🏈🏈🏈🏈
We are now basically at midseason point already. Each team should more or less be relatively polished, and have found their games. And some clear themes now have been established. Some of those themes:
- The NFC East is awful. The Eagles are by themselves in first place with a record of 2-4-1, with Washington and Dallas tied for second place at 2-5. The Giants, at 1-6, are one game out from second place, and one game and a half out of first place.
- By contrast, the NFC West looks incredibly solid. Every team in the division has a winning record, and seems like a legitimate contender to at least qualify for the postseason. Nobody has shot too far ahead or fallen too far behind. Every team in the division still has a shot to win the division, or to make or miss the playoffs.
- The New England Patriots clearly are not as good as they traditionally have been. This likely will not be a winning season, barring some miraculous turnaround. Belichick is a genius, but losing as much talent on both offense and defense has proven too much even for him. The Pats are going somewhere they have not been in a long, long time, as they are likely headed towards a losing season, or at least a non-winning season.
- As the league enters November, there is one undefeated team left, and one winless team left. The Pittsburgh Steelers are off to a 6-0 start, their best start in over four decades. Meanwhile, the Jets are 0-7, and the prospect of them pulling off a win in Kansas City next weekend, on the road against the defending champions and possibly the best team in the league, seems bleak at best.
So, that is where we are at the moment. Two undefeated teams entering this weekend suffered their first losses of the year, while some teams, like Kansas City and Tampa Bay, cemented themselves further as belonging among the elites in the league.
Buffalo 18, NY Jets 10 – Despite the loss, this might have been the best game that the Jets have played all season long. They jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, and the defense prevented Buffalo’s offense from scoring a touchdown. Yet, they still lost. That kind of sums up the type of season that they, and of course their fans, are suffering through. An 0-7 start, still looking for their first win. They have been swept by the Bills now, and things just keep growing worse for them. As for the Bills, this was a much needed win that begins to turn their losing streak around, as they now look forward to a big game next weekend, when their traditional tormenters, the now seriously diminished New England Patriots, come to town. A win their should set them up as the clear-cut favorites to take the division, and solidifies their status as a legitimate playoff contender at the very least. Not a great day for the offense, but the defense held steady, and they still managed to win on a day when they did not play their best. My pick: Accurate
Cleveland 37, Cincinnati 34 – What a game! There were nine lead changes in this one, including five in the fourth quarter alone. A real shootout, and it was a ack and forth affair that went down to the final seconds. Baker Mayfield found Donovan Peoples-Jones for a 24-yard touchdown pass with 11 seconds left in the game to life the Browns over the Bengals, completing a season sweep and improving Cleveland to 5-2 on the season. They have quietly reached an impressive record of 5-2, despite two blowout losses within their division. Mayfield threw five touchdown passes in this game, and is looking a lot more like the quarterback that the Browns thought he could be, as Cleveland continues to consistently improve. A disappointing loss for the Bengals, who drop to 1-5-1 on the year. But they are clearly improving, and played well despite the loss. Again, what a game! My pick: Accurate
Pittsburgh 27, Tennessee 24 – Early on, it hardly looked like the highly anticipated match-up that most had been hoping for. The Steelers jumped well ahead early, and built up a 20-point lead, before the Titans came storming back. They rallied to make this a close game, closing to within a field goal late into the final quarter. But the Steelers held them off to ice the win and stay unbeaten. For the Titans, a solid comeback, but they cannot always rely on fourth quarter comebacks to win. Both teams can take away positive from this. My pick: Inaccurate
Green Bay 35, Houston 20 – The Packers bounced back from their sobering loss to the Buccaneers by handily taking care of the Texans in the Lone Star State. Yes, Houston is 1-6, but they really have also had an extremely tough schedule. So the Packers can feel good about this one, and about getting back to their winning ways. My pick: Accurate
Washington 25, Dallas 3 – If you are a fan of Washington, this is encouraging after a season that was on the brink of feeling like an abyss. If you are a Dallas fan, on the other hand, you have to be really worried. This season already was not what Cowboys fans had been hoping for and expecting when Dak Prescott suffered that season-ending injury. Now, Andy Dalton goes down, and there is no word yet how long he will be out for. The Cowboys looked atrocious in this one, dominated in almost every facet of the game. They better figure something out soon, because they have to go to Philadelphia next weekend for a battle with obvious first place ramifications, and then host the Steelers. Brutal. As for Washington, they next host the Giants, with a chance to avenge the loss at the Giants just a couple of weeks ago. My pick: Accurate
New Orleans 27, Carolina 24 – They are not winning the way many people expected them to win, but the important thing is that they are still winning. Yes, the Saints held off the Panthers and improved to 4-2 on the season as a result, earning a third straight win in the process. Good thing, too, because they have a brutal stretch coming up as they travel to Chicago, then Tampa, and then host the 49ers in their next three games. A tough stretch, and whatever issues they are going through, they will need to resolve them in a hurry. My pick: Accurate
Detroit 23, Atlanta 22 – The Lions managed to even their record, although luck had something to do with it. Falcons running back Todd Gurley broke free and tried to stop himself before scoring a touchdown, so that they could run out the clock. It was a bit reminiscent of the Giants and Patriots in the final minutes of Super Bowl XLVI. But it gave the Lions a chance to get back on offense, and they made it count, to their credit. A solid win for Detroit, and another in a long list of disastrous collapses for Atlanta. My pick: Accurate
Tampa Bay 45, Las Vegas 20 – The Buccaneers are starting to look really quite good. They went on the road against the Raiders, and handed the home team a blowout loss. The looked elite, almost unstoppable. Tom Brady and Gronk continue to thrive with the Bucs. A disappointing loss to the Raiders that sees them lose more ground to Kansas City. But Tampa improves to 5-2, and for now, looks like the best team in the NFC South. My pick: Accurate
San Francisco 33, New England 6 – Yikes! Maybe the 49ers have not had the kind of season that they were hoping to thus far, but they recovered strongly again, of all teams, the Patriots. Yes, the same team that were the model of success for so many years, the team that has produced 19 straight winning seasons under Bill Belichick. But they sure do not look like winners this year. The 49ers held onto the ball for over 38 minutes, producing 467 yards and 26 first downs, to just 241 yards and 17 first downs for the Pats. The Niners had two turnovers, but New England doubled that, with four. San Fran’s defense held the Patriots to zero touchdowns. Cam Newton looked great earlier this season with the Patriots, but that is starting to feel like a long time ago now, as the Pats drop to 2-4 on the season, while the 49ers get back to a winning record at 4-3. My pick: Inaccurate
Kansas City 43, Denver 16 – The Chiefs just blew out the Broncos in the snow of the Mile High City, despite Denver winning the time of possession battle, and producing both more yards and more first downs. But Denver also committed four turnovers, to just one for the Chiefs. KC’s running game is still looking strong. No surprise here, just the better team getting the job done in a convincing way. My pick: Accurate
LA Chargers 39, Jacksonville 29 – Well, someone had to win this game. The Jaguars at least fought for it, but in the end, Los Angeles managed to outlast them to earn just their second win on the year, producing nearly 500 yards of offense, and earning 29 first downs. Pretty impressive numbers. My pick: Accurate
Sunday Night Football: Arizona 37, Seattle 34 (OT) – Now, this was a really exciting game, as well, similar to the Browns-Bengals game in some ways. The Seahawks seemed to continually threaten to blow the game wide open, but then the Cardinals kept coming back to keep it close enough to give themselves a chance. Then, just when Seattle seemed to put the game out of reach with a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter for a 10-point lead, the Cardinals got hot, scoring 10 points in the final two and a half minutes of regulation, to force overtime. They managed to outlast the Seahawks and kicked a field goal with 15 seconds left in the overtime session to hand the Seahawks their first loss of the season. My pick: Inaccurate
No comments:
Post a Comment