NFL Week 13 Super Six Preview: 49ers-Ravens, Vikings-Seahawks Provide Rare Kind Of Start To December

Here are the six best games from the 13th weekend of the NFL season. By the way: Week 13 marks just the fourth time this decade that at least two games in the same week will feature teams with three-or-fewer losses this late in a season.

San Francisco 49ers (10-1) at Baltimore Ravens (9-2), 1 p.m.

The Game of the Week could be a preview of the Super Bowl. The 49ers are coming off a 37-8 thrashing of Green Bay in a huge NFC showdown while the Ravens are coming off a 45-6 trashing of the Rams, who made it to the Super Bowl last year.

With three consecutive games of 40-plus points, the Ravens enter Week 13 with a league-high 35.1 points per game while the 49ers have allowed a conference-best 14.8 points per game. This will be just the third game since 1970 featuring a team scoring 35-plus points per game against a team allowing less than 15 points per game.

"Fast, aggressive, physical. I mean, their front seven is pretty stout," Ravens receiver Willie Snead said. "They come in here with a swagger like they expect to win. It's going to be a huge challenge for us. We respect the heck out of them because they're 10-1 and deserve it."

San Francisco’s mighty defense, which leads the league with 44 sacks, demolished the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers offense last week. Green Bay was 0-for-14 on third down until converting one in garbage time in the final seconds of the game. Nobody has had much luck with Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson, the MVP frontrunner. In his last four games, he’s had 13 touchdown passes vs. zero interceptions for a 143.7 rating plus rushed for 300 yards and three more touchdowns. He dissected the powerful Rams defense for five touchdowns to give him a league-high 24 for the season.

"They do some real cool stuff, stuff that's real interesting," San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan said. "I enjoy looking at how impressive it is in the scheme, but it's not going to be that fun thinking of how to stop it."

Tennessee Titans (6-5) at Indianapolis Colts (6-5), 1 p.m.

The winner of this game will remain in hot pursuit of Houston (7-4) in the AFC South. The loser will face a huge uphill climb with time running out.

Instead of Andrew Luck vs. Marcus Mariota, it’s Jacoby Brissett vs. Ryan Tannehill. When the Colts won in Week 2, Brissett threw three touchdown passes. However, they’ll be without running back Marlon Mack, receiver T.Y. Hilton and tight end Eric Ebron.

The Titans are 4-1 since replacing Mariota with Tannehill. He’s completed 72.1 percent of his passes with 10 touchdowns, four interceptions and a red-hot 111.4 passer rating that trails only Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins and Seattle’s Russell Wilson. During those five games, they are third in the league in scoring with 29.4 points per game.

“You want to stay the course, but I'm pretty sure it (the playoff picture) comes across everybody's television screens when you're watching,” Colts linebacker Anthony Walker said. “We know what we've got to do. We've got to focus on us and we've got to keep getting better.”

Cleveland Browns (5-6) at Pittsburgh Steelers (6-5), 1 p.m.

The last time these teams met, Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett and Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph engaged in an ugly brawl. Neither player will be a part of this game. Garrett has been suspended for the rest of the season while Rudolph has been demoted in favor of undrafted rookie Devlin Hodges.

“We love being in hot-button games. We love being in hotly contested AFC North games,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “To be quite honest with you, we’re not a group that runs from these type of games. We’re the type of group that runs to these type of games. We view it as an honor to be the consistent team in these battles.”

The Browns have won three in a row to stay in the playoff race. A win would get Cleveland to .500 and give it a season sweep of its rival, which has the lead for the final wild-card spot.

“I know that it is going to be a lot of trash talking out there and a lot of guys are going to try and get into your head and do things to try and get you out of character,” Browns cornerback Denzel Ward said. “You just have to think about the betterment of the team and just go out there and win the game, but do not do any stupid penalties or anything toward the other team that could hurt this team.”

Oakland Raiders (6-5) at Kansas City Chiefs (7-4), 4:25 p.m.

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is 0-5 with a 61.9 passer rating in five career games at Kansas City. His counterpart, Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, threw for 443 yards and four touchdowns in a Week 2 rout in Oakland, and has tossed 10 touchdown passes vs. one interception in three career matchups.

It’s probably do or die for the Raiders, who somehow lost 34-3 to the Jets last week. With a win, Oakland would be tied for the AFC West lead. With a loss, it will be in the deep fringes of the playoff race.

"We are going to have to earn every first down, we are going to have to work hard to get Mahomes off the field,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said. “They're coming off a bye week. They'll be fresh as daisies, so it will be a great challenge in one of the great places and great rivalries in football. Hopefully, it brings out a much better performance in us."

New England Patriots (10-1) at Houston Texans (7-4), 8:20 p.m.

The matchup to watch is the Patriots’ punishing defense against the Texans’ brilliant quarterback, Deshaun Watson.

New England is leading the AFC behind a defense that is No. 1 in the NFL in points allowed (10.6), interceptions (20) and opponent passer rating (50.5).

Watson has been dominant at home with 1,003 yards, 10 touchdowns, one interception and a 132.1 passer rating in his last three in Houston. He’s also been dominant in prime-time games. In seven career prime-time matchups, he’s thrown 18 touchdowns vs. three interceptions for a 118.6 passer rating.

"Deshaun's a very talented player, certainly one of the top players in the league at his position that we've faced," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "Does a great job on the deep ball, has very good touch and accuracy, is a good decision maker, obviously very athletic kid that can do a lot."

New England leads the regular-season series 8-1, including six consecutive wins. Texans coach Bill O’Brien is 0-4 against his mentor, Belichick.

"Obviously we've struggled against the Patriots in past years, but this is a different year," O’Brien said. "Every year's different. Our team's different, their team's a little bit different, and we just have to go out there on Sunday night and we've got to play a clean game. We've got to play hard, we've got to be competitive for 60 minutes and see what happens."

Minnesota Vikings (8-3) at Seattle Seahawks (9-2), 8:15 p.m. Monday

Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson and Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins are having brilliant seasons. Cousins is No. 1 in the league with a 114.8 passer rating, including 120.8 the past five games, while Wilson is second with a 112.1 rating and first with 24 touchdown passes.

Wilson last week became the first quarterback in NFL history to lead his team to a winning record in each of his first eight seasons. Of this year’s nine wins, eight games have been decided by one score. In five games at home this season, he’s averaged 297.6 passing yards with 16 touchdowns, one interception and a 113.9 passer rating.

Minnesota’s defense is filled with big-name talent but it is a mediocre No. 16 in opponent passer rating. Wilson is 5-0 against the Vikings.

"He moves really well. We can't just rush and stop and peak. We have to rush," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. "We have to be disciplined in our rush lanes and be where we're supposed to be, because he'll go up, he'll go back, he'll go out, he'll go left, he'll go right. He goes all the different places."

The Vikings are coming off their bye and have the NFC North championship in their sights. This game and Week 16 game against Green Bay (also 8-3) are the big challenges left on the schedule. Is the bye an advantage? Maybe not. Teams are just 10-18 coming off their bye this season, and the Vikings are 2-7 following their last nine byes.

Seattle is one game behind San Francisco in the NFC West and both teams have challenging finishing schedules.

“We got a terrific schedule coming up, challenges and all that,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “We’re going to have to play really well. I do think, though, that it leads us to our best football still ahead of us.”