NFL Games Today: Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Eagles shake up playoff race and MVP talk

The NFL games today did exactly what this league does best: blow up every comfortable storyline we thought we understood. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs were fighting to protect their AFC standing, Lamar Jackson kept pushing his MVP case, while the Eagles and 49ers jockeyed for NFC supremacy in matchups that felt like January in everything but the calendar.

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With the playoff picture tightening and every snap magnified, the slate of NFL games today turned into a four-quarter stress test for every supposed contender. From red zone heroics to blown coverages and clutch field goals at the two-minute warning, the league’s heavyweights were forced to show exactly how playoff-ready they are right now.

Mahomes, Chiefs grind through a statement win

Kansas City has spent most of this season hearing that the dynasty is wobbling. Drops, penalties, and a sometimes-stagnant offense have opened the door for the rest of the AFC. But the Chiefs looked much more like a hardened Super Bowl contender in their latest outing, with Mahomes leaning on his pocket presence and game management as much as his trademark off-script magic.

Mahomes spread the ball efficiently, working the short game and taking calculated shots downfield instead of forcing hero throws. The Chiefs’ passing attack wasn’t just about highlight-reel plays; it was about staying on schedule, converting in the red zone, and finally looking like an offense that understands its own identity.

Defensively, Steve Spagnuolo’s unit again played like one of the most complete groups in the NFL. The pass rush compressed the pocket, the linebackers flew to the ball in underneath zones, and the secondary limited explosive plays. For all the talk about the Chiefs’ offensive ceiling, this defense continues to look like the group that can drag Kansas City into any dogfight in January.

After the game, the mood in the Chiefs’ locker room was calm, almost businesslike. The sense was clear: this is the standard they expect. One veteran defender essentially put it this way: if they tackle, communicate, and finish in the red zone, they like themselves against anyone in the AFC.

Lamar Jackson’s MVP push feels very real

Every week, the MVP race feels like a rotating door. But Lamar Jackson refuses to step out of the conversation. In another commanding performance, he diced up a quality defense with the full toolkit: layered throws over linebackers, deep shots outside the numbers, and the kind of scrambling that breaks defensive coordinators’ hearts and tablets.

The most striking part of Jackson’s performance in the NFL games today wasn’t a single Hail Mary or video-game run. It was the control. He operated the offense like a surgeon, getting the Ravens in and out of plays at the line, manipulating safeties with his eyes, and taking the easy throws on early downs to stay in front of the sticks.

On the ground, his rushing threat again tilted the entire field. Even when he didn’t keep the ball, the defense had to freeze on zone reads, opening lanes for the running backs and turning basic run concepts into chunk gains. That dual-threat presence is exactly why Baltimore looks like a true Super Bowl contender instead of just a regular-season bully.

In the locker room, teammates keep hammering home the same point about their quarterback: his preparation is catching up with his talent. One offensive lineman described Jackson’s command at the line as “quarterbacking like a 10-year vet,” which is a scary thought for the rest of the AFC.

Eagles, 49ers show their playoff DNA

Over in the NFC, the Eagles and 49ers spent the day reinforcing why almost every Super Bowl prediction board has their logos scribbled near the top. Both teams played the kind of physically punishing football that travels in January: ground games that wear out front sevens, and defenses that get meaner as the game wears on.

Philadelphia once again leaned on Jalen Hurts’ toughness and their offensive line’s brute force. Hurts worked through progressions, took calculated shots downfield, and continued to be a nightmare in short yardage. Even when the passing game sputtered in stretches, the Eagles found ways to stay on the field, extending drives and suffocating the clock. It felt like a playoff game, complete with momentum swings, defensive adjustments, and a late-game script where every snap felt season-defining.

San Francisco, meanwhile, kept operating like a machine. Kyle Shanahan’s offense dialed up a steady mix of wide zone, misdirection, and play-action, giving Brock Purdy clean windows and manageable reads. The Niners’ stars on the perimeter created matchup nightmares in space, and the run-after-catch yardage looked every bit like the offensive juggernaut their reputation suggests.

By the fourth quarter, both teams looked like what they are: battle-tested rosters built for a deep run. Even on days when they are not completely clean, their floor is higher than most teams’ ceiling, and that’s exactly what showed up across the NFL games today.

Game-changing moments: Red zone, turnovers, and clutch kicks

Beyond the headliners, the slate was defined by razor-thin margins. Several games flipped on one sequence: a pick-six that completely shifted momentum, a strip-sack from the blind side that yanked a team out of field goal range, or a coordinator dialing up the perfect blitz look at the two-minute warning.

In one matchup, a defense that had been gashed for three quarters suddenly stiffened inside the 20, forcing back-to-back field goals instead of touchdowns. That eight-point swing became the quiet difference in a one-score finish. In another contest, a special teams miscue on a muffed punt handed a short field that the opponent cashed in immediately, turning what felt like a grind into a game they could control.

These are the sequences that define the playoff picture in December. A single busted coverage or missed tackle in space can be the gap between a Wild Card berth and an early offseason.

The playoff picture: who owns the No. 1 seeds and Wild Card leverage?

With every win and loss now loaded with seeding implications, the latest results from NFL games today tightened the race at the top and in the wild card chase. While exact tiebreakers and percentages update in real time on NFL.com, the broad strokes of the playoff picture are clear: there is a top tier in each conference, and a chaotic cluster of bubble teams chasing them.

The AFC remains a dogfight. The Chiefs stay very much in the hunt for the No. 1 seed, but they are not running away from the pack. Baltimore continues to look like the most complete team in the conference, with both a top-tier defense and an efficient, explosive offense. Behind them, teams like the Dolphins, Jaguars, Browns, Texans, and Bills are throwing elbows in the Wild Card race.

In the NFC, the Eagles and 49ers headline the chase for the top seed, with the Lions and Cowboys trying to keep pace. The NFC South remains wide open, where a .500-ish record still has a real shot at hosting a playoff game. The middle of the conference is a mess: several teams hovering around .500 are one hot streak away from crashing the playoff party.

Here is a snapshot table of key division leaders and wild card contenders, based on the latest standings from NFL.com and major outlets:

Exact records shift week to week, but the tiers are becoming clear. There is the true Super Bowl tier at the very top, the solid playoff teams with some clear flaws, and then the long list of franchises where one more loss might push them from Wild Card talk to draft-position chatter.

Injury report: who got banged up, who might miss next week

No late-season Sunday comes out clean. Across the NFL games today, several contenders watched nervously as key starters headed to the blue tent or the locker room. Offensive linemen limped off after nasty pileups, receivers grabbed at hamstrings after deep routes, and edge rushers left the field shaking their arms after awkward landings.

Official injury reports will crystallize over the next 24 to 48 hours, but for now the concern level is real for multiple teams near the top of the standings. A nicked-up left tackle can change everything for a timing-based passing game. A fragile hamstring for a speed receiver can take the top off an offense in all the wrong ways. And a banged-up cornerback can tilt the coverage matchups so far that defensive coordinators have to rip pages out of the playbook.

Coaches mostly toed the standard line postgame, calling many of the injuries “day to day,” but there was clear worry in some of the locker-room tones. With the playoff picture this tight, the next injury report might matter almost as much as the next scoreboard.

MVP race: Lamar, Mahomes, and the challengers

The performances in NFL games today did not settle the MVP conversation, but they sharpened the outlines. Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes still feel like the center of gravity, but several other names remain firmly in the mix.

Jackson’s combination of efficient passing and devastating scrambling gives him the kind of highlight package and advanced metrics that MVP voters love. When the Ravens offense is humming, he looks like the most unguardable player in football. If Baltimore locks down the AFC’s No. 1 seed, it will be extremely hard to build a case against him.

Mahomes, meanwhile, is playing a slightly different brand of football than in his early-career fireworks shows. His counting stats might not blow away the box score the same way, but his value remains obvious. He rescues broken protections with subtle pocket slides, he converts long third downs with improbable throws outside structure, and he almost never gives the ball away in catastrophic spots. Voters pay attention to that, especially in big prime-time and high-stakes games.

Elsewhere, a few quarterbacks and skill players continue to lurk in the MVP conversation. A couple of NFC passers are stacking 300-yard, multi-touchdown games and pushing their teams up the standings. One star wide receiver is on a record-chasing pace in receptions and yards, forcing defenses to shade coverage so aggressively that it warps entire game plans. A dominant edge rusher has inserted himself into the fringes of the race with multiple games featuring two or more sacks and constant quarterback hits, reminding everyone that defensive dominance can still tug at MVP ballots.

The bottom line: the MVP race is still a weekly referendum, and NFL games today just handed Lamar and Mahomes a fresh round of arguments.

Who is on the hot seat, and who is playing for January jobs?

Not every storyline is about confetti and Lombardi dreams. For several coaches and quarterbacks, the NFL games today felt like job interviews. Struggling offenses put up another dud, head coaches burned timeouts like they were going out of style, and a few late-game clock management sequences will be dissected by fanbases all week.

Some coaches are firmly on the hot seat as their teams slide out of the playoff picture. Front offices around the league are weighing whether a fresh voice is needed in the locker room, especially on teams with young quarterbacks stuck in developmental limbo. A mismanaged two-minute drill here, a conservative fourth-and-short punt there, and suddenly the noise around a coach’s future rises from background buzz to full-volume discourse.

On the field, a handful of quarterbacks are very clearly playing for their long-term status: whether they are viewed as a franchise cornerstone, a bridge starter, or a backup. One more three-interception meltdown and the conversation changes. One more poised, turnover-free outing in a tight game, and that same quarterback can buy himself another year as the face of the franchise.

Looking ahead: must-watch games next week

As dramatic as the NFL games today were, the schedule-makers have positioned next week as another string of de facto playoff games. There are heavyweight showdowns between top AFC seeds, measuring-stick tests in the NFC, and a couple of sneaky matchups in the wild card race that could function as tiebreaker deciders in a month.

Circle the prime-time slots. Sunday night and Monday night both feature teams either in the heart of the playoff race or fighting desperately to stay on life support. Expect playoff-level intensity, aggressive game plans, and very little margin for error in the red zone.

Several divisional rematches should also bring some spice. The second time around, defenses typically have better answers for motion and formation tendencies, and quarterbacks have a clearer feel for which matchups they want to attack. These games turn on tiny adjustments: a corner jumping a route he saw on tape, a coordinator baiting a quarterback into a throw with a disguised safety look, or a head coach saving a special red zone concept for the biggest drive of the day.

And keep an eye on the injury report as the week unfolds. The availability of a star left tackle, a top receiver, or a shutdown corner could swing betting lines and game plans in the days leading up to kickoff.

Super Bowl contenders separating from the pack

If there is one overarching takeaway from the NFL games today, it is that the true Super Bowl contenders are starting to separate themselves. The Chiefs, Ravens, Eagles, and 49ers look like teams that understand the assignment. They win different kinds of games: shootouts, defensive slugfests, sloppy bad-weather grinds, or late-game comeback thrillers.

Below that tier, the league is full of teams that could get hot at the right time. An AFC squad with a young star quarterback and aggressive offensive approach could absolutely crash the AFC title game. An NFC group with a renewed pass rush and improving run game might morph into the kind of team no one wants to see on Wild Card weekend.

But there is a difference between dangerous and inevitable, and right now only a handful of rosters feel inevitable. They are the ones who can survive injuries, adjust on the fly, and still win when their A-game does not show up.

As we move deeper into the stretch run, every slate of NFL games today will carry that same weight. Standings will swing, the playoff picture will morph, and the MVP race will ebb and flow. For fans, it means one thing: from here on out, every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday looks and feels like a prelude to February.

If you live for pressure drives, red zone stand-offs, and the pure chaos of the wild card race, clear your calendar. The only smart move now is to lock in on the NFL games today, keep one eye on the standings, and another on who is actually playing championship-level football when it matters most.