The first games of the holiday season are in the books as the road to the NFL playoffs continues.
Week 13 saw a stereotypical wintry game in Western New York and a pick-six by a nearly 300lb behemoth among the highlights.
Here are a few of the things from the weekend's games that may (or may not) have slid under the radar.
Josh Allen is the frontrunner for NFL MVP
Kevin Sabitus
The Buffalo Bills quarterback has surged to the top of the oddsmakers' lists to win the NFL MVP award, and for good reason.
Allen has led Buffalo to a 10-2 record amid a seven-game winning streak, and there's a very real argument to be made that the Bills — and not the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs — are the best team in the AFC.
It all starts with the 28-year-old pivot, who continues to find new ways to drive the Bills toward victory. In Week 13 against the San Francisco 49ers, it was this incredible play in the snow that started as an Allen pass and somehow ended with a rushing touchdown for the star QB.
The Ravens need to figure out the Justin Tucker problem
Tucker is one of the best kickers in the history of the NFL, but the 35-year-old is having a potentially career-ending cold streak.
It's been a costly slump for Baltimore, who lost by five points to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday after Tucker missed two field goals and an extra point.
The numbers are really stark when you realize that the Ravens have lost five games this season by a combined 22 points, and in those games Tucker's misses have added up to — you guessed it — 22 points.
Kickers are important.
The Steelers are Russell Wilson's team
Justin K. Aller
It's the Pittsburgh Steelers who have surpassed the Ravens at the top of the AFC North, helped on by the resurgence of Wilson as a No. 1 QB.
Wilson started the season recovering from an injury, but head coach Mike Tomlin took a very public risk when handing the keys to Wilson upon his return. Justin Fields performed admirably through the first six weeks of the season, leading Pittsburgh to a 4-2 record before Wilson was re-installed as the Steelers' starter.
Tomlin's intuition has paid off in spades as Wilson has taken the momentum from Fields and added to it, leading to Steelers to a 9-3 record ahead into Week 14.
Wilson was in fine form on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, with 414 passing yards, three touchdowns and just one interception on 38 pass attempts as Pittsburgh won 44-38.
It was a good week to be an ex-Jet
Getty Images
It's another season of mediocrity for the New York Jets, but at least two former players can be happy this week.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith was adamant in the week leading up to Sunday's 26-21 win against the Jets at MetLife Stadium that he had no hard feelings towards the team that drafted him 11 years ago, but the victory must have tasted that much sweeter given the opposition.
Smith's Seahawks teammate Leonard Williams, another Jets alumnus, had a big day of his own against his old team as the defensive end recorded a pair of sacks in the victory. But the true game-changing moment came midway through the second quarter with the Jets up 21-7, as Leonard picked off an Aaron Rodgers pass attempt on the Seahawks' 8-yard line and rumbled nearly the entire length of the field for a pick-six.
The "Big Cat" spurred a comeback with that one play, dooming the Jets to their ninth loss of the season.
Stick a fork in the 49ers
They're done.
OK, so maybe there is a way back to a postseason berth for the struggling San Francisco team, who have now lost three straight after being on the wrong end of the snowy beatdown by the Bills on Sunday night. However, it really feels like everything that could go wrong for the Niners has done so.
Such was life for last year's NFC champions as they started Christian McCaffrey in Buffalo during a snowstorm after the star running back had missed the first eight games with an Achilles injury, only to watch in horror as "CMC" suffered a leg injury in the game that could keep him out of the rest of the campaign.
To add insult to literal injury, McCaffrey's backup, Jordan Mason, was also placed on the IR this week. Add in Brandon Aiyuk's continued recovery from an ACL tear and that's a lot of talent unavailable to the 49ers at the worst possible time.
