NFL Week 12: Scores, odds, picks, top moments, and everything to know

Sunday’s Bills-Jaguars game started off tense when Jalen Ramsey took time from his busy day to remind Buffalo’s players they were trash. That conflict boiled to a head in the third quarter when a brawl erupted on the turf at New Era Field.

The scuffled started innocently enough. Donte Moncrief hauled in a pass near the end zone over defensive back Levi Wallace, who also got a chunk of the ball as the two tumbled into the end zone. Wallace and Moncrief lay prone near the pylon for an extended stretch in a slow-motion wrestling match for possession as the side judge ruled the play a touchdown. A Jaguars player then shoved away Bills safety Micah Hyde, who was protesting the call to the nearby official.

The Texans stole the show on Monday Night Football with an explosive 34-17 win over the Tennessee Titans. It was a huge game for both teams — the Titans had a chance to crawl back into the AFC South race and hold the tiebreaker over the Texans, while Houston needed the win to take a commanding lead in the division.

The Titans scored the first 10 points of the game, but the Texans quickly took control and put on an offensive showcase that featured three touchdowns from Deshaun Watson and a 97-yard touchdown from Lamar Miller. Marcus Mariota was almost flawless in the game, but wasn’t enough for the Texans. Mariota completed 22 of his 23 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns — his first incompletion didn’t come until there was 1:06 left in the game.

Blake Bortles has been benched before. The Jaguars moved Chad Henne to the top of the depth chart for part of the 2017 preseason, and yanked Bortles in favor of Cody Kessler during an October loss to the Texans this season.

That makes the team’s announcement Monday that Kessler will be the starting quarterback the third time Bortles has been benched in the last 15 months. This time feels different, though.

After another underwhelming loss on the road, the Packers sixth road loss this season, the time is here. It’s probably been time for awhile, but with the ability of Aaron Rodgers to overcome poor coaching and a lack of talent around him, there was a slim chance. So it’s clear what happens now. Mike McCarthy will be fired.

The Packers are broken. Their once formidable offense can barely muster up points when needed. In a must win game, they were only able to put 17 points on the board. How does this happen?

A game between the Blake Bortles-led Jacksonville Jaguars and the Josh Allen-led Buffalo Bills was bound to be wacky. It ended up exceeding whatever expectations we had for it, turning into the weirdest, possibly the most fun, game of the week.

The short version: The Bills beat the Jaguars 24-21 in a game that had just 42 combined pass attempts, 74 rushing attempts, and one gigantic brawl. The offensive output for Jacksonville was so bad they fired the offensive coordinator on Monday. (The team still refuses to bench Blake Bortles though).

Earlier this season, the San Francisco 49ers became the first team since 2015 to outgain its opponent by at least 200 yards, have the ball for at least 35 minutes, and still lose the game. Now they have company.

The Pittsburgh Steelers finished a Week 12 matchup against the Denver Broncos with 527 yards of offense, exactly 35 minutes of possession, and scored only 17 points. That left the door open enough for the Broncos — who only put up 308 yards — to steal a 24-17 win.

The Cleveland Browns have thrived after firing Hue Jackson following their Week 8 loss to the Steelers. Since then, Jackson joined the Cincinnati Bengals staff, where the Browns won 35-20 on Sunday.

Damarious Randall said during the week, “If they don’t have A.J., they’re getting their ass beat.”

Jalen Ramsey is the NFL’s best young trash talker, and never pulls punches. It can be in a one-on-one interview, in a press conference, or in Sunday’s case, in the middle of the game against the Buffalo Bills.

After an interception that got called back for an illegal contact penalty, Ramsey was pointing at Bills players and calling them trash:

Seahawks running back Chris Carson mistook his game on Sunday for the Olympics, or something.

Carson was beautiful in the air on the front somersault with a half-twist, but unfortunately he did put a hand down on the landing which is a 0.30 point deduction, which definitely will be pointed out by the Russian judge.

The Browns clearly still have ill feelings toward former head coach Hue Jackson, who is now a defensive assistant Cincinnati Bengals. In the second quarter of this week’s game against the Bengals, Browns safety Damarious Randall intercepted Andy Dalton along the Bengals sideline and handed the ball to Hue Jackson.

Randall has been pretty vocal about Jackson since he was fired as the Browns head coach earlier this season. After the Bengals hired Jackson, Randall jokingly tweeted that they hired him because the Bengals still had two games to play against the Browns.

The New Orleans Saints have been running roughshod through NFL defenses this season with arguably the most unstoppable offense in the NFL. Drew Brees is in line to receive his first ever MVP award, Alvin Kamara hasn’t experienced any sort of sophomore slump, and the Saints are scoring points at will.

The Chiefs and Rams may have played the best game ever on Monday night, but the Saints are the hottest team in the league right now. They’ve won 10 straight games, mainly through the use of their overwhelming offensive attack.

See, not every NFL football game is going to be a 54-51 affair. The “defense is dead and will never be back” crowd had to pipe down a bit on Thursday as we saw plenty of defense and turnovers yesterday on Turkey Day. Let’s break it all down.

Lots of punts and lots of defense. Not terribly surprising. We know the Bears have an excellent defense and they were starting Chase Daniel, a backup quarterback making his first start since 2014, on the road and on a short week. The Lions offensive line has struggled this season against good defenses. Detroit was without Kerryon Johnson this week too. It was Bears 9-7 at half time. It was 16-16 late in the 4th quarter before another pick six for Bears safety Eddie Jackson helped them win the game 23-16.

Baker Mayfield was a good Browns quarterback. Now, with Hue Jackson no longer guiding his way, he can be a good NFL quarterback.

The rookie passer recorded the best game of his brief career in Week 10, some 13 days after Jackson was mercifully relieved of his duties after a 3-36-1 stint as Cleveland’s head coach. The former No. 1 overall pick carved up the Falcons’ injury-riddled secondary en route to a 216-yard, three-touchdown performance in which he threw only three incomplete passes. With Mayfield showcasing the fire that made him 2017’s Heisman Trophy winner, the Browns got just their second win over a team with a non-losing record since September 2015.

Thanksgiving has belonged to the NFL since 1920, and turkey wouldn’t quite taste the same without a muted television flashing images of the Detroit Lions getting scored on somewhere in the background. This year’s holiday brought a three-course meal to accompany your nine-courser, doling out heaping helping of Bears-Lions, Washington-Cowboys, and Falcons-Saints.

Injuries to players like Mitchell Trubisky, Marvin Jones, and Kerryon Johnson robbed the early game in Detroit of three offensive powerhouses. A devastating Alex Smith broken leg robbed Washington of its starting quarterback and forced Colt McCoy into a starring role. And a fiery rivalry between 2017 playoff teams lost some of its heat thanks to the Saints’ borderline-absurd dominance this fall and the Falcons’ fall from contender to sub-.500 franchise.

Thanksgiving is a high holiday for football fans. It’s a day to eat, reflect, eat more, watch football all day, be thankful and eat even more. In the spirit of the holiday, we’ve rounded up one thing that fans of every team can be thankful for, even Raiders fans!

Having 32 helpful football talking points at your fingertips also gives you an easy way to change the subject at the dinner table too. Win-win!

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s time to stuff your face with turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing while watching football all day long.

In case you’re struggling to decide whether you should keep the TV off this year and just argue with your family about politics (good luck with that!) we have you covered with reasons you can use to convince your Thanksgiving dinner-mates to turn on the TV and watch some football.

Happy Turkey Day gambling! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I get to eat a fried turkey with all the fixings and watch three NFL games. It’s basically heaven. And since this is a special day, I’ll give you a special gambling breakdown of these three games starting in Detroit.

Home dogs were barking last weekend, including the Lions, who covered and beat the Panthers as underdogs. They are so up and down that it’s tough to bet on them, but I like them in this spot. We’ve seen that home teams on short weeks have been in control this season. The Lions are 2-0 at home this season as underdogs and won both games outright.

Screw the turkey, Thanksgiving is all about football! What better way to avoid talking to your strange uncle than by staring at the TV for three back-to-back football games?

Though, we certainly encourage eating some turkey, mashed potatoes, and your other foodie favorites while you watch all the touchdowns, sacks, and interceptions on the big screen.