Dawson Knox (left)of the Buffalo Bills is tackled by Barrett Carter of the Cincinnati Bengals during the third quarter at Highmark Stadium on December 7, 2025 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo: AFP)
Heading into Week 15 of the 2025/26 National Football League (NFL) regular season, there is a feeling of openness that is not often felt in the league. And, following last weekend’s frantic events on the gridiron, nine teams have been eliminated from playoff contention — Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, Washington Commanders, New York Giants, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans — but none of the other 23 teams can safely lay claim to a spot in the postseason.
The NFL has two conferences, the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC), with four divisions in each conference. In each division, there are four teams and the winner of each division automatically snags a playoff spot, along with the three non-division winners with the best records in each conference, earning wild-card bids into the postseason. Additionally, the top team in each conference receives a bye to the second round of the play-offs, which means only 16 of the 23 teams still in contention have a chance to advance beyond the regular season, with only four week to go.
All the JustBet pre-season favourites — the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs — enter Week 15 with their own set of struggles, and all have must-win matchups this weekend if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive, with the Eagles (8-5) having the path of least resistance as they invite the Las Vegas Raiders (2-11) into Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday afternoon. Despite three-straight defeats, the defending Super Bowl champions are JustBet favourites entering this contest, and the odds are stacked against the Las Vegas squad.
The Eagles are coming off a disappointing 22-19 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday, that featured eight turnovers between the two teams. Fittingly, the game ended with an interception for Philadelphia’s quarterback (QB) Jalen Hurts, who threw four in the game, and became the first player in NFL history to have two turnovers on the same play. He threw an interception to Chargers’ defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand, who fumbled during the return, and Hurts recovered the ball but fumbled it back to the Chargers as he was hit.
As for the other pre-season favourites, the Ravens (6-7) visit for a clash against an AFC North opponent, the Cincinnati Bengals (4-9), in a critical cat versus bird duel, the Chiefs (6-7), having been eliminated from the top of the AFC West for the first time in nine years, welcome division rivals, the Chargers (9-4), into Arrowhead Stadium, in an effort to save their season, and the Bills (9-4) travel to the New England Patriots, who have a joint league-leading 11-2 record (the Denver Broncos are also 11-2), for one of the must-see games of the weekend.
The playoff implications of this AFC West encounter on Sunday cannot be understated as it offers the final chance for the Bills to contend for the division against the Patriots, who have the chance to clinch their first division title since 2019. The first meeting between these teams resulted in a 23-20 Patriots upset win in early October, where wide receiver Stefon Diggs put on a clinic against his former team, and had his best game of the season (10-of-12 targets for 146 yards). The narrative around New England is that they’ve played an easy schedule and the biggest win was the Week 5 matchup against Buffalo, but the schedule for the Bills has been fairly easy as well, since most of their wins came against teams that are under 500 at this point of the season.
That said, Buffalo controlled most of the October game and lost primarily because they turned the ball over three times compared to New England’s one giveaway. Outside of those errors, Buffalo outgained New England in total yards (363 to 338), first downs (25 to 21), total plays (61 to 56), rushing yards (118 to 71), and time of possession (34:31 to 25:29). The Bills are slightly favoured by JustBet entering the weekend (albeit by only two points), but the reigning Most Valuable Player, QB Josh Allen, has found his groove at just about the right time, for a game that could be one of the best of this season.
Which brings us to the NFC heavyweight match-up of the weekend, when the Los Angeles Rams (10-3) welcome the Detroit Lions (8-5) into SoFi Stadium late Sunday afternoon. The Rams jointly lead the NFC, along with the Seattle Seahawks, but have the more worrying encounter of the two this Sunday, as Seattle will play the Indianapolis Colts, who have lost all three QBs to injury and have convinced retired 44 year-old Philip Rivers to return as their play caller — Rivers recently became a grandfather and has not played since 2020. Therefore, the Rams have a bigger concern that the Seahawks, if they are to remain toe-to-toe in the race to the pinnacle of the conference.
As a backdrop, in March 2021, the Lions completed a trade that sent QB Matthew Stafford — the franchise’s all-time passing leader — to the Rams for QB Jared Goff and three draft picks, and therefore this matchup is flavoured with lots of seasoning as the QBs face each other against their former teams again. JustBet offers the home team as fairly big favourites, considering the opponent, and they both currently sit on the outside of the top seven in the NFC. They will both take the field with some momentum from Week 14, with the Lions looking to build on their win last week Thursday against the Dallas Cowboys, and the Rams, following a dominant victory over the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday.
Rams’ receiver Puka Nacua (7-for-11, for 167 yards, 2 touchdowns) had the best game of his young career against the Cardinals, and combined with Davante Adams, leads the NFL in touchdown catches. The other side of the park will have another elite duo in Amon-Ra St Brown and Jameson Williams and combined with the QB pairing of Stafford and Goff, a more high-quality offensive game may not be seen for the rest of the regular season. The stakes are as high as they can get, and the season is on the line. Are you ready for some football?
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