NFL Week 13 awards: Stafford’s streak, wild wins and WWE energy

Thanksgiving week is a weird one, and this year it was even weirder. In the past, the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys have been boring teams, and you don’t really miss them on Sunday. This year, they’re interesting, and their games against the Packers and the Chiefs on Thursday left some "potentially fun game" voids in the Sunday slate. We felt that. Luckily, it’s football, and it was still fun.

There’s no better way to suss out what happened in Week 13 than handing out the awards and superlatives.

Best of the rest

It feels important to acknowledge the super sick catches that happened on Sunday. Puka Nacua made a one-hander that defied everything you thought you knew about gravity, Treylon Burks finally showed a catch radius that a first-round wide receiver should have, and Brock Bowers showed that he might be the best athlete named ‘Brock’.

Those guys aren’t getting awards for those catches because they all lost their games, but they still deserve a mention (reminder that the Giants lost in 2014 when OBJ made his catch). 

Record-Setting Performance of the Week: Matt Stafford

It takes a lot to break a record that Tom Brady held, but Matthew Stafford did it. Going into Sunday, Brady and Stafford were tied with a streak of throwing 27 touchdown passes without an interception. 

Then, on the Rams' first drive, he hit Davante Adams for a four-yard touchdown and surpassed Brady.

And then two of his next seven passes were intercepted (one of them was a pick-six), he was strip-sacked (which ended the game), and the Rams lost to the now 7-6 Panthers (the Rams aren’t the top seed in the NFC anymore).

So, if you don’t think of any of the bad stuff that Stafford did, the good stuff was pretty cool. Guys break records all the time and still lose… it just so happens that the record Stafford broke was one that normally means you win game – and his implosion directly led to a loss.

Old Guy of the Week: Tyrod Taylor

This award was between either Marcus Mariota or Tyrod Taylor. Mariota had a good game and brought the Commanders to overtime with the Broncos, but he lost. Tyrod Taylor, on the other hand, won a game… quarterbacking the Jets.

Winning a game as the signal caller for the Jets is impressive in its own right. Doing it as a 36-year-old who throws for 172 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for 44 yards and a touchdown is worthy of an award. 

Also, his rushing touchdown wasn’t some kind of frou-frou Josh Allen rushing touchdown where his offensive line gathers around him and pushes him into the end zone. This was Taylor taking it himself and making a guy miss. 

Rookie of the Week: Carson Schwesinger

When you think of the Browns’ defense, you think of Myles Garrett, and rightfully so. But Carson Schwesinger is absolutely awesome. 

Cleveland drafted the linebacker from UCLA in the second round, and he's never looked back. He’s been getting a full workload from Week 1, and has played almost every single defensive snap. The kid is crushing it.  

There are some positions on defense, where if a player gets a lot of tackles, it’s because they’re bad at covering, and they make a tackle after the ball gets caught. That’s not the case with Schwesinger.

In Week 13, he led the Browns with tackles (10), and now he’s got the seventh-most tackles in the NFL (106). He’s not just being a speed bump either. We’re seeing him rip down some of the best running backs in the NFL. On Sunday, Christian McCaffrey was his latest victim.

Now, the Browns lost by 18 points, which is tough… but this dude has been playing like a psychopath this season, and he deserves his flowers.

Game of the Year of the Week: Panthers vs. Rams

If the Commanders beat the Broncos in overtime, it would’ve been the GotYotW, and Mariota would’ve been the Old Guy of the Week. They didn’t win, and now Treylon Burks’ touchdown catch is going to be lost to memory.

The GotYotW this week is the Panthers and Rams, not only because the Panthers won 31-28 as a 10-point underdog, but also because the Rams (who are/were the only team in the NFL that is consistently good) got bullied by the Panthers' running game. 

Coming out of halftime, the Panthers had a touchdown drive that was 10 plays for 71 yards and took six minutes off the clock. Eight of those plays were runs. They followed that up with a 12-play drive that only went 37 yards, but it took 8:24 off the clock. Eight of those plays were runs, too. 

When Bryce Young needed to make throws, he did. He was just 15-of-20 for 206 yards. If you’re not going to be asked to throw that much, you'd better connect when you do, and he did. Three of those passes were a 35-yard touchdown pass, a 33-yard touchdown pass, and a 43-yard touchdown pass.

It was a masterclass of shortening the game because you’re less talented than the other team. A lot of times, that strategy ends up not working, but the Panthers' defense stole possessions away from the Rams, and their offense was successful enough to stay on the field.

Good for the Panthers. It would’ve been boring if the Rams were able to run away with the NFC.

Judgment Call of the Week: Extra points

It feels like extra points and field goals are pretty cut and dry; you either make it, or you don’t… But somehow, this year’s NFL has given us a handful of kicks that have been iffy. Sunday gave us probably the most iffy kick this season. 

This kick is probably actually good… but buddy, it really looks like it’s not. Also, the ref under that side of the upright puts his hands up way too quickly. There isn’t a soul on Earth who is that confident that the ball went in. That guy needs to give it a second, scratch his head, talk to the other ref, and then put his hands up. Even if he is actually confident, he needs to give the illusion that this kick was close just to make everyone feel comfortable. 

Luckily, Twitter sleuths are all over it:

Counterpoint: Is that where the ball actually crossed? It seems pretty audacious to assume that’s where it crossed.

First of all, yeah, I did fail all of my math classes and never took a physics class because that’s for nerds. Second, shut up, Mike. Third, my spatial awareness and body dysmorphia are none of your business. Fourth, everyone knows it doesn’t matter where the ball hits the net, duh. No one is arguing that. We’re saying that it was super close and things like that deserve another look. This guy stinks. 

Allan has the technology, Mike. Are you questioning Allan’s technology? Couldn’t be me. 

WWE Fan of the Week: Danny Stutsman

You don’t have to be a wrestling guy to appreciate wrestling moves. The whole pomp and circumstance? It’s not for everyone. Seeing someone get clothes-lined, de-cleated, and sent 10 inches into the Earth? Now that is for everyone.  

Danny Stutsman, the Saints’ rookie linebacker, decided to take out his frustrations of being drafted by the Saints on De’Von Achane — it also probably helped that ESPN just aired something called the Survivor Series: WarGames on Saturday night. 

I assume all linebackers love the WWE, especially the ones wearing cowboy collars. You can’t have a neckroll and dislike watching people get thrown off a cage into a table. 

Older Brother of the Week: A.J. Epenesa

Sometimes, real life and football blend together. Alex Singleton, the Broncos linebacker who got testicular cancer surgery three-ish weeks ago, had a game-saving pass breakup late in the fourth quarter. It was pretty cool, knowing everything that he had to deal with. 

On a completely separate side of that, A.J. Epenesa, the Bills' edge rusher, showed his real-life experience of being an older brother (his younger brother is a freshman defensive lineman at the University of Iowa) when he had an unsportsmanlike penalty called against him for smacking the ball out of D.K. Metcalf’s hands after a play was over.

See, now that’s hilarious. At that point in the game, Metcalf only had two catches for 22 yards, and his starting quarterback was down with some kind of old man/broken wrist/even more broken wrist/bashed up face-type of injury. 

Epenesa swoops around and just boops the ball out of his hands… except he’s a six-foot-six-inch-tall and 260-pound professional football player, so it shoots out five yards. That’s picking on an alpha receiver while he’s down, and it’s unbelievably funny. 

Symbolism of the Week: Las Vegas TD scenario

When you think of the 2025 Raiders offense, you think about an offensive line that makes mistakes, Geno Smith being bad, Geno Smith getting sacked, the utter neglect of Ashton Jeanty, and Brock Bowers being awesome. 

On a first and goal from the Chargers’ one-yard line, Geno was just going to hand the ball off to Jeanty. Instead, he was stepped on by a lineman (probably Alex Cappa, the backup center) and fell like he slipped on a gallon of oiled banana peels.

Doofus offensive line? Check. Geno Smith looking like a buffoon? Check. Ashton Jeanty neglect? Check.

Then it was second and goal from the Chargers’ six-yard line… so obviously they were going to throw the ball… except Geno got blitzed, closed his eyes, and did his damnedest to dirt the ball at Brock Bowers’ feet. Bowers is good, though. He’s good, good. He yoinked the ball by the tip and kept it off the ground for a truly unreal touchdown catch.

More rough Geno throws? Check. Brock Bowers being an elite pass catcher? Check. The Raiders lose by double digits? Check.

Apt analysis of the Week: Adam Archuleta

There are a lot of tired phrases that color commentators use during broadcasts. You have the ‘playing with his hair on fire,’ the ‘he has all day to throw,’ the ‘Sneaky good athlete,’ and the ‘it was a bang-bang play’ types of calls.

You hear those every single week, and they get old quickly. So when someone comes up with something new, and it works, they deserve kudos. 

On Sunday, Spero Dedes and Adam Archuleta were calling the Jaguars/Titans game. At the beginning of the second quarter, Trevor Lawrence threw a touchdown to Brenton Strange. The thing is, Lawrence was in solitary confinement in the pocket. There was no one anywhere near him. 

Archuleta said, “Oh, look at the Pocket. He has all day. He’s like a little baby kangaroo in his mother’s pouch, all protected in the pocket.” He would later go on to say that he knows a baby kangaroo is actually called a Joey, but still… that’s an amazing comparison. 

Does it have anything to do with football? Not really. Is there any chance that Troy Aikman or Tom Brady is going to start using that phrase? Absolutely not. Did he do a good job? Definitely.

As a football society, let’s use this as a stepping stone. Let’s encourage the color commentators to stretch that creative bone a little. Let’s force the hacky guys out of the shadows and get the entertaining guys into more of a public light. 

If you hear one of these guys say something weird, tweet at them and let them know that they’re doing a good job: ‘Hey, Trent Green, I thought it was cool that you said Myles Garrett’s pass rush reminds you of an Alpha zombie from 28 Years Later. It was no kangaroo pouch comparison, but it was pretty good.’

That’s all it takes. Let’s try the positive reinforcement thing. 

Browns of the Week: Minnesota Vikings

The Browns have famously never figured out the quarterback, and in 2022, it was exacerbated when they traded for (and paid) Deshaun Watson. To be fair, their idea of getting a good quarterback was right; they just messed up with having it be a sexual deviant.

The Vikings didn’t do anything like that, but they did absolutely botch their quarterback situation. First, in 2024, they signed Sam Darnold. Then, they drafted J.J. McCarthy. Then McCarthy got hurt. Then they had an awesome season with Darnold. Then they let Darnold walk in free agency. Then McCarthy played. Then McCarthy got ‘hurt’. Then they played Carson Wentz until his body shattered. Then McCarthy came back and stunk even worse. Then McCarthy got a super duper real concussion. And now Max Brosmer is playing, and he’s somehow even worse.

But they don’t have anywhere to go now, their new backup quarterback is John Wolford. They are a quarterbackless team right now, and they seemingly don’t have a plan for what to do. 

To make it all worse, Justin Jefferson is (rightfully) getting pretty sour on the whole thing. He doesn’t seem like the kind of cat to outwardly complain about the situation in-season, but it also takes a lot for him to have bad body language. 

He ended the day with two catches for four yards. That is a criminally low level of involvement for the only good offensive player on that team. You’ve got to imagine that he’s going to want to hear some kind of quarterback plan this offseason. But for right now? Woof. Buddy, there is no answer. It’s just all kinds of pain.