On one side there were the big winners in the divisional races, which were the Broncos and Dolphins (yes, the Dolphins), and then there were the two big winners in the race for the two wild-card spots, Indianapolis and Baltimore.
The big winner, and absolute favorite of the week: Denver. The Broncos not only made the big drive to defeat the Jets, rising at home, but they took three games over the Chargers in the AFC West, with four games left. In the next three weeks, the Broncos will face the Chiefs, Panthers and Bills. They'll probably already have the division title in the pocket by the time they visit the Chargers on the final day of the regular season.
On calmer waters: The Dolphins were also big winners on their division. In fact, they were the only winners in their division. They did what they had to do in St. Louis and saw the fall of the Jets, Patriots and Bills. Now Miami is only a game behind the division leader, New York, and the Dolphins will visit the Jets in the last week of the regular season.
Leaders of steel: The Steelers hold a one game lead at the top the AFC North and, with the collapse of the Jets, are the masters at this time of the second seed in the conference. Remaining in that position would allow them to rest in the first week of the playoffs. In the NFC, the only clear winner was Minnesota, who took over the top of the NFC North with a win over Chicago and stretched the lead to two games over Green Bay, who lost to Carolina.
Carolina holds a tie with Tampa Bay in the first place in the NFC South, one game behind Atlanta. There were no big winners in this division this week, but there was a big loser: New Orleans, who practically can say "farewell" to the playoffs.
So stay tuned! With all the action that the NFL will bring us in the week 14 of the regular season, you can check out our predictions for this week on our Week 14 Odds article.
