NFL Week 12 overreaction: Chiefs survive, Cowboys shock Eagles
USA TODAY Sports’ Prince Grimes is “overreacting” to some of Sunday’s best games of Week 12.
- The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, making Dak Prescott the franchise’s all-time passing leader.
- Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedule Sanders makes his first NFL start, ending the team’s long winning streak.
- The New England Patriots are in first place in the AFC with a league-best record of 10 wins and 2 losses.
- Browns defensive end Myles Garrett is on pace to break the NFL’s single-season sack record.
32 things we learned from Week 12 of the 2025 NFL season:
1. Number of teams officially eliminated from playoff contention – The New York Giants were the first to earn that ignominious honor this season.
2. It was the earliest time since the 1976 season that the Giants were banished from least relevant.
3. The defending champion Philadelphia Eagles suffered a 24-21 come-from-behind loss to the hated Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, giving up a 21-0 lead.
4. Dallas, who won two straight games due to the untimely death of DE Marshawn Kneeland, is back to .500, albeit still in 10th place overall in the NFC. However, the team appears to be drawing energy from their fallen teammates, including waving flags.
5. And for as much criticism as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones received for trading Micah Parsons, give him credit for acquiring WR George Pickens, who led the team with 67 catches for 1,054 yards and eight touchdowns, including an extra point in Sunday’s win.
6. But Pickens is set to become a free agent, which could pose a Bengals-like dilemma in the offseason, considering the team has already spent a lot of money on QB Dak Prescott and WR CeeDee Lamb.
7. Did you bury lead…Cowboy? Prescott passed for 354 yards and two TDs (running for an extra point) on Sunday, passing Tony Romo as Dallas’ all-time passing leader with 34,378 yards.
8. Sunday’s receptions were season highs for Eagles WR AJ Brown, who had 110 yards and his first touchdown of the game. It was good that they made such a concerted effort to involve him.
9. Elsewhere, Philadelphia running back Saquon Barkley gained a season-low 22 yards. He’s on pace to rush for 1,057 yards, nearly half of his 2024 record of 2,005 yards.
10. The number of times the Cleveland Browns waived Las Vegas Raiders QB Geno Smith on Sunday. More on this later.
11. Sunday’s win against Cincinnati puts the New England Patriots at 10-2, the best in the league, and leads the AFC ahead of the underdog Denver Broncos.
12. The Seattle Seahawks get well-deserved praise as fierce road warriors, but the Pats’ 6-0 record on the road is the best in the league.
13. Browns DE Myles Garrett’s sack count is… in the last 4 games. More on this later.
14. New England’s win came at the expense of the snake-bitten Cincinnati Bengals, who fell to 3-8 as QB Joe Burrow is not yet ready to return from a Week 2 turf toe injury. With Ja’Marr Chase suspended and fellow WR Tee Higgins going down with a concussion, it’s a credit to the Stripes that they almost won the game before succumbing 26-20.
15. Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes’ jersey number. He led the defending AFC champions from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter and defeated the Indianapolis Colts 23-20 in overtime, potentially saving KC’s season.
16. Meanwhile, the Colts have lost two of three games and are slowly falling into the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans in the AFC South. Indy’s top-ranked offense tied a season-low 20 points and went 3-and-out on all four drives after the third quarter.
17. The streak of quarterbacks missing their first NFL start with the Browns in 1995, before the last team moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens, ended Sunday with rookie Shedeur Sanders.
18. Garrett’s sack count is… this seasonMost in the league. More on this later.
19. Cleveland’s three touchdowns came courtesy of Sanders and two of his fellow rooks. He threw a 66-yard TD to running back Dylan Sampson, with Sampson doing most of the work for Sanders’ first pro score. RB Quinshon Judkins ran for the final two TDs in the Browns’ 24-10 win.
20. The Detroit Lions are working hard to recruit Jahmil Gibbs to avoid losing consecutive games for the first time since 2022. The third-year back rushed for a career-best 219 yards (including a career-high 264 from scrimmage) and scored three scores, including a 69-yard run in overtime, as Detroit held off the Giants 34-27.
twenty one. The Lions return to the field Thursday Thanksgiving afternoon against the Green Bay Packers in the second half of a three-game homestand this season. Detroit currently sits outside the NFC playoff field despite a 7-4 record and needs to rack up some wins.
22 1/2. The league’s single-season sack record is shared by Hall of Famers Michael Strahan and TJ Watt.
twenty three. Packers running back Josh Jacobs had hoped to suit up and play against the Packers on Turkey Day, but a knee injury ruled him out Sunday.
twenty four. Don’t worry, Pack RB2 Emmanuel Wilson rushed 28 times for 107 yards, surpassing Jacobs’ single-game high in 2025, but he also scored twice as Green Bay defeated the listed Minnesota Vikings, 23-6.
twenty five. The second half summed up the Vikes’ day, and perhaps the season: 4 total yards, 3 turnovers.
26. Seahawks wide receiver Jackson Smith-Nigba needed all 11 games to accumulate a league-leading 1,313 receiving yards, which is already a Seattle single-season record.
27. The Seahawks D dropped Tennessee Titans rookie QB Cam Ward four more times. The No. 1 overall pick has been sacked 45 times this season, the most in the league.
I’m almost 28 years old. Garrett is on pace to reach over 17 sack games, and his current pace is 27.8 to be exact.
29. Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry ran for 64 yards and two scores against the New York Jets on Sunday, moving him from 15th to 12th on the league’s all-time rushing list. Now with 12,294 career rushing yards, Henry needs 19 more yards to replace legendary Jim Brown as No. 11 all-time.
30. More importantly, the Ravens won their fifth straight game, defeating the Aaron Rodgers-less Pittsburgh Steelers and taking first place in the AFC North. The two teams will meet for the first time this season in Week 14.
31. Three games have already gone into overtime in Week 12. Overall this season, there have been 47 games decided by a winning goal in the final two minutes or OT, the most in any season in the league through Week 12.
32. Week 12 is also cool in that it gives NFL players an early opportunity to give thanks and shine a spotlight on the league’s My Cause, My Cleats campaign. See below.
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