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NFL Week 12 winners and losers

Nate Davis
USA TODAY Sports
Browns WR Josh Gordon had 120 receiving yards in his first game of 2014.

Week 12 winners

Thanksgiving menu: Five of the six teams playing on Turkey Day won Sunday, and all three matchups on Thursday appear delicious — Bears (5-6) at Lions (7-4), Eagles (8-3) at Cowboys (8-3) and Seahawks (7-4) at 49ers (7-4).

Cowboys offensive line: It only allowed two sacks and three hits on gimpy QB Tony Romo and gave him more time than any passer should expect on Dallas' game-winning drive. The Cowboys' front five also launched RB DeMarco Murray to 121 more rushing yards.

T.Y. Hilton: After watching his daughter born Sunday morning, the swift Colts wideout sped to Lucas Oil Stadium in time for a 1 p.m. ET kickoff and helped rock the Jaguars to sleep with a 73-yard TD reception, the biggest play of his four-catch, 122-yard effort.

Legion of Boom: The Seahawks secondary (and rest of Seattle's defense) locked down the Cardinals, sending the NFC West leaders to their second defeat by sacking QB Drew Stanton three times, taking the ball away once and limiting Arizona to a season-low 204 yards.

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Josh Gordon: In his first action of 2014, following completion of a 10-game suspension for substance abuse violations, the Browns' all-pro receiver picked right up where he left off in 2013, when led the NFL in receiving yardage in just 14 games. Gordon snared eight passes in Atlanta for 120 yards, his final catch a key 24-yarder that was the longest play on Cleveland's game-winning field goal drive as time expired.

Marcus Gilchrist: The Chargers safety's pickoff of Rams QB Shaun Hill on the goal line with 55 seconds remaining preserved San Diego's 27-24 escape while keeping their wild-card hopes alive and well.

Odell Beckham Jr.: Was the Giants rookie wideout's three-fingered, 43-yard TD snatch the best you've ever seen? NBC's Cris Collinsworth is still amazed. In more pedestrian moments Sunday night, Beckham added another nine catches, 103 yards and an additional TD in New York's last-minute loss.

Russell Wilson: He led the Seahawks over air (211 passing yards) and land (73 rushing yards) despite being dunked for seven sacks in a game Seattle essentially had to win to keep its hopes of a successful title defense alive.

Eagles defense: It did more than sack Titans QB Zach Mettenberger five times, force three second-half turnovers and limit Tennessee to 52 rushing yards. Philadelphia also got off the field, turning Tennessee away 11 times on 14 attempts to convert a third or fourth down, giving the Eagles a rare 6:24 advantage in time of possession in their 43-24 blowout victory.

Denver's no-name running backs: With Montee Ball and Ronnie Hillman waylaid by injuries, undrafted Broncos C.J. Anderson and Juwan Thompson combined to rush for 200 yards (6.3 yards per carry) while helping the AFC West leaders overcome the Dolphins' upset bid in Denver 39-36.

Jay Cutler: His performance wasn't sexy — 17 of 27 for 130 yards and a TD — but was good enough to lead the Bears to a second straight victory, largely because Cutler produced his first INT-free outing since Oct. 12. Meanwhile, Bucs counterpart Josh McCown, who made a case he was the better fit in Chicago's offense in 2013 as Cutler's backup and injury stand-in, coughed the ball up three times for Tampa Bay.

Eddie Lacy: Aaron Rodgers isn't the only Packer who's on fire. Lacy, last season's offensive rookie of the year, has nine touchdowns in his last eight games (seven of them Green Bay wins) and has thrived while becoming a bigger part of the passing game.

Quitting on your team: That's what LeGarrette Blount did to the Steelers last week before finding a soft landing in New England right after Pittsburgh cut him. He led the Patriots with 12 carries for 78 yards and scored twice in Sunday's 34-9 defeat of the Lions.

Week 12 losers

Oversleeping: Apparently that's what Patriots RB Jonas Gray did Friday morning when his cell phone battery (and alarm clock) reportedly died five days after his 201-yard, four-TD breakout in Indianapolis. Such shenanigans earned Gray a spot on the bench Sunday — he didn't play one snap — while Steelers reject Blount basked in his return to Gillette Stadium.

Robert Griffin III: After telling the world how squarely he was "focused on San Francisco" last Wednesday, the embattled Redskins quarterback's apparent tunnel vision on the gameplan produced all of 77 net passing yards while he was sacked five times and lost a fumble, though the Washington offensive line can take plenty of credit there for its lack of focus on 49ers pass rushers like Aldon Smith (2 sacks).

Mike Smith's clock management: This skill has long vexed the Falcons coach and surfaced again, possibly crippling the team's NFC South title aspirations. Trailing by two points with third-and-2 from the Browns' 35-yard line, Smith called timeout rather than forcing Cleveland to do so. Atlanta threw incomplete on the next play, so the Browns had 44 seconds to work with (and all of their timeouts) after Falcons K Matt Bryant put his team up by one point with a 53-yard FG. It was just enough time for QB Brian Hoyer and Co. to drive 61 yards in seven plays — while utilizing all three stoppages — as the Browns won 26-24 courtesy of Billy Cundiff's 37-yard FG at the gun.

Dominic Raiola: The Lions center admitted trying to cut block Patriots DT Zach Moore as Detroit QB Matthew Stafford took a knee to run out the clock with his team trailing by 25 points. Raiola admitted he was miffed at the Pats, feeling they ran up the score. Whether or not that's true, it wasn't Moore's decision to give Blount the ball for a late TD.

Drew Stanton: Cardinals coach Bruce Arians says his backup quarterback is good enough to lead Arizona to the Super Bowl. However in a high-stakes came Sunday at Seattle, Stanton's accuracy was again an issue as he finished 14 of 26 for 149 yards and one INT. It certainly didn't help to not have injured WR Larry Fitzgerald, but Stanton will have to find another gear if he's truly going to drive this team to a place it's never gone.

Lions offense: They've reaped the benefits of a top-ranked defense for much of 2014. But Detroit hasn't scored a touchdown in eight quarters, a major reason they dropped out of first place in the NFC North on Sunday ... and maybe why Raiola lost his mind.

Lovie Smith: He lost a chance to stick it to his old team, the Bears, in Chicago after his Buccaneers squandered a 10-0 halftime lead. Tampa Bay's penultimate drive was the cruelest, with the Bucs, then trailing by eight points, failing three times to gain 1 yard for a new set of downs from the Bears' 36-yard line.

Vikings: The northern Norsemen aren't faring so well outside the comforts of a dome. They lost to Green Bay on Sunday in the teams' first outdoor meeting in Minnesota since 1981. The Vikings, who will play outside until their new enclosed stadium comes on line in 2016, are 2-3 this season at TCF Bank Stadium.

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Follow Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis

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