Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints QB talks about returning to the broadcast booth
Drew Brees reveals how he’s preparing for his return to NFL broadcasts and promotes blood drives with Abbott and the Big Ten.
- The Packers upset the Bears in one of several games in Week 14 of the NFL that would prove to have a major impact on how the NFC playoffs unfold.
- Josh Allen and the Bills caught fire late in a snowy game against the Bengals, all but extinguishing Cincinnati’s postseason hopes.
- The Jets join a growing list of teams already eliminated from playoff contention, extending their postseason drought to 15 seasons.
32 things we learned from Week 14 of the 2025 NFL season:
1. Number of times Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow lost to the Buffalo Bills. His first loss, coming Sunday in snowy Western New York, essentially looks like a fatal setback for the Stripes.
2. Burrow’s interception in the fourth quarter was another impressive performance in his second game back from toe surgery. Burrow’s selection cut Cincy’s lead from 28-25 to 11 points, from which the Bengals never recovered (and may never recover). He also ended his streak of consecutive starting wins at eight.
3. Number of consecutive seasons in which the Bengals missed the playoffs. Assuming this is their latest failure since dropping the 2022 AFC Championship Game. Burrow returned sooner than expected to ignite a belated rise to the top of the AFC North. However, the Bengals (4-9) have about a 1% chance of qualifying for the postseason, according to NFL Next Generation Stats.
4. It’s an appropriate time to give a shoutout to Bills QB Josh Allen, the reigning league MVP. He is 3-0 against Burrow, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson this season. If Allen can salvage a split next week against the New England Patriots’ Drake Maye, who is looking to become the next NFL MVP, maybe Allen will have a legitimate chance to keep the hardware.
5. After all, numbers don’t lie. On Sunday, Allen became the first player in league history to score 50 touchdowns with both arms. and feet. And no one else has recorded 20 TD passes in three separate seasons. and 10 rushing TDs.
6. But Buffalo’s biggest hero Sunday may have been cornerback Christian Benford. Benford sacked Burrow and had a 63-yard pick-six, effectively changing the course of the game.
7. Burrow essentially proved that the still-unknown Bengals were right to use him in their (very) hopeless quest to make the playoffs, but the argument for shutting down a vulnerable franchise quarterback was exemplified by Jayden Daniels of the Washington Commanders. He was unable to finish his team’s whitewash at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings, as he appeared to have re-aggravated an injury to his left elbow (on his non-throwing side) in a game that was virtually meaningless for the losing coach.
8. The number of consecutive losing seasons for the Atlanta Falcons after Sunday’s blowout loss at home to the Seattle Seahawks.
9. Atlanta has also officially been eliminated from playoff contention, leaving the Falcons absent from the playoffs for the first time since their last appearance in the 2017 season.
10. Sunday’s setback cost Indy a share of first place in the AFC South to the surging Jaguars, as the Indianapolis Colts lost consecutive games in Jacksonville.
11. Of course, the loss of injured QB Daniel Jones (Achilles) is a number that derails what once seemed like an incredibly magical season for the Colts.
12. The recent acquisition of WR Rashid Shahid was a big reason why the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Falcons 37-9. Shahid isn’t one of the widely known players in the league, but his trade before last month’s deadline was expected to have a big impact. He had four catches for 67 yards on Sunday and helped end the game with a 100-yard TD on the kickoff return from halftime. Shahid had four catches for 37 yards in the first four games against Seattle.
13. A week after losing 26-0 to Seattle, the Vikings defeated the Commanders 31-0. According to NFL RedZone, this is the first time since at least 1992 that a team won a shutout the week after a shutout loss.
14. Minnesota produced a TD drive in the second quarter that lasted 12 minutes and 1 second, the longest in the league in four years.
15. The number of consecutive seasons the New York Jets have missed the playoffs after being officially eliminated on Sunday.
16. NYJ’s infamous record is the longest in not only the NFL, but also in North America’s four major men’s professional sports leagues.
17. But we should have known for weeks that the Jets were behind. Only on Sunday did they try to hide the sewage with manhole covers.
18. The Baltimore Ravens defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 217-34 on Sunday, but still figured out a way to lose the game and a share of first place in the AFC North… though some questionable officiating decisions certainly didn’t help. Still, it was the largest positive rushing differential for a losing team in three years.
19. The number of seasons Mike Tomlin has coached in Pittsburgh – and is now two wins away from a 19-game undefeated streak…for the first-place Steelers. Do you really want to fire him?
20. Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett has reached 20 sacks for the first time in his nine-year career, following his one sack to Tennessee Titans rookie Cam Ward on Sunday.
twenty one. Garrett has four games left to register the three additional sacks needed to break Michael Strahan and TJ Watt’s single-season league record of 22 1/2.
twenty two. Ironically, it was the first time this season that Ward wasn’t sacked multiple times in a game. And although his Titans achieved a rare victory for the second time in 2025, Ward lost out in a big way to fellow rookie QB Shedule Sanders.
twenty three. We were able to bury the lead here, folks. NFC playoff photos are wiiiiiiild.
twenty four. The Chicago Bears lost to their arch-rival Green Bay Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field. With this loss, they dropped from the conference’s expected No. 1 seed to seventh place, one win behind the Detroit Lions, who are desperately trying to qualify for the playoffs for the third straight year.
twenty five. Bears rookie coach Ben Johnson pushed a lot of the right buttons heading into 2025. Criticizing Pack coach Matt LaFleur during his inaugural press conference probably wasn’t the right lever to pull.
26. Meanwhile, Green Bay’s victory moves them from the expected 6th seed to the 2nd seed, just 0.5 games behind the Los Angeles Rams, who currently lead the conference standings.
27. Of course, the Seahawks held that perch for three hours after proving to be far more ferocious birds of prey than the Falcons. But Seattle only kept the top spot for the Rams, who regained it a week after losing it in a rainy game against Charlotte.
28. All of the NFC’s dominance, with the top-seeded Rams (10-3) tied by one game over the sixth-seeded San Francisco 49ers (9-4) and Bears (9-4), is sandwiched around the NFC South, which is doing the traditional thing. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-6) fell into a tie for first place with the Carolina Panthers, who had a bye, after losing to the lowly New Orleans Saints.
29. Tell me again why a home playoff game should be given to a team that can barely win to secure a bad division? The Bucks and Panthers should consider themselves lucky to be in a conference that would otherwise be lined with killers.
30. The AFC is less convincing by comparison, but it seems possible that the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots will compete for the top seed until Week 18. Who wrote that on a bingo card from 3 months ago?
31. If the season ended today, which it doesn’t, the Las Vegas Raiders would pick at the top of the NFL Draft… something they’ve only done once. If you need a refresher, they nailed it. They first drafted big-time quarterback JaMarcus Russell in 2007, ahead of players like Calvin Johnson, Joe Thomas, Adrian Peterson, Darrelle Revis, Patrick Willis and Marshawn Lynch.
32. What about the NFL’s famous parity model? Not this year. With one month left in the regular season, nine (28%) of the league’s teams have already been eliminated from postseason consideration.
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