Best & Worst NFL Week Thirteen

Week thirteen has come and gone in the NFL and boy is there a lot to dive into. There will be no winless teams in the NFL this season. We had a quarterback get a win that nobody saw coming, a running back have himself a day yet again and a tight end show he's still one of the best in the business. We also saw a coaching blunder that made you scratch your head and the announcement that Big Ben's career was coming to an end. So lets dive right into it. Here's the best, and worst, from week thirteen.

Best: Detroit Lions
THIS IS NOT A DRILL, REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL THE DETROIT LIONS HAVE WON A FOOTBALL GAME. The Lions had gone 0-10-1 to start the season heading into this matchup against Minnesota. Detroit walked away with a 29-27 win on an eleven yard TD catch by Amon-Ra St Brown as time expired. And this was against a decent Minnesota team who had a big day from Justin Jefferson. He couldn't play defense too and stop that final drive by the Lions. Detroit getting the win was huge for the moral of the Lions, who had been on a fifteen game winless streak up to that point.

Worst: John Harbaugh, Head Coach Baltimore Ravens
Coach Harbaugh has been known for taking chances in his game plan. He did that in the division matchup between the Ravens and Steelers on Sunday. Pittsburgh walked away with a 20-19 win after one of Harbaugh's ideas kind of backfired on him. He made a good play call, as Mark Andrews the tight end was open and could have walked into the endzone to give the Ravens a one point lead. But the line let TJ Watt run right through and put pressure on Lamar Jackson who rushed his throw and it went off the fingertips of Andrews. Look I give all the credit in the world to Harbaugh for giving this a shot, he's been known to do that in the past. This time it just didn't quite pay off.

Best: Gardner Minshew, Quarterback Philadelphia Eagles
Minshew Mania is running wild once again! Gardner took over under center in Philly this week for an injured Jalen Hurts and lead the Eagles to a 33-18 win. It was over the Jets, who we all know are a bad team, but still. It was a balanced attack from the Eagles against the Jets, but the story will be Minshew,  who was pretty effective on Sunday. He went 20 of 25 for 242 yards, two touchdowns and no picks. He was sacked twice, but that was the only downside to his game. He showed that he still has some magic left in that arm of his and he can be a very effective passer in this league. With the Eagles now headed for their bye week it gives more time for Hurts to rest and come back healthy, but at least this lets the Eagles know that they can trust Gardner under center in a game that Hurts can't go.

Worst: Teddy Bridgewater, Quarterback Denver Broncos
So we talked about this a couple weeks ago with Bridgewater making a horrible attempt at a tackle after getting picked off. This week wasn't much better. Not only did Denver get smacked around by Kansas City, falling to the defending AFC Champions 22-9, but Bridgewater had a bad day. 22 of 40 for 242 a touchdown and a couple of picks. The reason he's back on this list again was for another horrible tackle attempt. Daniel Sorenson had picked him off, which lead to a 75 yard pick six. It was worse that Bridgewater tried to make a tackle but kid of just fell and to make it worse, he tripped up Tim Patrick, who was the only other Broncos player who could have made a play on him. Ouch.

Best: Jonathan Taylor, Running Back Indianapolis Colts
Another week, another huge day from Taylor. The Colts running back now leads the league in rushing yards with 1,348 on the year. He added 143 to that total in the Colts 31-0 win over Houston Sunday afternoon. Indy now sits at 7-6 and are a game back of the division leading Titans in the AFC South. Taylor has been dominating games this season, having now rushed for over 100 yards in six of his last eight games. If the Colts make a deep run in this years playoffs, the play of Taylor is going to be a big reason for that.

Worst: New England Patriots Passing Game
Yes the Patriots got a win on Sunday, beating the Buffalo Bills 14-10 in a huge swing for the lead in the AFC East on Monday Night. A big game that gave the Patriots sole possession of first place in the East. But what really stood out in this game was the Patriots passing attack. or should we say lack there of. Mac Jones stat line for the night: 2 of 3 for 19 yards, not touchdowns picks or sacks. Do not adjust your settings you are in fact seeing that correctly, Jones threw just three passes the entire night. It was the run game that was the big difference for the Patriots with 222 yards on 46 carries. We know Mac can throw the ball, its just the run game was more effective on this night.

Best: George Kittle Tight End San Francisco 49ers
Yes I know this didn't end well for the 49ers as a unit, falling 30-23 to Seattle. But with no Deboo Samuel in the lineup for the 49ers they needed to come up with something in the passing game. Enter George Kittle, who has proven over the last couple of seasons he can be one of the very best pass catching tight ends in all of football. He finished the day with nine catches for 181 yards and a couple of touchdowns. There's still some explosive playmaking ability in there for Kittle and he's healthy. This game was a bit of a revival of sorts for Kittle as a pass catcher in this league.

Worst: New York Jets Kickers
We already dove into this game a little earlier with Minshew. But now here's how it looks from the other side. Sure the Jets sucked in the second half as a whole, but the entire game, the kickers were beyond horrible. A few days before the game the Jets had cut Matt Ammendola, who  struggled badly with kicks over 40 yards. He was replaced by Alex Kessman. What does he do? Goes out and misses two point afters early on, which put the Jets in a spot where they gave up kicking the rest of the day. Yikes.