaking of salty reactions, Bengals coach Zac Taylor took issue with the referees stopping the game to allow Garrett and his teammates to celebrate the historic moment.
“We’re fighting for our lives,” Taylor said.
It’s a ridiculously dramatic claim from someone who’s coaching a team that was eliminated from the playoffs a month ago and is only a week removed from dialing up a (non–trick play) target for an offensive lineman, just for the bit.
Loser: Aaron Glenn
Myles Garrett wasn’t the only one rewriting the NFL record books on Sunday. The Jets joined him by setting a record that will probably never be matched: They became the first team to finish a season without recording a single interception. The previous record was held by the 49ers, who had just two interceptions during the 2018 season. The Jets’ opponents finished the season with a perfect 36-to-0 touchdown-to-interception ratio after Aaron Glenn’s defense allowed Buffalo’s Mitchell Trubisky, filling in for Josh Allen, to find the end zone four times in a 35-8 rout on Sunday.
The Jets have been bad for a long time—their 15-year playoff drought is the longest in the NFL—but this feels like a new low for the franchise. They had a chance to avoid indignity in the third quarter, when Trubisky threw a pass right to Quincy Williams’s chest, but the Jets linebacker couldn’t haul it in, to the dismay of his teammates, who appeared to be very aware of what was at stake.
Jets defenders haven’t had too many chances to get their hands on the football this season—they’ve forced just seven turnover-worthy throws, per PFF—and the few chances they’ve had have been comically bad.
This didn’t turn into a pick:
Neither did this:
Or this:
If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that New York’s interception luck is basically guaranteed to improve in 2026. The four teams that failed to intercept five passes in a season all doubled their interception totals the following season. The 49ers team that previously held the record rebounded with 12 the following season! The Browns finished with 11 this season after grabbing only four interceptions in 2024.
As of Sunday night, it seems like Glenn will return for year two and get the chance to lead the revival, even after this disaster of a season.
There’s not much to build off, though. New York’s defense regressed over the second half of the season, and the offense broke down completely after Justin Fields’s injury. Effort seemed to be an issue, and the performance in the season finale may have been the team’s worst. It feels like a minor miracle that this team managed to win three games. Even if they’re due for some positive regression in the interception column, an increase in wins still feels like a long shot given the current state of Glenn’s team.
Loser: Nick Sirianni
The teams in the NFC playoff field were already set by the end of Sunday’s early slate, but with the Eagles and Bears vying for the no. 2 spot in the conference, there was still plenty to sort out in the second wave of games. Philadelphia didn’t seem too interested in earning it. A win over the lowly Commanders combined with a Chicago loss to Detroit would have pushed the defending Super Bowl champs to second place in the NFC and set up a first-round matchup with the injury-depleted Packers.
The Lions did their part to make it happen, knocking off the Bears with a last-second field goal. But with Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni choosing to rest his starters—except for DeVonta Smith, who played long enough to get over 1,000 receiving yards for the season before calling it a day—the Eagles lost, 24-17, to the Commanders. The loss means the Bears get the 2-seed, and the Eagles are no. 3, which will make the path back to the Super Bowl exponentially harder to navigate. Philadelphia will now face the 12-win Niners team that was rolling before its loss to Seattle. Survive that, and the Eagles have a potential trip to Chicago, which might be the best-case scenario. The other option is a visit from the Rams in the divisional round, should the Bears lose to Green Bay in the wild-card round.
Siranni doubled down on the choice not to play for the win and a better seed after the loss to Washington, telling reporters he didn’t regret the decision to rest his starters. “One thing I could guarantee was giving them rest,” he said. “I couldn’t guarantee anything else. And us being healthy and going into the playoffs healthy is a big deal for us. That’s served us well in the past.”
Playing at home has also served Philadelphia in the past. It hasn’t lost a home playoff game in five tries under Sirianni but has gone 0-2 on the road, with both losses coming in Tampa. Losing Sunday’s game increased the likelihood that the Eagles will have to win at least two road games to make it back to the Super Bowl. The city of Philadelphia is always looking for a reason to be pissed off at its football coach, and he provided it with a legitimate reason on Sunday.
Loser: The Giants’ Offseason Plans
If you give the Giants a chance to tank their draft position with a meaningless late-season win, they won’t pass it up. It’s the only thing they’ve been consistently good at over the past few years.
They’ve won 13 total games since the start of the 2023 season. Four of those wins have come in the final weeks of the season—after New York had already been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention—and each led to a slide down the draft board. In 2023, a Week 18 win over the Eagles cost the team a chance to draft in the top five. In 2024, a Week 17 win over the Colts cost them the first pick. Two weeks ago, they had the inside track to the no. 1 pick once again and fumbled it away with back-to-back wins over the Raiders and Cowboys.
By the time the top of the 2026 draft order had been settled late Sunday afternoon, the Giants had dropped down to the fifth slot, out of the range to draft a top quarterback prospect—which should have been a consideration despite Jaxson Dart’s presence on the roster—or to make a trade down to significantly build up the team’s cache of draft picks. The Giants’ win over the Cowboys meant the Raiders had secured the top pick before kicking off their season finale against the Chiefs (which they went on to win with a last-second field goal).
If you want to get a sense for the current state of New York City’s football teams, just look at how the Giants and Jets fan bases are reacting to Sunday’s results. The fans in blue are downright miserable after watching their team put up 30-plus points in back-to-back weeks, while the fans in green are ecstatic after a five-game losing streak helped them leapfrog the Giants and land the no. 2 pick—and another chance at drafting a top quarterback prospect.
There’s an argument to be made that winning games, even meaningless ones, is good for the locker room. It makes sense, but it hasn’t worked out for the Giants over the past few years. You don’t get to roll over wins to the next season, and whatever momentum New York has built with victories over a terrible Raiders team in Week 17 and a Cowboys team that gave up weeks ago won’t help them win games next September. If the Giants are going to pull themselves out of this rut, they’ll need to add talent to a lacking roster. The past two weeks will make it more challenging to do that this offseason.
