NFL 2025: Three Outsiders Which Could Still Win Their Division

Twists. Collapses. Upheaval. In a season already strewn with shockers, Week 13 of the 2025 NFL campaign set a new bar for volatility. The Los Angeles Rams, coming off a rampaging six-game win streak that catapulted them to the top of the Super Bowl betting charts, found themselves outfoxed by the Carolina Panthers at SoFi Stadium. Just days prior, the reigning champion Philadelphia Eagles' plight continued as they were stunned at home by the new NFC top seed, the Chicago Bears.

The aftereffects from 2025's wild NFL rollercoaster ride have spread far and wide, with alternative media sources as far away as Australia getting invested in the action. Popular online casinos in the Land Down Under have rolled out a slew of American football-themed slot games in a bid to capture the very essence of a late-year Super Bowl run. One such outlet is Joe Fortune Online Casino, which is now offering titles such as Gridiron Glory and Golden End Zone, games that have captured the attention of their raucous Aussie player base.

The titles have proven to be a huge hit, not only for their riveting gameplay but also for the way they capture the essence of a gridiron on a Sunday afternoon. As well as that, the games can be accessed 24/7, even during the NFL's downtime, provided one has a stable internet connection and a half-decent smart device. But away from the virtual arena, three of the league's outsiders are all gearing up for an all-out assault on the postseason.

Cincinnati Bengals

Try surviving a season defined by brutal injury luck, and you get the 2025 Bengals. They started red-hot, torching defences for a 24-point average in the opening pair—Joe Burrow at the controls, surgical as ever. Then disaster: Burrow sidelined, the offence sputtering under backup Jake Browning and then emergency signing Joe Flacco, who headed a 1-9 spiral that pushed Cincinnati's points allowed to a staggering 31.2 per game. Most teams crater. These Bengals waited for an opening—and seized it on Thanksgiving.

Burrow's return couldn't have come at a crueller crucible: a trip to face AFC North-topping Baltimore. What unfolded was nothing short of cinematic—a 32-14 dismantling of the Ravens, Burrow pounding out 261 yards and two touchdowns, Ja'Marr Chase erupting for 110 yards against an elite secondary, and a defence that suddenly remembered its bite with three sacks of Lamar Jackson and a whopping five turnovers.

Still, the math is unforgiving: Cincinnati sits at 4-8, third in a division where the 6-6 Steelers and Ravens are locked above. The road ahead? At Buffalo, home versus Baltimore, at Miami, and back-to-back home closers against Arizona and Cleveland—a gauntlet featuring foes with genuine playoff ambitions. If Burrow stays upright and the trench turnaround persists, a five-game sweep to 9-8 and favours elsewhere could drag them back from extinction.

Houston Texans

No narrative lurches from despair to hope quite like Houston's. After three listless September losses, pundits had the Texans pencilled in for a top-five draft pick. Then the defence locked in: just 16.5 points conceded per game since Week 4 (best in the NFL). Seven wins in nine, capped by a four-game heater that included statement victories over their two biggest divisional rivals, have them 7-5, just one win shy of both the Jags and Colts atop a suddenly cannibalistic AFC South.

C. J. Stroud's maturation post-injury is visible in every metric, with 276 yards in the recent road upset of the Colts indicating the former Offensive Rookie of the Year is getting back to his best. The ground attack is undergoing a revival as well. Rookie seventh-rounder Jo'quavious Marks has defied expectations by rushing for over 130 yards in his last two games, while the defence has stifled every would-be hero.

The run-in? A trip to Arrowhead for a Thursday night duel with Kansas City, then the softer underbelly: home for Arizona and Las Vegas, then at Tennessee before a divisional finale against Indy. Three wins likely get them to 10-7, but head-to-head sweeps mean Houston has a crucial tiebreaker edge. If DeMeco Ryans keeps his locker room burning with belief, the Texans—doubted by all—could write the season’s most improbable rags-to-riches chapter.

Detroit Lions

Chaos reigns in the NFC North, and Detroit is right in the bloody thick of it. The Lions opened with a whimper (blown out at Green Bay) but responded with fireworks: a 52-21 evisceration of Chicago, a prime-time road upset at Baltimore, and a balanced 4-1 start. Then, as so often in this Dan Campbell era, adversity struck: losses to the Vikings and Eagles and a soul-crushing Thanksgiving defeat by the Packers. Injuries to Aidan Hutchinson have blunted the pass rush, but Amon-Ra St. Brown has crossed the 1,000-yard threshold, and Jahmyr Gibbs drives a run game ranked top-five by efficiency.

The standings are a minefield: 7-5, two games behind 9-3 Chicago, chasing the 8-3-1 Packers. The schedule is unrelenting—Dallas, LA Rams, Steelers, Vikings, Bears—with a combined .575 win percentage, the seventh-toughest in the league. Can they win out? The odds are longer than a Michigan winter, but if Campbell unleashes his signature aggression and the defence rebounds, the Motown Miracle Engine could still roar.