NFL scores, Week 13: Live coverage, highlights & more

Matthew Stafford was furious after tucking the ball and running in New Orleans and initially it was unclear why. Now we’ve seen the replay and it’s blatant.

That’s defensive tackle Nick Fairley smacking Stafford in the face mask for no reason at all. It came well after the tackle and was completely unnecessary. Fairley didn’t get flagged on the play and the result of the drive was a field goal for the Lions.

With the Kansas City Chiefs driving into Atlanta Falcons territory, quarterback Alex Smith dropped back on 3rd and 4 before getting sacked and stripped by Atlanta’s Vic Beasley. Players from each team fell into a pile in the ensuing scrum for the ball, and umpire Jeff Rice made sure he got the best possible view of the recovery.

Rice body-surfed his way into the pile, eventually landing flat on his back before declaring a Falcons recovery. The turnover halted a promising Kansas City drive, but cemented Rice’s status as a man intensely dedicated to getting the correct call on the field.

Dec. 4: The day the Texans’ solo reign atop the AFC South comes to an end — at least according to SB Nation’s experts.

Our NFL writers don’t have much faith in 6-5 Houston. Brock Osweiler’s team has led the division since Week 1, but their winning record looks more like a mirage than the foundation for a playoff run. The Texans have a -42 scoring differential this season, a mark worse than the 3-7-1 Cincinnati Bengals.

Post-Mortem takes a look back at Sunday and Monday’s losing teams, finding out exactly where it all went wrong.

Cause of Death: Tennessee had three possessions start at or beyond their own 40, but none of them led to a single point. That failure becomes even more glaring when you consider that Indianapolis had been allowing a score on 64 percent of those short drives, the second-worst rate in the league.

• Debrief: How I learned to love the Jaguars and Browns

• Takeaways from every game: Panthers make it 8 straight

• Debrief: How I learned to love the Jaguars and Browns

• Takeaways from every game: Panthers make it 8 straight

A pat on the back to you, fellow worker. It’s commendable of you to be here after rounds of binge eating, fighting with your neighbors over discounted Blu-ray players and roughly 72 hours of football slathered over four straight days. And here you are, easing back into the year’s final stretch by spending an hour digesting the holiday weekend’s pigskin offerings.

Sunday’s NFL football lacked the drama of Saturday’s college rivalries, but it wasn’t a boring a day.

• Week 13 updates, highlights and GIFs | Scoreboard

• Geno Smith benched as Dolphins blow out Jets

Monday Night Football lucked out in Week 13.

After an inconsistent slate of matchups in 2013, Monday Night Football will feature the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints, the top two seeds in the NFC. The winner will have the upper hand when it comes to claiming the top spot in the conference and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

Wait, hold on a second. A play before Griffin threw downfield, he completed a pass that appeared to go for a first down. That’s what the linesman told Shanahan when he asked for a measurement. Head official Jeff Triplette was trying to communicate the fact that it was third down.

But it was too late.

It was in the spotlight, though nobody quite knew why. On many levels, it was a disappointing display of football. And by the end, most people didn’t care about the final result. They just wanted it to be over.

In typical NFC East fashion, things got sloppy in the second half. Manning threw an interception, but it wasn’t the turnovers that made this one tough to watch. Both teams just struggled to move the football and lacked any sort of urgency in the second half.

Whatever Jeff Triplette lacks in officiating skills, he makes up for it with wacky hijinks. Whether he’s throwing flags in someone’s eye or inappropriately touching third-string quarterbacks, you never know what you’re going to get. And we have no idea what exactly Triplette was trying to explain on this call during the first half of Sunday night’s game, but at least it was entertaining to watch him try.

• Week 13 updates, highlights and GIFs | Scoreboard

• Geno Smith benched as Dolphins blow out Jets

There is no official update from police at this time, but KCTV reported that a man and his son returned to their vehicle in Parking Lot A during the game and found someone “rifling through” it. A struggle reportedly broke out between the two men, with the man who was “rifling through” the vehicle dying during the fight.

Forte indicated two men are being held in custody for the death of another. The police chief said he plans to issue an update as soon as more information is available.

The No. 1 seed is the biggest story in the AFC, but the wild card race could be an interesting one as well if the Ravens slip up at all in the next few weeks.

For now, the playoff picture is stable through the majority of Week 13 games.

Steven Jackson rushed for his second touchdown of the game -- he had two touchdowns all season coming into Sunday -- to tie the game at 31 with 1:28 remaining in regulation. The Falcons were given new life after a pass interference penalty wiped out a third-and-goal stand from the Buffalo defense, giving Atlanta a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line. Jackson would power in on the following play.

Roddy White, who had just 20 receptions coming into the game, led the team with 10 grabs for 143 yards. It’s a good sign that the veteran receiver, who has been hobbled with various injuries all season, may finally be healthy. Steven Jackson was resurgent as well, rushing for 84 yards and two touchdowns.

Knowshon Moreno is proving his awesomeness in all sorts of ways. Fresh off a 224-yard game against the Patriots, he kicked off tonight’s game by... well.. by crying in the strangest way we’ve ever seen a human being cry.

GIF via the omnipresent Bubbaprog We don’t know why Moreno was crying, and we won’t speculate; we’ll just comment how semi-unfortunate is that football players often have to have incredibly personal moments on national TV where we can see it and make GIFs of it. However, we will note that he cries like a faucet, or a horned frog. Incredible emotion is often incredible.

It looked like Jeff Fisher was really starting to put it together for the Rams, having coming off of back-to-back wins by a combined score of 80-29, but they couldn’t get anything going against the tough Niners defense. Quarterback Kellen Clemens was mostly ineffective against San Francisco, going just 19-of-37 for 218 yards, one touchdown and an interception, picking up most of the yardage on a final desperation drive.

St. Louis was trying to get back to .500, but instead will try to regroup for its final four games of the season as the team falls to 5-7.

Finally, it seems like head coach Rex Ryan had seen enough.

It couldn’t have gotten any worse.

via gifdsports.com

Disaster would strike again in the fourth quarter for the Browns. Backed up deep in their own territory, the center snapped the ball over Weeden’s head and into the end zone. Weeden did the only thing he could do, scampering back and kicking the ball out of the back of the end zone, which resulted in an illegal kicking penalty and a safety. The Jaguars would use the resulting possession to add a field goal and go up 25-21.

The Colts improve to 8-4 and have likely ensured a division crown, while the Titans fall to 5-7 and are now in danger of missing the postseason.

Trailing 12-7 in the third quarter, Fitzpatrick would record his second score when he hit Chris Johnson for a one-yard touchdown pass to regain the lead.

And then came some craziness in the second quarter. The Cardinals muffed a punt, and several Eagles players jumped on the ball, but it squirted out and another Cardinals player scooped it up. After gaining a handful of yards, that player coughed up the ball and Philadelphia appeared to recover. However, the play was overturned on a challenge, and Arizona kept the ball.

Nick Foles had yet another great game, throwing for 237 yards, three touchdowns and no interception. Zach Ertz came up big for bold fantasy owners, grabbing five catches for 68 yards and two touchdowns.

This was a definitive moment that seemed to break Tampa Bay. Mike Glennon was no longer poised in the pocket, and as soon as they were forced to play from behind things went bad. The rookie quarterback had a costly fumble inside the red zone, and followed it up with an interception that allowed Carolina to put together a series of long scoring drives.

Newton was the biggest factor in the game. He threw two bad interceptions, but more than made up for it with 331 all-purpose yards and a total of three touchdowns. Newton proved dangerous through the air and on the ground, with head coach Ron Rivera continuing to rely on his quarterback in short yardage running situations.

via Guyism

We support the concept of refs celebrating with players, and will go to war to prevent this guy from being punished for his giggly skin-giving. Although it would’ve been especially baller if he’d gone like “high-five? NAH, SON, THIS CALLS FOR A REAL CELEBRATION” and then chest-bumped Patterson and spiked the ball and then flagged Patterson for excessive celebration.

In my opinion, throwing the ball is an important football skill for quarterbacks to have when trying to get the ball to their wide receivers. By throwing the ball through the air, the ball travels more quickly than if you ran over and gave them the ball. Therefore, it is an important thing for quarterbacks to be good at.

Mike Glennon had some issues trying to throw the ball.