NFL Big Games Highlight Week 13

Two contests in Week 13 feature teams with three-or-fewer losses. The SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS (10-1) make the cross-country trek to meet the BALTIMORE RAVENS (9-2) on Sunday (1:00 PM ET, FOX), and to close the week, the MINNESOTA VIKINGS (8-3) travel to play the SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (9-2) on Monday Night Football (8:15 PM ET, ESPN).

Week 13 marks just the fourth time this decade that two-or-more games in the same week have featured teams with three-or-fewer losses this late in a season.

The Minnesota Vikings - Seattle Seahawks contest on Monday Night Football (8:15 PM ET, ESPN) features one of three NFC clubs (Seattle, San Francisco and New Orleans) with nine-or-more wins. This season marks the first time in 18 years that three NFC clubs are 9-2 or better through 11 games. Since the conference was formed during the league merger in 1970, it's happened only four other times (1986, 1990, 1991 and 2001).

Last year, Seattle's RUSSELL WILSON became the first quarterback in NFL history to win at least nine games in each of his first seven seasons. Wilson, now in his eighth NFL season, led the Seahawks to their ninth win last week at Philadelphia.

>The San Francisco 49ers And Baltimore Ravens are two of the NFL's best teams in December since 2017, when the 49ers acquired quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo from New England. Garoppolo is 5-0 in December since coming to San Francisco.

[ Thanksgiving Day Preview | Lions: A Thanksgiving Day Tradition | 1934: NFL's 1st Nationally Broadcast Game ]

As the playoff races come into focus, the Cleveland Browns in the AFC and the Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC are 5-6.

In 13 of the past 15 seasons (2004-18), a team with a sub-.500 record through 11 games has made the playoff field. And since 1990, when the current 12-team playoff format was instituted, 21 such clubs in 29 seasons have steered their way to the postseason. Four of those clubs -- the 1995 SAN DIEGO CHARGERS, the 1996 JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS, the 2008 SAN DIEGO CHARGERS and the 2014 CAROLINA PANTHERS -- earned playoff berths after starting with four-or-fewer wins through 11 games. The Jaguars advanced to the AFC Championship that season, and both the Chargers (2008) and Panthers (2014) advanced to their respective Divisional rounds.

The GREEN BAY PACKERS, who head east to play the NEW YORK GIANTS Sunday (1:00 PM ET, FOX), are one of eight NFL teams with eight-or-more wins in 2019, tying a single-season record through 11 games. This marks the first time in 16 years -- and only the fifth time in history -- that eight clubs have reached eight wins through 11 games. It also happened in 1968, 1975, 1997 and 2003.

The Sunday Night Football contest (8:20 PM ET, NBC) pairs the NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (10-1) on the road against the HOUSTON TEXANS (7-4). New England is one of five NFL teams with at least nine wins through 11 games, also tying a single-season league record. This marks just the second time in the past 28 seasons that five teams have nine-or-more wins through 11 games. It also happened in 1968, 1975, 1976, 1986, 1990, 1991 and 2015.​

Houston quarterback DESHAUN WATSON ranks third in the NFL among quarterbacks with five rushing touchdowns. Only Buffalo's JOSH ALLEN (seven) and Baltimore's LAMAR JACKSON (six) have more. Overall this season, NFL quarterbacks have rushed for 58 touchdowns. That's on pace for 84, which would be 11 more than the most in a single season since the 1970 merger, 73, in 2002.

The CLEVELAND BROWNS make the two-hour bus ride to play the PITTSBURGH STEELERS on Sunday (1:00 PM ET, CBS) in a game that features Cleveland's BAKER MAYFIELD, the No. 1 overall selection in the 2018 draft, against an undrafted rookie, DEVLIN HODGES. The 2018 and 2019 seasons are two of only four in NFL history that have had five-or-more quarterbacks win at least one start (Hodges won his first career start earlier this year). The league-record is seven, in 1987. Five rookie quarterbacks also started and won at least one game in 2012.

The OAKLAND RAIDERS meet the KANSAS CITY CHIEFS at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday (4:25 PM ET, CBS). Kansas City quarterback PATRICK MAHOMES (age 24) enters the week ranked fifth in the NFL with a 110 passer rating. Baltimore quarterback LAMAR JACKSON (age 22) enters the week ranked third with a 111.4 mark. Prior to 2019, only twice in 99 NFL seasons has a player under the age of 25 finished a season with a passer rating of 110 or higher: Mahomes in 2018 (113.8) and NICK FOLES in 2013 (119.2).

[ Thanksgiving Day Preview | Lions: A Thanksgiving Day Tradition | 1934: NFL's 1st Nationally Broadcast Game ]

Big Games Highlight Week 13 - NFL 100 Week 13 Preview