Getty Images

Every college season usually contains a "Heisman moment" -- some kind of signature play by the winning player (usually a quarterback these days) that stands out to the general public and, more importantly, the media members who vote on the award. The NFL is no different, and Josh Allen delivered his on Sunday night during the Bills 35-10 throttling of the 49ers on national television.

Actually, Allen delivered two of them. Maybe even two and a half, since the first one was not just an Allen passing touchdown, but an Allen receiving touchdown as well. Allen wasn't credited with a catch, but after completing a two-yard snipe to Amari Cooper, Allen eagerly accepted a reverse lateral from his receiver, took the ball, powered his way down the left sideline and dove through the snow, arm outstretched and into the end zone for a touchdown to essentially put the game away. 

The shot of him -- with an injured left hand by the way -- leaping into the end zone and rolling into the snow will be shown every time there's any kind of MVP discussion the rest of the way. 

Allen wasn't credited with a catch, but it was just the fourth time in NFL history a player threw a touchdown pass and scored a receiving touchdown on the same play (the last was Marcus Mariota's batted touchdown reception in the playoffs for the Titans against the Chiefs).

Not to be outdone -- twice, by himself -- Allen punctuated the game with a rushing touchdown, becoming the first quarterback to record a passing touchdown, rushing touchdown and receiving touchdown in the same game in NFL history. 

Allen and the Bills were so dominant, Mitchell Trubisky played essentially the entire fourth quarter. And even without 12 minutes or so of production, Allen still saw his MVP odds drop from +150 to -210. 

If Saquon Barkley's Sunday night touchdown run to seal the Eagles win against the Ravens was a strong, late-round punch, Allen's two second-half scores felt like the kind of counter-punch that almost causes a TKO, a couple of massive uppercuts from the best boxer in the world who somehow hasn't held the belt yet due to other heavyweights showing up with massive seasons. 

Among quarterbacks, Allen has created some massive distance in terms of expected points added per play.

There's still five weeks left in the season. A lot can happen in five weeks. We've seen the MVP race, not to mention other award races, shift massively over the final month of the season. But Allen isn't just the best player in football right now, he's also someone voters are comfortable pulling the trigger on, having finished in the top five for the MVP race three times already. 

As it stands right now, he's the prohibitive favorite to win MVP and Sunday might well have been his signature moment to finally win the award. 

Not the 49ers year

Sometimes in the NFL, you're just snake bit. The 49ers season certainly feels like one of those seasons where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. You can incite the "Super Bowl Hangover" if you want, but it feels more like just the type of reverse sun-running that can derail a team. And the Niners are currently derailed, sitting at 5-7 and in dead last in the NFC West.

It probably started when Brandon Aiyuk declined to sign an extension for much of the offseason, soaking up headlines with trade rumors before finally inking one. He looked a little off early in the season and while his ACL injury is proof he was smart to get his money now, it also feels like another one of those snake bit items. 

Then you've got Christian McCaffrey, who dealt with an offseason injury that sidelined him right before the 49ers opener against the Jets. When he finally returned, he was rusty, right up until last night when he looked incredibly explosive in the run game for San Francisco. Right up until he suffered a freak PCL injury that caused him to drop to the ground and limp off the field immediately. It doesn't look good for CMC, which sucks for everyone because he's so fun to watch, and it feels microcosmic for the 49ers. 

Trent Williams has missed some time as well. Deebo Samuel was sick for several weeks. Brock Purdy's been injured. Nick Bosa's missed multiple weeks. 

And the 49ers late-game disasters probably cost them a chance to pull off the ability to try and tread water and snipe the division. They've blown multiple double-digit, fourth-quarter leads this season and have four one-score losses to their name. The schedule down the stretch is brutal and it's been punctuated with multiple blowout losses the last two weeks at Green Bay and at Buffalo. 

Closing out with the Bears, Rams, Dolphins, Lions and Cardinals means San Francisco has to be perfect the rest of the way in order to find its way into the playoffs. It just might not be their year.

Coach of the Year race

Talk about heated! There's a ridiculous list of candidates for this award in 2024, headlined by two former Super Bowl champions in Mike Tomlin and Sean Payton.

Making a case for Tomlin is easy. The Steelers are punching above their weight but continue to look like a team with a perfect blend of the right talent and even better chemistry, with a coach who is pulling every lever perfectly, including the shocking decision to switch quarterbacks after a 4-2 start. The move to Russell Wilson's paid off in spades, and was really highlighted on Sunday with Wilson tossing for 414 yards and three touchdowns in the Steelers dominant 44-38 shootout win over the Bengals that moved them to 9-3 and kept them in firm command of the AFC North.

Payton's case is easy too. He drafted Bo Nix 12th overall, started him from jump street and the offense has looked miles better than it did last year (when it was, somewhat ironically, captained by Russell Wilson). The defense took a massive leap forward and the Broncos, who play on Monday night, keep looking like a playoff team. They won't win the division, but if they make the playoffs with this roster, it will be coaching that gets most of the credit and Payton could easily find himself landing some hardware.

A trio of NFC North coaches deserve some love as well. Kevin O'Connell has the Vikings at 10-2 despite losing J.J. McCarthy before the season and rolling with Sam Darnold. Darnold's had some brainfarts this season, but he's largely been extremely effective for the Vikings offense. Considering the majority of his career before this year, it's incredibly impressive what KOC has gotten out of him. Matt LaFleur has the third-place Packers at 9-3, but he's done it despite missing Jordan Love for a stretch when Malik Willis and the run game looked excellent. It felt like 100 percent coaching to keep the offense humming with a backup and the run game's been so fun to watch throughout the entire season thanks to LaFleur's creativity. Dan Campbell can't be counted out either. The Lions were supposed to be good, but not THIS good. They're an NFL best 11-1 after staving off the Bears on Thanksgiving and despite having an outrageous number of injuries, they keep cooking. Campbell should get points for retaining his coordinators and for how unselfish his offensive skill players remain, not to mention the continued defensive performance despite losing some key players.

You can find some other fringe candidates, too. Mike MacDonald in Seattle. Andy Reid! Jim Harbaugh shouldn't be counted out for what he's done with the Chargers, honestly. Dan Quinn's done great work for Washington.

It's a fantastic race with a lot of time left. 

Optimism in Carolina!

The Panthers lost in hearbreaking fashion on Sunday, with Bryce Young managing to set up a would-be game-winning touchdown before the Bucs got in position for a field goal to force overtime. A brutal Chuba Hubbard fumble led to a Tampa game-winning field goal. Had the Panthers found a way to win, they would have been just two games back of first place in the NFC South. 

They'd probably still be a longshot to win the division (duh) but given how well Bryce has played over the last month they wouldn't be completely ruled out.

Still, reports on Sunday indicated the Panthers won't be drafting a quarterback early in the 2025 NFL Draft. And that's a good thing. Young has been really good the last month or so, playing the best football of his career for a realistic stretch against some tough, playoff-caliber teams. His last two games against the Chiefs and Bucs have featured an entirely different quarterback, one who looks the part of an NFL starter. 

Even with the losses, the Panthers should be thrilled about the progress Bryce has made and what it means for them building around him, instead of replacing him, when it comes to the draft in a few months.

Thanksgiving leftovers

  • Matt Eberflus was fired after not just his boneheaded clock management, but his press conference defending said boneheaded clock management where he essentially threw Caleb Williams under the bus. Eberflus is the first EVER Bears coach to be fired midseason, but he's the third-straight Bears coach to be fired after/during one year with a rookie, first-round quarterback, following in the footsteps of John Fox/Trubisky and Matt Nagy/Justin Fields. Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles will reportedly be heading up the search and you have to be a little concerned with the first names being bandied about. Marcus Freeman (Notre Dame HC) and Kliff Kingsbury (Washington OC) out of the gate isn't exactly what you want to hear! The Bears ability to land a coach will be aided by Williams impressive play despite some sub-par coaching on the offensive end for most of the season. But it might be inhibited by the structure inside Halas Hall and who is running the search. 
  • I feel like I say this every week but the Chiefs really do feel identical to the Patriots teams who challenged for the Super Bowl every single season for several decades. We know they've got the best coach in football. We know they've got the best quarterback in football. Both might retire as the best to ever do it. And they don't always blow teams out, instead just finding mysterious voodoo ways to win a ton of football games and position themselves to steal a first-round bye, homefield advantage and then get hot in the playoffs. Since their bye the Chiefs have one double-digit win (over the Niners) and then have two one-score wins over the Raiders, a six-point victory over the Bucs, a two-point miracle blocked field goal win over the Broncos, a loss to the Bills and a semi-miracle win against a frisky Panthers team. They have the same record as the Lions but the teams couldn't be more different.
  • It was really fun to imagine the Dolphins with a healthy Tua and an explosive offense finding a way into the playoffs. And it's not totally dead yet but Thanksgiving night in Green Bay was pretty depressing for those hopes, with Miami getting completely bodied in cold weather once again by a more physical team. The score belies what actually happened in the game, as Miami never really threatened the Packers. The schedule is a little friendly to close -- two games against the Jets, one against the Browns plus matchups with the semi-struggling Texans and ragged 49ers -- but those two end-of-year games in New York and Cleveland should be frigid. The narrative about their struggles in that kind of weather feels more like fact than fiction and it might determine if there's any kind of miracle run on the table. That miracle run, by the way, requires the Broncos, Ravens and Chargers to kind of collapse as well as the Colts just going away. It's becoming a real longshot at this point.