2025 NFL Season 🦃 🏈 🥧Weekly Discussion Thread – Week 13

Your Carolina fan here...

I'll be honest. I don't understand this team. The only consistent thing about them is that they are unpredictable. Packers? Win! Saints? Lose! Falcons? Win! 49ers Lose (with style) Rams? Win!

This wasn't even a "Oh the rams screwed it up somehow" win either. It was a clear, no questions asked, Panthers straight up beating the Rams with Bryce Young leading the charge. I honestly couldn't believe it while watching. Bryce is ice cold in clutch situations, becoming the youngest player to get to 11 comeback, game winning drives. He now sits in company with Josh Allen and Peyton Manning and we all know they took a bit to develop before they hit their stride.

Now we have a winning record, playing meaningful games in December. We aren't getting into the playoffs on a wildcard unless something crazy happens, so the Division it is, making the Bucs our primary opponent and look who we play in 2 of our last three weeks? We can't really lose any games going forward, but we DEFINITELY need to beat the Bucs both times to guarantee the spot. High likelihood of a final week early playoff game down in Tampa. On one hand, the Bucs are beat up and aren't playing their best ball. On the other hand, the Panthers are the most Bipolar team in the league. I don't know how to predict this and, honestly, I don't want to. I'm just going to let it happen and figure out what the heck just went down later. It's better for my sanity that way.

Bye this week, so I hope the extra week of rest helps in getting ready for this potential playoff push.

Well, that was the most Broncos way that the Broncos won.

Delusional optimist take: It was a classic trap game. That field prevented our speedy edge rushers from maximizing their performance. Marcus "Mary-oh-TAH" has that dog in him and this Washington team is so much better than their record. We marched down the field in OT and cut through that defense like a hot knife through butter. Bo stays clutch and can make any throw. We still always find a way to win - that means something.

Doomer take: The fourth quarter stuff this season was an anomaly, mostly propped up by a fluke run against the Giants, and this was the game they came back down to Earth. Washington found the key to beat this defense with quick passes and a strog run game. The lack of discipline will ultimately destroy this team. The WRs can't catch, Nix is unreliable with his accuracy issues, and with Dobbins out, the team is missing a workhorse RB that they desperately need. They can hardly beat the bad teams, they will get destroyed in the playoffs.

Enlightened moderate take: I have no clue what to make of this team, or the NFL for that matter. Sometimes they look great, sometimes they look bad. Pat Surtain made multiple plays that undoubtedly would've been called pass interference if it were Riley Moss. The officiating was atrocious all around. It's nice to be good again, and these close games are a lot of fun.