NFL winners and losers, Week 15: Lamar Jackson back in MVP race? He never left.

Each week of the NFL season, The Baltimore Sun will recap the best and worst from around the league. Here are our winners and losers from Week 15:

Winner: Lamar Jackson

Here’s your annual reminder: The NFL Most Valuable Player Award race isn’t over until the final votes are cast.

The NFL is a week-to-week league, so it’s tempting to declare a favorite after each game. Who played the best in prime time? Who put up the best stats? Which team has a better record? Who is getting more help from their teammates and coaches?

This year is no different. Entering the season, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had the best odds at +650, according to Vegas Insider, followed by Bills quarterback Josh Allen (+800), Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (+1,000), Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (+1,100) and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (+1,200).

Unsurprisingly, the odds have shifted throughout the season. Mahomes is now considered a longshot despite leading the Chiefs to an AFC-best 13-1 record because of his pedestrian stats. Ditto for Jalen Hurts, who has helped the Eagles go 12-2. Burrow leads the league in most passing categories, but his team is 6-8 and unlikely to make the playoffs.

By virtue of their scintillating performances and team records, Allen and Jackson are the top two names still in the hunt, but they’ve been joined by a running back (Saquon Barkley) and a trio of unlikely quarterbacks (Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold). In other words, it’s pretty wide-open.

That’s why it’s odd to see Allen listed as the overwhelming favorite after Week 15 at -1,000, according to Vegas Insider. Recency bias might help explain that, since Allen is coming off huge performances in shootouts against the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions in which he’s thrown for a combined 704 yards and five touchdowns while rushing for 150 yards and five scores to lead the AFC East champion Bills (11-3). Before that, he led high-profile wins over the San Francisco 49ers and Chiefs, the latter of which was Kansas City’s first loss of the season and first since Christmas. The splash moments have been there, too, with Allen scoring a touchdown on a pass he threw thanks to a lateral from Amari Cooper and some more highlight-reel plays — including a chest pass that ultimately didn’t count — in Sunday’s win over the NFC-leading Lions that was hyped as a potential Super Bowl preview.

ESPN’s Rex Ryan went as far as to say that anybody who doesn’t vote for Allen this season should no longer be allowed to vote for the award. That’s extreme. Both Jackson and Barkley have legitimate cases, and the season is far from over.

Take Jackson’s case, for example. The reigning and two-time MVP completed 21 of 25 passes for 290 yards with five touchdowns and had six carries for 65 yards in a 35-14 win over the Giants on Sunday. Beating a team in contention for the league’s worst record won’t earn many style points, but he completely dominated New York in a way no other quarterback has this season. He also accomplished a feat that we should start naming in his honor: Jackson now has five career games with five or more touchdown passes and five or fewer incompletions. In NFL history, nobody has more than three such games.

By the numbers, this might be the best season of Jackson’s career. With 3,580 passing yards and 743 rushing yards, he could become the first quarterback in NFL history to eclipse 4,000 through the air and 1,000 on the ground in a single season. He’s just two touchdown passes away from matching his career high (36) and is trailing only Justin Herbert in interception rate (0.7%) with just three picks on 404 attempts. And if we’re talking simply about the word “valuable,” Jackson’s offense is by far the best in the league while carrying a defense that has been one of the worst.

Just like last season, the next few weeks could favor Jackson in terms of national attention, too. Saturday’s home game against the Steelers is a de facto AFC North championship game with the Ravens (9-5) needing to win to keep their division title hopes alive. Then Baltimore heads to Houston on Christmas Day in front of a first-of-its-kind Netflix audience before closing the regular season against Cleveland. Allen, meanwhile, faces the lowly Patriots (twice) and Jets to finish the campaign, and he might not play all of those games if Buffalo’s seeding is secured. (Don’t forget that Jackson’s Ravens crushed Allen’s Bills, 35-10, way back in Week 4.)

If Jackson plays well down the stretch and leads the Ravens to an AFC North title, MV3 watch is on.

Loser: More injuries

Mahomes reportedly suffered a high-ankle sprain. Geno Smith exited “Sunday Night Football” with a knee injury. T.J. Watt is in “wait-and-see” mode with his ankle injury. The Lions lost two more defensive starters, and now running back David Montgomery is likely out for the season with a knee injury.

Not even Barkley was spared, with the Eagles’ star running back was sidelined for most of the second half Sunday with an undisclosed issue. All he would say is that he’s “dealing with a little something.”

The NFL season is a grind, and injuries, however random, always play a factor in determining the champion. That’s why it’s so disappointing to see stars such as Mahomes, Watt and Barkley banged up and a Super Bowl contender like the Lions hanging on by a thread heading into the most exciting time of the year.

The schedule really should be more favorable, especially this late in the season. Like the Ravens, Steelers and Texans, the Chiefs are in the middle of a stretch of three games in 11 days that includes a rare Wednesday kickoff on Christmas Day. It’s an unfair arrangement that puts television money over player health, and the NFL and Netflix could be paying for it if Carson Wentz is taking snaps for Kansas City.

Winner: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

On a day of outstanding quarterback performances, Mayfield’s shouldn’t be overlooked.

The 29-year-old journeyman completed 22 of 27 passes for 288 yards with four touchdowns and one interception, propelling the Buccaneers to a 40-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers that puts Tampa Bay on the cusp of a fourth straight NFC South title.

It was even more impressive when you consider the competition. Coach Jim Harbaugh’s team had held opponents to 20 points or fewer in 11 of 13 games, and coordinator Jesse Minter’s defense hadn’t yielded more than 30 all season.

Wide receiver Mike Evans had a season-high 159 yards receiving and two touchdowns, rookie Jalen McMillan had five catches for 75 yards and a score and rookie running back Bucky Irving returned from injury to rush for 115 yards on just 15 carries, providing plenty of hope that the Bucs’ offense can remain effective without star Chris Godwin.

One of the biggest reasons is the play of offensive tackles Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke. Among the 47 offensive tackles who have had at least 400 snaps in pass protection, as noted by analyst Jon Ledyard per Pro Football Focus, Wirfs has surrendered the fewest pressures in the NFL (nine). Goedeke is second with just 12 pressures surrendered.

After losing four straight in the middle of the season, Tampa Bay has bounced back in a big way, winning four straight while averaging 31 points and allowing just 15. Coach Todd Bowles’ defense has leaned into its aggressive approach, increasing its already high blitz and stunt rates since its Week 11 bye, and it’s paying dividends.

Last season, the Bucs beat the Eagles in the wild-card round and nearly took down the Lions the following week. With injuries mounting in Detroit, Philadelphia seemingly teetering on the edge of combustion every week and untrustworthy quarterbacks in Minnesota and Green Bay, it might be time to take Tampa Bay seriously as a Super Bowl contender.

Loser: Indianapolis Colts

The Colts quite literally threw their season away.

Needing a win to keep pace in the AFC playoff race, Indianapolis led the Broncos, 13-7, in the third quarter Sunday. A calamity of errors followed.

First, running back Jonathan Taylor broke free for what appeared to be a 41-yard touchdown run, giving the Colts a commanding lead. But the celebration was short-lived, as replay confirmed that Taylor dropped the ball just before crossing the goal line. It bounced out of the end zone for a touchback, giving Denver the ball.

Then, after the Colts forced a punt and recorded their third interception of rookie quarterback Bo Nix to regain possession midway through the third quarter, wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. fumbled, allowing Denver to kick a 44-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 13-10.

A three-and-out by the Colts to begin the fourth quarter led to a punt that Broncos receiver Marvin Mims Jr. returned 61 yards to the 15-yard line, and Denver scored two plays later to take its first lead, 17-13.

What was shaping up to be an uplifting win had suddenly gone sideways. So what did coach Shane Steichen draw up with the season on the line? One of the worst trick plays you’ll ever see. Quarterback Anthony Richardson threw a quick pass to rookie receiver Adonai Mitchell, who drifted behind the line of scrimmage and threw back across the middle of the field to Richardson, who was waiting to throw the ball again to another receiver down the field. Only Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonnito sniffed it out, jumping in front of the pass from Mitchell and racing 50 yards for a touchdown to effectively seal the victory.

It goes in the books as a fumble recovery, but it was essentially a pick-six.

“We worked on that play all week, and it was great,” Colts coach Shane Steichen said. “It looked great all week. We padded up, and it was good in practice. He threw it great. Obviously, he’s thrown double passes before that he’s had success with, and that one didn’t work out.”

It’s impossible to overstate just how crushing this loss is for Indianapolis. A win would have given the Colts (6-8) a 61% chance of making the postseason, but now they only have a 15.6% shot, according to The Athletic’s playoff projection model. The Houston Texans (9-5) clinched the AFC South title on Sunday with a win over the Miami Dolphins, so the Colts’ only chance is vaulting over the Chargers (8-6) for the final wild-card spot.

The good news is the Colts have one of the easiest remaining schedules in the league that includes the Titans, Giants and Jaguars, while the Chargers face the Broncos, Patriots and Raiders. It’s not inconceivable for Indianapolis to go 3-0 and Los Angeles to stumble to 1-2 down the stretch, but the Colts’ best chance went up in smoke Sunday in brutal fashion.

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