As the weather gets colder, defenses across the NFL are heating up.
All 32 teams were in action this past week, and 13 of them scored 20 or fewer points — nearly half the league. It’s fitting that the best game of Week 13 ended with a big-time defensive play from one of the best defenses in football. On Sunday night, the Broncos had a walk-off batted pass on a two-point try in overtime to avoid an upset by the Commanders.
Ahead of Week 14, here’s my tiered ranking of all 32 defensive units (see Week 13 here):
Houston Texans
Denver Broncos
Seattle Seahawks
Green Bay Packers
Los Angeles Rams
New England Patriots
The Broncos finally have their full defense back, as veteran linebacker Alex Singleton and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II returned to the lineup Sunday after missing one and three games, respectively. And while the Commanders had some success offensively against Denver — 26 points, 419 net yards, just two sacks allowed — the Broncos showed their closing ability, with edge rusher Nik Bonitto responsible for the game-winning batted pass.
With their unit healthy, the Broncos are poised to close the gap with the Texans for the league’s best defense.
Cleveland Browns
Jacksonville Jaguars
Baltimore Ravens
Los Angeles Chargers
Since giving up 20 fourth-quarter points on defense in their Week 10 meltdown against the Texans, the Jaguars have throttled opposing offenses. Anthony Campanile’s unit jumps a tier this week after giving up just two touchdowns and 164 rushing yards in the past three games combined. Star edge rusher Josh Hines-Allen has led the charge in that span, posting four sacks, five quarterback hits, five tackles for loss and a pass breakup.
Buffalo Bills
Dallas Cowboys
Kansas City Chiefs
San Francisco 49ers
Philadelphia Eagles
Indianapolis Colts
Detroit Lions
Chicago Bears
Carolina Panthers
Miami Dolphins
Atlanta Falcons
Minnesota Vikings
The Bears rank 25th in points allowed and 27th in yards allowed, but their defense deserves credit for its role in whipping the Eagles on Black Friday. Dennis Allen’s unit held a talented Philadelphia offense to 15 points, its second-lowest total of the season. It also marked the third time in four games that the Bears have held their opponent to 20 or fewer points.
Chicago safety Kevin Byard, who picked off Jalen Hurts, leads the NFL with six interceptions. The Bears now have a league-high 26 takeaways.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
New Orleans Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers
Arizona Cardinals
Mike Tomlin’s Steelers are unraveling at a rapid rate. They gave up 249 rushing yards in Sunday’s loss to the Bills, the most they’ve allowed in any game since last year’s wild-card loss to Baltimore (299) and the most in the regular season since Week 8 of 2020 (265).
New York Jets
Washington Commanders
Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders gave up 31 points in last week’s loss to the Chargers, the fourth time in their past six games that they’ve allowed at least 30 points.
Tennessee Titans
New York Giants
Cincinnati Bengals
Facing MVP candidate Drake Maye certainly didn’t help, but Monday night marked more of the same for the Giants’ defense, which played its first game with interim coordinator Charlie Bullen. The Giants allowed 23 points on defense through two quarters en route to a 30-7 halftime deficit, as the Patriots scored on five of their first six drives.
Ben Arthur is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
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