There is a football adage that the season starts in December.
Well, the NFL certainly will have a playoff feel to begin the month.
There are five games this week between teams with winning records.
That means 10 of the 16 teams above .500 are going head-to-head.
Let’s make sense of the loaded NFC East with a Giants-Commanders battle. Enjoy an AFC Championship rematch between the Chiefs and Bengals. The storybook of old-faces-in-new-places presents Titans-Eagles (wide receiver A.J. Brown) and Dolphins-49ers (too many to list). And the exciting matchup no one expected between the Vikings and Jets.
Here are The Post’s NFL power rankings for Week 13:
1. Kansas City Chiefs 9-2 (1)
Make it five wins in a row for the Chiefs, who needed only one Patrick Mahomes touchdown pass to beat the Rams, 26-10. Harrison Butker (four field goals) did the heavy lifting after the offense uncharacteristically stalled in the red zone. What sounded like a great preseason matchup lost its luster with Bryce Perkins replacing Matthew Stafford at quarterback.
2. Philadelphia Eagles 10-1 (2)
In this era of so many dual-threat quarterbacks, Jalen Hurts became the first ever with at least 125 rushing yards and at least 125 passing yards in a half during a 40-33 victory against the Packers. Led by Hurts (157) and Miles Sanders (143), the Eagles rushed for 363 yards – the seventh-highest single-game total since 1975.
3. Miami Dolphins 8-3 (4)
The Dolphins returned from the bye week as hot as they entered it, building a 30-point lead before hanging on for a 30-15 victory against the Texans that ran their winning streak to five. Tua Tagovailoa has four straight interception-less games. The defense limited the Texans to 32 total yards on their first 25 plays.
4. Buffalo Bills 8-3 (3)
Crazy stat alert! Returning to Detroit only five days after tallying a snowstorm-forced neutral-site win there, the Bills edged the Lions, 28-25, on a field goal with two seconds remaining. That means the Bills (not the Lions) are the first team to win back-to-back games at Ford Field since 2016. Stefon Diggs made multiple game-changing catches in the final three minutes.
5. Dallas Cowboys 8-3 (5)
Dak Prescott’s 10th straight victory over the Giants was a second-half comeback on Thanksgiving. He threw two touchdowns to Dalton Schultz and six completions to one-handed magician CeeDee Lamb in a 28-20 victory. Micah Parsons’ two drive-altering sacks made it look like so many recent games in this rivalry, where the Giants offensive line is overmatched.
6. Minnesota Vikings 9-2 (6)
In a show of resilience, Kirk Cousins led scores on five straight true possessions early in the game and threw a fourth-quarter go-ahead touchdown to Adam Thielen to beat the Patriots, 33-26, on Thanksgiving. What a wild few weeks, after the Vikings’ signature overtime win at the Bills was followed by a disastrous blowout loss to the Cowboys.
7. San Francisco 49ers 7-4 (10)
How good is this defense? After shutting out opponents in the second half of the previous three games, the 49ers doubled that effort, forced two fumbles by Alvin Kamara and blanked the Saints, 13-0. It was the first time New Orleans didn’t score in 333 games, back to 2001. Jimmy Garoppolo caught a break on a tipped-ball touchdown pass.
8. Cincinnati Bengals 7-4 (12)
Even without two of their top playmakers – Joe Mixon and Ja’Marr Chase – the Bengals repeated their first playoff surprise from last season’s Super Bowl run by beating the Titans, 20-16, in Nashville. Samaje Perine and Tee Higgins filled in perfectly for the injured duo. Joe Burrow was sacked just once after the Titans got him nine times in the playoffs.
9. Baltimore Ravens 7-4 (7)
Justin Tucker tried to break his own NFL record and rescue the Ravens after blowing a nine-point lead, but his 67-yard field goal fell short just as time expired in a 28-27 loss to the Jaguars. The defense allowed a third-and-21 completion leading to a fourth-down conversion as part of a touchdown drive (plus go-ahead two-point conversion) in the final 2:02.
10. Tennessee Titans 7-4 (8)
The Titans still haven’t allowed more than 20 points in eight straight games. But 20 still can be too much to overcome with the methodical way that they play offense, as shown in the loss to the Bengals. Derrick Henry was held to 17 carries for 38 yards. Three trips to the red zone resulted in zero touchdowns.
11. Washington Commanders 7-5 (15)
12. Seattle Seahawks 6-5 (11)
13. New York Giants 7-4 (9)
Head coach Brian Daboll faces his first bit of adversity. Two straight losses and a mountain of injuries, especially on the offensive line and in the secondary, threaten to ruin a fairytale underdog-to-the-playoffs story. Saquon Barkley carried 11 times for 39 yards, and Daniel Jones reverted to a mediocre one-dimensional quarterback without running lanes in the loss to the Cowboys.
14. Los Angeles Chargers 6-5 (16)
15. New England Patriots 6-5 (13)
16. New York Jets 7-4 (17)
Mike White replaced Zach Wilson as the starting quarterback and led the Jets to their first opening-drive touchdown of the season. He poured it on with 315 passing yards and three touchdowns (two to Garrett Wilson) in a 31-10 win over the Trevor Siemian-led Bears. For the fifth time, the defense was gifted a game against a backup quarterback.
