NFL schedule and results: Complete coverage of Week 12

Both the AFC North and the NFC South were impacted significantly by Monday’s matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the New Orleans Saints. The Ravens wound up winning Monday Night Football, 34-27, and in doing so made the race for the AFC North even tighter. There are now three 7-4 teams in the division, while the Cincinnati Bengals, thanks to a tie, are ahead of them all at 7-3-1.

The NFC South is a mess. There’s no nice way to talk about a division that now has two teams at 4-7 that are tied for the division lead. It’s the first time in NFL history a team three games under .500 leads a division. The 3-7-1 Carolina Panthers are still in the running just a half-game out, and we guess you can’t count out the 2-9 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, either. The Saints looked decent at times Monday, but the Ravens were still the class of the Superdome.

The Baltimore Ravens beat the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football, winning 34-27. Baltimore trailed the Saints at halftime, but a strong half of football, assisted by a bad pass or two from Saints quarterback Drew Brees, helped the Ravens to their seventh win of the season.

Justin Forsett had a big game for the Ravens, running for 182 yards and two touchdowns. Forsett was the centerpiece of a Ravens offense that ultimately put up 215 yards on the ground, though Joe Flacco and the passing offense didn’t exactly lag behind thanks to big games from wide receivers Steve Smith and Torrey Smith. They had 89 and 98 yards, respectively, with Steve catching a touchdown pass.

Near the end of the half, the Bills put together another extended drive, going 90 yards in 13 plays, capping it off with a 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Scott Chandler, which gave Buffalo the 14-3 lead heading into the half.

Buffalo took the clock down with another extended drive, and Anthony Dixon added insult to injury with a 30-yard touchdown run. It was a good run, but the game was long over.

A week after scoring just six points in a loss to Arizona, the Lions moved the ball decently well (335 yards of total offense) but once again couldn’t find the end zone. They have now gone 22 possessions without scoring a touchdown, losing consecutive games to drop behind Green Bay in the NFC North race.

There are plenty of reasons why the unit is struggling, but it begins with Matthew Stafford. The franchise quarterback ranks in the top 10 in passing yardage, but has thrown just 13 touchdowns to 10 picks and completed under 60 percent of his passes. In fairness, he didn’t get much help from his receivers against the Pats -- the group dropped six passes, three of which would have been touchdowns.

The quarterback listened and found Gordon on a 24-yard reception that set up a game-winning field goal for the Browns. Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Hoyer didn’t quit on Gordon and neither did the Browns, despite finding plenty of success in his absence. For Gordon, though, the moment was bigger than his individual performance, and he said that the team’s winning ways are what he lives for.

In the immediate aftermath of the reception, Twitter rolled out plenty of accolades, including some from athletes like Lebron James and Victor Cruz. James called it possibly the greatest catch ever, while Cruz said it was the best catch he’s ever seen. For Beckham Jr. though, it was just the beginning.

“I hope it’s not the greatest catch of all time,” Beckham Jr. said. “I hope I can make more.”

1. Let’s start at MetLife Stadium.

Dallas’ defense held, and the Cowboys improved to 8-3 on the year. They’re perhaps the most surprisingly effective team through 12 weeks after being lampooned much of the offseason.

The NFL playoffs are just six weeks away and while the playoff picture is still murky, it is slowly taking shape as the regular season winds down. The standings have gotten a bit of a shakeup following the conclusion of all but two Week 12 games. Several teams maintained their holds on a playoff spot, while others fell out of the picture altogether.

Here’s what the rest of the divisions look like as Week 12 winds down.

Sitting at 3-7 and tied with Washington for last place in the NFC East, the Giants were just trying to pick up a win and gain some respectability, something they’ve lost since winning the Super Bowl just over two years ago.

Though the Giants would hold a lead for much of the first three quarters, Dallas prevailed with the win after New York turned the ball over on downs with under a minute left in the game.

The limit on a Vine is six seconds; Tony Romo had much more than that on his touchdown throw to Dez Bryant with just over a minute to go.

It would be nice to say “GREAT PLAY ROMO!” and I’m not taking anything away from him, but giving Dez a full eight seconds to get open is just unfair.

Then the next drive Eli didn’t see that Odell Beckham Jr. was WIDE OPEN.

welp

But wait: that’s not a 15-yard penalty for a hit out of bounds?

Yup, the ref accused ODB of flopping.

GEEZ NBC! Thanks for bumming us out right before Thanksgiving. Not that it’s going to stop us eating Turkey, because it’s delicious.

Stedman Bailey made an awesome touchdown catch! Stedman Bailey spiked! Stedman Bailey did a cool antlers dance with his hands! Stedm-- awww, it all got called back because of a penalty:

Don’t worry, he got it back soon thereafter. Already wasted that dance, though:

Jeff Fisher looks intense. Cool Rams Sideline Guy is chillin’. He’s got a football to spin and sunglasses to wear and gum to chew. Chill out.

(If you’re curious, this is Rams football operations assistant Barrett Trotter, former Auburn QB.)

If Stafford had stayed on his feet, it looks like he would’ve had the first down pretty easily. Instead, he chose to slide, which makes him down at the yard where he begins to slide. Maybe he thought he’d picked it up already, as he was running full speed?

But no, replay easily reveals he’s short. And when you’re short on fourth down, the other team gets the ball.

Paul Kruger took a little heat last year when he finished the season -- his first under a new fat contract with the Browns -- with just 4.5 sacks. As Stephen White broke down last month, Kruger is making up for it in 2014. He’s the Browns best and most relentless pass rusher each week, and has definitely become a leader of the front seven. After 4.5 in 2013, he’s up to 8 sacks in 2014 and this was maybe his most impressive of the year. Of course Matt Ryan should also be credited with the assist.

T.Y. Hilton’s wife Shantrell gave birth to a baby girl Sunday morning, and afterward, Hilton got to the stadium so he could “get her a TD.” Sure enough: he did it!

And he celebrated by pretending the ball *was* his baby:

At this point, there’s no reason to expect Sanders takes anything less than his regular workload. He’ll have his hands full, however. The 6-4 Dolphins allow just 208 passing yards per game, which is good for second in the NFL.

Gordon fumbled a reverse that was meant for him, but he managed to recover it and stay on his feet. The problem: he was facing what had to have been a 25-yard loss or something along those lines. But Gordon recognized that the pocket was broken up and did exactly what he should have done: throw an incomplete pass.

As you can see, Gordon clearly throws it down the right sideline, above quarterback Brian Hoyer’s head and out of bounds, avoiding intentional grounding.

Part of me wants to call STAGEDHOAXBENGHAZI on this because it’s an ESPN reporter tweeting a clip from a serendipitously positioned ESPN broadcast, but ...

... hot damn, that’s an amazing catch by Joe Haden. One-handed, approximately 190 inches off the turf. Nice.

The Titans scored on a pretty conventional run up the gut by Shonn Greene to cut their deficit against the Eagles to 20-14. What wasn’t conventional was the way Titans starting RG Chance Warmack celebrated the TD.

Just hoppin’ up and down with his hands up in an Eagles’ face. It’s pretty clear he’s directing his celebration directly at the face of Philadelphia’s Bennie Logan -- if you’re wondering why they might have some animosity for each other, Warmack went to Alabama, and Logan went to LSU. So that might explain that.

We saw this on the sideline during Eagles-Titans:

The man with the enormous, finely waxed mustache is Eagles trainer Joe O’Pella. It’s a textbook Guy Fawkes Mask:

Fitzgerald’s exclusion from the lineup on Sunday snaps a streak of 110 straight games played by the receiver. Prior to Sunday, he hadn’t missed a game since Week 13 of the 2007 season. In Week 11, he became the 24th receiver in NFL history to eclipse 12,000 career receiving yards.

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