Week 12 Preview: Colts-Chiefs is the Game of the Week, but not in the way we expected
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2025
⏱️ 78 minutes
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Summary
If we told you back in August that Colts-Chiefs would be the Game of the Week in Week 12, you probably would've nodded along. "Sure," you'd say to yourself, "I can see that. The Chiefs are doing their thing as a Super Bowl favorite, and the Colts are a surprise upstart on the fringes of the playoff picture. That adds up." Instead, it's the Colts who are leading their division, and the Chiefs who are desperate for a win to stay within shouting distance of the playoffs. That's where Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman begin the Week 12 Preview episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also discuss Buccaneers-Rams, Steelers-Bears, Eagles-Cowboys and Panthers-49ers; talk a stroll down Sicko Street with Cam Ward against the Seahawks defense and Shedeur Sanders getting his first ever start against the lowly Raiders; and wonder if it's time for a moratorium on Vikings talk until J.J. McCarthy shows us...anything.
Rundown (timestamps are approximate)
2:17 Game of the Week: Colts-Chiefs
22:35 Game of the Week: Buccaneers-Rams
40:24 One Thing From...Steelers-Bears
47:39 One Thing From...Panthers-49ers
52:06 One Thing From...Eagles-Cowboys
1:02:43 Sicko Street: Cam Ward vs. the Seahawks defense
1:05:07 Sicko Street: Myriad entry points for Browns-Raiders
1:08:21 Take Tribunal: It's time for a moratorium on Vikings offense talk
1:14:27 What do you wanna know after Week 12?
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Host: Robert Mays
Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. |
| 0:05.4 | I'm Robert Mays. |
| 0:06.1 | The Week 12 preview is here. |
| 0:08.8 | This was a fun one. |
| 0:09.8 | We got two games of the week, started with Chiefs Colts. |
| 0:13.7 | Just a massive game for the Kansas City Chiefs, |
| 0:16.3 | who if they lose this game, have like a 40% chance to make the playoffs per the athletics |
| 0:20.5 | playoff simulator. |
| 0:21.9 | Followed that up with Rams Bucks, which has become fun little mainstay matchup in the NFC over the last few years. |
| 0:28.8 | Two teams kind of headed in different directions. |
| 0:31.0 | The Rams establishing themselves is like the best team in the NFL. |
| 0:33.3 | The Bucks scrambling a little bit, losers of two straight. |
| 0:36.0 | So a lot on the line in that one as the Panthers are nipping at the heels of the Bucks inambling a little bit, losers of two straight. So a lot on the line. And that one, as the Panthers are nipping at the heels of the bucks in the NFC South, we hit one thing from Steelers, Bears, Panthers, Niners, and Eagles Cowboys. Eagles Cowboys is just so much more compelling than it was a couple weeks ago. I jumped on that one because I can't believe how excited I am to watch that game. Spent some time on Sicko Street. Cam Ward is playing against the Seahawks defense this week. That might be ugly, but if you listen to Dave and Derek, it's not going to be ugly in the long term for Cam Ward. Also spending some time with Brown's Raiders on Sicko Street. I mean, you pick which angle you want to hit with this one. We got Shadour Sanders' first start. We got Miles Garrett seeing if he can break the sack record this week |
| 1:15.1 | against the Raiders' offensive line. Miles Garrett and Max Crosby living out the exact same |
| 1:20.3 | existence on either sideline in this one. A little take tribunal about J.J. McCarthy and |
| 1:26.1 | the Vikings and how Derek just wants to stop talking about them |
| 1:29.2 | and whether he should be allowed to. And then we finish with what we want to know coming out of |
| 1:33.7 | week 12 in the NFL calendar. Enjoyed this one. Hope you guys do as well. Let's get to it right now. |
| 1:47.1 | The week 12 preview is here. |
| 1:49.3 | A lot of fun stuff to dig into today. |
| 1:52.5 | We're going to kick it off with two games of the week. |
| 1:55.0 | These games of the week presented by BetMGM. |
... |
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