INGLEWOOD, California — The Los Angeles Rams extended their winning streak underneath the bright lights of ‘Sunday Night Football.’

The Rams earned their sixth straight victory after they trounced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 34-7, on Sunday night. LA got off to a fast 14-0 lead after a cornerback Cobie Durant’s pick-six in the first quarter.

It didn’t end there. The prime-time contest was out of reach by halftime: Los Angeles extended its advantage to 31-7 in a dominant first half.

USA TODAY Sports was on site at SoFi Stadium for the Week 12 “Sunday Night Football” matchup. Here are the winners and losers from the prime-time battle.

Winner: Matthew Stafford (and his MVP case)

Stafford completed his first 12 passes against a helpless Bucs defense to begin the game.  

The veteran quarterback tossed three touchdown passes in what was a superb first half.

Stafford went 25-of-35 passing 273 yards and had three touchdown passes, resulting in a 122.7 passer rating.

Stafford joined Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers as the only players in NFL history with at least 30 touchdown passes and five-or-fewer interceptions in their team’s first 11 games of a season.

Stafford has an NFL-best 30 touchdown passes this season. He’s making a strong case for NFL MVP.

Winner: Daily Double Davante Adams

Adams caught two touchdowns to give him an NFL-high 12 touchdown receptions this season. The veteran wideout’s first touchdown came on a short fade route to punctuate the Rams’ opening touchdown drive.

His second TD was on a came on a 24-yard go route where he juked Bucs CB Zyon McCollum at the line of scrimmage.

Adams compiled five catches, 62 yards and two touchdowns in the win.

Winner: Cobie, Kobie and Co.

Durant recorded his second interception in as many weeks. The Rams cornerback snatched the football away from Bucs tight end Cade Otton as he struggled to gain possession.

Durant followed it up by running 50 yards for the pick-six. The highlight-reel turnover gave the Rams a 14-0 first-quarter advantage.

The Rams defense held the Bucs to 109 total yards and seven points in the first half.

Edge rusher Jared Verse produced four tackles and two sacks. Defensive lineman Kobie Turner tallied six tackles and two sacks.  

Winner: Snapping an LA playoff picture

The Rams have now won six-straight games, the longest active winning streak in the NFC.

Sunday’s night’s victory moved the Rams to the top seed in the NFC after Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 12 loss.

The Rams joined the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos as the only teams in the league with just two losses entering Week 13.

Winner: Aaron Donald (and bobblehead collectors)

The Rams dubbed Sunday night’s contest the “Aaron Donald Celebration” game. The franchise honored Donald, one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history, at halftime.

The first 60,000 fans in attendance received a Donald “GOAT Bobblehead.’

Winner: The … Carolina Panthers?

The upstart Panthers (6-5) have a chance to end Week 12 in first place of the NFC South with a win Monday night against the San Francisco 49ers.

Loser: The first-half Buccaneers

The Bucs performed as if they were still in Tampa Bay in the first half. They trailed 21-0 before fans were able to get comfortable in their seats at SoFi Stadium. The game was pretty much over at the at the halftime break.

The Bucs were outgained 109 to 224 in total yards and had two giveaways in the first half.

Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield injured his left shoulder in the first half and didn’t return to the game after halftime.

Loser: The Buccaneers’ offensive offense

The Bucs tight end bobbled what should’ve been a routine catch in the first quarter. To make matters worse, Rams CB Cobie Durant took the loose football from Otton and ran 50 yards down the field for a pick-six.

Tampa Bay’s offense had a difficult time sustaining drives. The Bucs offense only had one drive of over 60 yards.

The Bucs had 193 total yards in the loss.

Loser: Tampa Bay’s leaky-ship defense

The Bucs defense had no answers for the Rams offense, especially in the first half. The Rams offense had three touchdown drives in the first half, and another possession that ended in a field goal.

Tampa Bay’s defense gave up four scoring drives and 224 total yards in the first half. Every drive for the Rams ended in points in the first two quarters.

The Bucs defense gave up 333 total yards.

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Tyler Dragon on X @TheTylerDragon.

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Indianapolis Colts in overtime, improving their record to 6-5.
Wide receiver Rashee Rice’s six-game suspension to start the season has been a disruption for the team.
The Chiefs have struggled in one-score games this season after going undefeated in them last year.
Key players like Travis Kelce and Chris Jones have seen a decline in their typical performance levels.
Despite their struggles, the Chiefs remain in the AFC playoff hunt after what was considered a must-win game.

The Kansas City Chiefs are already in playoff mode. Whether they actually qualify for the 2025 NFL postseason is a completely different proposition.

The reigning AFC champions, who have won three of the past six Super Bowls, prevailed in overtime Sunday, defeating the Indianapolis Colts 23-20 in what might have effectively been a must-win game.

The Chiefs improved their record to 6-5, picking up a half-game on the idle Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers in the highly competitive AFC West while otherwise keeping pace on the periphery of the conference playoff chase − though they remained in 10th place overall immediately after their narrow victory.

While a 10th straight divisional crown doesn’t seem to be in the offing, K.C. did live to fight another weekend − or Thursday, actually, as the Chiefs will next play on Thanksgiving afternoon against the Dallas Cowboys.

Yet despite Sunday’s escape from the Colts at Arrowhead, there’s been plenty wrong with the Chiefs since the start of the 2025 campaign. Let us count the reasons – specifically six of them:

1. The Rashee Rice disruption

Slice this however you want, but the six-game suspension K.C.’s top wideout served to start the season – for his reckless racing on a Dallas highway last year, which left six cars in a pileup and several people injured at a scene Rice left – hasn’t helped.

The Chiefs split their first six games without Rice in a predictive microcosm of their season and are 3-2 since he returned. From an individual perspective, he’s been instantaneously productive after a knee injury scuttled his 2024 season after four games – producing 34 catches for 394 yards and three touchdowns, including eight often crucial receptions for 141 yards against Indy. But when a team is average without you and effectively the same while having to belatedly integrate you into the attack midstream, what are you really bringing to the table?

2. Lady Luck’s wrath

No, this isn’t a Taylor Swift reference … yet. But the 2024 Chiefs, who finished the regular season with a 15-2 record – the best in franchise history – were 12-0 (including playoffs) in one-score games. Their meager plus-59 point differential in the regular season and minus-six mark in the playoffs, including a 22-point defeat in Super Bowl 59 that wasn’t as close as the score would suggest, is indicative of a team that was relatively average − particularly by the Chiefs’ dynastic standards.

But the pendulum has swung violently in the other direction this season. Kansas City entered Sunday with an 0-5 record, i.e. all of its losses, in one-score games before surviving the Colts. No regression to the mean here, simply living on the polarities.

3. Stunning AFC West regression

The Chiefs’ divisional rule wasn’t going to last forever, but they knew the barbarians were at the gates in 2024, when the Jim Harbaugh-led Chargers and Sean Payton-led Broncos both reached the playoffs as fairly surprising wild-card entries. Now, the palace has seemingly been overrun, those teams not only ahead of Kansas City in the standings but each with a win over the Chiefs in hand – potentially critically valuable currency when it comes time to sort out playoff tiebreakers at the end of the regular season.

4. Critical losses

Speaking of those tiebreakers, it’s better to lose interconference games – like when the Chiefs dropped their Super Bowl 59 rematch to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2, a much less penal defeat when the formula is applied. But in addition to those divisional setbacks, Kansas City has lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills, other teams they could be vying with for one of those three wild-card berths. Not great.

5. Travis Kelce and Chris Jones

Aside from QB Patrick Mahomes and coach Andy Reid, Kansas City’s tight end (Kelce) and defensive cornerstone (Jones) would be the other two faces carved if a Mount Rushmore was ever built for the NFL’s most recent dynasty. Kelce, 36, has picked up the pace of late, but he wasn’t much of a factor during that 3-3 start when Rice wasn’t available to help draw coverage from him. Worse, Kelce admitted a poorly run route in the Week 1 game at Brazil that resulted in a shoulder injury to WR Xavier Worthy was entirely his fault. Worthy wound up missing most of the first three games, when K.C. was 1-2, its receiving corps further depleted by his absence. It’s fair to say Kelce is still one of the league’s better tight ends, if one in decline − especially relative to what he’s provided this team through the years.

Jones, 31, has had an even tougher season – with just three sacks and 24 pressures, ranking him 59th league-wide entering Week 12. Worse, PFF ranked him 111th of 124 qualified defensive linemen in terms of run defense coming into the weekend. Jones’ lack of gap discipline in the opening-night loss to the Chargers was notable on Bolts QB Justin Herbert’s game-icing run and drew the wrath of LB Drue Tranquill on the sideline. Jones had just one tackle against the Colts, though the Chiefs did limit Indianapolis RB Jonathan Taylor to 58 rushing yards and kept him out of the end zone.

6. Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid

Are they about to become victims of the outsized expectations they’ve fostered? All those division titles? Five Super Bowl appearances and three Lombardi Trophies? Heck, since Mahomes became the starter in 2018, his second season, he’s never failed to lead this team to the AFC championship game. Maybe this team isn’t really that good and deserves to be hovering around .500 − doesn’t mean “we” don’t think they should win at all … even if much of America is rejoicing that its Chiefs fatigue may be taking a break, if not ending. But don’t bury K.C. just yet, especially after Mahomes engineered a pair of field goal drives with his final two possessions Sunday − one bringing the Chiefs level with the Colts at the end of regulation, the second vanquishing the AFC South leaders in OT.

Taylor Swift

Would that we could blame “Wood.” But nah, not her fault. Sorry, haters (and we’re not!).

The Indianapolis Colts lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 23-20 in overtime after blowing an 11-point fourth-quarter lead.
Indianapolis’ offense struggled late, with four consecutive three-and-outs in the fourth quarter and overtime.
The Colts’ defense allowed the Chiefs to have their first 100-yard receiver and rusher of the season.
Head coach Shane Steichen took responsibility for the team’s late-game offensive inefficiencies.

The Indianapolis Colts had the Kansas City Chiefs on the ropes. 

Instead of delivering a potentially fatal blow to the Chiefs’ season – not to mention securing a boost in their own record and reputation – the Colts blew an 11-point, fourth-quarter lead to Patrick Mahomes and Co. and lost, 23-20, in overtime. 

The Colts’ defense may not have been able to stop Mahomes from feeding Rashee Rice (eight catches, 141 yards, one touchdown) or handing the ball off to Kareem Hunt (30 rushes, 104 yards, touchdown). The offense didn’t help. The unit had four straight three-and-outs in the fourth quarter and overtime.

“Anytime you have three-and-outs and you’re not moving the ball efficiently, it’s gonna be hard for anyone to win football games” head coach Shane Steichen said. “And we got to be better. I got to be better.”

In the second half, the Colts managed five first downs and were 2-of-7 on third down. They had the ball for all of five minutes and 21 seconds in the fourth quarter – which they began leading 20-9 – and overtime. 

One issue was not jumpstarting the run game led by running back Jonathan Taylor, an MVP contender. Steichen, Indianapolis’ offensive playcaller, didn’t completely abandon the run down the stretch. But five of his last seven runs of the game went for two yards or less, including a third-and-1 in overtime. Taylor averaged 6.0 yards per carry entering this game, but 11 of his 16 attempts went for 2 yards or less. 

The Colts punted after watching Taylor run into a wall one last time. Mahomes went on a six-minute victory march that ended with Harrison Butker’s 27-yard field goal. 

Rather than leaning on Taylor and the run game, Steichen put his faith in his quarterback. Daniel Jones was 8-for-18 for 83 yards in the second half.

“Tough to have a stretch like that toward the end of the game,” Jones told reporters. 

Of course, the defense is not without blame. The Chiefs had not yet had a 100-yard receiver or rusher this season. They achieved both (Rice and Hunt, respectively) for the first time against the Lou Anarumo-led unit.

“Obviously very frustrating, not up to our standards today,’ Steichen said of the overall effort. ‘We got to be better and that starts with myself.” 

Jones didn’t have much of an explanation for the dropoff from the first half, in which he went 10-for-12 and completed a 48-yard pass to Ashton Dulin. He said nothing from the Chiefs “markedly different” of any second-half adjustments and said they were prepared for it. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo still found ways to send pressure at Jones, as the Chiefs finished with a 40.6% pressure rate and five unblocked pressures, according to ESPN. 

“Sometimes it happens quicker than what you’d expect,” Jones said. “So, gotta be accurate, gotta find a way to make the play work. I gotta do a better job of that.” 

Twenty-seven of Taylor’s 33 yards after halftime came on one play. During the 12 plays of the four consecutive three-and-outs, the Colts gained 18 yards. Taylor had three carries for a total one yard.

There was some consideration going for the fourth downs the Colts faced, Steichen said. He ultimately didn’t want to risk giving the Chiefs good field position. It ended up not mattering. 

Steichen said the offense wasn’t good enough on first-and-10 after having some success in the first half. When it came to bottling up Taylor, he pointed to the Chiefs’ unblocked linebackers making plays.

“There’s a lot of stuff that I wanted to get called that I felt good about in the pass game,” Steichen said. “And we just weren’t efficient doing it. And it starts with me.” 

The Colts (8-3) now lead the Jacksonville Jaguars by one game in the AFC South and missed out on a chance to maintain pace with the AFC-leading New England Patriots (10-2), while the 9-2 Denver Broncos were on a bye. That extra loss will loom large in securing seeding, should the Colts advance to the dance. And there’s plenty of blame to go around for that. 

The Las Vegas Raiders acted swiftly in response to their latest offensive letdown.

The team fired offensive coordinator Chip Kelly on Sunday, Nov. 23, just hours after a 24-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns in which the offense surrendered 10 sacks.

‘I spoke with Chip Kelly earlier this evening and informed him of his release as offensive coordinator of the Raiders,’ Raiders coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. ‘I would like to thank Chip for his service and wish him all the best in the future.’

Kelly, the former head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers, became the NFL’s highest-paid offensive coordinator at $6 million per year, according to multiple reports, when he was hired by Carroll in February.

But the Raiders offense has floundered with him at the helm, with the unit averaging just 3.6 yards per play on Sunday in a defeat that dropped the team to 2-9 on the season. Geno Smith was pressured on a season-high 23 dropbacks, according to Next Gen Stats. Cleveland’s previous single-game best was 15 pressures. Nine different players registered multiple pressures.

‘(I)f you don’t score, you can’t win,’ Carroll aid in a postgame news conference. ‘And we couldn’t score.’

Added Carroll: ‘We had opportunities to make big plays and we didn’t hit them. The QB was under duress the entire time. Our ability to match up with their pass rush didn’t work out well.’

On the season, the Raiders are tied for last in the NFL in points per game (15.0) while ranking 30th in total yards per game (268.9) and 31st in rushing per game (79.5 yards). Smith has taken the second-most sacks of any quarterback (41) and is tied for the league lead in interceptions (13).

Kelly is the second Raiders coordinator to be fired this month, as the team parted ways with special teams coordinator Tom McMahon following a loss to the Denver Broncos.

Both Shedeur Sanders and Tom Brady became starters after the previous quarterback was injured.
Sanders fell to the fifth round of the NFL draft, while Brady was a sixth-round pick.
Brady sent Sanders a supportive text message after his disappointing draft experience.

Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders knows Tom Brady, learned from Tom Brady and now wants to launch his NFL career like Tom Brady did 25 years ago.

Sanders’ father Deion also held Brady up as a model for his son after Shedeur fell to the fifth round in the NFL draft in April.

That’s because Brady, the legendary NFL quarterback, was a sixth-round pick out of Michigan in 2000 before going on to win seven Super Bowls.

Brady even sent Shedeur a text message after his disappointing draft experience and told him to “use it as motivation.”

Here’s how their NFL career starts compare after the former Colorado quarterback made his starting debut Sunday in Las Vegas:

How they got their first NFL starts

Brady got his first NFL start for New England on Sept. 30, 2001 after the previous starter, Drew Bledsoe, was knocked out of action in the previous game on a vicious hit by a defender.

Shedeur Sanders got his first NFL start Sunday, Nov. 23, after the previous starter, Dillon Gabriel, was knocked of the previous game with a concussion.

How they did in their first NFL starts

Brady led the Patriots to a 44-13 win over the Indianapolis Colts.

Shedeur Sanders led the Browns to a 24-10 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, a team that Brady partly owns.

How they did statistically in their first NFL starts

Brady completed 13 of 23 passes for 168 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. His passer rating was 79.6.

Shedeur Sanders completed 11 of 20 passes for 209 yards and one touchdown with one interception. His passer rating was 87.3.

How good were their teams?

The Patriots were 0-2 when Brady took over as start. The Patriots finished that year with an 11-5 record.

The Browns were 2-8 when Sanders took over Sunday in Las Vegas, which Brady did not attend because he was broadcasting a Dallas Cowboys game for FOX Sports. The Browns next play against San Francisco on Nov. 30.

OK, but what about cars?

They both like Rolls-Royce Cullinans. Brady has been seen in one. Shedeur had wanted one, too, leading his father to ask Tom Brady in 2023 if a college kid needed such a car.

“I think he needs to get his (butt) in the film room and spend as much time in there as possible,” Brady said on his podcast then.

“Thank you, Tom,” Deion Sanders said.

“Less time in the car and more time in the film room,” Brady said.

“I seen you had one too, Tom,” Shedeur Sanders replied.

Super Bowl trophies are another matter. One game down for Shedeur. Only seven Super Bowls to go.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

Sanders shared an embrace with his son on the field before the game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Deion Sanders had been undecided about attending due to his Colorado football team’s schedule and him not wanting to be a distraction
Family considerations ultimately led Sanders to make the trip to support his son in person.

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders made a special trip to Las Vegas on Sunday to watch his son Shedeur make his debut as starting quarterback of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.

And what a time it was for them. Cleveland beat the Las Vegas Raiders, 24-10. Shedeur completed 11 of 20 passes for 209 yards and one touchdown with one interception.

Sanders’s Instagram account shared a video of them embracing before the game.

‘Prime Time!’ Shedeur said as he greeted his dad in a tunnel to the field at Allegiant Stadium.

A group of friends and family also came out to show their support for Shedeur, including Shedeur’s private quarterback trainer Darrell Colbert Jr., his older brother Deion Sanders Jr. and Deion Sanders’ business manager Constance Schwartz-Morini.

After Shedeur completed a 53-yard pass early in the game, CBS cameras showed the cowboy-hatted father smiling, cheering and animated in his perch at the stadium. He later was seen enjoying the game with former NBA player Matt Barnes.

‘Being able to see my family, that was important,’ Shedeur Sanders said after the game. ‘I’m happy they was here to be able to witness it.’

His mother Pilar also attended the game, leading Shedeur to tell a CBS reporter he was thankful that both of his parents are in his life. Deion Sanders filed for divorce from Pilar in 2011, but the two have been present for Shedeur’s big moments, including the NFL draft in April at the family estate in Texas.

‘That’s what life is about − just family,’ Shedeur said afterward.

Deion Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, had been undecided as recently as Nov. 20 about whether to attend his son’s NFL starting debut in person. His team just dropped a 42-17 loss at home against Arizona State the night before to fall to 3-8 this season. His team also often practices on Sundays. But family won the day in the end, with Sanders noting Shedeur came back to Boulder to surprise him during the Browns’ recent bye weekend.

Deion Sanders said on the “Colorado Football Coaches Show” Nov. 20 he was urged to attend the game.

“You don’t want to be his distraction, but not that I would ever would be,” Sanders said on the show. “But then you think, ‘You know, he came all the way up here to see you?’ So that’s even (a) shorter trip to see him. You start thinking that as a dad, you know. Because you know what it means to him if he just catch a glimpse of him before he walks out.”

That’s what the video showed, a short moment between father and son before he took the field in Las Vegas.

Deion Sanders misses his youngest son and not just as a father. His team has struggled without him in Colorado. The Buffaloes finish the season at Kansas State on Nov. 29.

Shedeur is the first of Deion Sanders’ three sons to play in an NFL game. His eldest son Deion Jr. played college football at SMU. His middle son Shilo played for his father at Colorado and signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent after not getting drafted in April. But Shilo Sanders was waived by the team before the season.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

The Dallas Wings were awarded the first pick during the 2026 WNBA draft lottery on Sunday, Nov. 23, and will have plenty of options available to bolster their roster.

The Wings won the lottery for the second year in a row after selecting Paige Bueckers in 2025. The 2026 WNBA draft will be held on April 13.

UConn’s Azzi Fudd has been projected to go No. 1 in many mock drafts. The Wings could also choose Spain’s Awa Fam, UCLA’s Lauren Betts, TCU’s Olivia Miles or LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson.

“We want someone who wants to win,” said Wings forward Maddy Siegrist, who represented the team at the lottery.

Fudd and Bueckers were teammates at UConn, winning the national championship during the 2024–25 season.

Bueckers helped provide some level of hope for Dallas, winning the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year award and being named an all-star, but the Wings finished with an overall record of 10-34.

The Wings will be in their first season with coach Jose Fernandez after firing Chris Koclanes after one year.

The Minnesota Lynx will pick second in the draft, followed by the Seattle Storm.

2026 WNBA draft order

1. Dallas Wings

2. Minnesota Lynx

3. Seattle Storm

4. Washington Mystics

5. Chicago Sky

6. Toronto Tempo/Portland Fire

7. Portland Fire/Toronto Tempo

8. Golden State Valkyries

9. Washington Mystics

10. Indiana Fever

11. Washington Mystics

12. Connecticut Sun

13. Atlanta Dream

14. Seattle Storm

15. Connecticut Sun

A coin flip to determine the sixth and seventh picks will be done at a later date.