\n<\/p>\n
What becomes of the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes that engender such emotion at our Thanksgiving tables?<\/p>\n
They\u2019re scooped into containers to wait in the wings as leftovers, carrying the same potential for anticipation, joy, and possibly even anguish as when they first emerged from the oven.<\/p>\n
So it is with the NFL teams that offered a familiar backdrop to Thursday\u2019s feasts. Yes, Green Bay beat Detroit and Dallas edged Kansas City before Cincinnati thumped Baltimore. But who\u2019s to say any of the defeated won\u2019t be paraded for consumption again when the playoffs begin in January \u2014 that month when so many aspire to eat far, far less than they did during the holidays?<\/p>\n
The Lions, Chiefs, and Ravens aren\u2019t exactly familiar with the \u201cIn the Hunt\u201d and \u201cOn the Bubble\u201d headers on playoff outlook graphics on TV. Detroit and Kansas City seized the top seeds in the NFC and AFC, respectively, last season, and Baltimore has been a familiar fixture atop the AFC North.<\/p>\n
While turnovers and inconsistency haunted the Ravens against the not-yet-mathematically-eliminated Bengals \u2014 \u201cWe did not play a winning football game,\u201d Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said \u2014 the team had been surging until then.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s loss stopped the Ravens\u2019 five-game winning streak and dropped them a half-game behind division-leading Pittsburgh. As in the same Steelers struggling to find their stride ahead of matchups with the Ravens in Baltimore (Week 14) and in Pittsburgh (Week 18).<\/p>\n
Detroit\u2019s home loss to Green Bay secured a sweep of the season series for the Packers<\/a>, significantly denting the Lions\u2019 chances at a third consecutive NFC North crown.<\/p>\n Advancing to the playoffs still is in play, though, with a mix of home improvement and outside help.<\/p>\n The Lions can sweep current division leader Chicago with a Week 18 victory. By then, we\u2019ll know whether the Bears are true contenders, as two games against Green Bay and a visit to San Francisco await after today\u2019s Black Friday game at defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Of course, the banged-up Lions get a gauntlet of their own, with four of their remaining five games against teams with winning records, including three versus division leaders.<\/p>\n