"In an NFL season where so many teams are tightly packed at the top of their respective conferences and divisions, every week of football in December is going to drive massive changes in the league's playoff picture. Thursday's win by the Lions over the Cowboys kept Dan Campbell's team in the race with its divisional rivals for a wild-card spot, while Dallas saw its own push into the postseason derailed."
"There were more significant swings on Sunday, especially in games where teams with realistic playoff aspirations were pitted against one another. With three potential playoff teams on bye and two more still to meet when the Chargers and Eagles play on "Monday Night Football," there were four matchups between true playoff contenders on Sunday. (Sorry, Bengals.) They were all interesting in their own ways."
"That starts in Jacksonville, where a Colts team saw its chances of making an impact in 2025 and potentially 2026 disappear in a matter of moments. Not only did Indy lose the division matchup, but it also lost quarterback Daniel Jones to an Achilles injury. A team that had visions of running the AFC playoffs through Indianapolis as the 1-seed might not make it to this season's postseason at all."
December football produced large shifts in playoff probabilities as tight conference and division races magnified each result. The Lions' Thursday victory over the Cowboys preserved Detroit's wild-card hopes and halved Dallas' FPI playoff odds. Sunday featured four matchups between realistic contenders, with three teams on bye and two meeting Monday night. In Jacksonville, the Colts' division loss and quarterback Daniel Jones' Achilles injury erased much of Indianapolis' immediate postseason potential and dimmed hopes for 2026. The outcomes across these games meaningfully reshaped seeding and postseason projections according to ESPN's Football Power Index. Teams' chances and paths to the playoffs shifted dramatically in the span of a few days.
Read at ESPN.com
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