NFL Week 12 Recap: What Just Happened?!

Today's NFL recap is brought to you by the letters O, M, and G.

So here it is, Week 12. The last week of the heart of the season. The last week before Thanksgiving. The last week before things get serious in the NFL. Yet so much wasn't serious about a number of games played during this week. Let's start with the craziest one: Cowboys @ Commanders.

It was a quiet game at first. It was 3-3 at halftime. This was after Brandon Aubrey's first FG was blocked, and his second just missed. Commanders took the lead with a touchdown, but Austin Seibert missed the PAT. Dallas later scored 17 straight to take a huge lead, and all of a sudden, a Cowboys team who looked to be thinking about tanking, was suddenly beating the Commanders. The fourth quarter was a mess of points, offense, and just a comedy of errors. Washington scored, went for two, and it was a three point game. Then came the kick off. KaVontae Turpin bobbled the return, but still picked it up and went 99 yards all the way! Touchdown--Cowboys lead 27-17. After a Washington FG, their next possession leads to a quick long touchdown, and I was expecting overtime.

Fate had other plans. Austin Seibert missed another PAT. 27-26. Even crazier, not only is the onside kick recovered by Dallas, it's picked up and returned. 34-26. Now, Juanyeh Thomas--who returned the onside kick all the way--was criticized for not simply falling on the ball, because that would have ended the game. The score gave Washington a chance, but it was a long shot, and they fell short. This game was crazy! Dallas ended their losing streak, while Washington lost their third straight. The Commanders once had a solid chance to win the NFC East, but from the looks of it, it's Philly's to lose. And the Cowboys are now put in one hell of a position. Their next three games are immensely winnable. They could end up 7-7 entering Week 16, which would give them no choice but to go for a playoff spot. There's no grey area in the NFL. It's either go for the playoffs and beyond, or go for a good draft pick. 7-10 or 8-9 won't get you in, but it also won't get you a real good draft pick

Oh look, more fun with special teams! So we were also treated to an insane NFC North battle between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears, the latter coming off a loss due to a blocked field goal. Well, the Bears decided to get that part over with first. Yeah, another blocked field goal. They did have a lead, but the Vikings took over, and it looked like it would be over. They were up by 10 late in this game. Bears cut it to three with a touchdown, but it was onside kick time. In a wild twist of fate, the ball bounced off a Vikings' foot, and the Bears recovered!

I have to give the rules for an onside kickoff. The onside kick is, oddly enough, the best chance for the kicking team to actually maintain possession, and is often used late in games by teams looking to catch up. The rules: in order for the kicking team to regain possession, the kick has to go 10 yards (from their own 35 to their own 45) before they can touch it. The receiving team can touch it at any time. However, if the receiving team touches it and doesn't possess it fully, then it's a live ball; all bets are off. That's what happened. It went off the foot of a Vikings player, the Bears recovered, and they actually made a clutch field goal to force OT. Bears got the ball first, but all that saw was this Packers fan screaming at Caleb Williams to get rid of the ball and get upset when he got sacked. Bears punted, Vikings ball, and it was sudden death from that point. Minnesota got to the red zone, kicked the field goal, and that was that. Vikings won a wild one, 30-27, in overtime.

What the hell is wrong with the Houston Texans?! The phrase "sophomore slump" has popped up, but it's a bit more than that. This team is freefalling. The Texans lost to the lowly Tennessee Titans, 32-27, and yeah, it can be said that teams play hard against their divisional foes. Also, it's the original Houston franchise against the current one. But there's that, and then there's this. Ka'imi Fairbairn missed a potential game-tying 28 yard field goal. After that, CJ Stroud ran out of bounds in his own end zone for a safety, the blunder made infamous by Dan Orlovsky many years ago. The Texans have lost three of their last four, but they still have a bit of a strangehold over the AFC South because the Jags exist, and the Colts got thrashed by the heavyweight Detroit Lions.

Week 12 began with the Cleveland Browns upsetting the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football, and elsewhere in the early window, the Miami Dolphins blasted the lowly New England Patriots, and Tommy DeVito's return to the starting QB position with the New York Giants did not go well against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As for the Kansas City Chiefs, they responded to picking up their first loss of the season by going back to their barely winning ways--needing the very last seconds to beat a very lowly Carolina Panthers team. Seriously, this has to be the worst 10-1 team I've ever seen in all my years of watching the NFL.

Elsewhere in the AFC West, the Denver Broncos handily defeated the Las Vegas Raiders; a given win, but the Broncos showed the world that they are legit, and Bo Nix is legit. As for Monday Night Football, it was Harbaugh vs Harbaugh Part III, and just days away from Thanksgiving. The Ravens and Chargers faced each other, and it was close for the most part, until the Ravens decided to run away at the end of this thing. Baltimore needed this. They were coming off a tough loss in Pittsburgh on the previous week, and needed bounce back performance, and they managed to get just that. As a result, John Harbaugh remains unbeaten against little brother Jim Harbaugh; the former has won all three meetings. Should make an interesting Thanksgiving dinner at the Harbaugh house.

And that's that. We are now two-thirds through the NFL season. Six weeks remain, and it's the pivotal six weeks that will fourteen teams punch their tickets to the playoffs, bit by bit. It should be a very amazing home stretch! Let's go!

Week 13 will start on Thanksgiving with the usual three games; first off, the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears in an NFC North clash, followed by the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys in an NFC East battle, and finally, the Green Bay Packers will host the Miami Dolphins. After that, it's the NFL's second annual Black Friday game, which will feature the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders. On Sunday Night Football, it's the Buffalo Bills hosting the San Francisco 49ers, and the week will end with the Denver Broncos hosting the Cleveland Browns.

Have a happy and wonderful Thanksgiving!!

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Check out my NFC West recap below!