This is Your Chance, Josh Allen. (And Lamar Jackson. And Bo Nix. And ... Philip Rivers?)

Bert Bell must have been smiling down from heaven on Sunday.

There were 14 NFL games on the Sunday schedule, and 13 of them had playoff relevance. As Mike Florio wrote for Pro Football Talk on Saturday, only the Commanders-Giants game had zero postseason implications.

Oh, and it snowed in Philadelphia, Bell’s hometown and headquarters when he was the NFL commissioner. While a winter storm blanketed the Northeast, a nasty cold snap gripped the Midwest. Meaningful football across the country, some of it in the snow, some of it in a deep freeze, with just 11 shopping days until Christmas. Who could ask for anything more?

Bell, as you probably know, coined the phrase “Any Given Sunday,” which grew into the NFL’s Prime Directive of Parity. “The teams are so closely matched that on any given Sunday, any one team can beat any other team,” Bell told reporters in 1952. “Professional football has come down to the point where the psychological edge is the determining factor. Physically these teams are even, so it depends on the mental outlook of the squads to determine the winner. It’s this factor that has made the game close and is bringing fans out to the ball parks.”

Mental outlooks? Psychological edges? In a league that was briefly populated by positivity bunnies, it’s hard to discount such factors. But fans come back each Sunday for clever coaching, outstanding individual performances, unlikely comebacks, heartbreaking injuries, fluky bounces and a weekly dose of unpredictable choas.

Sunday was the purest distillation of the philosophy that began with Bell. The Dynasty of Our Times suffered a definitive playoff knockout, with the greatest player of the last decade suffering a devastating injury. Several scuffling contenders saved their seasons, with one of them (looking at you, Bills) waiting until it was almost too late. The Packers went from a two-score lead to a season-threatening calamity in the span of a few minutes. And a 44-year-old grandfather came within a last-second field goal of delivering an upset for the ageless, if not the ages.

Thrills, agony, sadness, euphoria, frustration, elation, inspiration, rage, pain, cold, gloom, hope, wonder: nothing delivers – nothing reaches the heart of America on an icy December Sunday – like a long afternoon and evening of football.

Game Spotlight: Buffalo Bills 35, New England Patriots 31

What Happened

In the first half, the Patriots looked like they were the perennial Super Bowl contenders securing their annual divisional crown, while the Bills looked like overhyped upstarts who weren’t ready for the spotlight.

The Patriots outcoached, outmuscled and outclassed the Bills for 30 minutes. Drake Maye looked like Josh Allen. Josh Allen looked like Justin Fields. The Patriots rushed for 177 yards at 8.0 yards per rush IN THE FIRST HALF, while Allen, who could not escape the Patriots pass rush, threw for just 35 yards.

Then, with the Patriots leading 24-7, the tide slowly turned.

The Bills didn’t panic and abandon the run (for once), with Allen and James Cook hammering out a ground-and-pound touchdown drive to start the third quarter. A long Patriots kickoff return was nullified by a penalty. Matt Milano sacked Maye to force a three-and-out. Cook capped another drive by extending his whole body for a two-yard touchdown.

Tre’Davious White, trading paint with Mack Hollins up the right sideline, intercepted a third-and-long Maye deep shot near the end of the third quarter. Allen, playing point guard Magic Johnson-style, manufactured another touchdown drive to give the Bills the lead.

The Patriots answered the way they often did in close games this year: with a lightning-strike touchdown, this one a 65-yard run by TreVeyon Henderson seconds after the Bills took the lead. But Allen answered back with yet another methodical drive, capped by Cook scampering 11 yards through a buckling defense for a go-ahead touchdown.

Maye, fresh out of miracles for the first time since October, took two sacks and failed to complete a pass on the final two Patriots possessions.

What It Means for the Bills

Another week, another Jekyll and Hyde performance. The Bills let the Bengals mount a 28-18 lead in the fourth quarter in Week 14. They let the Steelers hang with them in Week 13.

Opponents have outscored the Bills 198-169 in first halves. The Bills have outscored their opponents 242-126 (!!!) in second halves.

The Bills run defense is a mess. Their early-game play calling is sweaty and frenetic. Yet no team in the NFL is better at climbing out of their own self-dug graves, thanks to timely turnovers by their defense, rugged rushing and Acts of Allen.

This is the Bills’ chance. The Chiefs are eliminated. The road to the Super Bowl will be littered with teams like the Patriots (a year away), Steelers (seven years too late), Jaguars (wait ‘til they aren’t facing Brady Cook) and others. If the Bills can start showing up and playing to their potential in the first quarter, no one in the AFC should be able to stop them.

What It Means for the Patriots

Kayshon Boutte caught a 30-yard pass on the opening drive that Sean McDermott should have reviewed. Boutte made an outstanding diving play, but there was some ball-wobble when he hit the turf, and officials love to whip out the rulebook and chapter-and-verse such catches out of existence these days.

Receivers made a few other outstanding grabs for Maye in the first half. Maye was also playing very well, but there was a sense that everything that could go right for the Patriots was, in fact, going absolutely perfectly. In fact, that’s how the last three months of Patriots football felt.

The great catches disappeared in the second half. Calls also started going the Bills’ way. The Patriots didn’t give up, but the feeling like everyone had their ability ratings boosted disappeared. And Maye, for all of his success in 2025, wasn’t quite Allen when he needed to be.

The Patriots remain in first place in the AFC East. But those not-so-quiet whispers about their soft schedule, which have been backed up by the analytics all year, just grew into a resounding chorus.

What’s Next

The Patriots face their second and last true test of the regular season in Baltimore next Sunday night.

The Bills visit the Shedeurs before hosting the Eagles in Week 17.

Game Spotlight: Los Angeles Chargers 16, Kansas City Chiefs 13

What Happened

For three-and-a-half quarters, this game played out like a fascinating thought experiment. What if offensive tackles weren’t real? What if veteran quarterbacks were forced to play behind three-man offensive lines while battling for playoff berths?