NFL Game Recaps: Week 18, 2025

NFL Game Recaps of previous weeks and seasons can be found via links at the bottom of the page.

Buccaneers 16, Panthers 14

The Buccaneers snapped their streak of futility, but it came down to the wire. It didn’t look like this game would be very competitive when the Buccaneers got out to a 10-0 lead, but Baker Mayfield gave the Panthers a chance when he threw an interception as a result of not seeing Christian Rozeboom in coverage. This set up a Bryce Young touchdown to Tommy Tremble to trim the margin to three.

There was a severe downpour in the opening half, but the rain vanished following intermission. The Panthers had more success moving the ball, but constant terrible calls ruined some drives. A ticky-tack offensive pass interference and a blown whistle forced punts on two possessions. Carolina also made a mistake when attempting to run a flea-flicker from the Tampa Bay 20-yard line. Rico Dowdle lost a fumble and Young refused to dive on the ball, allowing the Buccaneers to recover and negate a potential three-point chance.

Those three points ended up being the difference, as Young finally completed a lengthy touchdown drive as a result of connecting with Tetairoa McMillan for a 40-yard gain, setting up a touchdown pass to Jalen Coker. Carolina’s defense, however, couldn’t get off the field after that, allowing the Buccaneers to win the game and potentially claim the division with an Atlanta loss.

Seahawks 13, 49ers 3

The 49ers entered this battle for the No. 1 seed winning six consecutive games, but their opponents have been rather lackluster. Beating the likes of the Browns, Titans, Colts, and defensively challenged Bears was nothing compared to the challenge of defeating the Seahawks.

San Francisco had major problems moving the chains in this contest, and it didn’t help that Kyle Shanahan opted to punt the ball near midfield again. The biggest problem was defending Seattle’s No. 2-ranked pass rush with Trent Williams sidelined. Brock Purdy was pressured on nearly every play, and all he could muster was a mere field goal.

The Seahawks, meanwhile, picked up some big gains with both of their running backs. Sam Darnold had all the time in the world to throw, and he completed nearly pass as a result. One of the big plays in this game occurred late in the third quarter when San Francisco finally forced Seattle into a third-and-17. The Seahawks ran the ball with Kenneth Walker on a give-up play, but Walker sprinted for 19 yards to move the chains. This led to a field goal to extend Seattle’s lead to 13-3 at the beginning of the final frame. At that stage of the contest, the 49ers achieved only five first downs. They were able to move down the field on the ensuing possession, but a red zone interception was bobbled out of the hands of Christian McCaffrey to end the scoring chance.

Vikings 16, Packers 13

The Vikings were able to achieve a winning record with a victory in this game. They could also get a good look at J.J. McCarthy heading into next year. McCarthy wasn’t going to get much of a challenge, however, because the Packers were sitting their significant starters.

Despite the easy matchup for the Vikings, they struggled to get on the board. They kicked two field goals early on, but couldn’t muster anything else until right before halftime. This is when McCarthy led the team down the field to set up a C.J. Ham rushing touchdown, but McCarthy had some poor throws in this game. He was also flagged for a ridiculous taunting penalty on the opening drive.

The Vikings undoubtedly wanted to see more of McCarthy in the second half, but he aggravated his hand injury early in the third quarter. It was Max Brosmer the rest of the way, but it didn’t matter because the Packers couldn’t produce anything with Clayton Tune quarterbacking them.

Browns 20, Bengals 18

In the opening game of the season, the Browns outgained the Bengals by about 200 yards, yet found a way to lose via fluky turnovers and a missed kick. The same thing happened in this game, except the roles were reversed. By the midway point of the second quarter, the Bengals had outgained the Browns, 152-27, yet were trailing 14-6 because of some fluky turnovers and a missed kick.

The Bengals actually took advantage of a turnover first, capitalizing off a Sheduer Sanders lost fumble on a strip-sack with a Chase Brown touchdown. The Bengals missed the extra point, but went on to drive down nearly the length of the field. However, in a goal-to-go situation, Joe Burrow had a pass deflected and pick-sixed. On the next drive, Burrow connected with Noah Fant around midfield, but Fant lost a fumble. The Browns scooped and scored, going up 14-6.

Cincinnati eventually got going with two touchdown drives, though the highlight of the game was Myles Garrett’s record-setting 23rd sack of the season. The Bengals then took an 18-17 lead, but Andre Szymt, the Browns kicker who whiffed on an easy attempt in the opener, redeemed himself with a 49-yard field goal at the buzzer.

Giants 34, Cowboys 17

There were rumors that Joe Milton would see action in this game for some reason. Dak Prescott played the opening half and may have had regrets about taking the field because he lost a fumble on a strip-sack to set up a field goal for the Giants. The Cowboys were able to get on the board after that, thanks to a long KaVontae Turpin kickoff return to set up a Jaydon Blue touchdown run.

The Giants, down 10-6, took over from that point forward. Jaxson Dart made a great play to flip a pass to Daniel Bellinger as he was falling down. Bellinger scooped the ball before it hit the ground and ran into the end zone for a 29-yard touchdown. Dart then threw a second touchdown to Tyrone Tracy.

We learned that the rumors were true after intermission, with Milton playing the entire second half. Milton was ineffective, scoring just seven points in garbage time.

Falcons 19, Saints 17

This game was meaningless for both the Falcons and Saints, but extremely meaningful for the Panthers and Buccaneers, as the winner of this contest would decide the champion of the NFC South.

The Falcons and Saints participated in a comedy of errors. Juwan Johnson lost a fumble on the first offensive play, and on the ensuing possession, Kirk Cousins was picked because he didn’t see Carl Granderson in coverage. Atlanta then blocked a punt, leading to what appeared to be a Bijan Robinson touchdown that was negated by a holding penalty. Cousins, however, located Drake London for a touchdown to go up 7-0. The Saints then struck back with a touchdown of their own on a Tyler Shough scramble that was helped by an Atlanta penalty.

The mistakes continued in the second half. Shough made a great play to evade pressure on a fourth-and-4 to find Juwan Johnson and then located Taysom Hill on a fourth-and-3, but a Dante Pettis offensive pass interference negated a touchdown, forcing the Saints to settle for a field goal. On a later drive, Shough scrambled for a 23-yard gain, but was then picked near the red zone, leading to an Atlanta field goal.

Now down 19-10, the Saints put together an impressive drive, where Shough made some great throws, including a touchdown pass to Ronnie Bell. However, the Saints couldn’t recover the onside kick, allowing the Falcons to prevail and the Panthers to win the division.

Jaguars 41, Titans 7

All the Jaguars had to do to claim the AFC South was beat the lowly Titans, but that looked easier said than done to begin the game. Cam Ward drove down the field with ease on the opening possession, scrambling into the end zone for a touchdown.

Ward, however, was injured on the play. He entered the blue tent and then went into the locker room. Before long, he was ruled out for the rest of the afternoon. His backup, Brandon Allen, wasn’t nearly as effective, throwing a pick-six on an ugly floater. That, combined with two Jacksonville touchdowns, put the host up 21-7.

The Jaguars ended up cruising to an easy victory. Trevor Lawrence barely misfired, while Allen couldn’t even reach 73 passing yards despite throwing 30 times.

Texans 38, Colts 30
By Charlie Campbell – @draftcampbell

EDITOR’S NOTE: As if we didn’t have enough bad luck this year, we live bet the Colts at +3.5 when C.J. Stroud was rested. That looked like a sure win, but then the Texans scored a defensive touchdown on the final play of the game. Awesome!

Entering the season finale, the AFC South division title was in play for the Texans. Houston needed a win with the Jaguars losing to the Titans, but Jacksonville blew out Tennessee. Thus, the Texans pulled their starters in the second half. Still, their starting defense had a rough outing in the regular season finale. Houston entered the game with the No. 1 defense in the NFL, but they were shredded by Colts quarterback Riley Leonard, making his first NFL start. Impending free agent Alec Pierce (4-132-2) roasted the Texans’ secondary. In the end, the Colts’ defense was so checked out that the Houston backups were able to win in the second half. Indianapolis finished 8-9 on the season, losing its final seven games. It will be interesting to see if there will be a regime change with the Colts.

On the opening drive of the game, a tremendous catch by Dalton Schultz led to a 32-yard gain and a field goal for Houston. The lead didn’t last long as Alec Pierce got wide open in busted coverage and Riley Leonard lofted in an accurate bomb for a 66-yard touchdown. Houston responded with a field goal drive, but it was answered by the Colts for a three-pointer after a nifty fake punt. Down 10-6 midway through the first half, Stroud ripped the ball down the field and threw a short touchdown to Higgins. A few plays later, Leonard fumbled the ball, and it rolled before the Texans recovered at the Colts’ 1-yard line. Stroud ran the ball in on a broken play to put the Texans up 20-10 midway through the second quarter. Late in the second quarter, Pierce toasted Derek Stingely Jr. to get open for a short touchdown. Houston added a field goal in the final seconds to take a 23-17 lead into the locker room.

To open the third quarter, Leonard lofted a bomb into Pierce for a 53-yard completion to the 1-yard line. Leonard ran it in himself to go up 24-23. With the Jaguars blowing out the Titans, Houston took Stroud out of the game and replaced him with Davis Mills. The Texans took the lead with a field goal drive, but it didn’t last long as Indianapolis got a field goal. The Colts’ offense wasn’t the same in the second half as Pierce got ejected for bumping an official after arguing following an incompletion in the end zone.

Early in the fourth quarter, Leonard threw a bad pass that was intercepted, and Houston produced a field goal to take a 29-27 lead. Leonard came back to use his legs and led a three-point drive to make it 30-29. In the final seconds of the fourth quarter, Houston hit the game-winning field goal to clinch their 12th win of the season. On the final play, the Colts tried the flea-flicker, but it was fumbled, and Texans nose tackle Tommy Togiai scooped it up at the 16 and returned it for a touchdown.

Patriots 38, Dolphins 10
By Charlie Campbell – @draftcampbell

EDITOR’S NOTE: This one looked dicey for a while, but the Patriots helped us get there with a five-unit win over the Dolphins.

The Patriots had a shot at landing the No. 1 seed in the AFC with a win and the Chargers assisting with a victory over the Broncos. Denver held the top seed, but New England can be thrilled with the No. 2 seed, having gone from four wins last year to 14 wins this season. Second-year quarterback Drake Maye is a top MVP contender, and Maye is showing why I had him rated as the No. 1 player for the 2024 NFL Draft over Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels throughout the 2024 draft process. Miami starts its offseason of change with a new general manager hire coming along with huge decisions to be made on head coach Mike McDaniel and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

The Patriots took the opening drive quickly into the end zone as Rhamondre Stevenson took off on a 57-yard run and then TreVeyon Henderson plunged into the end zone. The Dolphins responded with a drive down the field, but were stopped on fourth-and-1 at the New England 8-yard line. The Patriots cruised down the field before Stevenson charged into the end zone. Ewers continued to move the ball and found a wide-open Malik Washington for a short touchdown. After a fourth-down stop from the Miami defense, Jaylen Wright fumbled the ball away to set up the Patriots offense at the Miami 37. The Patriots got into Miami territory, but Zach Sieler blocked a field goal to keep it a one-score game. After a New England stop, the Patriots grabbed a field goal at the end of the second quarter to take a 17-10 lead into the half.

In the third quarter, Stevenson dominated the Dolphins’ defense and put the game away. He caught a 15-yard touchdown pass, and then rumbled for a 35-yard touchdown run to make it 31-10 entering the fourth quarter. In garbage time, Henderson added a second rushing touchdown.

Raiders 14, Chiefs 12

The Raiders had been tanking for the No. 1 overall pick, but because the Giants beat the Cowboys, the Raiders were able to go for the win in this game. It was odd to see them try hard, especially on defense, but that’s exactly what they did.

Las Vegas’ defense was able to swarm beleaguered backup Chris Oladokun and force some turnovers. Oladokun lost a fumble on a strip-sack and then lost another fumble while trying to scramble. The Raiders took over and appeared to fumble themselves, but the lackadaisical Chiefs were offsides on the play to negate the give-away. Las Vegas ended up kicking a field goal to take a 6-3 lead.

The Raiders kicked two more field goals after that. The field goal that took the lead featured a 6-minute drive, highlighted by a 16-yard Tre Tucker reception. The Raiders then sacked Shane Buechele, who took over for Oladokun at halftime, for a safety. The Raiders, however, fumbled the kickoff following the safety to set up another Kansas City field goal to give this game an appropriate odd Scorigami score of 11-9.

The Chiefs had other ideas, however, as Buechele led the team down the field for a field goal drive, thanks to a 51-yard bomb to Marquise Brown. The Raiders, now down 12-11 with just 55 seconds remaining, saw Aidan O’Connell hit Michael Mayer for a 21-yard pass to set up Daniel Carlson’s game-winning 60-yard field goal.

Lions 19, Bears 16

The Bears needed a win to clinch the No. 2 seed. Ben Johnson announced that his starters would play in this game, so it was assumed that Chicago would play hard to lock up a home game in the second round of the playoffs. Based on how this game went, however, it appeared as though the Lions were the team to have something at stake in this contest.

The Lions looked like they were playing in seven-on-seven drills in the opening half. Jared Goff did whatever he wanted against Chicago’s poor pass defense. Amon-Ra St. Brown had a monster game, generating 110 receiving yards in the first half alone. Meanwhile, the Bears got nothing out of their offense. Caleb Williams was a disaster, failing to eclipse 50 passing yards prior to intermission. The only thing that worked were passes to Colston Loveland, as Williams couldn’t get the ball to his receivers despite going against one of the worst secondaries in the NFL.

Detroit entered the second half with a 13-0 lead. Their defense made a big play on a Williams interception on a shot to the end zone. The Lions kicked a field goal. Down 16-0, the Bears looked dead.

However, Chicago can never be counted out, and the Bears suddenly flipped the on switch again. Williams became unstoppable without warning, constantly connecting to Loveland. The Bears tied the game, but then saw the Lions drive down the field into field goal range. Goff, however, inexplicably threw an interception when he fired the ball into traffic. The Bears took over with 2:10 remaining, but also couldn’t do anything. The Lions got one more chance and made the most of it. Goff fired a 26-yard pas to Amon-Ra St. Brown to seet up the game-winning 42-yard field goal.

Bills 35, Jets 8

There was some speculation about whether Josh Allen would play significant snaps in this meaningless game. Allen took the field on the very first snap to keep his starting streak alive, but then went to the bench. It didn’t take very long for James Cook to join him.

Despite Allen and Cook not playing, the Bills absolutely dominated in this game. Mitchell Trubisky threw a whopping four touchdowns to his backup receivers, as the horrible Jets defense had no answer for him. Trubisky also didn’t throw an interception, meaning the Jets defense did not pick off a pass for the entire season.

Redskins 24, Eagles 17

The Eagles announced that they were going to sit their starters for this game, as they apparently didn’t care if they were the No. 2 or 3 seed. Or, perhaps they somehow knew that the Bears would embarrass themselves against the Lions. Either way, Philadelphia could have improved to the No. 2 seed with a victory.

The only noteworthy starter of Philadelphia’s to play in this game was DeVonta Smith, who caught three passes in the opening quarter in an effort to reach 1,000 receiving yards for the season. After that, it was all Tanner McKee and a host of scrubs. They failed on an early fourth-and-1 – there was no tush push with Jalen Hurts resting on the sidelines – which gave the Redskins some life. Washington went into halftime up 10-7.

McKee and the Eagles had a better performance in the third quarter. Tank Bigsby had some significant runs, allowing the Eagles to go up 17-10. The Redskins, however, struck back with a pair of touchdowns, including a run into the end zone by Josh Johnson when Eagles cornerback Kelee Ringo embarrassed himself by turning around and not looking at the quarterback. The Eagles had some chances to tie or take the lead, but couldn’t engineer another scoring drive.

Rams 37, Cardinals 20

One would think that the Rams would have been energized in the wake of the 49ers’ loss. Because of the Saturday night result, the Rams had a chance to claim the No. 5 seed and travel to the NFC South winner.

For a while, it appeared as though the Rams didn’t care what their seed would be. They got off to a slow start in this game, kicking two field goals in a 6-6 affair, with one kick coming following a lost Arizona fumble on a Jacoby Brissett strip-sack. The Rams finally seemed to wake up from their slumber just prior to halftime, scoring 10 points in a blur. Up 16-6, it looked like the Rams would cruise to an easy victory.

This, however, was not the case, as the Cardinals picked up a first down on a fake punt, setting up a Michael Wilson touchdown. The Cardinals then put together a more traditional touchdown drive, with Brissett engineering a 6-minute possession, culminating a touchdown pass.

Down 20-16, the Rams could have easily folded, but they put together a touchdown drive of their own. They then appeared to surrender a ridiculous 56-yard reception to Wilson, but the play was negated by penalty. The Cardinals punted, and Matthew Stafford threw another touchdown pass to Tyler Higbee to go up 10. The Rams added a late touchdown to cover the spread.

Broncos 19, Chargers 3

The Broncos were expected to dominate this game. They were seeking the No. 1 seed, while the Chargers were playing their backups. Denver took an early 10-0 lead on a pick-six by Trey Lance, but struggled to score after that.

This affair was either 10-3 or 13-3 for two quarters of action, as the Broncos couldn’t get anything going offensively. Bo Nix was horrendous, throwing many poor passes against the Chargers’ backup defense. Nix was at least able to scramble, as his runs were the only source of offense Denver had in this contest. R.J. Harvey couldn’t get anything on the ground.

The Broncos eventually turned a late Chargers turnover on downs into a field goal to go up 16. The Chargers drove down the field at the very end, but two apparent touchdowns were nullified by a penalty and replay review.

Steelers 26, Ravens 24

For a high-scoring shootout, this battle for the AFC North title was a sloppy game in the early going. The Ravens blew multiple opportunities to extend promising drives with holding penalties. The Steelers, conversely, were stuffed on multiple fourth-down opportunities before halftime.

Everything changed for the Steelers when Kyle Hamilton left the game with a concussion. The Steelers had better success moving the chains, and they were able to convert all of their short-yardage opportunities. Making matters worse for the Ravens, Lamar Jackson had a pass deflected into the arms of T.J. Watt.

Down 13-10, the Ravens finally made some explosive plays. Jackson avoided two sacks and heaved a bomb to a wide-open Zay Flowers for a touchdown. The Steelers answered with a touchdown drive of their own again. On the ensuing possession, Jackson once again located a wide-open Flowers for a 64-yard score.

Trailing 24-20, the Steelers had one more chance. Aaron Rodgers once again drove the team down the field and was able to hit Calvin Austin for a score when cornerback Chidobe Awuzie slipped. However, Chris Boswell missed his second extra point in four years. The Ravens, trailing 26-24 instead of 27-24, needed a field goal to win instead of tie.

Things were bleak for the Ravens despite a long kickoff return by Keith Mitchell because they were forced into a fourth-and-7 because of an illegal formation penalty by Ronnie Stanley. However, Jackson fired a pass to Isaiah Likely, who made a leaping catch, setting up the decisive 44-yard field goal by Tyler Loop. Justin Tucker’s replacement completely choked, sailing the kick wide right.