Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are on the brink, the Indianapolis Colts and Washington Commanders suffered major injury setbacks, and Josh Allen was Josh Allen… again.
Loser – Patrick Mahomes
They blunted Lamar Jackson and you thought they might be back. They tamed the Detroit Lions and you thought they might be back. They broke Indianapolis Colts hearts in overtime and you thought they might be back, and so too that aura of late inevitability. But with every shimmer of ‘backness’ came a swift grounding. The Chiefs aren’t back and, in light of Sunday night’s 20-10 defeat to the Texans, probably aren’t coming back this season.
Their game, and perhaps their season, might well have been decided when trailing 17-10 with five-and-a-half minutes left when Andy Reid elected to go for it on fourth-and-four from his own 41, resulting in an agonising dropped catch from Rashee Rice. Arrowhead had been bouncing in the third quarter, ignited by a series of Chris Jones stops as Steve Spagnuolo’s shifted momentum and hoisted their side back in the game. But such has been the story of the Chiefs, their offense had no answer nor a path to snatching control of the game. It remains a broken passing attack behind a makeshift mismatch injury-stricken offensive line.
There was only so long Spags and his defense could bail the rest of the team out; time is up. Having reached five of the last six Super Bowl and reigned as AFC West champions for nine straight years, their monopoly is over and they are staring at their first playoff-less campaign since 2014. It feels wrong, alien to say it, dare think it.
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Winner – Matthew Stafford
The Matthew Stafford for MVP case is gathering substantiated momentum. The MVP cries in the crowd are getting a little louder, a little more frequent, a little more believable. The Los Angeles Rams quarterback just became the fourth quarterback in history to post seven games of three-plus touchdowns and zero interceptions in seven or more games in a season, completing 22 of 31 passing for 281 yards and three touchdowns in a 45-17 thumping of the Arizona Cardinals. Stafford has meanwhile thrown the fourth-most single-season passing yards in college history. We’ll throw last weekend’s horror show against the Carolina Panthers away as an anomaly; the Rams remain the class of the NFC currently, while there is no quarterback playing better football than Stafford.
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Josh Allen races home for a 40-yard touchdown for the Buffalo Bills.
Loser – The Colts season
It wasn’t so long again the Indianapolis Colts were 7-1 as No 1 seeds and marching towards the playoffs behind a career-resurrecting Daniel Jones. Suddenly, there is a bleak outlook to Shane Steichen’s side, all-too typical of the NFL’s brutal peaks and troughs. Jones exited the game in the first half after suffering what appeared to be an Achilles injury, which now threatens to derail not only his most impressive year in the NFL but also the Colts’ postseason ambitions. To make matters worse it would come in a 36-19 loss to their divisional rival Jacksonville Jaguars as they improved to 9-4 to snatch control of the division. Riley Leonard entered in place of Jones but finished 18 of 29 for 145 yards and an interception. It was all so rosy, emerging as the story of the season; now, the Colts might not make it to the playoffs at all.
Winner – Josh Allen
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Highlights from the Week 14 matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills during the 2025 NFL season.
Sunday’s 39-34 comeback win over the Cincinnati Bengals showcased exactly why Josh Allen was named league MVP last season. He is the ultimate get-out-of-jail cheat code with the ability to strap a team to his back and decide games alone unlike few, if any, others in the league. He continues to elevate an under-manned Buffalo Bills offense, even his trusted sidekick James Cook losing a potentially-dire end zone fumble to accompany a star-devoid receiver room. Allen went 22 of 28 passing for 251 yards and three touchdowns: his first scoring pass saw him scramble into danger outside of the pocket before miraculously threading the needle to Khalil Shakir from an off-platform stance; his second was a bullet to Dalton Kincaid to nullify touch-tight coverage; his third was a pump fake-come-strike to Jackson Hawes. He also conjured a 40-yard house call in cinematic snowy scenes as an instant ‘I’ll do it myself’ reply to Mike Gesicki’s touchdown catch for a 28-18 fourth-quarter lead. By the close of game Allen had scrambled five times for 84 yards, the most by a quarterback in a game this year, per NextGen Stats. Without wanting to sound like a broken record, the Bills remain Super Bowl frontrunners for as long as he is around.
Winner – Matt LaFleur
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Highlights from the Week 14 matchup between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers during the 2025 NFL season.
This one will have felt sweet for Matt LaFleur. The Green Bay Packers head coach had to listen as Ben Johnson laughed of how much he “enjoyed beating Matt LaFleur twice a year” when he was introduced as the new Chicago Bears head coach during the offseason. LaFleur had the last laugh this weekend when his side clinched a 28-21 victory after Keisean Nixon’s end zone interception of Caleb Williams in the final moments of the game. His Packers can trouble and beat just about anybody and now sit atop the NFC North. The win was LaFleur’s 76th regular-season victory in LaFleur’s career, seeing him tie Paul Brown at second for the most wins by a head coach in his first seven NFL seasons. The icy no-look handshake between the coaches after the game said a fair bit.
Loser – Jayden Daniels
Jayden Daniels need not play another snap in the NFL this season, nor should he need to. There had been a feeling Washington were rushing him back for little reason this week, with their playoff hopes over and little to play for against the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys. Daniels left Washington’s 31-0 shutout defeat to the Minnesota Vikings during the third quarter having aggravated the elbow injury that had kept him out for the past three games. His night came to a premature end when he suffered an awkward landing while being hit by Isaiah Rodgers during Andrew van Ginkel’s pick-six. It’s been a laboured, occasionally-ugly season for the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year, whose accuracy has been down, whose athleticism outside the pocket has been less evident or influential and whose numbers have declined. Washington would be wise to let him sit out the remainder of the campaign, in which they sit 3-10, and heal in view of his 2026 return.
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