5 games we’re most excited for in the last weeks of the 2019 NFL season

The first 10 weeks of the 2019 NFL season threw a few classic games into the mix.

The Saints and Texans kicked off Week 1 by exchanging leads in the final 45 seconds of a game eventually won by a 58-yard field goal in primetime. Lamar Jackson pantsed the Patriots, briefly let up in the middle of the game, then went right back to bullying. The Seahawks and 49ers played an ugly, beautiful mess of a game that had something for everyone.

That’s a tough lineup for the back end of the schedule to follow, but there are plenty of games that could live up to the standard. Key divisional races across the league will see rematches like Packers-Vikings, Cowboys-Eagles, and Niners-Seahawks. The Chiefs and Patriots will run back their 2018 AFC title game classic, only this time in New England. The Jets get another crack at the Dolphins, which will technically be football.

We already picked some of the worst games left this year (and a reason to watch each one). Now it’s time for the ones we’re most looking forward to in the final weeks of the season.

The Raiders are the most pleasant NFL surprise of 2019. After a last-place finish in the AFC West in 2018 and preseason drama courtesy of Antonio Brown, Oakland bounced back to become a legitimate playoff contender in Jon Gruden’s second season.

Derek Carr’s playing the best football of his career, and the Raiders’ powerful rushing attack is making up for a still-in-progress defense. The only team in their way of an unlikely climb to a division title is Kansas City. Earlier this year, the Chiefs looked like the same buzzsaw that went to the AFC Championship Game last season. They jumped out to a 4-0 start and even ran through the Raiders in Week 2 with a 28-10 win.

Kansas City has slowed down, though. It dropped back-to-back games to the Colts and Texans, then lost Patrick Mahomes to a knee injury. The Chiefs went 1-1 with Matt Moore at quarterback, then lost to the Titans in Mahomes’ return. The biggest reason for the Chiefs’ recent struggles is its lackluster run defense.

Oakland is surging and Kansas City is sliding. But the gauntlet won’t be passed in the AFC West unless the Raiders can travel to Arrowhead Stadium and win. That’s still a really tall task. But if Oakland can lean on its run game, maybe it can pull off the upset. I’m intrigued to watch and find out. — Adam Stites

In the next few weeks, we should have a better idea of how good the Texans are this season. First up is a highly anticipated rematch between dynamo quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson (and the first time they’ll meet on an NFL field). Houston follows that date in Baltimore with a divisional rivalry game at home against the Colts, who handed the Texans a loss in Week 7.

It’s the game after that I’m most interested in, though, because it should finally let us know if this is the year the Texans have taken that next step to becoming a real contender.

Throughout their 17-year existence, the Texans have never made it past the Divisional Round of the playoffs. They’ve won just three postseason contests: two against the Bengals, which is as gimme a win as there is in January, and one against the Connor Cook-led Raiders. They’ve lost to the Patriots twice in the playoffs.

Their history against New England doesn’t get much prettier during the regular season, either. The Patriots hold an 8-1 series lead, with their only loss coming in Week 17 in 2010. Tom Brady played just three series before he ceded snaps to backup Brian Hoyer.

Bill O’Brien took over as Houston’s head coach in 2014, and the former Patriots offensive coordinator is still seeking his first win against his old team. In fact, O’Brien has the worst record against Bill Belichick of all his one-time assistants.

The Texans have come close to knocking off the Patriots since, though — especially with Watson. In his rookie year, he was sensational in just his second start ever. Watson threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns at Foxboro Stadium, leading Houston on two scoring drives in the fourth quarter to give his team a 33-28 lead. But O’Brien made the grave mistake of putting the game in Brady’s hands, and one touchdown later, the Patriots secured the three-point win.

The next year, the two teams met in Week 1, which was Watson’s first game back after tearing his ACL. He was slow to get started, but he was able to find a bit of a rhythm later in the game — just a little too late. The Patriots won 27-20.

Will the third time be the charm? This season, Watson is a bonafide MVP candidate. He’s not a rookie, and he’s not coming back from a major injury. Meanwhile, the Patriots are, well, still the Patriots. They also showed a major vulnerability in their one loss of the season, when they struggled to contain Jackson and the Ravens’ running game.

Watson is also a dual-threat quarterback, but his style isn’t the same as Jackson’s. Watson is a more high-volume passer, while Jackson is a more dangerous threat as a runner. Where they are similar — and where Watson can hurt the Patriots most — is his relentless ability to keep a play alive with his legs and improvise to make something happen for his team.

In that sense, the game should be a good measuring stick for both teams. It almost might provide clarity on what’s been a murky AFC playoff race so far this season. — Sarah Hardy

If this game were in San Francisco, I might not be too excited about it, but the Saints getting this one in New Orleans is big. The Saints are 4-1 at home, and New Orleans playing on Thanksgiving the week prior will give the team extra time to prepare.

The 49ers are off to a surprise 8-1 start, and while the Saints are 7-2 with an unexpected loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 10, they’re still ahead in the NFC South. This is an important game playoff-wise, as both teams are trying to secure the top seed in the NFC and homefield advantage in the postseason.

One matchup to watch will be the 49ers’ offense against the Saints’ defense. Both rank in the top 10 in the league, so San Francisco might not get close to its season average 29 points per game.

The quarterbacks in this one should be fun, too. Drew Brees and Jimmy Garoppolo have looked good so far. Brees threw three touchdowns in his first game back after rehabbing a thumb injury and is completing more than 74 percent of his passes. Garoppolo didn’t look quite as sharp as he has been all season in his first loss against Seattle, overthrowing some of his receivers while others had drops. But Emmanuel Sanders and George Kittle, his No. 1 target, should be healthy and ready to go for this one.

Although this isn’t a divisional game, it still will have major playoff implications. And it should be a great one, featuring two hot offenses going up against stout defenses. Count me in. —Morgan Moriarty

Green Bay jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first 16 minutes when these two teams met at Lambeau Field in Week 2. That held up, but only barely. The Packers didn’t score again, and Minnesota wasted four different second-half drives where it could have taken the lead and escaped Wisconsin with a win.

That was with a pre-leap Kirk Cousins, however. The high-priced veteran had his worst outing of the season that Sunday, completing only 14 of 32 passes and throwing a pair of interceptions. Since then, he’s completed better than 72 percent of his attempts, has a 16:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and his 118.5 passer rating is tops in the league — seven points better than Russell Wilson’s number from Week 3 onward.

He’ll have the chance to prove he’s a legitimate MVP candidate when the Packers come to Minneapolis for a Monday Night Football game that could decide the NFC North. Green Bay’s defense was its shining star early in the season while Aaron Rodgers found his comfort zone under new head coach Matt LaFleur, but that unit has given up 24 points or more in five of its last seven games. Rodgers’ resurgence and Aaron Jones’ newfound ability to find the end zone (14 touchdowns in 10 games) has made that less of a liability, but it looks like Week 16’s rematch won’t be one the Packers can win if they fail to score in the final 44 minutes again.

Should the NFC be scared of Kirk Cousins? Is the Packers’ defense championship caliber? These are questions that will get answered in the penultimate week of the regular season. And it’s a great reason to stay up late on Monday night, too. — Christian D’Andrea

Betting on a Week 17 game being great is always dangerous at the halfway point of the season. The 49ers and Seahawks could be entirely different teams — or they could be resting starters if they have nothing to fight for in the final game of the regular season.

But if things stay the way they are — with the 49ers and Seahawks being within a game of each other — then Week 17’s matchup in Seattle is a big one. The NFC West and playoff seedings would be on the line.

The first meeting between the two teams was genuinely fantastic, even when it was sloppy. Every time one team seemed out of it, it would make a big play and things would get closer. It went to overtime, and nearly ended in a tie save for predictable Russell Wilson heroics. The NFC West is for real, and these are the top two teams in it.

As a 49ers fan, sure I hope they pull ahead of Seattle and get a pseudo bye week since their real one was so early in the season. But as a football fan? I want to see these two teams scrap again. And heck, I’ll sign up for a third meeting in the playoffs, too. — James Brady

SB Nation’s FanPulse surveyed voters to find out which remaining game they were most excited about. The fans chose the Week 14 matchup between the Chiefs and Patriots:

If you had to pick just one game to watch over the last part of the season, which would it be? Let us know in the comments.