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Highlights (and lowlights) from Thanksgiving Day 🦃. Plus, your NFL Week 13 preview 🏈

Jim Reineking   Paste BN

This is the Paste BN Sports NFL newsletter, 4th and Monday. If this newsletter isn't already getting conveniently delivered to your inbox, click here to subscribe.

NFL Week 13 is here. Hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving Day 🦃🏈 action. Our comprehensive weekly NFL preview includes (but is not exclusive to):

➤ Looking back at the Thanksgiving Day games: Green Bay Packers 30, Miami Dolphins 17 — The Packers (9-3) set up a juicy Week 14 "Thursday Night Football" showdown with the Detroit Lions with this relatively easy win over a desperate Dolphins team. The Dolphins' loss means that the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs can clinch playoff berths with victories this weekend.

Dallas Cowboys 27, New York Giants 20 — The Cowboys (5-7) remain "in the hunt" on the NFC playoff picture after this victory in their annual Thanksgiving showcase. The Giants (2-10) are trending toward a very high first-round pick, which they'll need to draft a new quarterback.

Detroit Lions 23, Chicago Bears 20 — The Lions (11-1) are off to the best start in the 95-year history of the franchise (and ended a seven-game losing streak on Thanksgiving), but it came down to the wire against a Bears team desperate to avoid a six-game losing streak. Unfortunately for Chicago, head coach Matt Eberflus was not feeling that same desperation late in this narrow defeat.

➤ Looking ahead to the Black Friday game: Las Vegas Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs — The Chiefs are not only set up to clinch a playoff berth, but will be engaged in a month-plus-long chase for home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. The Raiders (seemingly) are chasing the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL draft. On paper, this appears like a mismatch. However, one should remember that before the Buffalo Bills finally ended the Chiefs' 15-game winning streak, Kansas City's last loss had come to the Raiders on Christmas Day 2023. With Gardner Minshew out for the season, the Raiders welcome Aidan O'Connell back behind center.

➤ Game of the week: Philadelphia Eagles at Baltimore Ravens — Super Bowl 59 preview? Well, the Chiefs and Bills might have something to say about that in the AFC, and the Lions in the NFC, but both the Eagles (9-2) and Ravens (8-4) are going to be forces to be reckoned with come January. The Ravens own the NFL's most prolific offense, led by the league's MVP favorite, Lamar Jackson. The Eagles – led by another MVP contender in Saquon Barkley – haven't lost since September and are riding a seven-game winning streak.

➤ Game I'm mildly interested in, and not just because I have Marvin Harrison Jr. on my fantasy team: Arizona Cardinals at Minnesota Vikings — This is a big one in the NFC playoff race for both teams. The Vikings (9-2) could sneak into hosting a home playoff game if the Lions slip up. The Cardinals (6-5) still are in the NFC West race, but might have their work cut out for them for a wild-card spot if they can't secure the division title.

➤ Just going to rank some games I'm interested in watching without giving any context:

  1. Pittsburgh Steelers at Cincinnati Bengals
  2. Los Angeles Chargers at Atlanta Falcons
  3. San Francisco 49ers at Buffalo Bills
  4. Seattle Seahawks at New York Jets
  5. Cleveland Browns at Denver Broncos

📸: Fans, mascots, cheerleaders and celebrities at NFL games

NFL Week 13: Pigskin prognostications, betting tips, rankings

➤ Week 13 picks: This is where Paste BN Sports' panel of experts has provided fans with the great public service of making prognostications for every game this weekend, both straight up and against the spread.

➤ Bold predictions for Week 13: The NFL's Thanksgiving table has been cleared, but the rest of the Week 13 slate can hardly be described as leftovers. Here are our bold predictions.

➤ NFL Week 13 betting odds: Which teams are favored this week?

➤ Best bets for Week 13: Lorenzo Reyes is back with his favorite NFL bets for Week 13, including why he likes lines involving the Seahawks and Broncos this weekend.

➤ Power rankings: See how all 32 teams stack up after 12 weeks of play. Two NFC teams are stationed at one-two in this week's ratings.

NFL news, notes and analysis

➤ Can you believe Matt Eberflus did it again? The Bears' head coach and his team found yet another confounding way to lose a one-possession game in its 23-20 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Lions. 

➤ First-round draft order: How would the first 32 picks of the 2025 NFL draft shake out if the season ended RIGHT NOW!

➤ Bringing running backs back: The NFL has continued to devalue veteran running backs, but Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley are changing the conversation at the position.

Week 13 NFL schedule

(All times Eastern)

Thursday

Friday

Sunday

Monday

📅: Complete 2024 NFL schedule

From the YouTube algorithm 🏈📺

This is where we reprise some NFL lore and recall a classic, memorable game from yesteryear that featured Week 13 opponents.

Despite being born in expansion in 1967, the New Orleans Saints had little to no playoff history to speak of when the team hosted the St. Louis Rams for a 2000 NFC wild-card playoff game that turned out to be a real thrill.

The game represented just the Saints' fifth playoff game, and it would take quite an effort to secure the franchise's first playoff win … and it was a shocker against the defending Super Bowl champions at the Louisiana Superdome.

The Saints built a 31-7 lead early in the fourth quarter, but these were the "Greatest Show on Turf" Rams, one of the greatest offenses in NFL history, and they could score points in a real hurry. Hall of Famer Kurt Warner threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as the Rams trimmed the Saints' lead to 31-28. As quickly as snake bitten Saints fans were recalling playoff failures of the past, the Rams' Az-Zahir Hakim muffed a punt, the Saints recovered and sealed their first-ever playoff win.

📸: NFL teams wearing alternate or throwback uniforms

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