Packers reclaim the North; Texans clamp the Chiefs; Broncos country is riding; Indiana wins BigTen; Thunder might be a dynasty

15 WEEKEND HEADLINES. 15 BOTTOM LINE THOUGHTS. 15 WORDS OR LESS.

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The Green Bay Packers have reclaimed the NFC North with a 28-21 victory over the Bears. Despite more elite flashes, Caleb Williams again finishes with under 60% passing and throws an INT on the final play. Jordan “Mr. Toyotathon” Love dropped in three touchdowns, including one to his own cornerback, and pinned his fourth straight game with a QBR over 75 (season leader is Dak with a 73.4 QBR).

1) Bears used play action on 61% of dropbacks… Johnson didn’t trust Caleb to actually quarterback.

NFL

For the first time in nine years, the Kansas City Chiefs will not win the AFC West after Mahomes 3 INTs in 20-10 loss to the Texans. Chiefs move to 6-7, and 1-4 in their last five, as their season has gone off the rails. Meanwhile, the Texans have crawled all the way back from lowly depths, winning five straight, and now sit at 8-5 with an impenetrable defense.

2) Every dynasty must end. But you can definitely start a dynasty with this Texans defense.

The Denver Broncos are winners of 10 straight and move to 11-2, their best start since 2015, after beating the Raiders 24-17. Questionable end of game tactics to set up a completely meaningless field goal from the Raiders to cover the betting spread gets internet speculating over rigged results.

3) This “conspiracy” is definitely worth the speculation. This one is strange! Too many coincidences…

(This comes after Pete Carroll decided to spike the ball to stop the clock. The “delay of game” flag made absolutely no sense!)

Bills and Bengals had a thriller finish in the snow but Josh Allen’s usual winter dominance proved too much once again, beating the Bengals 39-34 despite four touchdowns from Joe Burrow. Josh Allen has defeated Mahomes, Lamar, and Burrow this season, completing the trifecta.

4) The Bengals need 40+ to win games, even with Burrow. Snow game Josh Allen rules.

Shedeur goes crazy on the Titans defense with 394 total yards and four total touchdowns, but the Browns normally stout defense got gashed on the ground to hand the Titans a 31-29 victory. Sanders becomes the first rookie quarterback to pass for 300+ yards this season.

5) Love or hate him, Sanders played a damn good game! Looked like a starting quarterback.

JJ McCarthy returns for the Vikings and leads a 31-0 shutout of the Commanders just a weak after being shut out themselves. McCarthy has his first game of the season with zero interceptions and puts up three tuddys to spoil Jayden Daniels’ return for Washington.

6) Remember.. every flash form “Nine” has been met with a low. Looked more poised though.

Buccaneers’ season continues to get away from them, having now lost five of seven after falling 24-20 to the lowly Saints. In the span, Mayfield has slipped entirely out of MVP conversations with only one game with over one TD pass since week seven. Shough totes for 55 yards and two rushing scores for the Saints as he continues to play well since taking over starting QB duties.

7) Wouldn’t expect Baker to lose to Shough in a dog fight game. Bucs are broke.

The Jaguars take over on top of the AFC South after beating down the Colts 36-19. Daniel Jones suffered a season ending injury early in the game and Trevor Lawrence continues his stretch of strong outings, tossing his third straight game with 2+ TD passes.

8) Colts will likely finish third in the AFC South now after just selling their future…

NCAA

Indiana proves they’re officially a football school now with 13-10 win over Ohio State to win their first Big Ten Championship since 1967. Hoosiers move to 13-0 and #1 in the nation to cap off an historic regular season that only took two years to achieve under Curt Cignetti.

9) Curt Cignetti might be one of the most impactful hires in college football history.

Georgia gets sweet beatdown revenge on Alabama with 28-7 win in SEC Championship game. Georgia held ‘Bama to -3 rushing yards on the game as Stockton and the Bulldog’s passing attack had its way.

10) How the hell did OSU losing to an undefeated get punished more than Bama? SUSPECT!

Notre Dame declines bowl game invite after being left out of the College Football Playoffs. Debate heats up that the Fighting Irish are holding themselves back by not joining a conference and stuffing up a light schedule as an Independent team. Their 2026-27 schedule is not doing them any favors in that regard…

11) More will continue to decline bowl game invites in CFP era. Bowl era is dying.

Duke holds on for 27-20 overtime win upset Virginia in the ACC Championship to ensure college football fans don’t need to watch an ACC team get taken to the shed in the CFP.

12) Duke is not the hero we deserved. But the hero we needed.

On the eve of JMU’s first CFP birth after only joining the FBS in 2022, and only two years after taking over from Cignetti as head coach of JMU, Bob Chesney accepts head coaching job at UCLA.

13) JMU is Head Coach U. This program’s rapid ascent to FBS dominance is documentary-worthy.

NBA

The Oklahoma City Thunder move to 23-1 as their winning streak hits 15 games. Thunder went up 30+ on Utah and once again benched starters in the 4th quarter despite SGA being out of the lineup.

14) SGA is scoring at a ridiculous clip but OKC is still that good without him..

James Harden moves onto the NBA’s top 10 scoring list, passing Carmelo Anthony to move to #10 all-time with 28,303 points.

15) 2009-2011 OKC with Harden, Durant and Westbrook is the most iconic big-three that never was.