Tag: Eagles

NFL Week 13 Predictions: NFC Game of the Year Edition

~ Scott ~ Leave a comment

We are running out of big games in this 2023 NFL regular season now that Bills-Chiefs and Bengals-Chiefs have lost a lot of luster. But we will get the NFC Game of the Year this Sunday in Philadelphia, and hopefully it can live up to what we saw last week with Bills-Eagles.

Having said that, I’ve been looking at the standings and remaining schedules and it’s not as big of a game as I’d like this weekend. Even if the Eagles lose at home to the 49ers, we still might see the Eagles finish No. 1, 49ers finish No. 2, and Cowboys stuck at No. 5 even if they finish 14-3, so that’s a bummer.

Basically, the 49ers need to win this game and hope the Cowboys take care of Philly next Sunday night in Dallas. That way if the 49ers win out and both teams finish 14-3, the 49ers get the top seed due to the head-to-head tiebreaker. Even if the 49ers, Eagles, and Cowboys were all 14-3 (it could happen), the 49ers would get it based on beating both while the Eagles would be 1-2 in those games and the Cowboys would be 2-1.

Cause I can’t see the Eagles losing to Seattle, Giants (twice), or Arizona after this stretch. Maybe Seattle if Geno Smith plays so well like he did Thursday night, but Dallas still won that game and Seattle may be on their way to an 8-9 finish and no postseason. So, it has to be the 49ers and Cowboys these next two weeks that stop Philly’s momentum as this team keeps winning almost every close game this year, a sharp contrast from the 49ers and Cowboys blowing teams out for the most part. (That’s your first hint which way I’m really leaning here as we are in #ReverseJinxSeason)

If the Eagles beat the 49ers, then it’s almost a lock going into Week 14 that it’ll be No. 1 Eagles, No. 2 49ers, and No. 5 Cowboys, so that would also make next week’s NFC East rematch less important. Basically, we need to blame the Chiefs and Bills for screwing up the last two weeks and not beating Philly to make this 3-team NFC race much more interesting if they all had 3 losses.

Final NFC note: I’m well aware the Lions are 8-3 too but I feel confident that team is of a lower caliber than these teams, and they will lose in Dallas, and maybe even lose a Vikings game to finish 12-5 at best. They shouldn’t interfere with my 1-2-5 seed predictions. Solidly No. 3 in the NFC, which is almost like winning a Super Bowl for the Lions.

I think the best outcome for the playoffs in the NFC would be Dallas crushing the NFC South winner, the weak wild cards losing to the No. 3 Lions and No. 2 49ers, who would then meet in the divisional round in a fresh matchup. The No. 5 Cowboys return to Philly to face the No. 1 Eagles first and see if they can knock them out, then maybe it’s another trip back to San Francisco to complete the revenge tour to get Dak Prescott, who is gaining steam for MVP, in the Super Bowl like I predicted before Week 1.

But the main thing is getting Cowboys-Eagles first instead of seeing Dallas lose to SF again and the Eagles only having to beat one of those teams in January.

This Week’s Articles

The 10 Greatest Field Goals in NFL History – Thanks to Jake Elliott’s 59-yard game-saving FG, I jumped on the chance to research the best FGs in NFL history and found that a few kickers are worthy of ranking twice on that list. But No. 1 is not up for debate.

NFL Week 13 Predictions

Welp, I should have learned my lesson from TB-BUF to not bet on the final score for TNF this year. I nailed the props and TD scorers in this game, but screwed myself thinking Dallas was going to win by double digits and the Seahawks wouldn’t score over 17.5 points. They doubled that with 35 points in one of the most unexpected shootouts of the year.

But TNF hasn’t been that awful this year. It’s SNF and especially MNF where scoring goes to die this year, and I’m still making bets that way this week.

LAC-NE: I’m just taking a swing that the Chargers are going to commit a comedy of errors like they usually do against the Pats, and that Bailey Zappe gets Brandon Staley fired.

ARI-PIT: The Steelers have a chance to play really well at home against an overmatched opponent, but Kyler Murray is a veteran QB, something they have not faced recently. In other words, look for the Steelers to win a 24-20 nail-biter against a 2-win team. But I do like the rushing props in this one as it might rain Sunday.

DEN-HOU: Should be a one-score game. I’m still backing Houston but it’s a bummer tight end Dalton Schultz is out as I wanted to bet on him as I think C.J. Stroud gets his slots and seams receivers going this week.

DET-NO: I’m just counting on the Lions to get back on track and win by a TD. Could be a game where both teams score in the 20s if the Lions don’t start playing better offense, but we know the Saints settle for a lot of FGs with Carr at QB.

IND-TEN: I like the over more than picking the winner here. Titans usually score more at home and Hopkins and Moss went off in the last game that was more offensive than the 23-16 score suggests (low possession game).

ATL-NYJ: Could there be value again in betting on high reception totals for the Jets (Wilson/Conkln/Hall) if Tim Boyle is going to keep dinking and dunking? Scary proposition for an Atlanta defense that already lost to Levis/Dobbs/Kyler in a 3-week stretch. Not a game I’d put much on but Falcons should win a low-scoring game.

MIA-WAS: I think Sam Howell will throw a lot of passes and Tyreek Hill will have a lot of yards and score at least one touchdown. Firing Jack Del Rio was necessary but it’s hard to imagine a good game from the Washington defense here. But I think it could be a 31-24 game.

CAR-TB: Firing Frank Reich was kind of stunning given the timing, but they were playing awful football for him. Not sure that changes much this week. I like Rachaad White to find the end zone at least once.

SF-PHI: Think I’ve shared a lot on this game in the links above, but I do look at the 49ers as a front-running team that could play into Philly’s comeback hands in the second half. But my favorite bet is the over as I think it’ll look a lot different from the title game. I also think Jalen Hurts is going to struggle to throw for many yards for the 3rd week in a row, and it will come down to turnovers as it always does for these teams.

Since 2022, the 49ers are 23-1 when they have 0-1 giveaways and 0-7 when they have 2+ giveaways.

CLE-LAR: The return of Joe Flacco. God, we need to see him start a playoff game again. Get more data points on that. I think the Browns could upset this one for sure, but I hedged and took CLE ATS/LAR ML. But could see Myles Garrett and company getting after Stafford. Flacco is a wild card; not so much in thinking he will be great, but what degree of terrible could he be on short notice? Not a fun game to bet on.

KC-GB: When these teams played in 2021, it was the lowest-scoring game (20 total points) and fewest passing yards (166) of any game in Patrick Mahomes’ career that he started and finished. That gave me assurance to take the under, as did the season-long performance of these teams, and I also think it’s another spot for the Chiefs to win but opponent covers. Should be a good one that wasn’t looking so good a few weeks ago before Jordan Love started playing better.

CIN-JAX: Can I just get one Evan Engram TD in 2023? Even if it’s a 24-13 game, let’s just see a little more action than that garbage game the Vikings and Bears played last week.

NFL Stat Oddity: Week 12

~ Scott ~ 8 Comments

The holiday games left a lot to be desired for this NFL season, but Week 12 managed to follow it with a game of the year candidate between the Bills and Eagles. It was the only game all week with a fourth-quarter lead change, and there were multiple lead changes at that.

The only other game-winning drive in Week 12 went to the Giants after another low point for Bill Belichick’s 2-win Patriots. Week 12 has 8 games with a comeback opportunity so far, which is a low number given 15 games have been played. We are almost at the point where the bye weeks are over and everyone’s played an equal number of games.

I’m only going to cover Sunday’s 11 games below as I think Thanksgiving was straightforward. The only surprise was that Detroit is suddenly looking vulnerable and Green Bay might be figuring things out with Jordan Love. The Lions have rarely looked good on defense since the blowout loss to the Ravens, and the offense is in a turnover funk right now with Jared Goff (3 picks, 3 fumbles lost over the last two games). We’ll see if Minnesota can sweep Chicago on Monday night to keep the pressure on the Lions for the NFC North since they still have to meet twice this year.

This season in NFL Stat Oddity:

Bills at Eagles: Game of the Year Edition

Finally, a game that lived up to and exceeded the hype. If you want to see points and drama in an NFL game this year, you have to focus on the big matchups in the afternoon as the island games have been awful all year. We can only be so lucky that 49ers-Eagles turns out this good next Sunday afternoon.

But an easy way to trigger all the PTSD in a Buffalo fan is to tell them their season is going to end on the wrong side of a clutch field goal kick, a go-ahead Gabe Davis TD called by Nantz and Romo that doesn’t hold up after the 2-minute warning, and an overtime game where Josh Allen doesn’t have the ball last. I think we covered about everything except the Music City Miracle, but maybe the Eagles are saving their kickoff return dark voodoo for next week.

This is going to fall on deaf ears for Buffalo fans who are tired of hearing this in the Sean McDermott era, which may not have many games left to it, but the Bills should have won this game.

Since 1991, teams with at least 29 points and 12 third-down conversions were 53-0. Make that 53-1 now.

Buffalo had 505 yards and was 13-of-22 on third down. Since 1991, teams with 13 conversions on third down are 29-4, and this Buffalo team has half the losses. They somehow lost 42-16 to the Titans in 2020 in a game where they were 13-of-17 on third down.

Just like the Chiefs on Monday night, the Bills led Philly 17-7 at halftime, but it should have been more than that. While Josh Allen looked outstanding in the rain, his kicker did not. Jalen Carter blocked Tyler Bass’ 34-yard field goal with 1:24 left in the half, and then he was wide right on a 48-yard field goal in the third quarter.

While Allen had over 200 yards at halftime despite the rain and his linemen’s penalties, Jalen Hurts was not handling the elements well. He was 4-of-11 for 33 yards, an interception, and a lost fumble at halftime.

But you know the Eagles can come back, and you know the Bills are either a blowout win or close loss team. It did not look like they would blow the Eagles out, though the yardage margins were so out of whack (276-99 at halftime) that they probably should have.

Even after Allen scrambled for a 16-yard touchdown, his second of the day on the ground, to take a 24-14 lead into the fourth quarter, it still didn’t feel safe for Buffalo. After the Eagles had their best drive for a touchdown, Allen was intercepted again, giving the Eagles the ball 24 yards away from the lead. Quick, someone fire Ken Dorsey again.

But after moving backwards on two plays, the Eagles faced a 3rd-and-15. McDermott’s defense could have stepped up and made a play, but instead they looked like Auburn’s defense against Alabama on Saturday as Zaccheaus caught a 29-yard touchdown in the end zone to give the Eagles a 28-24 lead.

In a game where he dropped back 60 times, Allen took his only sack on third down on the next drive, but the Eagles went three-and-out. Allen did not waste his second opportunity, and he threw a 7-yard touchdown to Gabe Davis with 1:52 left.

The Eagles drove to the Buffalo 34 before things got dicey. Jason Kelce had a pair of false starts, which you don’t expect. A designed run by Hurts only gained 3 yards when it looked like the hole was there. Then Hurts threw an incompletion on 3rd-and-17.

Jake Elliott was going to have to make a 59-yard field goal in rainy conditions to save this game for overtime. Things looked bleak, but I actually thought Buffalo screwed up by not letting A.J. Brown catch the short pass Jordan Poyer knocked away from him on 3rd & 17. It was only going to gain a few yards. Make them rush the field goal unit out there (no timeouts) for a hurried kick from 55+ yards. Instead, they had time to prepare, and McDermott even iced the kicker with a timeout. I didn’t like that move by Buffalo.

Sure enough, Elliott snuck the field goal through to tie the game at 31. It may only be a regular-season game, but that should go down as one of the best kicks in NFL history. Not going to top what Adam Vinatieri did in the Tuck Rule game and the snow to save a title run in the playoffs, but as far as regular-season kick goes, you’d have a hard time finding something better.

Buffalo had 20 seconds and 1 timeout left. This team more than anyone should know about what you can do in 20 (or 13) seconds. Why not let Allen throw a pass and try to get a drive going? Did they not trust the kicker that much, or did they not trust Allen to throw a pick? Either way, I hated the kneeldown too.

In overtime, the Bills took the ball first, which is understandable in a game like this. But you have to make that drive count, and Allen came up short again when his third-down pass was a miscommunication in the end zone with Davis. That could have been the winner. Buffalo settled for the field goal and Bass at least hit from 40 yards this time.

We got to see that rare bit of football where you have 4 downs and virtually no hurry with 5:52 to move down the field. Brown almost fumbled the game away, but I thought the officials got it right with a bang-bang play. Incomplete pass but that’s just another example of how thin the margins are for the Eagles all year.

After DeVonta Smith made a third-down conversion, the Bills were in trouble. Swift had a 16-yard run against a tired defense, and then a bad play call by McDermott left the middle of the field wide open for Hurts to race 12 yards into the end zone to end it. Eagles win 37-34.

Allen falls to 0-6 in overtime games in his career, and Buffalo can’t say there weren’t multiple chances to put this one away. The Bills go into their bye thinking they had a season-saving win, and instead it’s a heartbreaking loss to fall to 6-6. They still have to go to Kansas City next and host Dallas. The playoffs are looking like a longshot, and that’s now a league-high fourth blown lead in the fourth quarter for the Bills this year, who are 2-5 in close games.

On the other side of the coin, the 2023 Eagles are 9-1 in close games, the best record in the league. That’s literally every game of their season except for the 25-11 win in Tampa Bay. I don’t see how this is sustainable. The Vikings are the only other team to play 10 close games this year and they are 5-5 (11-0 last year and we know how that ended). Which teams have played the fewest close games? Cowboys (3), Lions (4), and 49ers (4), the other top teams in the conference this year.

Next week should be very interesting when the 49ers come to town. They are similar to Buffalo in the “win big, lose close” category, but they’re also a much better team.

Ravens at Chargers: Is Brandon Staley Finished?

It feels like the last few times I wrote about a coach being fired by the time I wake up on Monday, it’s happened. Frank Reich in Indy and Matt Rhule in Carolina come to mind. Sunday night might have been the final nail in the coffin for Brandon Staley.

The Chargers are 4-7 and the No. 13 seed in a competitive AFC despite having Justin Herbert at quarterback. But the Chargers are now 1-7 at game-winning drive opportunities this year, the most losses in the league.

This was another mistake-filled performance, and the reason I say Staley is going soon is this time it was the offense that failed the Chargers the most. The defense actually held a red-hot Baltimore team that had scored 31 points in 5 straight games to 13 points for 58 minutes. Lamar Jackson was only 18-of-32 for 177 yards against the No. 32 pass defense. The Ravens tried a lot of WR screens and just weren’t that impressive on offense.

But the Chargers turned the ball over 4 times, and it was their best players that let them down. Keenan Allen and Austin Ekeler both lost fumbles in the second quarter. Herbert’s only interception was a Hail Mary that didn’t matter to end the half, but he was stripped in the red zone by Jadeveon Clowney in the fourth quarter when it was 13-3.

The Chargers are known for blowing leads, but Baltimore has been quite bad in this area the last few years. It looked like things were turning the Chargers’ way too as a touchdown to Gerald Everett made it 13-10, then Justin Tucker shocked everyone by missing a 44-yard field goal with 2:57 left. I fully thought Tucker would make it to give Baltimore a 16-10 lead, Herbert would answer with a touchdown, and Tucker would win it 19-17 on another field goal. But nope.

The Chargers had a real chance in a 13-10 game at their own 34. But Herbert was disappointing on a drive where Baltimore stepped up and played great defense. It is so hard to keep a team out of field goal range when it’s in this pass-heavy, 4-down mode, but they did it to Herbert here. A well-timed DB blitz on 4th-and-6 got to Herbert and he was flagged for intentional grounding.

Zay Flowers put it away with his second touchdown of the night – this time on a 37-yard touchdown run where he could have just slid down any time after the first down and the game would have ended. But that made it 20-10, and Herbert was unable to move more than 12 yards before another drive turned it over on downs.

The Baltimore defense was very impressive. The offense left something to be desired but you know that unit can be tough to play against with their uniquely skilled quarterback.

But it was a game there for the taking, and the Chargers did not step up again. I’m not sure how many more weeks they let this happen before a change is made.

Jaguars at Texans: Houston Stumbles in Biggest Game in Four Seasons

The Texans were my upset pick this week, but in the back of my mind I knew it was a risky pick. The Texans are the “too much too soon” team in this matchup with their rookie coach and quarterback. They gave Carolina their only win of the season, then followed it with a 3-game winning streak where they outscored the Bucs, Bengals, and Cardinals by a combined 10 points despite huge production from rookie C.J. Stroud.

The Jaguars are the “experienced team” even though they were just 3-7 going into their Baltimore game that turned things around one year ago to the date. But they have a Super Bowl-winning coach and more playoff experience on the roster.

But this game didn’t prove to be too big for the Texans at all. In fact, it was there for the taking, but they just kept coming up short:

  • The offense started with 3 straight punts thanks to a holding penalty and a ticky-tack illegal shift on Tank Dell that wiped out his 62-yard completion on a great throw from Stroud.
  • Backup kicker Matt Ammendola is a huge problem as he missed a 50-yard field goal with 20 seconds before halftime. The Jaguars then hit a 57-yard bomb to Christian Kirk at the 1-yard line with 1 second left, 1-of-4 completions the Jaguars hit for 42+ yards, then tried to run it in with Travis Etienne, but the Texans snuffed it out. Houston still trailed 13-7 at the half.
  • Despite Jacksonville’s numbers on takeaways, the only turnover in the game was an interception by Trevor Lawrence in the third quarter.
  • Leading 14-13, Houston corner Tavierre Thomas was flagged twice for defensive pass interference on third downs to help Jacksonville score a touchdown and 2-point conversion pass, which both went to Calvin Ridley. Jacksonville led the rest of the game.

In the end, it wasn’t turnovers or the moment being too big for this Houston team. It was a bad backup kicker and an ass kicking up front as Josh Allen got the best of Laremy Tunsil.

It looked like Stroud had another game-winning drive in the works in a 24-21 game, but a sack from Allen at the Jacksonville 37 set up a 2nd-and-19. After a short completion, Stroud faced 3rd-and-12. He extended the play for a very long time but eventually threw incomplete with 34 seconds left. That was a bummer as he might have considered scrambling to at least gain some yards for the kicker.

The Texans still felt a 58-yard field goal was a better choice than 4th-and-12, and maybe they were right about that. It’s a tough call. Ammendola kicked it straight this time, but it was too short, and it hit the crossbar before bouncing the wrong way for Houston. Game over. That’s why those few yards Stroud could have gained on a run would have been important.

Ammendola was with the Chiefs for a couple of games last year when Harrison Butker was injured, and if they had to stick with him the rest of the season, I’m not sure the Chiefs win the Super Bowl. He’s just not a good kicker and is an emergency backup for a reason. I’m not sure what the Texans can do there, but he’s going to be a problem if any other games come down to his leg.

For Jacksonville (8-3), a No. 1 seed is still possible with this big win that makes the division title likely. They won in the trenches and Lawrence made some big throws with Ridley delivering the way they envisioned when they made that move. I’m still not sold it’s a team you can count on in January, but this was a good win after the way things usually go when the Jags play Houston.

Chiefs at Raiders: The Second Half Slump Ends

I don’t know if the Chiefs are “back” on offense but trailing 14-0 and winning 31-17 is a very Kansas City thing. The start of this game was shocking as the Raiders moved the ball up and down the field on this top-ranked defense to take a 14-0 lead. It would have been 17-0 if Daniel Carlson didn’t pull a 30-yard field goal.

The Raiders had 221 yards of offense on 3 drives and rookie Aidan O’Connell was carving them up. Josh Jacobs, who has struggled all year behind this line, hit a 63-yard touchdown run.

But the Chiefs adjusted, and the Raiders finished with a field goal and 137 yards on their final 7 drives – an impressive turnaround for the defense.

Once Kansas City’s offense settled down, they scored 4 touchdowns and a field goal on their final 7 drives. With players like Jerick McKinnon and Kadarius Toney out, it felt like the Chiefs did a better job of getting the ball to their best players instead of trying to share the ball with anyone, including the bad targets. MVS only had one target on a catch that lost a yard. Justin Watson, who had 11 targets against the Eagles, only had one catch and it was a broken play touchdown after Robert Spillane dumped him on his ass in the end zone and no one bothered to pick him up.

Meanwhile, Rashee Rice had 8 catches for 107 yards and a touchdown in his best game of the season (despite 2 more drops). Travis Kelce was very good again with 6 catches for 91 yards. Isiah Pacheco handled some of the receiving with McKinnon out as he caught all 5 targets for 34 yards and scored 2 touchdowns. Mahomes efficiently passed for 298 yards on 27-of-34 passing.

But most importantly, the Chiefs ended their 3-game drought of not scoring after halftime. They scored a season-high 17 points after halftime in this game. It was only the second time all year where the Chiefs scored more than 10 points after halftime.

With the offense thriving and the Raiders struggling after their hot start, the Chiefs barely had to sweat the final quarter this week, winning comfortably for a change.

We’ll see the Chiefs next Sunday night in Green Bay in what could be a better challenge if Jordan Love is showing real improvement. But the Chiefs accomplished some good things in this game in showing they can still come back from 14-point deficits by getting hot on offense, and they can score after halftime too.

Steelers at Bengals: Shove It Up Your Arse, Matt Canada

What a fitting outcome. Immediately after firing offensive coordinator Matt Canada, the Steelers finally had their first 400-yard game on offense since the 2020 regular season. They had one in the playoffs that year against the Browns, but this ended a 45-game drought under Canada, and a 58-game streak that was the second longest regular-season drought without 400 yards by any offense in the last 30 years.

The very first play of the game was like one big “fuck you” to Matt Canada. The Steelers went play-action and Kenny Pickett threw deep down the middle of the field to tight end Pat Freiermuth for a 24-yard gain. Exactly the kind of things the Steelers never wanted to do under Canada despite how much sense it makes to do. Freiermuth would finish with 9 catches for 120 yards. Pickett passed for 278 yards, the 2nd-highest game of his career and easily his most in a win.

But to make it fitting for the brand, the Steelers only scored 16 points and had to sweat out the final quarter of a one-score game with Jake Browning in his first career start for the Bengals. This happened in a game where the Steelers outgained the Bengals 421-222 in yards, the first time all year Pittsburgh outgained its opponent. That’s the reminder that the offense still has some flaws that even Canada’s absence won’t fix.

While Pickett was dealing early, his accuracy was an issue later. But that may not have mattered if Diontae Johnson didn’t have one of the worst first quarters I’ve ever seen from a player. First he caught a screen, broke a tackle, but somehow ran backwards to lose 5 yards to kill the opening drive. Then he dropped a 15-yard touchdown that Mike Tomlin should have challenged as Johnson’s third foot was down and the play should have been a score. By not challenging, Tomlin watched Jaylen Warren cough up a fumble on a play where Johnson showed no effort at all:

Just a brutal start that cost the Steelers points, which is why they trailed 7-3 at halftime. Meanwhile, Browning finished his first start with 227 yards, 4 sacks, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. I’ve seen a lot of backup quarterbacks play over the years. Some were absolutely terrible, including Caleb Hanie, Craig Krenzel, Ryan Lindley, Curtis Painter, and Keith Null. Browning did not look that bad to me. He could even be serviceable if he gets some experience, because some of his mistakes like holding the ball too long are simply not having the reps under his belt. He did get lucky on a couple of tipped balls that still found their way to Ja’Marr Chase (4 catches for 81 yards), but all in all, Browning wasn’t a disaster.

But the Bengals’ season is over without Joe Burrow. It’s easy to see that much. Browning had his shot in a 13-7 game with just over 6:00 left, but T.J. Watt sacked him on third down for a three-and-out. The Steelers added a field goal, the Bengals matched it, but Pittsburgh recovered the onside kick and wisely ran with the ball for 4 seconds to get it to the two-minute warning. With the Bengals already out of timeouts, the game ended there.

As someone who lost several parlays with Steelers Over 19.5 points failing, the 16 points was definitely the most disappointing part of this game for Pittsburgh. But at least the offense made things happen, they used the tight end the way they should have been doing since 2021, and Pickett started the game really sharp.

But I’ll hold my breath that 400-yard games will become a frequent occurrence with this group going forward. Remember, Pickett’s only game in his career with 30 points scored was against the Bengals last year. Two of his 3 games with over 260 passing yards are against the Bengals now. This could be a Cincinnati thing, and the Bengals have been giving up a lot of passing volume for the last month and a half.

But with the upcoming schedule for the Steelers (7-4), they aren’t going to need 400 yards or even 21 points to win a lot of these games. Barring disaster, this team should be in the playoffs. But to be any sort of threat there, Pickett is going to have to continue to grow and play like he did to start this game.

And Diontae Johnson needs to pull his head out of his ass.

Buccaneers at Colts: Indy Continues to Score at Impressive Rate

If the Colts (6-5) make the playoffs, I could be convinced to vote Shane Steichen for Coach of the Year. He has achieved scoring consistency in a season where so few offenses are capable of doing so, and he’s doing it with Gardner Minshew as QB1.

He’s also making some brash calls that have paid off. Up 20-17 in the fourth quarter with 9:11 left, Steichen went for it on a 4th-and-1 at the Tampa 49. It was an aggressive deep pass on a play-fake too, and it was good for 30 yards. Three plays later, Jonathan Taylor was in the end zone for his second touchdown and the Colts used that drive to provide the winning margin.

Tampa Bay lost Baker Mayfield to an early injury on a quarterback sneak, which almost never happens, but he did return. He threw a pair of touchdowns to Mike Evans, but a couple of 3rd-down sacks killed Tampa Bay on its final drives. Mayfield was stripped near midfield with 1:29 left to end the game at 27-20.

The Buccaneers (4-7) are fading to No. 11 in the NFC with the loss. The Colts are the No. 7 seed and would be taking a trip to Kansas City in a wild card game if the playoffs were this weekend. Imagine if they can repeat their Mahomes magic (19-13 and 20-17) in a game like that in the playoffs. But with the way the AFC is, expect many different teams to occupy the No. 7 and No. 2 seeds over the next few weeks. Hell, the No. 1 seed changed hands 5 times since Monday night.

But good for the Colts staying relevant in what could have easily been a lost season. We know they weren’t drafting a quarterback in 2024 anyway.

Saints at Falcons: The NFC South Battle You Expected

In the post-Drew Brees and Matt Ryan era of this rivalry, you have to admit this was a fitting game for first place in the NFC South. A game where both teams had multiple turnovers and looked like they were trying to give the game away.

The Saints got Derek Carr so they’d have an edge in games like this, but they must have forgot that he’s never won a playoff game in his career. Sure enough, in this one he was late on a throw that became a 92-yard pick-six for Atlanta, then he had a hilarious fumble while running in the open field that the Saints were lucky to recover.

The Falcons got Bijan Robinson to take the pressure off Desmond Ridder in this offense. It hasn’t worked as great as expected this year, but it did deliver on Sunday in the most important game so far for Atlanta. While Ridder did his best to make no one believe in him after 2 interceptions to Tyrann Mathieu, he made the throw of the game under pressure for a 26-yard touchdown to Robinson to expand on Atlanta’s 14-12 lead in the fourth quarter:

But of all the turnovers in the game, the biggest one may have been the one that preceded that second Robinson touchdown. The Saints were at midfield after Mathieu’s second pick, and they got into the red zone quickly. It was a struggle there all day as the offense kept settling for field goals, but Taysom Hill took off on a run that would have made it first-and-goal. He fumbled, and the Falcons recovered, setting up that 95-yard drive that ended with the Ridder to Robinson connection.

All the Saints could do from there was settle for another 39-yard field goal, which the Falcons matched to make it 24-15 with 1:47 left. Even in quasi-garbage time, Carr couldn’t get his offense in the end zone. Blake Grupe, one of the most anti-clutch kickers around right now, missed a 54-yard field goal with 30 seconds left to end this one. Also, how do you come up short on a 54-yard field goal indoors?

The Falcons (5-6) take a slight lead over the Saints (5-6) for the NFC South. But we could see another year where a team wins this division with a losing record. However, the schedule is still easy for both. This division is the sacrificial lamb to the NFC East runner-up on wild card weekend.

Browns at Broncos: Another Key Tiebreaker for Denver

Sean Payton’s rope-a-dope following a 1-5 start continues after another win over an AFC wild card contender that will give Denver a key tiebreaker for the playoffs. The Broncos (6-5) already have such a win over Buffalo that could mean a lot come January.

I was sure to not call it impressive, because I’m still not that impressed with this Denver team. Russell Wilson didn’t do anything to distance himself from the Taysom Hill comparisons after he threw for 134 yards, got an amazing touchdown catch from Adam Trautman, and he was in love with the run on this day as he carried the ball 11 times for 34 yards and a touchdown.

The Browns were stuck with rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who left the game spitting out blood after a tough hit. That put P.J. Walker in the game, though I’m a bit surprised Walker wasn’t the starter since he is more experienced and a veteran. You kind of wish Cleveland trusted him more, because the first play of the fourth quarter with Cleveland trailing 17-12 was a disaster. The Browns tried a little trickery with Elijah Moore doing a reverse to Pierre Strong, and it resulted in a huge fumble.

The Broncos had another short field (20 yards) and that was when Trautman made his incredible touchdown grab to make it 24-12. The Browns are not built to come back from deficits like that, so it was just a matter of more turnovers and a sack in the end zone for a safety to get to the 29-12 final.

The Browns lost 3 fumbles and that does not include the drive-ending safety, so Denver’s defense is continuing this takeaway rampage to fuel the offense. They can add another huge tiebreaker win next week if they win in Houston.

Cleveland (7-4) could start to unravel after a loss like this, but the Browns still have games against Chicago, Jets, and Bengals, so 10 wins is possible. Is it enough this year? We’ll see. The AFC is super tight right now, so these little head-to-head losses add up.

The wins are just adding up for Denver right now but don’t start making playoff plans just yet.

Patriots at Giants: Even the Kicker Sucks Ass for New England These Days

The 2023 Patriots are the first team since the 2000 Steelers to play in back-to-back games where they neither scored nor allowed more than 10 points. A 10-6 loss to the Colts in Germany was followed Sunday by a 10-7 road loss to the Giants. The last team to go 0-2 in back-to-back games when not allowing or scoring more than 10 points is the 1993 Patriots, coached by Bill Belichick’s mentor Bill Parcells. How nice.

This latest loss was comedy for the Patriots, who are now 2-9. Tommy DeVito had a 7.4 QBR for the Giants after taking another 6 sacks, but he still won the game and led his first game-winning field goal drive to break a 7-7 tie that seemed like it may not be broken by either offense.

How do you lose to a 7.4 QBR, the worst of any winning quarterback this year? Well, Mac Jones had a 7.2 QBR after another pair of interceptions, so he was benched at halftime for Bailey Zappe.

While Zappe immediately led a 60-yard touchdown drive to start the third quarter, it was the final score for New England. He didn’t throw a fake spike pick this time, but Zappe was intercepted in the fourth quarter, and that led to an 8-yard game-winning field goal drive for DeVito. Yes, 8 yards.

Zappe had a chance from the 50 with 3:15 left in a 10-7 game, a dream scenario for a quarterback. The Patriots played for overtime, but rookie kicker Chad Ryland was shockingly wide left from 35 yards away with 3 seconds left. Game over. The Patriots spent a 4th-round pick on this kicker and he still sucks.

Belichick has only lost 6 games in his career with a missed clutch field goal. But this was the first time on a drive with Bailey Zappe, which matches the one time it’s happened with Mac Jones (2021 Buccaneers), which matches the one time it happened in two decades with Tom Brady (2012 Cardinals).

Everything has gotten worse in New England.

Rams at Cardinals: McVay’s Whipping Boys

The Rams completed another sweep of the Cardinals with a 37-14 win. I really did not expect to see Matthew Stafford throw 4 touchdown passes to Kyren Williams and Tyler Higbee (he had none going in), but that happened. It was also another quiet game for Cooper Kupp (3 catches for 18 yards) as he continues to deal with injury.

I don’t think Kyler Murray is making it that difficult on management to move on with a different quarterback in 2024. It’s just that Chicago may have the firepower in the draft to make sure they get the top prize, which I presume is still Caleb Williams.

Panthers at Titans: Turkey Coma Is Preferable

Once you get past Thanksgiving, the interest in games like this really drops. You had two rookie quarterbacks struggle to move the ball all day. Tennessee got a key 15-yard touchdown drive before halftime after a strip-sack of Bryce Young. After that it was just the Titans in survival mode with a 17-10 lead.

Carolina had four chances to tie it and never came close. Your typical Carolina issues with Young taking sacks and Miles Sanders somehow losing several yards on multiple runs. Just a bad line and the Titans took advantage. On 4th-and-6, the Panthers really thought a WR screen was going to save the day, but D.J. Chark, who isn’t even the best option for that play, gained no yards with 1:55 left and it was game over.

Next week: It’s really all about 49ers-Eagles in Week 13. You knew before the season this was the NFC Game of the Year, and hopefully it will live up to the hype. That means no quarterback injury on the first drive this time. And hopefully it doesn’t get decided by the kickers because we know the 49ers are screwed there.

NFL Week 12 Predictions: Leftovers Look Better Edition

~ Scott ~ 1 Comment

Thanks to the NFL shilling for Amazon with a Black Friday game, we’ve already had a 4-game start to Week 12. They were all division games, and they all kind of sucked. The only time any of the games got within one score in the 4th quarter was after Detroit went for a 2-point conversion with 41 seconds left in their 29-22 loss to give the underdogs one big win so far.

But oddly enough, every game so far this week had a spread of 7 or higher. Of the 12 games left this week, Chiefs at Raiders (+10) is the only one with a spread larger than 3.5. There are four games with a spread of 1.5, so expect things to be much tighter this weekend. Hopefully better too as I am looking forward to Bills-Eagles. It’s not an island game so the offenses might actually score several touchdowns.

This Week’s Articles

NFL Week 12 Predictions

My early results were all over the map, but I did at least pick the 49ers and Dolphins to crush the Seahawks and Jets. I could have did without that last Raheem Mostert TD though. Cost me a +86000 win that would have probably been my best longshot win ever.

I’m not sure what to do with some of these games. NE-NYG? Under. TB-IND? Over. ATL-NO? Flip a coin or just avoid it. One of the close games I do like a clear pick in is CLE-DEN. I think DTR struggles more against Denver’s secondary and the Broncos pull that one out to continue this playoff push. No, I still don’t believe they’re a good team, but these turnovers better not dry up against a turnover-prone Cleveland offense that is missing its QB1 and RB1.

If you read my links above, I’m all over the Steelers having their best offensive game in a while in Cincy. That doesn’t mean great numbers for other QBs, but for Kenny Pickett, throwing for 200 yards, a TD (hell maybe 2), and leading the Steelers to 20+ is big time for him. I wouldn’t have picked this if they didn’t fire Matt Canada this week, so we’ll see what happens there. It just seems too fitting that Cincy is literally the only team Pickett has scored 30 against, and his 265 yards last year were his 2nd most in a game. Granted, no Joe Burrow, Jake Browning is a wild card, and it could be another 13-10 AFC North game for that reason. But I think it’s more of an offensive game than expected and like the overs.

CAR-TEN? Damned if I know, but the Panthers are 1-7-2 ATS this year. They just haven’t played well at all under Frank Reich.

I have the Texans as my upset pick, but I’m just hoping the game is watchable since most Jacksonville games aren’t. Let’s hope for both teams to score 20+ and the game to be played within a one-score window the whole time.

LAR-ARI? I’ll pass. Maybe James Conner returns to the end zone this week. But largely avoiding that one.

KC-LV: My favorite research bit this week was finding out the Chiefs are No. 1 out of 1,577 teams since 1970 in the largest split between 1st half and 2nd half scoring through 10 games.

No points after halftime in 3 straight games for the Chiefs, the first time that’s happened in franchise history. I think the scoreless drought ends this week, but I still love the under 13.5 2H points for KC in that game. The Raiders held Miami to 6 points in Miami after halftime last week. Maybe Maxx Crosby has a monster game after wearing out that “You woke up the wrong motherfucker!” clip from Mahomes from the Quarterback show. But I do think the Chiefs get the win. It just won’t be pretty.

BUF-PHI: Love the timing of this game. Get to see if the Bills are still contenders and ready for a run, or if the Eagles win another one over a so-called contender this year. We know the Bills usually have 2 modes: close loss or blowout win, so I’m not feeling their chances to pull it off this week. Probably a game that comes down to turnovers. But I hope it’s a good one.

BAL-LAC: Potential is definitely there for a great game with the way these teams blow leads, but it also could be a Baltimore rout. But I’m thinking it ends up being one of the best island games all year (low bar).

CHI-MIN: Isn’t this why we started using flex scheduling on Monday night? Eh, might play a Dobbs TD again because he’s getting automatic with that, and his highlight reel on them is way more interesting than Jalen Hurts’ reel.

I’ll share my spreadsheet of picks on Twitter tomorrow night as I mentioned last week. I’ve been on a hot streak this week with parlays, already hitting +27000, +22000, +12800, +10000 (a few times), +5400, +4100, +3000, etc.

Let’s keep it going.

NFL Week 11 Predictions: Everybody’s QB Hurts Edition

~ Scott ~ 1 Comment

The writer’s strike may have ended weeks ago, but apparently the NFL already outsourced the 2023 season’s script to ChatGPT or another AI, because we are getting 2017 all over again. First it was the low-scoring games with stats not seen since 2017 around the league, then the quarterback injuries just got too eerily similar after Deshaun Watson (shoulder) and Joe Burrow (wrist) both went down for the season this week.

I was so concerned in not going over my character limit so that this tweet would display to get the full effect that I forgot the Vikings’ QB1 is another match. The 2017 Vikings lost Sam Bradford early and had to roll to the title game with Case Keenum. Now the 2023 Vikings lost Kirk Cousins and are on a winning streak with Joshua Dobbs.

All we’re missing is the No. 1 seeded Eagles to lose their MVP front-runner to a torn ACL and watch Marcus Mariota win Super Bowl MVP after he outplays Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl 58. And Kenny Pickett and the Steelers can play the role of Jacksonville even better than 2023 Jacksonville can in the AFC Championship Game.

It’s been a rough season, but with the way contenders are dropping like flies, we just might see that Super Bowl rematch after all. We are seeing it for sure Monday night, but that might only be 1-of-2 meetings between the Eagles and Chiefs this year.

This Week’s Articles

Will Chiefs-Eagles Be the NFL’s Rare Super Bowl Rematch in February? – I did a deep dive on just how rare it is for an AFC and NFC team to meet in 3 straight seasons, and it’s still less rare than seeing two teams meet in back-to-back Super Bowls, which has only been done by 1992-93 Bills-Cowboys. But in doing the research for this one, I was absolutely shocked at just how few close calls there have been to another case of this. But I also think the Chiefs and Eagles are uniquely qualified to do it this year. The fact that they are No. 1 seeds entering Week 11 is good proof of that.

NFL Week 11 Predictions

It has always been the Ravens for me in the AFC North this year, but what a bummer of a game to lose Mark Andrews and Joe Burrow for the season. It was the best scheduled TNF game all year and that’s what happened to it. If you would have told me those injuries would happen, Lamar Jackson would go to the blue medical tent and look injured a few times himself, and the game still ended 34-20, I wouldn’t have believed it. But that ended a streak of 13 straight unders in the island games. Is this the week that turns the other way? Would be nice with the games scheduled, but I have my doubts.

Packers are my upset pick. I think they score 21+ points and it’s another close game for the Chargers.

Not sure what to do with TEN-JAX. I’m largely avoiding it but read my prop picks above to see why I’m manifesting the first Evan Engram TD catch of the season.

The Miami spread feels a little high, no? But then I looked at their 4-0 home record with every win by multiple touchdowns against scrubs and it makes more sense. I could see a 31-17 game there.

Kind of hated to pick Dallas to win big on the road since they haven’t really done that since Week 1 against the Giants. But that Carolina offense is so toothless that I just don’t see how they keep up. Dak is in a zone right now. Might be like Week 1, Cowboys finally win big on the road and Tony Pollard finally returns to the end zone.

I had a lot of success with picking games to be high scoring in the late window last week, and I think Cardinals-Texans has the potential for that. I have a nice parlay in my Scott’s Seven for this game, and you could even throw some overs for Marquise Brown and Nico Collins in there on yardage.

I might have picked the Steelers to lose to Cleveland if Watson was playing if only because I think Pickett is going to struggle with the defense on the road, and he won’t get the luxury of 2 return scores like Week 2. Then when I heard Watson was out, I still thought Cleveland because of P.J. Walker. But rookie DTR? I’m changing my pick. I’ll take Steelers to win this game, then lose to Jake Browning in his first start in Cincinnati next week. But I do really like the over for David Njoku in this game. It’s not like the Browns are going to have no yards. Pittsburgh’s defense isn’t great. They’re just timely in close games, and somehow the Steelers are drawing a schedule now with some of the only quarterbacks worse than Pickett.

I don’t trust the Commanders with a spread that big against a team they haven’t scored on in a couple of years. But I do trust Sam Howell over DeVito enough to get the win.

Definitely like Detroit to beat Chicago, and Justin Fields coming back doesn’t change my pick on the spread. I’m cautious on picking David Montgomery to have a big day since Gibbs is more established and the Bears have stopped the run well. But this is also easily the best rushing offense they’ve seen this year. I think you should work a Sam LaPorta TD into your parlays this weekend.

The 49ers crushed Tampa Bay 35-7 last year and it won’t be that bad again, but I like them to build off last week and win comfortably.

I’ll probably be keeping the Bills-Jets game out of most of my bets. Too unpredictable with Buffalo. But I could see a 24-14 game out of that one.

Not feeling Rams-Seahawks as a good betting game either. At least Stafford is back, so I’ll go with the Rams to steal another one. Return the favor for last year’s Seattle sweep.

I’m torn on SNF because I feel like Joshua Dobbs has done a great job, but Denver’s defense is legitimately improved and I could see him struggle, especially if Justin Jefferson doesn’t make his return. You need that extra wide receiver with the Broncos having Simmons and Surtain in the secondary. I still don’t believe in the Denver offense. I think it’ll be a close game and prime-time games involving Russell Wilson are usually batshit. Remember last year’s FG fest with Matt Ryan and the Colts? That was a Thursday. Remember the 6-6 OT tie with Arizona years ago? That was SNF. Take your pick with his Monday night games in Seattle, or just this Monday against Buffalo.

As for Eagles-Chiefs, I think I’ve covered the game enough in my links above at 365Scores about the Super Bowl rematch, my parlay pick, and in the prime-time pick articles. My gut feel is both teams are playing at a lower quality than they were last year, but the ways that they are different favor the Chiefs. Better on defense to keep the score low so it won’t be 38-35, Eagles not as good at running, and too reliant on A.J. Brown which could only get worse with Dallas Goedert out. That’s why I like another big DeVonta Smith game, but again, that under is 11-1 on MNF and we’ve been letdown so much by these “Game of the Year” choices in 2023. I’m rooting for a 24-20 type of game, but I am backing the Chiefs at home.

Let’s win something big this week. I feel like we’re running out of chances as I don’t want to be trying to figure out if Jake Browning can throw for 2 touchdowns in a game.

NFL Stat Oddity: Week 9

~ Scott ~ 12 Comments

It says a lot about this NFL season when Sunday’s best drama came from the games where Joshua Dobbs, Taylor Heinicke, Baker Mayfield, and C.J. Stroud were dueling in the fourth quarter and not from any of the “big games” Week 9 featured.

The main events were far from classics, and only Cowboys-Eagles, a division game, had a dramatic finish as both teams tried to hand the game over to their bitter rival before the Eagles won 28-23. It was also the only big game where the loser broke 20 points as Miami flopped 21-14 in Germany to the Chiefs, the Seahawks were blown out 37-3 in Baltimore, and the Bills were always playing from behind in Cincinnati in a 24-18 final that didn’t feel that close. 

It was a long day, and I mean that literally with the clock change dragging things out an extra hour to the point where I fell asleep during the middle of the late afternoon slate. Not that I needed to see the no-show performances from the Panthers and Giants.

There were 8 games with a comeback opportunity this week, and I expect that number to rise on Monday night with some classic Chargering to end Week 9. But a classic week it was not.

This season in NFL Stat Oddity:

Dolphins vs. Chiefs: Tyreek Hill Delivers Belated Touchdown Gift to Kansas City

Not much can get me out of bed at 9:30 AM, but I wanted to watch this one as it had the potential to be an instant classic and have a huge impact on shaping the narrative for the second half of this 2023 NFL season. Everything from the award races to the Super Bowl odds and No. 1 seed in the AFC was up for grabs here.

Beyond that, it’s just a good game on paper where you had to question if the No. 1 Miami offense can actually score on a top defense and beat a good team. You questioned if the Kansas City offense could still win a shootout with the limitations at wide receiver and how bad they looked in last week’s 24-9 loss in Denver.

In the end, all we really learned is that Miami is a paper tiger, Tyreek Hill killed his chances of having an MVP case this season, and the Chiefs have even more question marks on offense than previously thought.

For a big game, this was a huge disappointment to watch. The game started great for about 4 minutes with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs looking sharp on an opening touchdown drive, then Jaylen Waddle got the Dolphins going with a 15-yard catch. This was going to be great.

But then on the second play from scrimmage for Miami, Waddle was clipped on a running play and left the game with a knee injury. He would later return, but he never felt like a big part of the game plan after that.

For the next several drives, these offenses could not solve these defenses, and they were repeatedly stuck in 3rd-and-long situations. The Chiefs were also getting stuck in bad field position as Mecole Hardman has no conscience in fielding punts inside his own 10.

But the Chiefs eventually broke the scoring slump with a great 95-yard touchdown drive that consumed 8:28. Down 14-0, the Dolphins had a chance to get a double score as they were getting the ball first in the third quarter. But Miami started playing the clock too much in not wanting to give Mahomes the ball back, and they even tried to throw a screen to Hill with under 50 seconds left in the half. More than 35 yards away from the end zone and wanting to make a huge impact against his former team, Hill tried to do too much, and the Chiefs swarmed him, knocking out the ball for a huge fumble that was picked up, then wisely lateraled to another Chief for a 59-yard return touchdown to give the Chiefs a shocking 21-0 lead.

And you didn’t think you’d ever see Tyreek Hill score another touchdown for the Chiefs.

At halftime, the Kansas City defense looked fantastic, and while it was not a dominant half for the offense, Mahomes was on pace for almost 300 yards and 4 touchdowns despite barely getting Travis Kelce involved. Everything was coming up Chiefs as Miami looked like it was a fraud that could only beat the worst teams in the league.

But in the third quarter, Tua Tagovailoa finally hit a big pass for 31 yards to Cedrick Wilson Jr. for Miami’s first touchdown of the game. Bradley Chubb forced Mahomes into a bad strip-sack to give Miami a short field, then Chris Jones was called for a ridiculous penalty that cost the Chiefs 4 more points as it was going to bring up a 4th-and-10. Instead, Raheem Mostert ran for a 13-yard touchdown, and we had a 21-14 game going into the final quarter.

From there, some of the baffling play calls for the Chiefs came to the forefront. I’m not sure how Andy Reid can justify a run on 2nd-and-10 with La’Mical Perine (not even Samaje) for 1 yard when Miami clearly had the momentum. Mahomes threw a deep ball on 3rd-and-9 to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and the fact that he couldn’t draw a DPI flag or make the catch there sums up why this wideout situation is a big problem.

But with the Dolphins taking their sweet time to drive to the Kansas City 38, the defense stood tall for the Chiefs again. They forced back-to-back negative plays, including an 11-yard sack of Tua to bring up a 3rd-and-26 that was incomplete. Hardman again acted the fool and fielded the punt at his own 3, but the Chiefs were only going to need a couple of first downs to run out the final 4:10 on the clock, shockingly ending this one at 21-14.

But with a 3rd-and-1, the Chiefs tried a play-action pass with Mahomes having to eat the ball under pressure and throw an incompletion. This team doesn’t believe in the quarterback sneak anymore because Mahomes had a freak injury (dislocated kneecap) on it in Denver in 2019, so they purposely deprive themselves of one of the most successful plays in NFL history. They don’t even coach up a backup to do it well as we’ve seen this team try to do the Brotherly Shove with Noah Gray under center from a field goal formation. It’s ridiculous.

They didn’t need a quarterback sneak though. They could have just run Isiah Pacheco on 3rd-and-1 as that guy takes every carry like its his last day on Earth. But nope, the Chiefs screwed it up, and at this point, I thought they deserved to lose the game with this chickenshit play calling in the 2nd half.

Miami was 75 yards and a 2-point conversion away from potentially taking a 22-21 lead. Mostert was bottled up most of the game, but his runs of 25 and 19 yards quickly moved this to the Kansas City 31. That’s where Tua all but sank his MVP chances this year with 3 straight incompletions, including a woeful throw on 3rd down that had to be a miscommunication with the receiver (Wilson).

On 4th-and-ballgame, this game got the stinker ending it was building up to all morning. A bad snap got away from Tua and he just ate the ball to end the game. He didn’t even get a chance to throw a pass or for the Kansas City defense to do anything to stop him. Just another error at the worst moment.

Neither quarterback passed for 200 yards, which is absurd when Mahomes had 147 yards at halftime, and Tagovailoa had -1450 odds at FanDuel to throw for 200 in this game. Noah Gray led the Chiefs with 34 receiving yards, which was 20 more yards than Kelce. Hill finished with 8 catches for only 62 yards, but it’s the fumble that he’ll be remembered for in this game. The offenses were a combined 6-for-22 on third down.

The good news is the Kansas City defense is for real (for now). The bad news is the offense is in a funk and not doing much to help itself out of it.

  • In Mahomes’ first 101 starts, the only game where the Chiefs and their opponent both had under 300 yards of offense was the 2019 Denver game where he dislocated his kneecap and left early in the 2nd quarter, so that doesn’t really count.
  • But in the last 2 weeks in Denver and here in Germany, the Chiefs and their opponent have not topped 300 yards of offense. From 0 games in 101 starts to 2 in a row. Crazy stuff.
  • The Chiefs had 174 net passing yards and the Dolphins had 175 net passing yards. It is the first Kansas City game where the Chiefs and their opponent did not exceed 175 net passing yards since the 30-0 win over the Texans in the 2015 AFC wild card round.

This is not normal for Kansas City. Having said that, I’d still rather be in their shoes than Miami’s. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, but three times is a pattern. The Dolphins looked outclassed against the Bills, Eagles, and now Chiefs. No one really cares what you do against the Panthers and Giants. Miami was underwhelming again in this game, and I’m not sure what the solution is going forward. Hope De’Von Achane can break 50-yard runs at the highest rate in history after he returns from injury?

I’d say more about the Chiefs, but I’ve been up over 20 hours cause of this game, I’m still mad about how weak it was offensively, and I’m going to bed. We’ll figure it out over the bye week, but the offense has to step up soon.

Cowboys at Eagles: Dallas, Always a Bridesmaid

While the final quarter was a litany of mistakes by both teams, this division battle was the best main event of Week 9. If we’re calling it down the line, this was the best high-scoring game between contenders since the Lions and Seahawks went to overtime (37-31) way back in Week 2. Yeah, things have been rough this year.

But Dak Prescott played well, throwing another 3 touchdowns to have 14 scores in 4 games against Nick Sirianni’s team since 2021. This was only the second time that Dak and Jalen Hurts have met, but it was worth the wait with Hurts passing for another 200 yards, 2 scores, and running in another touchdown on his trademark play.

But you can kind of see the advantage of division games in that Dallas was not outmatched that significantly in this game even as a 3-point road favorite in a hostile environment. The Cowboys came back to take a 17-14 halftime lead into the locker room before the Eagles scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to lead 28-17.

But the fourth quarter really was a mess for both teams:

Dallas went for it on 4th-and-1 at the Philadelphia 1 with 10:10 left. The young tight end did not run his target deep enough and came up just inches short of the end zone, turning the ball over on downs. I think there was an argument to kick a field goal in a 28-17 game, but there’s also a good argument to go for it with the field position advantage, but that sequence was a big, missed opportunity for Dallas.

The Eagles went 3-and-out, and sure enough, Dallas only had to go 52 yards for a quick touchdown. But on the 2-point conversion, Dak just stepped out of bounds short of the end zone, so that was another case of inches costing the Cowboys more points as there is a huge difference between 28-25 and 28-23.

After another Philadelphia 3-and-out, a Dallas drive short-circuited after back-to-back sacks, and Prescott threw incomplete to a draped receiver on 4th-and-8 who wasn’t CeeDee Lamb, which I couldn’t agree with. But instead of the Eagles running out the final 1:17, they nearly fumbled the game away on a 3rd-down run when D’Andre Swift collied with A.J. Brown in motion, and the Eagles were lucky to recover that fumble.

The Cowboys had 46 seconds to drive 86 yards without a timeout. Immediately, they got a 36-yard defensive pass interference penalty after a horrible play by corner James Bradberry, who almost seemed to fake an injury in embarrassment for his coverage lapse. A roughing the passer penalty was called on the next play, and while it was weak contact, it was definitely late after the play. Just like that, the Cowboys covered 61 yards in 14 seconds, and this was looking realistic, especially after the other corner, Darius Slay, pulled up with an injury.

Lamb caught a pass for 11 yards and got out of bounds, then the Eagles were flagged for 5 more yards for encroachment. The Cowboys were 6 yards away from pulling this off, but that’s when it all went to hell, and shades of past playoff failures against the 49ers. First, Prescott definitely looked like he audibled to a quarterback draw, which would have been another ill-fated decision as he is not as fast as he thinks he is, and the Cowboys were out of timeouts. But a false start shut that down.

Then Prescott took a huge 11-yard sack, the Eagles’ 5th of the day, and he rushed a throw into the end zone instead of spiking a pass and maybe having 2 more shots at the end zone. Move it back 5 yards for a false start, and the Eagles were down to 1 play and 27 yards away. They probably could have tried a short throw and run out of bounds to get 6-to-8 yards closer since the Eagles gave up that whole short area of the field. But they went for the deep throw and it wasn’t deep enough as Lamb caught it at the 4-yard line and fumbled as the defense was right there and never going to allow him to score.

We’ve seen worse Dallas performances before, but it was still disappointing in how well things were going to start that last drive. The Cowboys also held the Eagles without a 30-yard play, they ended Brown’s record streak of 125-yard games by holding him to 66 receiving yards, and they held the Eagles to 3.3 yards per carry.

But it still was not enough to get a win in Philadelphia, which has a big lead in the NFC East now. It was expected the Eagles would win this first matchup at home, but the Cowboys need to build on the positives and hope the Eagles slip up with their tough upcoming schedule.

Bills at Bengals: Buffalo Has a Cincinnati Problem

If you had to pick a team in the AFC that you could trust to go into Kansas City or Baltimore in January and win big games, you should pick Buffalo above most. Some will say Cincinnati, but Buffalo has a track record on par with them, if not better when it comes to beating Lamar Jackson and going drive for drive with Mahomes.

However, we have seen about 8.5 quarters of Bills vs. Bengals going back to last January, and it looks like the Bills have a big problem with this Cincinnati team. The pass rush can’t seem to get to Joe Burrow with his quick release, his receivers are too good for this secondary to hold up, and the Bills put everything on Josh Allen, who tends to make mistakes, especially against a master game planner like Cincinnati defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo.

The Bengals (5-3) have won 4 in a row and the whole AFC North would be in the playoffs if they started today. This loss drops Buffalo (5-4) to No. 9 in the AFC, and they have some issues with the inconsistent offense and defensive injuries.

I’m sensing a bad pattern for Buffalo in these big AFC matchups where Allen is expected to carry the load where the Chiefs and Bengals do more to help their quarterbacks with a running game and other receivers. After Stefon Diggs and a rookie tight end (Dalton Kincaid), Allen is struggling to get Gabriel Davis producing as a No. 2 receiver this year, and they rarely ever run the ball with the running backs in games like this.

This puts a lot of pressure on Allen as this Buffalo defense tends to fold against the better passing offenses in this league. They can make the Jets look bad twice a year, but they usually don’t make an impact on the contenders.

Each team only had 9 possessions in this game, and Buffalo wasted 2 of them with turnovers, and they botched the end of the first half when an intentional grounding penalty knocked the Bills out of long field goal range. You could have argued there was a missed tripping penalty on the Bengals before that grounding call, but it was a weak night for the officials too.

But the biggest mistake was by that rookie tight end as Kincaid fumbled in the red zone in the fourth quarter when it was a 21-10 game. The Bengals turned that into a 5:10 field goal drive to go up 24-10, the Bills scored a touchdown with a 2-point conversion, but they wasted a timeout with one of the worst challenges you’ll ever see. Don’t challenge something so inconclusive that won’t even give you a first down when time is your main enemy in a 2-score game. Don’t challenge something that only brings up 2nd-and-10 with the clock stopped. Make up for it, as the Bills did in 2 snaps, but by the time the Bengals got the ball, they only had 3:32 to burn through with Buffalo down to 1 timeout.

A surprise pass down the field led to a 32-yard gain right way, then the Bengals kept it on the ground with Joe Mixon and he beat Von Miller to the marker on a 3rd-down run to end the game. The Bills trailed by double digits on each of their last 5 drives, which isn’t that different from the playoff loss last year where they trailed by double digits on 7 of their final 8 drives.

Buffalo seems to bring out the best in this Cincinnati team as Burrow again had a great game with 348 yards as Tee Higgins (110 yards) took over on a quiet night for Ja’Marr Chase (4 catches for 41 yards). The Bengals didn’t run it well this time (17 carries for 50 yards) but they at least put the game away on the ground.

It may not sound like much at 24-18, but the Bengals led wire to wire and controlled the game from the start. This is what they do in big games in Cincinnati. They score 19-to-27 points and they allow 16-to-27 points almost every time, and they get the big turnovers in clutch moments like they did again with the Kincaid forced fumble.

No playoff team has dropped more than 27 points on the Bengals since the 2021 Chiefs in the first meeting of that rivalry, a 34-31 Cincinnati comeback win. That’s 13 straight games holding playoff teams to 27 points. If the best teams the Bengals have played this year make the playoffs again, that could be an 18-game streak when you include the 2023 Browns, Ravens, Seahawks, 49ers, and Bills.

The Bengals play the Chiefs very well, but they look to be even better against Buffalo, and this loss could be a big one now that Bills fall back to second in the AFC East and lose the head-to-head tie-breaker with the Bengals for a wild card spot.

Seahawks at Ravens: Who Is Writing These Baltimore Game Scripts?

Apparently, Lamar Jackson is 18-3 SU against NFC teams, but the spread record (12-8-1 ATS) was nowhere near that strong. Ask anyone who got burned last week by the Ravens (-9.5) in Arizona when they struggled to move the ball and couldn’t hold a big lead late to easily cover the spread.

That Arizona game is going to look even fishier now that it came between two home games where the Ravens absolutely blasted the Lions (38-6) and Seahawks (37-3), who are supposed to be considerably better than 1-win Arizona.

The Ravens either play these absurdly lopsided games, or they puke all over themselves in losses to the Colts and Steelers. It’s frustrating, but when this team is clicking like it was on Sunday, they look like the team I picked to win the Super Bowl before the season started.

This game was a punt fest in the first quarter, but after rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba bobbled a third-down pass on the opening drive, that was arguably the beginning of the end for Seattle. Gus Edwards scored 2 more touchdowns after a trio last week, Geno Smith turned it over twice in the 2nd quarter, and the Ravens led 17-3 at halftime. Baltimore kept it going with field goals, then blew the game open with Keaton Mitchell breaking a 40-yard touchdown run. I never even heard of him before Sunday. Mitchell finished with 138 yards on 9 carries, further proving how silly it is to spend big resources to find running backs in this game.

Mitchell’s big run was more points than the Seahawks mustered all day as Smith was held to 157 yards passing, and Kenneth Walker had 9 carries for 16 yards in a 37-3 blowout loss.

Even Tyler Huntley came into the game in the fourth quarter and led his team to more points than Geno did, throwing a touchdown pass to Odell Beckham Jr. to keep him happy.

The Ravens, my preseason Super Bowl pick, are a hard team to watch when most of their games are blowouts or sloppy performances. But if they can win at home like this the next two weeks against the Browns and Bengals, they will be in full control of the tough AFC North, and maybe the best team in the whole AFC if the offense can keep this balance.

Look for Jackson to overtake Tagovailoa in the MVP race and be right there with Mahomes and Hurts.

Buccaneers at Texans: The Unexpected Shootout of the Year

On a list of unexpected shootouts in NFL history, this one would have to rank somewhere between Baker Mayfield vs. Derek Carr (2018 Browns vs. Raiders) and Matthew Stafford vs. Brady Quinn (2009 Lions vs. Browns).

Mayfield has been on the losing end of several of these before. Mayfield is the only quarterback in NFL history to lose multiple games when his team scored at least 42 points, and that happened to him 3 times in Cleveland.

Mayfield did his job in this one with Tampa Bay holding multiple 10-point leads, and Mayfield led multiple touchdown drives in the fourth quarter alone, including a great one with 46 seconds left that included a key 4th-down scramble, and he found Cade Otton for a 14-yard touchdown.

But this win was earned by C.J. Stroud, who may have just had the best rookie quarterback performance ever, and who definitely put the team on his back and should run away with the Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

With an irrelevant running game, a Swiss cheese defense, and an injured kicker, Stroud led the Texans back with 470 passing yards, 5 touchdown passes, and no turnovers. The 470 yards are a rookie record, replacing the 433 yards that Andrew Luck had in 2012 against Miami. The only other true rookie to pass for over 400 yards with 5 touchdowns was Stafford against the aforementioned 2009 Browns, but Stroud is the only one to do it without throwing any interceptions.

Let’s leave rookies out of it. Stroud joins Dan Fouts as the only quarterbacks to ever throw for 400 yards, 5 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and lead a 4QC/GWD. Fouts did it against Joe Montana’s 49ers in a classic duel.

Houston’s injured kicker in the second half led to more adversity as the Texans ended up trying four 2-point conversions. They also let running back Dare Ogunbowale kick a 29-yard field goal to take a 33-30 lead with 8:45 left, and the back nailed it.

But that wasn’t going to hold up as the game winner after Mayfield’s last drive put Houston behind 37-33 with 46 seconds left. The Texans had 2 timeouts left, but what ensued is one of the best game-winning touchdown drives you’ll ever see.

Stroud used both timeouts after 2 completions for 20 yards, then spiked the ball after a 14-yard completion. But the real dagger throw was a 26-yard pass to Tank Dell near the sideline where he got out of bounds with 10 seconds left. The next throw needed to go into the end zone, and Stroud delivered right back to Dell for the 15-yard touchdown strike with 6 seconds left.

The Buccaneers only had time left to fumble the lateral-filled play. Stroud finished with 8 completions of 20-plus yards in a monster performance for a quarterback of any experience level, let alone a rookie.

I’ve been lukewarm on Stroud’s rookie season from a historic perspective, but a game like this moves him up significantly.

Vikings at Falcons: The Joshua Dobbs Game

The other unexpectedly amazing finish on Sunday came in Atlanta. We knew the Falcons allowed Will Levis to have a record-tying debut last week in Tennessee, and we know the Falcons are capable of blowing any game in any situation.

But this was something special. Jaren Hall was starting for Minnesota after Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles, and this rookie also looked sharp early in the game with 78 yards passing in the first quarter. He just missed on a touchdown throw to T.J. Hockenson, but Hall was concussed on a scramble, putting Joshua Dobbs into the game.

Dobbs was just acquired via trade from Arizona this week, and he reportedly had no practice snaps and was only beginning to learn the offense as he was not expected to play in this game. But he had to play, it started really rough with a safety and strip-sack, but once he calmed down and remember it’s just football, he looked like the quarterback we have seen in Arizona this year with the ability to scramble and make things happen.

Dobbs led all runners in the game with 66 yards and a touchdown. He also passed for 158 yards and 2 touchdowns, which is pretty solid production for someone who just joined the team. He also was 1-9 as a starter in his career and 0-5 in game-winning drive opportunities.

But this game went back and forth, and it looked like Atlanta had the upper hand after Taylor Heinicke, starting for the benched Desmond Ridder, led a 79-yard touchdown drive to put the Falcons up 28-24 with 2:08 left.

You don’t expect much from Dobbs here, but again, these are the Falcons. This is what they do. Like how the 2022 Raiders made Baker Mayfield a legend for a night with a 98-yard drive to win the game for the Rams just 48 hours after he joined the team, Dobbs pulled off his own miracle for his first game-winning drive in the NFL.

It came down to a 4th-and-7, and this scramble by Dobbs is one of the best plays you’ll see all season:

Three plays later, Dobbs threw a 6-yard touchdown to Brandon Powell to win the game. The Falcons had 22 seconds and 2 timeouts left, but they couldn’t get into range for Younghoe Koo for a field goal in the 31-28 loss. It was the first blown 4th-quarter lead of the season for the Falcons, but what a way to do it, and against a team you are directly competing with for a wild card spot.

At least Dobbs, who has the highest QBR in Week 9 (86.6), can say he has his moment in the NFL, and he could even end up starting a playoff game as the Vikings are currently the No. 7 seed.

Bears at Saints: Bagent Is Definitely Chicago Material

The Bears actually played a solid game in New Orleans with tight end Cole Kmet showing up big early with 2 touchdown catches, including an incredible grab on a risky pass from rookie Tyson Bagent.

The game was tied at 17 going into the fourth quarter, and that’s when the Saints broke the tie with a touchdown drive that mixed some Derek Carr passes with contributions from Taysom Hill, who technically threw the game-winning 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Juwan Johnson. With Carr and Hill splitting time on the drive, I ended up giving both credit for the game-winning drive, which is technically the first of Hill’s unique career.

At this point of the game, Bagent had over 200 passing yards, 2 touchdown passes, and 70 rushing yards – numbers that Justin Fields put up in a game just once in his career. But Bagent showed he is perfect for Chicago after he immediately answered the Saints’ drive with a bad interception. The Saints botched the moment by hurrying Carr on a quarterback sneak, which is never a good idea, and he was short and turned it over on downs.

The rest of this game was a mess. Bagent threw another pick in a 24-17 game, the teams traded 3-and-outs, then the Saints missed a 47-yard field goal with 2:26 left as this new kicker (Blake Grupe) has choker written all over him.

Fortunately, the defense forced Bagent into a strip-sack for his 4th turnover to finally wrap this one up to move to 5-4. The Bears are now 1-13 at comeback opportunities under coach Matt Eberflus. It’s uncanny how many of those game-losing drives have ended with the quarterback turning the ball over, but this is why Chicago has the reputation it does.

Rams at Packers: McVay Doesn’t Care for Lambeau

The Rams haven’t won in Green Bay since 2006. Throw in a Matthew Stafford thumb injury that led to Brett Rypien starting, and this felt like a good day for the Packers to end their losing slide. Hell, they even scored a touchdown in the first half, but it would be the only points they had early.

Despite the 20-3 final, this was a 10-3 game going into the fourth quarter when the Rams were stopped on a 4th-and-2 run at midfield. The Rams got the ball right back too, but Rypien was intercepted, and that led to a field goal and 13-3 lead for the Packers. The Rams went 3-and-out, and the Packers put it away with a 72-yard touchdown drive with Jordan Love finding rookie tight end Luke Musgrave for a 20-yard touchdown.

It’s not the kind of win that’s going to change minds in Green Bay, but at least Love was 20-for-26 with no picks. At least we know Matt LaFleur can still beat the Bears and the Rams (at home).

Commanders at Patriots: Dead Last in the AFC

At least some things never change in New England. Somehow, this was called roughing the passer on Washington:

That led to a field goal to give the Patriots a 17-10 lead, which was already built on a short-field touchdown drive after recovering a fumble, and the Patriots intercepted Sam Howell in the end zone to end the first half.

But that’s where the typical New England things ended. The Patriots trailed 20-17 for the entire fourth quarter. It looked like Mac Jones had a completion out past the 40, but Washington challenged rookie Demario Douglas’ 22-yard catch, and it was reversed to an incompletion to kill the drive.

This is where the offense is these days. Relying on 6th-round rookies, the ghosts of Ezekiel Elliott, DeVante Parker, and JuJu Smith-Schuster, and they were even firing bombs to Jalen Reagor on third down on Sunday. The only thing surprising about Jalen Reagor in a Patriots uniform is that Bill didn’t draft him himself.

Later, it looked like Douglas was going to redeem himself with a big punt return to the New England 43, but the Patriots were offsides on the punt, giving the Commanders a fresh set of downs. Again, when do you see these mistakes on special teams from a Belichick-coached team? Happening a lot these days.

Jones and the offense eventually got the ball back with 2:07 left, but they were at their own 9. The drive reached the Washington 41, but that’s when Jones’ pass for JuJu went off the receiver’s hands and was caught for a game-ending interception. The throw was totally fine.

While the quarterback position continues to fail the new Patriots, so does most other positions, especially the wide receivers. This team needs a multi-year rebuild, which sounds like the job of a young coach to me. Maybe one that will let a general manager do their job and the coach does their job of just coaching.

The Patriots (2-7) are dead last in the AFC.

Colts at Panthers: The Worst Day Yet for Carolina Fans

In hindsight, the Panthers holding C.J. Stroud and the Texans to 13 points last week for their first win feels like a miracle given what these teams did in Week 9. After Stroud had an incredible game against Tampa Bay, that raised the bar again for what Young, the No. 1 pick in the draft, needed to do against a Colts team that has been bleeding points this season.

The result was terrible as the Panthers scored 3 points halfway through the third quarter, and Young ended up throwing a pair of pick-sixes to Kenny Moore to lose 27-13 at home. The Panthers wasted a defensive effort that saw them hold the Colts to 3.5 yards per play. Indy’s streak of being the only team to score 20 points in every game this season likely ends if the Carolina offense did not give up 2 touchdowns, including that awful one right before halftime.

Even Adam Thielen was a non-factor this week with 5 catches for 29 yards. Young took 4 sacks and threw 3 interceptions. It was an embarrassing loss for coach Frank Reich, who was facing his former team with rookie coach Shane Steichen getting the decisive win.

The Colts (4-5) are still alive while the Panthers (1-7) have to play this Thursday night in Chicago in a game no one really wants to watch.

Giants at Raiders: Post-Nut Clarity in Vegas

Finally, a Week 9 game that played out almost to expectations. The Raiders got that post-firing of Josh McDaniels bump and played their best game of the season by finally scoring 30 points, all on offense with Aidan O’Connell leading three 60-yard touchdown drives to start the game.

Josh Jacobs lost out on a 100-yard rushing game with his last carry in the 30-6 blowout, but he scored twice. Davante Adams was still quiet (4-of-7 for 34 yards), but at least he caught more than 1 ball this week. The Raiders also kept O’Connell clean with no sacks and no turnovers, something Jimmy Garoppolo was unable to do in a game this season.

But it certainly helped to be playing the Giants, who lost Daniel Jones to potentially a torn ACL. Backup Tommy DeVito was sacked 6 times and picked twice in a big game for the defense.

We’ll see how interim coach Antonio Pierce fares against better opponents, but he at least was able to do things with this team that McDaniels had not in the first half of this season.

Cardinals at Browns: The 2000 Ravens Would Be Proud

We may never get confirmation from a whistleblower that the 2023 Cardinals tanked the season, but we have circumstantial evidence they are doing it:

  • Letting DeAndre Hopkins walk
  • Cutting Colt McCoy in late August
  • Bringing Joshua Dobbs in late in camp to be your Week 1 starter
  • Blowing a 28-7 lead at home in the third quarter to the Giants, one of the only teams that is garbage enough to finish with a worse record than this talent-less Arizona roster
  • Making Dallas your unfortunate patsy to prove you are trying to win
  • Slow roll Kyler Murray’s return to action from a torn ACL, which is typically a 9-month recovery that has gone about 10.5 months for him (and counting)
  • Trade Dobbs for peanuts to Minnesota at the trade deadline
  • Start rookie Clayton Tune, which sounds like the banjo kid from Deliverance, in a real game in Cleveland

That latest move led to a 27-0 loss that should have been predictable, yet it was still somehow worse than imagined. Clayton Tune finished 11-of-20 for 58 yards, 2 INTs, took 7 sacks for 41 yards, and he finished as Arizona’s leading rusher with 5 carries for 28 yards.

Tune is just the 5th quarterback since 1960 to take 7 sacks and throw for fewer than 60 yards on at least 20 pass attempts. Bobby Douglass did it twice for the Bears in 1969 and 1971. Dan Darragh did it for the 1968 Bills against the Raiders, and Bill Nelsen had such a game in 1965 for the Steelers against the Cardinals. Tune is the only one of the 5 to be shutout.

The Cardinals had 7 first downs, were 1-of-12 on third down, and they had 58 yards of total offense. It’s going to add to some incredible stats for the Cleveland defense in 2023, but it is hard to take this defense at face value given some of the opponents faced, including this gift from the Cardinals.

It reminds me of the 2000 season when the Ravens had those fantastic numbers on defense, and so did the Titans who were playing largely the same schedule in the old AFC Central. But those Ravens legitimized their run by doing it in the playoffs too, and the Browns will have to answer in those big games when they see Lamar Jackson and the Ravens again next week, and when Joe Burrow, who they have owned in the past, gets another shot with a healthier calf.

That’s to say nothing of a potential playoff run for this team, which now sits at 5-3. There hopefully won’t be any quarterbacks like Clayton Tune in the postseason. It was bad enough we had Tyler Huntley and Skylar Thompson in last year’s tournament.

Next week: The Week 10 schedule is legitimately horrific. Just look at the prime-time games for starters: Panthers-Bears on TNF, Jets-Raiders on SNF, and Broncos-Bills on MNF. If that’s not bad enough, there’s another Sunday 9:30 a.m. game with Colts-Patriots. You couldn’t find a worse island game schedule. It gets worse. The Chiefs, Eagles, Dolphins, and Rams are on a bye week. The big games are 49ers-Jaguars, Browns-Ravens, and I guess Texans-Bengals looks a lot more attractive than it did any other week this season.

Just save your money for Week 11.

NFL Week 9 Predictions: Main Events & Dark Matches Edition

~ Scott ~ 1 Comment

The NFL’s Week 9 schedule is one of the most unique I’ve ever seen. There are three legitimately great games that would be the Game of the Week on their own, but they are taking place on one day in three different windows with Chiefs-Dolphins in Germany in the morning, Cowboys-Eagles for the late afternoon, and Bills-Bengals at night. Even Seahawks-Ravens is a solid highlight for the 1:00 window.

This is like getting a WrestleMania with 3 main events.

The bad news is the rest of the schedule looks like dark matches with jobbers, because what the hell is a Clayton Tune, and why do we maybe need to see him start for Arizona in Week 9? The Vikings are also planning to start rookie Jaren Hall after trading for Joshua Dobbs earlier this week, but if Baker Mayfield can figure out Sean McVay’s offense in 48 hours, why couldn’t Dobbs just give it a shot for Minnesota? He’s also facing Taylor Heinicke, who won’t have Drake London. It’s a mess, and we haven’t even talked about the Raiders firing their coach, GM, OC, replacing Jimmy Garoppolo with a rookie and they’re still a 1.5-point favorite because they’re playing the Giants.

Quarterback of the Rams on Sunday? Damned if I know right now.

For a week that could have also had the first game between rookies Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson and end on Monday night with Justin Herbert vs. Aaron Rodgers, it sure is a collection of shitty games that we’ll put up with as long as the great games turn out at least one instant classic.

This season needs it badly.

This Week’s Articles

NFL Midseason Review: Award Races – I look at the current odds for the 7 NFL awards, including MVP and Coach of the Year, and make my pick for how the rest of the season will play out. It’s a lot of Dolphins and Chiefs, which is another reason why this game on Sunday morning is so huge.

Scott’s Seven NFL Picks: Week 9 – Plenty of good ones in here, including a couple of parlays for KC-MIA, and a Happy Josh McDaniels Firing Week parlay. Hopefully something will hit.

NFL Week 9 Predictions

I had the Steelers winning 20-14, so 20-16 will do even if the ending probably took more time off my life. This team is something else, the only team in the Super Bowl era to get outgained in each of its first 8 games and still have a winning record (5-3). You say they won’t sustain that, and that’s probably true if they play exactly like this, but I believe in analyzing the schedule each summer, and that always made me believe this team was going to finish with a winning record this year.

Let me give some final thoughts on the big games before we deal with the stinkers.

Dolphins-Chiefs: Love the timing of this matchup. Chiefs are losing luster after their worst performance in 2 years in Denver last week. It was largely about the turnovers as the defense was fine. But this is a huge test for that defense with the statistical best offense in the league, maybe the fastest offense of all time, and you know Tyreek Hill is going to want to have a memorable game. But can the Dolphins score on a top team and beat them after failing so miserably against Buffalo and Philly? Is the Kansas City defense really this good, and can the offense still win a shootout with a team like this given the lack of WR firepower?

So many questions to answer here, but I’m still backing the Chiefs. I think the defense is much better than Miami’s, and that should provide an edge. We can talk about Mahomes and turnovers, but Tua has been picked in 6-of-8 games too. I think Mahomes puts the weird flu game behind him and has a big game. I’ll take the Chiefs and hopefully the over as this season needs a classic shootout with top teams invovled.

Final: Chiefs 30, Dolphins 24

Cowboys-Eagles: This is only the 2nd time we’re going to see a game with Dak Prescott and Jalen Hurts because of injuries and playoff rest situations since 2020. They both threw for over 300 yards and 4 TDs last week. Prescott has 11 touchdown passes against the Eagles in his last 3 games (all when Nick Sirianni was the head coach). While I picked the Eagles to repeat as division champs and always had them winning the first matchup at home here, the more this week moves towards Sunday and the more I feel like picking Dallas. I just think the narrative of “Dallas can’t win a big game, the coaching staff will blow it” is something you have to almost throw out when it comes to division games, or how else do you explain Sam Howell turning into Steve Young when he played Philly this year and dropped 31 points each time?

I could see a game where Dak and CeeDee Lamb show up big, A.J. Brown’s 125-yard streak ends, Micah Parsons has a big game for the defense, they stop the Brotherly Shove in a big spot, the regular Philadelphia running game is nothing special, and Dallas intercepts Hurts and holds the Eagles under 24 points to get an impressive win. I could easily see that playing out, but I am in fact going to stick with a bland “Dallas can’t do it” pick until we see them do something different.

Final: Eagles 24, Cowboys 20

Bills-Bengals: This was the game we wanted to see so badly last year in Week 17, then the Damar Hamlin incident changed everything. The Bills looked mentally wiped out by the time they met in the playoffs, and that game was over in a hurry after the Bills trailed by 10+ points on their final 7 possessions. And remember, they only had 8 drives that day.

A chance for some revenge here in the first official Joe Burrow vs. Josh Allen game in the regular season, but as much as I’d like to say Buffalo is the better team, you never know which version will show up. Is it the Bills who slaughter Miami 48-20, or is it the team that couldn’t really score until the 4Q against the Jaguars and Giants? Is it the Allen that turns it over 4 times against the Jets? The defense also has sustained a lot of injuries that the Bengals, who seem to have found their groove offensively, can exploit at home.

I also just expect the Bengals to give Burrow more help in a game like this (running game, defense) than the Bills will give Allen. But we’ll see how it goes and recap it Sunday night after what is hopefully the best SNF game this season as they have been duds.

Final: Bengals 23, Bills 20

As for the other games…

Yeah, after that Jordan Love debacle last week, the Stafford injury situation, and Cooper Kupp killing me the last 2 games, I will be avoiding this game like the plague.

I like the under more than anything in TB-HOU as I don’t believe in either offense.

I’ll take the Patriots at home, especially at -2.5, because I think Sam Howell is a perfect quarterback for Belichick to exploit with mistakes (sacks and picks). Mac Jones might feel comfortable after Washington, a bad defense to begin with, traded away Montez Sweat and Chase Young this week.

Saints need to roll the Bears with Tyson Bagent. Period.

I don’t know what to expect from Vikings-Falcons, but I kinda like the Jordan Addison and Jaren Hall props after what the Falcons did last week against Will Levis and DeAndre Hopkins. But I wouldn’t bet much on this game.

Browns might get Deshaun Watson back, but who cares at this point? If Arizona starts Clayton Tune, Cleveland should hold this offense to single digits.

I’m not as excited about SEA-BAL as other people, but I think it has a chance to be a 23-20 type of game. Both coaches obviously end up in a ton of tight games. I just don’t think either offense is that enjoyable to watch yet this season. Their games are often sloppy or one sided.

Already linked above why I think Panthers win another one at home for Frank Reich against his former employer.

Raiders could still easily blow this game, but I love the idea of the offense having its best game of the year (20+ points, Davante & Jacobs going off) after the big changes this week.

Finally, on Monday night I think we get the Chargering special. It was way too easy for them last week when they were up 17+ the entire 2nd half on the Bears. The Jets have been making crazy comebacks all year, and I could see Herbert getting tricked into a bad interception late by a defense that has already picked off Mahomes, Allen, and Hurts a combined 8 times this year. I think the Jets steal a 20-17 type of game to end the week.

But more than anything, I hope at least one of these big games lives up to the potential. This season has sucked to this point, but the big games on the schedule are coming now.

NFL Stat Oddity: Week 7

~ Scott ~ 14 Comments

Save for a Monday night game with Kirk Cousins facing a Super Bowl contender, Week 7 is in the books. While everyone has at least 10 more games to play before the playoffs, we may have reached that point where a Super Bowl rematch from last year looks more probable than any other scenario. Remember, it has only happened one time ever with the Cowboys and Bills in 1992-93.

The Chiefs and Eagles were the favorites before the season started, but we watched Kansas City lose by a point on opening night to Detroit, we questioned if the offense was still as potent with the wide receivers, and we saw the Eagles win some one-score games where they weren’t as impressive as they were a season ago when they had so much balance and avoided turnovers on offense. We were briefly entertaining how good Miami’s scoring was, how it could be Buffalo or Dallas’ year for a change, and of course the 49ers looked like the best overall team in the league until they stumbled in Cleveland last week.

But the roads to the Super Bowl may still very well go through Kansas City and Philadelphia after they both won 31-17 games at home in a Week 7 that featured 10-of-12 games with a comeback opportunity. It comes down to trust, and right now, do you really trust teams like Buffalo, Dallas, and Miami to get the job done in January? Do you even trust the 49ers over the Eagles, who are practically automatic in short-yardage situations and are getting an all-time stretch from A.J. Brown? Patrick Mahomes (+260 at FanDuel) is also back as the MVP favorite after throwing for 424 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Of course, another Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl would be nightmare fuel for conspiracy theorists who want to say the league is fixing things for Taylor Swift, and that would be her ideal matchup for sure. But if you look around the league in Week 7, officiating is quite shitty in most games these days. That’s part of the product now.

One thing I expected to see in Week 7 was more overs hitting after the under was 12-2-1 in Week 6. But after a solid start to the week, overs are still just 5-7 (or 6-6 if you got Chiefs-Chargers at 47.5) going into Monday night. There were only 3 games this week where both teams scored more than 17 points, and one of them was Thursday night when the Saints lost 31-24 to the Jaguars.

Another thing we have yet to see this week was a team win after trailing by 10+ points. There have only been 2 weeks in the regular season since 2020 where this did not happen once, and it was in Weeks 10-11 (back-to-back) of the 2021 season. If the Vikings go up 10-0 early on Monday night, hammer the 49ers’ ML.

This season in NFL Stat Oddity:

Dolphins at Eagles: Brother, Can You Spare a Yard?

Is it asking too much to have a Sunday Night Football game this season where both teams score at least 3 touchdowns? It would be if the game was Cowboys-Giants (Week 1’s 40-0 rout), but Dolphins-Eagles should have been a solid shootout with two of the best offenses in the league.

Instead, we saw the home team control play, never trail, and that historic Miami offense was held to 10 points, 12 first downs, and 244 total yards (all season lows). Miami’s first score was a 1-yard field goal drive set up by a turnover, and its last score was a pick-six after a deflected pass at the line went right to the defender. You could argue this Miami offense only had one legitimate scoring drive, a 72-yard march before halftime that ended with Tua Tagovailoa’s best throw of the night on a 27-yard touchdown to Tyreek Hill, who was held to 11 catches for 88 yards. With 15 targets for Hill, you’ll take that as a defense against him.

It did not help Miami that it only had 8 offensive possessions and squandered the last three with two failed 4th downs and a bad interception in the fourth quarter when the Dolphins trailed 24-17.

Both offensive lines looked outmatched early, but the Eagles eventually got the better of the physical play up front and got to their game in short yardage. The Eagles were 4-for-4 on fourth down, including a pair of 4th-and-1 conversions inside their own 40 on a drive that ended with a short touchdown run to take a commanding 31-17 lead with 4:46 left. What can you say about the Brotherly Shove other than this team has perfected it?

A.J. Brown had both of the game’s plays that gained over 30 yards, continuing his record-tying streak of five consecutive games with at least 125 receiving yards:

For the Eagles, I had that record going back to last year’s Super Bowl where this team was 0-7 in the Jalen Hurts era in games against teams with 10 wins and a quarterback ranked in the top 15 in QBR. This could end up being the first win in that split, assuming Tagovailoa finishes the season well and the Dolphins double their win total.

But there was some concern coming into this game that Miami was a paper tiger with a 48-20 beatdown loss in Buffalo and all the team’s wins against teams who were a combined 5-24 going into the week. A performance like this in Philadelphia will only strengthen people to not believe in this team, but they were a bit shorthanded at corner with Xavien Howard and Jalen Ramsey not available. Jaylen Waddle also momentarily left the game with a bad back but did return to finish, and we are missing a chance to see rookie running back De’Von Achane after injury sidelined him for weeks to come.

But for as much as I can talk about the Eagles not beating the good teams/QBs, the Dolphins don’t have a quality win in that department since Week 3 last year against Buffalo, the beginning of Tua’s concussion problems. Miami still has a lot to prove, and a game like this puts a real dent in the chances this offense breaks records by season’s end.

Chargers at Chiefs: The Most Boring Second Half in a Herbert-Mahomes Game Yet

Kansas City with a defense is a scary proposition for the rest of the NFL. There were few better ways to test this than a game with the Chargers, who always play the Chiefs well. In fact, Justin Herbert led at halftime and in the fourth quarter in each of his first 6 games against Kansas City, including all 5 matchups against Patrick Mahomes.

But those streaks are dead, and I guess my jinxing power is still strong. I had the stat this week where Chargers +3.5 in the first half was a hit in the last 16 games for the Chargers. It hit in 33 of the first 40 games for coach Brandon Staley as this team struggles in the second half but not so much in the first.

After a 60-yard pass to Josh Palmer and a 49-yard touchdown run by Josh Kelley in the second quarter, it looked like the Chargers were having their usual Kansas City game where Herbert plays great and goes score for score with Mahomes. So much for this “great defense” when the Chargers were tied 17-17 and driving at midfield. But after a Herbert sack led to a punt, the Chiefs made another one of those dagger drives before halftime, going 96 yards in the final minutes before finishing with a touchdown to Travis Kelce, who bullied his way in with the help of his line from the 1-yard line.

The touchdown likely never happens, and Chargers +3.5 1H probably survives another game, if not for a defensive pass interference on the Chargers to wipe out a 3rd-and-23 situation for Kansas City. Just my luck some Chargering would end this streak and blow the bet.

But down 24-17, the Chargers were in this one even though Mahomes passed for 321 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 1 interception (arm punt on 3rd-and-12) in the first half alone as the Chiefs were all about the pass (6 runs for 12 yards at halftime). It looked like we would get another fantastic finish, especially after Blake Bell provided the obligatory Chiefs fumble in the red zone to start the second half.

But a strange thing happened in the second half: 10 drives, 7 points total between the teams. A 24-17 half ended 31-17, which is very unusual in NFL history.

Out of 433 games since 1970 where both teams scored at least 17 points in the first half, this is only the 27th game (6.2%) that finished under 48.5 total points. It is only the 6th game to end under 48.5 after a half where one team scored at least 24 points and the other scored at least 17.

The turnovers were obviously costly. The Chargers took the Bell fumble, drove to the Kansas City 8, then Herbert’s pass was deflected at the line and wound up as an interception.

Despite that pick, the Chargers had the ball in the fourth quarter, down 24-17, on three different drives and failed to do anything with it. That’s not what we’d see from Kansas City defenses in past years.

If you give Herbert 3 drives to do something, he usually can get a score on one, but not on Sunday. If you give Mahomes 3 drives to put the game away, you can all but guarantee he’s going to do it eventually. The first two likely only failed because they started at the Kansas City 3 and 8 (backed up). But after Mecole Hardman made his return felt with a 50-yard punt return, it was smooth sailing for the Chiefs with 6:16 to go. Mahomes converted a 3rd-and-6 to Hardman, then threw his 4th touchdown of the game to Isiah Pacheco with 3:30 left to take a 31-17 lead.

In no man’s land on 2nd-and-24 at midfield, Herbert threw another desperation interception to end the game. Herbert had the first game of his career where he threw multiple interceptions and took at least 4 sacks (he had 2 INTs and 5 sacks).

The Chiefs are the only team in the league to not allow more than 21 points in any game this season. Mahomes’ 6th game with 400 yards and 4 touchdowns ties him for third place in NFL history.

When every non-playoff rest game between these teams had been decided by 1-6 points since 2020 when Herbert became the starter, this one ending 31-17 is another sign that we should respect this defense. I don’t know if they can keep it up for a whole season as the last teams to start like this eventually faded, but if the offense is going to have halves like it did on Sunday to start this game, it may not matter.

Bills at Patriots: The Mac Jones Era Will Survive Another Week

This was the upset of the week. Buffalo (-7.5) has been flirting with extremes from a 48-20 win over the Dolphins to losing 25-20 in London to Jacksonville, then coming up a yard short of losing to the Giants in a 14-9 game last week.

I thought they would take last week’s scare and go the opposite direction with a commanding win over a New England team they have owned since 2020, and possibly put an end to the Mac Jones era.

But this wasn’t some 4-D chess by the Bills to make the Patriots keep Jones as the starter. This was just a bad performance on both sides of the ball and it’s inexcusable at this point. The offense may have some flaws, but it is more than talented enough to have more than 10 points on the board before the fourth quarter. The defense has injuries as we all know, but the New England offense has been so bad that there’s no excuse for allowing the Patriots to pile up 29 points and 364 yards.

What were some of Buffalo’s problems? The usual case of relying a bit too much on Josh Allen, who can be a wild card with his decision making. He had a pick and lost a fumble in this game. But the offensive line also struggled to protect him, and that’s surprising when the Patriots didn’t even have their best pass rusher (Matt Judon) or corner (Christian Gonzalez). Stefon Diggs usually has his way with the Patriots, but he only had 58 yards on 12 targets this time. Gabriel Davis is a flawed No. 2 as he only had a 6-yard catch on 5 targets.

But to let Jones complete 25-of-30 passes for 272 yards and 2 touchdowns? Come on, Buffalo. This was looking to be a big New England win after the Patriots took a 22-10 lead with half a quarter to play, but the Bills staged an impressive team comeback. Diggs broke free on an athletic 25-yard touchdown, then the defense forced Kendrick Bourne to fumble on a completion, putting the Bills 29 yards away from the go-ahead touchdown with 4:56 left.

This is exactly the kind of back-breaking fumble that has been killing the Patriots in close games like this since 2020. The kind of play that has nothing to do with the quarterback or head coach, but it’s the type of mistake we’re not used to seeing the Patriots make. Sure enough, the Bills turned that short field into a touchdown on an Allen sneak, then the 2-point conversion was also successful to make it 25-22.

Plenty of time (1:58) for the Patriots to answer, but it was a windy day for kickers, and Jones had the worst record among active quarterbacks in comeback opportunities at 1-11. Almost immediately the Bills were in bad shape as the Patriots called a little pass to running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who took it 34 yards and got this thing rolling. A pass interference penalty put the ball at the 1, and Jones threw a game-winning touchdown pass to tight end Mike Gesicki with 12 seconds left for easily the best game-winning drive we’ve seen from the Patriots since the 2018 season.

The Bills only had time to fumble on a lateral attempt. Buffalo is only 4-3, and while we put a lot of stock in that 48-20 thrashing of the Dolphins, we have to question the Bills’ wins the same way we do Miami’s since they are against similar teams (Raiders, Commanders, and Giants).

The good news is Miami lost too Sunday night, but the whole AFC East is looking a bit fraudulent right now. With a chance to knock the Patriots out, the Bills folded on defense to Mac Jones in the clutch. That’s pretty low.

Lions at Ravens: Rout of the Week

If Bills-Patriots was the upset of the week, this was the unexpected rout of the week. I was really confident in this being a great 23-20 type of game that went down to the wire. Even when the Ravens went up 21-0, you could picture them blowing it with the way they have played since 2021. Too many blown leads and close games.

But this was an ass kicking the likes of which we have rarely seen this year. We definitely do not see Dan Campbell-coached teams get dragged like this for 60 minutes. The Lions are 28-13 ATS (68.3%) since 2021, the best record in the league in that time, and we have seen this team rally back to one-score losses against elite teams the last few years like the 2021 49ers (41-33), 2022 Eagles (38-35), and 2022 Bills (28-25).

With Detroit trying to go to 6-1, Lamar Jackson came prepared with arguably the best game of his career: 21-of-27 for 357 yards, 3 touchdown passes, 36 rushing yards, 1 rushing touchdown, and 4 straight long touchdown drives to begin the game. It may have been 5 touchdowns in a row if Jackson had not had an aborted snap, the only blemish to an otherwise perfect half.

Baltimore even started the second half with a 94-yard touchdown drive, showing this was not a day where the team would make things too close for comfort. The Lions only got on the board when it was 35-0 in the fourth quarter when rookie Jahmyr Gibbs scored his first NFL touchdown, but the Lions lost 38-6 as Jared Goff took 5 sacks and threw 53 passes in an effort to try to keep up.

But the Ravens dominated this one start to finish, which is not the type of performance we’ve seen from this team that often. I’m not sure if it was just one of those anomaly days for both teams, but this was a strong statement as people were giving me pushback earlier this month for suggesting the Ravens were a legit contender and a team like Detroit was merely window dressing for the Super Bowl competition.

Browns at Colts: The Unexpected Quasi-Shootout

From Saturday’s predictions: “Wouldn’t it be such a #RandomNFL thing for the Browns to beat the 49ers with P.J. Walker but lose to the Colts with Deshaun Watson back? I almost picked it outright, but we’ll go with an Indy cover.”

Since 1950, NFL teams were 0-631 when allowing 38 points, throwing 2 interceptions, and getting outgained by at least 110 yards. Welcome to history because the Browns won doing all those things in Indy on Sunday.

Something always felt off about this game, and I’m still surprised picking Indy +3.5 and the Browns to win proved to be my best game prediction in Week 7. But the Browns were getting so much credit for the defense, and the Colts are now the only team in the league to score at least 20 points in every game.

But I don’t think anyone in the world could have predicted a 39-38 final from this one. What makes it even crazier is P.J. Walker outplayed Deshaun Watson, who left injured very early after he slammed his head on the ground, and while the Cleveland defense technically did some great things to get this win, it was at the expense of holding the Colts to 38 points instead of closer to 50 like they had potential for. Is that great defense these days? Meh.

I don’t know what this game will do for Cleveland going forward, but Gardner Minshew throwing for 305 yards and running in 2 touchdowns has to knock some shine off the idea of this being a historic defense.

And yet, it was a monster performance from Myles Garrett that helped turn things around for Cleveland. He forced a strip-sack of Minshew, which led to a short field and game-tying touchdown at 14-14. He blocked a 60-yard field goal in impressive fashion, though you could argue the Colts should have punted there early in the second quarter. Garrett then forced another strip-sack of Minshew that his teammate picked up for a Cleveland touchdown on a fumble recovery in the end zone.

The teams kept exchanging scores in the fourth quarter, though the Colts failed on some chances to put the game away. They even got a go-ahead 75-yard touchdown to Michael Pittman Jr., the second time this year he got a big YAC play for a touchdown.

But the Colts punted back to Cleveland and Walker with 2:35 left, and the defense failed to put the game away. There was a strip-sack that would have done the trick, but an illegal contact penalty wiped that out in the red zone. But the next play is the scrutinized one as defensive pass interference was called on what clearly looked like an uncatchable ball in the back of the end zone:

I think that’s a really bad call against the Colts. On the other hand, a no-call would have made it 2nd-and-goal from the 8 with 33 seconds left. Not exactly a game over situation. But still, it made things easier from the 1-yard line, and it looked like Cleveland was going to botch it by throwing 3 times in a row instead of running. I know they didn’t have timeouts but play the percentages. The run is more likely going to work than Walker throwing.

On 4th-and-goal, the Browns finally ran and Kareem Hunt barely broke the plane with 15 seconds left. The Browns failed on the 2-point conversion, but it didn’t matter much at that point. Minshew was strip-sacked a third time, but the only surprise is it wasn’t Garrett again. Minshew finished with 4 turnovers for the second game in a row, though he was much better this week than last week in Jacksonville.

We’ll see where these teams finish and if this quarter proves decisive for playoff seeding. But what a wild game, and a complicated one in trying to figure out how well Minshew is playing, and how great the Cleveland defense is this year.

Also, the Browns have a huge Watson problem, but that’s a story for another day. It just amuses me that Kevin Stefanski can maximize every quarterback in his offense except the one who is supposed to be the best. Maybe that’s just karma.

Packers at Broncos: From Favre-Elway to Rodgers-Manning to THIS

Boy, if this is what it takes for Denver to win a home game under Sean Payton, then enjoy it, because there aren’t going to be many more of these wins. Green Bay flopped off its bye week with a scoreless first half, but it took Denver 2.5 quarters to find the end zone too.

Green Bay was much stronger in the second half, not unlike the 17-0 comeback against the Saints this year, and the Packers scored on three straight drives to take a 17-16 lead with 8:31 left. You had to start thinking this wasn’t Denver’s year when touchdowns like this on 4th-and-2 are happening to them:

It starts to make sense why Denver has lost 10 games in a row after having the lead at halftime. But this would not be No. 11. In fact, by coming back with a field goal drive to win the game, Denver made sure Green Bay was the first team to blow 3 fourth-quarter leads this season.

Russell Wilson did not have a great game, but he got the offense close enough for Wil Lutz to bang in his fourth field goal from 52 yards away to take a 19-17 lead with 3:50 left. That was plenty of time for Jordan Love to answer, but I think conservative calls once the Packers reached Denver territory combined with a holding penalty short-circuited the drive.

Love’s accuracy issues showed up on a 2nd-and-20 incompletion to Christian Watson, which saw the receiver go down with an apparent knee injury. On 3rd-and-2, Love just threw one up and it was intercepted to essentially end the game. The Broncos ran out every second of the clock and escaped with the 19-17 win.

Green Bay has lost back-to-back games in which it did not allow 20 points, which has not happened to the Packers since 2005 when Aaron Rodgers was a rookie on the bench. If only there was a quarterback of that caliber waiting in the wings on this Green Bay bench.

Steelers at Rams: When Coming Up Short Is Enough to Win the Game

Yes, the Steelers started the game with a 3-and-out, they had only one field goal at halftime, and T.J. Watt bailed them out with a great interception to start the third quarter, setting up a 7-yard touchdown drive.

All those things made it look like Matt Canada was perfectly representing his brand in LA after a bye week. But for the rest of the game, the Steelers actually looked like a competent offense that could get the ball to its best receivers about as well as Matthew Stafford got the ball to Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua.

While Nacua (154 yards) had a monster day, Kupp did not, catching 2-of-7 targets for 29 yards with a couple of early drops that seemed to set him up for a bad day – if it wasn’t my bets that did him in since I am a proven jinx of the highest order. Kupp’s only real contribution was on a 2-point conversion to put the Rams up 17-10.

You have to go back to Week 6 of the 2020 season to find the last time a defense held Kupp under 30 yards in a game he did not leave injured. That was against the 49ers, and he had 11 yards on 3 catches and 9 targets. This was shocking for a Pittsburgh defense that has been awful against top receivers. But Stafford and Kupp did not bring their A game for this one.

Neither did kicker Brett Maher, who missed a pair of field goals from 51 and 53 yards away in this game. Again, as someone who led a picks article off this week with Rams over 1.5 made field goals, I can’t help but feel like a total f’n jinx.

And it’s not like I did these things to root for the Steelers to win. I barely wanted to watch this game and was flipping between the Chiefs-Chargers on CBS and the RedZone channel, because I’ve grown to hate watching Canada’s offense that much.

But in Diontae Johnson’s return game from injury, he made the crucial play on a 3rd-and-8 to start the fourth quarter. He turned a short throw into a 39-yard gain. He may never score a touchdown again with Kenny Pickett as his quarterback, but he is good for a play like that from time to time. Pickett also started looking sharper on his throws to George Pickens in the second half.

The Johnson play set up Jaylen Warren for a 13-yard touchdown run to tie the game. Pickens and Johnson had big catches to set up Najee Harris for a 3-yard go-ahead touchdown run with 7:20 left.

Pittsburgh’s defense held after Stafford threw 3 straight incompletions from his 43. The Steelers had 5:28 to burn and they shockingly did it. Pickens had a 31-yard gain on a 3rd-and-3. A taunting penalty on the Steelers, something they had a few of in this game on the receivers, negated what would have been a terrible defensive pass interference penalty on the Rams on 3rd-and-8. Replaying the down, the Steelers came up 1 yard short.

Mike Tomlin had to go for the 4th-and-1 at the Los Angeles 39 with a chance to win the game. The Rams were out of timeouts and only 2:24 remained. The Steelers ran their own version of the Tush Push, and Pickett looked like he was short. The chains were brought out, and shockingly, he was just over the marker for the game-clinching first down.

The Rams were hosed.

If you watch any good replay, you can see Pickett slipped and his knee was down very quickly after getting the ball. He was short of the marker, but the refs blew the spot. Since it was outside of the 2-minute warning and the Rams were out of timeouts, Sean McVay could not challenge the play. It is not 100% certain they would have reserved the call on the field even if he did have a challenge, but he would have had a decent case of getting the ball back with a solid 2:00 to play.

It’s not even the most egregious late-game officiating blunder in a game involving Sean McVay (ask Saints fans). Remember, the Steelers were up 24-17 and Stafford would have needed to drive 60 yards for a touchdown to tie or a 2-point conversion to take the lead. But it was still a pretty bad spot and cheap ending to a game that turned out more decent than expected.

The Steelers are 4-2, and if not for coming up short to win a game, this might be viewed as their most legitimate win this season. But here they are, continuing to win games without playing their best. It shouldn’t be sustainable but given the schedule and if the health of players like Watt and Pickens allow for it, this team is going to win 9-10 games and be in the playoff mix with the rest of the AFC North.

Falcons at Buccaneers: NFC South of Heaven

The Falcons (4-3) are back in first place in the NFC South after a 16-13 win in Tampa Bay, but the game served as a solid reminder of why this is still a bad division and the NFC East runner-up is likely to notch a playoff win against the eventual winner here.

I was on Atlanta to win because I trust the offense’s ability to move the ball more than I do Tampa Bay’s right now. I may not trust the Falcons to put many drives in the end zone, but what can you say about a Tampa Bay team that has now lost 25-11 (Eagles), 20-6 (Lions), and 16-13 at home this season?

I don’t even know if I feel like commenting on the Bijan Robinson shenanigans, but it sure does look suspicious when a player who was not on the injury report has a surprise illness, then sits out most of the game until they decide to give him a carry for 3 yards with 33 seconds left in the game. What the hell was that?

But both teams made the kind of mistakes in crunch time that make them hard to trust come January. Desmond Ridder had an efficient passing stat line, but with a chance to put the game away with a touchdown run to go up 20-10, he got a little soft at the end of the run and fumbled through the end zone with 6:30 left to keep it a 13-10 game. Huge mistake.

But Baker Mayfield made a bigger mistake in field goal range with 3:46 left:

It’s plays like that that made trusting him in Tampa Bay hard this year. But did he do the Tom Brady thing and take advantage of another opportunity after his defense forced the 3-and-out? Yes, the Buccaneers drove right down the field again into kicking range. But they weren’t able to get the touchdown after a 3rd-down sack of Mayfield inside the 10, and it did not help that he threw two incompletions before that to save clock for Atlanta in a tied game.

Ridder had 2 timeouts and 45 seconds, which we know is plenty of time in this league for these kickers. After almost hooking up with Kyle Pitts for a big play, the two did it again for a bigger one at 39 yards, and that basically set up the kick. After a couple of runs, Younghoe Koo came out and drilled the field goal from 51 yards out to give Atlanta a 16-13 win.

Neither of these teams will be feared in January but remember this quarter when it comes to figuring out which one gets to host the playoff game for the NFC South.

Cardinals at Seahawks: If a Bear Shits in the Woods…

Did anyone really care that this game was going on, or that the Seahawks were in a dogfight for most of the day as an 8.5-point favorite before covering late? I think we’re over the Joshua Dobbs experimental part of the season and would prefer to see Kyler Murray return even if he is likely not in the future plans for this franchise.

Kenneth Walker failing to score twice from the 1-yard line was more of my success as a jinx against myself. The Seahawks ended up settling for a field goal and 17-10 lead, and the game stayed that way for roughly 20 minutes. Matt Prater was wide left on a 34-yard field goal for the Cardinals with 11:06 left. Later, a fake punt doomed the Cardinals, only gaining 4 yards on 4th-and-9 with 4:58 left.

Seattle, which played without D.K. Metcalf (ribs), finally put it away from there with a 48-yard field goal with 2:17 left to make it 20-10. Dobbs was sacked on a 4th-and-11 at midfield to end the game.

I know the Seahawks (4-2) are currently the No. 5 seed in the NFC, but I just can’t muster up much interest in games with Arizona right now.

Raiders at Bears: Just Put McDaniels Out of His Misery

Once again, we must figure out which is the most embarrassing loss for Josh McDaniels with the Raiders:

  • Was it when he blew a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter to Arizona after Kyler Murray needed 20 seconds of scrambling to convert a 2-point conversion?
  • Was it losing to Jeff Saturday in his first game as interim coach of the Colts when he had no previous coaching experience in the NFL or college football? Saturday never won another game.
  • Was it when he blew a 16-3 lead in the fourth quarter to Baker Mayfield, who signed with the Rams 48 hours before the game?

Or is it when McDaniels lost 30-12 and wire-to-wire to a 1-5 Chicago team that was an underdog with an undrafted rookie quarterback nicknamed T-Bag?

No matter which one you choose, the fact that there are this many contenders just 24 games into McDaniels’ tenure should tell us that he should be fired as this is not working out.

Another sign it’s not working out: Raiders have not scored 20 points on offense in any game this season. They only reached 21 points against the Patriots last week on a safety. This is the longest streak to start a season since the 2009 Redskins made it 8 games without 20 offensive points.

I’m not even sure pointing out Brian Hoyer started for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo is that noteworthy. Did I mention the Bears started Tyson Bagent? Hoyer is McDaniels’ guy going back to the Patriots. He knows his offense. He just didn’t execute it well against one of the worst defenses in the league. Meanwhile, the Bears kept things easy for Bagent with short throws, and he managed the game well while D’Onta Foreman scored 3 touchdowns.

The NFL can do better than giving second head coaching jobs to people like Dennis Allen (Saints) and McDaniels when it was so bad on the first try. It was not a fluke that it did not work out the first time, and coaching under Sean Payton and Bill Belichick is not a proven path to coaching well on your own.

Commanders at Giants: You Can’t Spell “Sack Machine” Without S-A-M

Both offenses are lousy at blocking, but I picked the Giants because I figured Tyrod Taylor would manage the pressure better than Sam Howell, and this Jack Del Rio-coached defense is worse than what the Giants have.

There were 10 sacks in the game, but Washington (6) took more, and Taylor did help his team to a 14-0 lead where they just had to hang on for the second half. But this game was FUGLY. There were more possessions (27) than points (21).

The Commanders may have been scoreless if the Giants didn’t muff a punt and set up a 21-yard field for Washington’s only touchdown. But that was it for the scoring. The Giants blocked a 27-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, Saquon Barkley lost a fumble inside the 10 yard line on the next drive, and Jahan Dotson dropped a 4th-and-5 pass that he had a shot at catching inside the 5-yard line with under a minute left. The Giants took knees to end it from there.

For as bad as the offenses were, at least the final quarter was interesting. But I don’t know how much longer Washington can go before Howell is injured or replaced. He is on pace for 97 sacks this season.

Next week: A trio of prime-time games with Bucs-Bills, Bears-Chargers, and Lions-Raiders? This season really hates the viewers. The closest we get to “good” games this week involve the AFC North with Steelers-Jaguars, Bengals-49ers, and Browns-Seahawks, and chances are at least one will be a total rout.

NFL Stat Oddity: Week 6

~ Scott ~ 15 Comments

You know it was a crazy day in the NFL when the only teams to blow a double-digit lead were the last undefeated teams (49ers and Eagles) and the only winless team (Panthers). To top it off, the Bills had the largest point spread (-15.5) of any team this season, and they were a yard away from losing to the Giants at home on Sunday night.

But winning ugly is still a lot better than the alternative of losing dumb. There was a lot of bad football played this Sunday, and it is looking like this will be a season similar to 2021 where there are no truly great teams. That’s how you end up with the Titans as a No. 1 seed, a default MVP because they don’t know who else to give it to (Aaron Rodgers), and the only Super Bowl ever without any top 3 seeds (Bengals and Rams were both No. 4 seeds).

You just cannot trust these teams anymore, and a big part of the problem is on the offensive side of the ball. Monday night pending, a whopping 8 teams won this week without scoring more than 20 points – tied for the most in any week in the 32-team era since 2002. That may have been 9 teams if the Raiders didn’t get a safety against the Patriots to finally break 20 points this year.

The only other times this happened in 8 games was in Week 1 of the 2007 and 2010 seasons and Week 3 of the 2011 season. Those were all 16-game slates too while we had 14 games this week (15th on Monday), so it is the highest rate of winners scoring under 21 points in a week in the NFL regular season since Week 5 of the 1999 season when 9-of-14 games were won with fewer than 21 points. That week ended with the Jets and Rick Mirer losing 16-6 to the Jaguars on Monday night, so let’s hope Cowboys-Chargers has higher standards than that.

There were 10 games with a comeback opportunity, though only 3 were successful. They just so happened to be the ones to knock the 49ers and Eagles from the ranks of the undefeated, and Buffalo was spared the embarrassment of losing as a 15.5-point favorite.

This season in NFL Stat Oddity:

49ers at Browns: If Brock Purdy Is Tom Brady, Then Jake Moody Is Billy Cundiff

Sunday in Cleveland was the kind of game that a lot of NFL fans wanted to see Brock Purdy deal with to see what he’s really made of. Everything had gone so smoothly for him. He was 13-0 when he threw 20 passes in a game and had a passer rating of at least 87.4 in all of them, a streak we may never see again to begin someone’s career.

Purdy had only trailed in the fourth quarter once in a game where he had both functioning elbows, and that was the Raiders game last year, a defense known for blowing games. There was only one other game that was tied in the fourth quarter, and that was the Dallas playoff game.

This was a major test of adversity as the 49ers were playing a very tough Cleveland defense on the road, there was a little rain, and Deebo Samuel and Christian McCaffrey did not finish the game due to injuries.

Despite leading 10-0 early, the 49ers were down 13-10 in the fourth quarter, and Purdy’s accuracy was shot. He was getting hit, he threw his first interception of the season, he had a few drive-killing sacks, and he was going to have to pick himself up and have an answer for why he’s getting outplayed by Cleveland backup quarterback P.J. Walker.

But Walker lived dangerously in this one, and in fact, his 24.1 QBR was the worst by a winning quarterback in Week 6 and below Purdy’s final number (40.0). Walker threw a second interception and that was returned to the Cleveland 8 with 11:04 left. Jordan Mason immediately rushed for an 8-yard touchdown and the 49ers were back up 17-13. The Browns were held to a field goal, then the 49ers badly botched their drive to put the game away with Purdy getting called for grounding and throwing an incompletion on a drive that lasted 25 seconds. But with Walker throwing wildly and what looked like a 4th-and-10 on the way, it looked like the 49ers were going to survive.

A comeback and game-winning drive where your defense and running game did all the work to bail you out on your worst day, and you blew it in the four-minute offense? Damn, Purdy really is the new Tom Brady.

But there are so many reasons we’ll never see the LOAT again. For one, the NFL has gotten incredibly soft with hard hits, and the 49ers were hosed on a bad call on that 3rd-and-10 incompletion for what looked like a clean hit to the shoulder area. But because it was hard and looked like it hurt, out came the flag for unnecessary roughness, and instead of a 4th-and-10 with the game on the line, Cleveland had a fresh set of downs. It was a messy game with both teams having at least 12 penalties for over 105 yards each.

There was still work to be done, and Jerome Ford did much of it with runs of 14 and 22 yards. Walker didn’t actually gain any yards on this drive, which ended with a 29-yard field goal to put the Browns up 19-17 with 1:40 left.

That set the stage for Purdy, who was going to have to lean on Brandon Aiyuk. That’s where he went for a couple of completions for 33 yards, and the 49ers got conservative inside the 30, which is usually a no-no in this league.

Purdy spiked the ball with 9 seconds left, and you have to say he did his job. But just like his first game-winning drive attempt against the Raiders last year, his kicker failed him. Last year it was veteran Robbie Gould who missed a 41-yard field goal to win Purdy’s 4th start. Instead, it sent the game to overtime where the Raiders threw an interception, gifting Purdy a kneeldown and short field goal for his first game-winning drive.

This time it was rookie kicker Jake Moody, who the team used the 99th pick in the draft to get. Let’s just say this early legacy game for him did not go well as he was 9-for-9 coming into Sunday, but he missed twice in this game. The probable game winner was only a 41-yard kick, but Moody hooked it wide right, and the Browns (+9.5) survived for one of the biggest upsets this season.

It took 14 starts, but Purdy has his first legitimate loss in the NFL, and it came at the mercy of a kicker. Meanwhile, Brady started 381 games in his career and just once, in his 183rd start against the 2012 Cardinals, did he lose a game after a clutch field goal was missed.

Purdy’s hero growing up was Dan Marino, who lost 10 games in his career after a clutch field goal was missed. I’ve yet to ever find a quarterback with more than that (Drew Brees also had 10). Let’s hope Purdy doesn’t turn out like Marino in that regard or as someone who had his best title shots in his first two seasons.

But the 49ers looked awfully mortal in this game. Cleveland earned it on more merit than just getting a weak penalty and missed kick. The Browns beat the 49ers 334-215 in yards. Cleveland has allowed 1,002 yards in 5 games, the 3rd-best mark to start a season since 1970 behind only the 1971 Colts (836) and 1970 Vikings (945).

Thie historic defense got the best of the historic offense this time. Now you just have to hope Moody doesn’t let this crush his psyche because kickers are fragile like that.

Eagles at Jets: Down Goes the Other 5-0 Team in Inexplicable Fashion

I don’t think the Eagles had a second to gloat about the 49ers losing in Cleveland, because their game kicked off with the Jets before the 49ers’ game ended.

This was another shocker with a 5-0 team going down in the second half, but at least there was some precedent for this one. The Jets basically relied on their Week 1 blueprint against the Bills where the defense forces several takeaways from the quarterback, Garrett Wilson makes some plays, and Zach Wilson stays out of the way of the game-winning touchdown. Wilson took 5 sacks but the Jets avoided any turnovers.

Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts led his team in rushing (47 yards and another touchdown), but it was a very quiet day for his running backs (14 carries for 33 yards). Hurts also threw 3 interceptions, which is so unlike him.

The Eagles led 14-9 at halftime but never scored again. In the fourth quarter, Hurts threw a pick in New York territory, then Jake Elliott missed a 37-yard field goal with 8:13 left. But the Jets could not capitalize. Hurts had a chance to put the game away with a 3rd-and-9 conversion, but his third interception of the game was one of the worst of his career:

That set the Jets up 8 yards away from the end zone, and immediately Breece Hall scored as if the Eagles wanted him to. That’s kind of a bold decision in a 14-12 game as the Eagles had two timeouts to get the ball back with time for a field goal to win it, but I guess they figured maximizing time for a touchdown was their best shot. Not an easy decision.

Hurts had 1:46 and 2 timeouts to drive 75 yards for a touchdown, which is hard but doable. However, he did not get a single first down and the Eagles turned it over on downs after his 4th-and-8 pass was incomplete.

That formula of forcing 4 takeaways against the Eagles still works well in beating them. It happened twice last year by the Commanders and Cowboys. That’s the kind of crazy effort it usually takes to beat this team, but the Jets hung in there, protected the ball, and chipped away with field goals before getting the ultimate break with that last pick.

It’s not a formula you can sustain, but the Jets are 3-3 going into the bye, and frankly I thought that was the best-case scenario with this early schedule if the team had Aaron Rodgers. The schedule will get easier, and in this sea of mediocrity engulfing the AFC this year, the Jets still have a shot.

Giants at Bills: WTF?

The Bills (4-2) win this week’s award for “Win That Felt Most Like a Loss.” Buffalo came dangerously close to losing to the lowly Giants despite being favored by 15.5 on Sunday night in another barnburner for island games this year with its 14-9 final.

Maybe the spread was wacky, but this was a Buffalo team that recently won 3 games in a row by 28+ points each, and a New York team starting Tyrod Taylor that has been awful in basically every half but one (Arizona) this season.

But it was a game that makes you ask many questions.

Are the Giants better with Tyrod Taylor starting than Daniel Jones (neck)? Maybe so, but they still scored 9 points and botched the end of each half from the 1-yard line. They should have just kicked a field goal to end the first half instead of trying to run Saquon Barkley for a touchdown as time ran out on the Giants.

Did Barkley make the offense better in his return? Eh, he had 24 carries for 93 yards with a 34-yard run his longest play, and he caught 4-of-5 targets for a whopping 5 yards. That’s 98 yards on 29 plays, so that’s not very good, and they lost the confidence to go back to him with the game on the line on the last play, throwing incomplete to Darren Waller in the back of the end zone on a play that made zero use of Tyrod’s mobility. Some wanted a flag but I’m okay with not bailing out the high throw. It was already an untimed down to begin with after a penalty on Buffalo extended the game.

Is the Buffalo offense okay? We know the defense has most of the injuries, but that doesn’t excuse why the Bills were scoreless at home going into the fourth quarter against the Giants. Josh Allen had a bit of Stefon Diggs tunnel vision on the night as Diggs had 100 of Allen’s 169 passing yards. Tyler Bass did not help with a couple of missed field goals, but when push came to shove, the Bills responded in the fourth quarter with a couple of nice touchdown passes from Allen to two of his more unheralded/unknown receivers (Deonte Harty and Quintin Morris).

But the Bills were lucky to be playing the Giants, the team that needed 8 yards and saw Tyrod throwing passes 38 and 47 yards in the air to end a drive on downs with 1:45 left. But that didn’t end the game as Allen threw an incomplete pass on a 3rd down and Bass missed a 53-yard field goal with 1:25 left that would have gave Buffalo a nice cushion at 17-9.

That made the long 14-play march possible to end the game, and the Giants were just one yard, one better play call away from pulling off this upset. Instead, the Giants are who we thought they were, taking their record in prime time to 5-25 (.167) since 2017.

Lions at Buccaneers: Better Team Won

I’m not sure these teams are as good as their 1-loss records suggested going into Week 6, but I do know the better team won this game. Even though the Lions lost David Montgomery to an injury and had no running game, Jared Goff (353 yards and 2 touchdowns) played much better than Baker Mayfield, who failed to lead a touchdown drive.

It was just some of the little things in this game that showed why Detroit is better.

  • Mayfield had a pass tipped and intercepted deep in his own end that turned into a field goal to start the scoring for Detroit. Meanwhile, Goff had a few passes tipped that fell harmlessly to the ground.
  • On a 3rd-and-12, Mike Evans had an awful drop on what would have been a conversion for Tampa Bay. In the third quarter, Evans also negated a 3rd-and-1 with a push off that was flagged for offensive pass interference.
  • On a 3rd-and-13, Amon-Ra St. Brown took a screen pass and got an incredible block from Craig Reynolds to free him up for the game’s first touchdown.
  • Detroit’s other touchdown pass saw incredible adjustment to the ball from Jameson Williams for a 45-yard score.

The Lions are 5-1 with a +55 scoring differential. It hasn’t been this good for the team since 2011 (5-1, +64), and even that felt less impressive than this since Green Bay was undefeated at that moment and the defending champion.

This is finally Detroit’s year in the NFC North, and if Sunday is any indication, maybe the whole NFC if the Lions can stay healthy and improve as the season goes on.

Colts at Jaguars: The Streak Continues

I’m not sure why, but the Colts seemingly lose their shit every time they go down to Jacksonville where they have not won since 2014. This streak has gone on through several coaches and quarterbacks now.

Sunday was easily the worst performance yet by the Shane Steichen-coached Colts, and Gardner Minshew was a mess with 4 turnovers (3 interceptions, 1 lost fumble). The mistakes boosted the Jaguars to 37 points even though Calvin Ridley was held to 30 yards, Trevor Lawrence passed for 181 yards with 3 sacks, and the running game averaged 2.9 yards per carry.

Like I said, the Colts might as well book these Jacksonville games in the Bermuda Triangle instead of Duval County. It looked like it might actually start out as a legit, heavyweight fight with the Jaguars following a long Indy field goal drive with a long touchdown drive that went into the second quarter.

But that interesting start was the end of the efficiency as Josh Allen forced Minshew to fumble on the next snap, and the Jaguars turned that into a 22-yard touchdown run by Travis Etienne. The Colts continued to shoot themselves in the foot, and they trailed 31-6 in the fourth quarter.

There was a rally attempt with the Colts getting a touchdown (31-13) and a Lawrence interception, but I feel like they should have kicked a field goal on 4th-and-5 at the 15 with 11:06 left. Just keep the game going and get it to 2 possessions. But Minshew threw another pick. Even then, the Jaguars went three-and-out and the Colts got a touchdown to make it 31-20, but a long kick return took a lot out of Indy, which gave up a cheap field goal (34-20) before the Colts went 4-and-out (cue another cheap field goal).

With Minshew a mess and Anthony Richardson considering season-ending surgery for his shoulder, it’s looking like Jacksonville (4-2) may have just ended another season for the Colts (3-3).

Seahawks at Bengals: Looked Like a Cincinnati Playoff Game

If you don’t understand the header, let’s do a quick refresher on what a playoff game looks like in the Zac Taylor-Joe Burrow era in Cincinnati.

  • There have been 7 playoff games, and despite the 5-2 record, the Bengals have only gotten anywhere from 17-to-27 points from the offense in each game.
  • The offense has only contributed one touchdown in the fourth quarter of these games.
  • Burrow has passed for 270 yards or fewer in 6-of-7 games.
  • Only the 27-10 win in Buffalo last year was decided by more than one possession.
  • In 4 games, the Cincinnati defense has forced a crucial turnover in the fourth quarter or overtime.

With Seattle coming in as a formidable opponent, this looked like it might be a great shootout with both offenses scoring touchdowns on their opening drives. But it was a struggle from there with the Seahawks only adding a pair of field goals on their final 10 drives. After starting the game with back-to-back touchdowns, the Bengals would have gone scoreless on their final 8 drives if not for a 0-yard field goal in the fourth quarter that was set up by a Geno Smith interception.

Burrow, who only had 185 passing yards, threw 3 straight incompletions before Evan McPherson made a 52-yard field goal to make it 17-13 and conclude the scoring with 11:47 to play. Seattle dominated in yardage (381-214), but between 4 sacks and 2 picks for Smith, the offense kept getting turned away in scoring territory.

Smith had four possessions in the fourth quarter alone and was unable to get points on any of them. Despite D.K. Metcalf (30) and Tyler Lockett (36) each having a 30-yard completion in the final six minutes on two different drives, the Seahawks could not break through in the red zone.

That duo of Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard made sure Geno was stopped with sacks on 1st-and-goal from the 7 and 4th-and-goal from the 6 with 2:03 left. After getting the ball back and getting quickly to the Cincinnati 11 after Lockett’s big catch, the Seahawks again looked frazzled. Smith threw incomplete on 3rd-and-8, and then again under pressure on 4th-and-ballgame with 35 seconds left to end it.

The Bengals are now 3-0 against the NFC West and 0-3 against AFC teams this year. Are they a contender again? It’s hard to say, but they at least picked a good week to win unimpressively when other contenders either lost or looked worse against worse competition.

But seeing Smith repeatedly get turned away in the fourth quarter was a throwback to what has become the typical Cincinnati playoff game for this team. Burrow had some more Fran Tarkenton-esque scrambles in this game that I think can put the calf concerns to rest, but that’s not to say the offense is back on track. Ja’Marr Chase, who had all 3 of the team’s plays that gained more than 11 yards, may be on track, but the rest of the offense has some catching up to do.

Ravens vs. Titans: London Snoozer

Not a lot to say about the last London game of the year as the Ravens held on for a 24-16 win. You had to expect a good Baltimore start after how sloppy things were last week in Pittsburgh. Zay Flowers finally caught his first NFL touchdown.

Derrick Henry hit a long run for 63 yards, but the Titans once again failed to see their offense travel. While technically the home team in this one, the Titans are 0-4 outside of Nashville this year and have not scored more than 16 points in any of those games.

Ryan Tannehill only passed for 76 yards in 3 quarters, but the Titans were cooked with him getting carted off. Malik Willis is not a legitimate quarterback, and I would be concerned as a fan that rookie Will Levis was not the No. 2 quarterback. Willis came into this game with only a 21-13 deficit in the fourth quarter, and we know these Ravens blow leads, but Willis has a bad habit of holding onto the ball too long.

A pair of Willis scrambles led to a punt, the Ravens tacked on a field goal to make it 24-13 with 4:16 left, then it was time for one of the saddest field goal drives you’ll ever see as Baltimore was flagged 4 times and the Titans also had a 5th penalty called. Willis somehow took 5 sacks on the drive and 4 of them still counted as only 1 was voided by a Baltimore penalty. That’s how you end up wasting 1st-and-goal from the 1, but I’m not sure if kicking the field goal on 3rd-and-goal from the 20 was the right call with 41 seconds left. Things were so bleak that you might as well try for the touchdown that close.

What’s Willis going to do from midfield with 35 seconds left if the onside kick was recovered? Take 3 more sacks? But the onside kick was free of drama and the game ended with the Ravens moving back to first place with a 4-2 record. We’ll see what the injury is for Tannehill, but things are slipping away early for the Titans (2-4), who have a bye week.

Panthers at Dolphins: The Team Who Scores, the Team Who Loses

The Panthers jumped out to a 14-0 lead, scored a late pick-six, and they still lost by 21 points to fall to 0-6.

This team feels like a money laundering scheme that involves Adam Thielen catches. He’s the only part of the team that goes off consistently as he had another 11 catches for 115 yards and a touchdown.

But the Miami offense is just too good for opponents like this. Even after going three-and-out twice in the first quarter, the Dolphins scored 5 touchdowns on their next 6 drives with Tyreek Hill dominating deep (163 yards), and Raheem Mostert rushed for 115 yards and scored 3 more touchdowns with De’Von Achane out.

With the Eagles next week and the Week 9 game in Germany with Kansas City looming, I can’t wait to see how Miami does against last year’s Super Bowl teams. Carolina is not the litmus test.

Commanders at Falcons: Ridder the Enigma

The good news: Desmond Ridder stacked 300-yard passing games after he had the best game of his career last week against Houston. The bad news: Ridder threw 3 interceptions in this 24-16 home loss that may have been the worst game of his career.

Sam Howell took another 5 sacks and the Washington running game only averaged 3.3 yards per carry on the way to 193 total yards of offense, so it was not the defense that lost this game for Atlanta. Washington had an 11-yard touchdown drive after a long punt return, and in the third quarter, Washington had a 24-yard touchdown drive after Ridder was picked on a great diving read by Kyle Fuller.

But Washington never scored again, bringing Atlanta to 15 straight games without allowing more than 25 points, the longest streak in the NFL since the 2013-14 49ers (17 games).

The Falcons were able to get one touchdown, missed the 2-point conversion, but it felt like a one-score game with Atlanta unable to do anything for a solid hour. There were numerous chances, including one where a legit roughing the passer call for Ridder wiped out a fumble. That led to a drive that reached the 2-yard line, but Ridder ended up throwing an interception in the end zone with 5:11 left.

The next chance was a quick 4-and-out, then the final drive ended with Ridder’s third interception in desperate times with 26 seconds left after the Falcons reached the Washington 34.

Rough days like this will happen to the best of them, but it sure is weird to see an Atlanta team let down by its offense while the defense was more than serviceable, especially in the fourth quarter.

Patriots at Raiders: Belichick Really Can’t Beat McDaniels

You have to admit it’s pretty amusing that Bill Belichick is 0-3 against Josh McDaniels as a head coach. Now, McDaniels has had home-field advantage for every game, he’s had the better quarterback in the last two games in Vegas, and they have all been one-score games where a turnover (or something on the order of one) killed the Patriots at the end.

This one went McDaniels’ way again even after Jimmy Garoppolo left with a back injury that was serious enough to land him at the local hospital. But Brian Hoyer did a respectable job in his place (6-of-10 for 102 yards), and that means it was two former New England quarterbacks who helped drop the Patriots to 1-5.

At least it was close this week. Mac Jones had an uneven game that will be hard to analyze. He did throw another terrible interception this week, but then he also threw one of the best passes in his career on a 2nd-and-11 deep in his own end with a 19-17 deficit. DeVante Parker dropped it. The drop wasn’t overly egregious and it wasn’t a simple play, but you have to make one like that for your team. You have to wonder why this team settled for a poor man’s DeAndre Hopkins when they could have had the real thing this year. Hopkins makes that catch.

After an inexcusable delay of game – Patriots were sloppy again this week – made it 3rd-and-15, Jones was swarmed in his end zone and Maxx Crosby was there on the sack for a safety.

What an awful way to blow a cover as the Patriots were +2.5. Their only hope was recovering an onside kick on the free kick, but that didn’t work, and the game was over with the Raiders winning 21-17.

It is also amusing that it took a safety to get the Raiders (3-3) to 20 points for the first time all season. But the Patriots had no sacks on defense, and while they got their first takeaway since Week 2, it was a fluky interception on a deflected pass that wasn’t Garoppolo’s fault.

The better team won, and dare I say, the better coach when these two meet up won again.

Saints at Texans: Carr (Repeatedly) Fails First GWD Attempt in New Orleans

One thing I got right about the 2023 Saints is that they are providing Derek Carr with the best defense of his career. The Saints finally became the first team to intercept rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, but they unfortunately fumbled it right back to him on the play in the first quarter, and the Texans scored a touchdown on that drive to boot.

But the Texans only put up one field goal after halftime, so this game was in Derek Carr’s wheelhouse for another fourth-quarter comeback. This was actually his first attempt of the season as he was injured in the Green Bay loss when the Saints blew a 17-0 lead in the final quarter.

This was supposed to be the spot where Carr would make his mark in New Orleans, but instead, the Saints went scoreless on their last 3 drives in a 20-13 game:

  • Kicker Blake Grupe picked a bad time to have the shortest miss of his season from 29 yards out with 11:07 left. Remember, he’s the kicker who missed from 46 yards to win the game in Green Bay.
  • On a 4th-and-4 at the Houston 15, Carr checked down to Alvin Kamara in the backfield on a play that required a Hulk-like effort to break tackles. Kamara came up short and the Saints turned it over on downs with 4:31 left.
  • Needing to go 85 yards in the final 2:41, Carr got to the Houston 24 before throwing 4 incompletions, including a pick on fourth down just shy of the end zone on a pass intended for Michael Thomas (still without a touchdown this year) with 16 seconds left.

The Saints are 3-3 and not in any real danger with the entire NFC South losing on Sunday. But this team has not scored more than 20 points in 5-of-6 games this year. The Carr-led offense, despite some solid talent at the skill players, is not working out. It also has been outperformed by a Houston offense with a rookie quarterback and some unheralded receivers that had lower expectations this year.

Carr underachieving doesn’t necessarily surprise me, but I thought he’d be better than this.

Vikings at Bears: Hoodwinked, Bamboozled, Led Astray

The Bears (+3) were my upset pick for the week, so this dud at home was a bummer. I knew Justin Fields was out of games against the Washington and Denver defenses, but I did not think highly of Minnesota’s defense either. Naturally, Fields threw for 58 yards on 10 throws and took 4 sacks before leaving the game with a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand.

When you have a quarterback you know is a high injury risk, how do you not do more at backup quarterback than Tyson Bagent?

On the undrafted rookie’s second dropback, he was strip-sacked, and the Vikings returned it for a 43-yard touchdown to take a 19-6 lead in the third quarter. But the Vikings did not do a good job of putting the game away without Justin Jefferson available.

It looked like Bagent might lead a 13-point comeback in the fourth quarter after he ran in his first NFL touchdown with 7:46 left. The Vikings went three-and-out after barely burning a minute off the clock. The Bears were slow rolling their drive down the field with the running game featured, but eventually, Bagent had to throw.

Correction: Chicago chose to throw deep for D.J. Moore just shy of the 2-minute warning in a spot that would have been fine for another run. No need to rush. Bagent badly underthrew the pass and it was intercepted by Minnesota. The Bears had all their timeouts, but after getting one first down, Minnesota was able to run out the rest of the clock with Chicago never getting another chance.

The Vikings (2-4) are still a bad team, but the Bears (1-5) are the worst in the NFC North. I won’t drink the Kool-Aid again this year.

Cardinals at Rams: Cooper Kupp Still Top Dog

Tyreek Hill has an amazing highlight reel of big plays and still has top-end speed. Justin Jefferson is doing incredible things for a young receiver. But for my money, Cooper Kupp is still the best all-around wide receiver in the league right now. No one is more consistent at producing in any matchup, and he does it at every level of the field. Only durability is a knock on him.

But one team that did have his number was Arizona. Kupp played in 31 games since 2021 and the only 4 games where he was held under 79 yards were all against Arizona. But that was a different coaching staff and roster.

Against Jonathan Gannon’s no-name defense, Kupp was dominant again with 148 yards and his first touchdown of 2023. Matthew Stafford only had 78 yards to his other receivers in the game. But the Rams also ran the ball very well with 179 yards.

Despite those big performances and the final score (26-9), this was a 16-9 game to start the fourth quarter with the Cardinals 12 yards away from the end zone. But Joshua Dobbs was intercepted on that play, and the Rams turned that into a long touchdown drive that was almost ruled a fumble through the end zone. But that was definitely a touchdown.

The Rams added a field goal after a strip-sack of Dobbs, so the turnovers have caught up with this offense, and the thin roster made thinner by injuries is starting to get exposed on a weekly basis.

Now we remember why the Cardinals were the favorites to land the No. 1 pick.

Next week: Maybe what this season needs is another classic Herbert-Mahomes matchup in Week 7. It would be even better if the Chargers beat Dallas on Monday night but I’m not so sure about that one. Early on Sunday, what are we getting excited about? Cleveland eating Gardner Minshew for lunch? The Raiders in Chicago after Garoppolo and Fields left Sunday’s games injured? No, it’s Lions-Ravens as the highlight of the 1 p.m. slot. We’ll see which Baltimore team shows up. Sunday night actually nailed it for a change with Dolphins-Eagles. Plenty of intrigue as Philadelphia’s sloppy play caught up to them in a loss, and we have never seen the Hurts-era Eagles beat a good team with a top quarterback like the Dolphins have going right now.

NFL Stat Oddity: Week 5

~ Scott ~ 16 Comments

Well, I guess we’ll have to wait until Week 13 for the real Game of the Year in the NFC this season when the last two unbeatens in the league (49ers and Eagles) meet in Philadelphia. That rematch of last year’s championship game is still the only time Brock Purdy has lost a start in the NFL.

The Cowboys were so outclassed by the 49ers on Sunday night that Bill Belichick and Sean Payton should send Jerry Jones a gift basket for taking some of the heat and attention away from them suffering the lowest points of their careers.

It started as a pretty weird day with Buffalo losing to the London Jaguars after winning their last 3 games by 28+ points each. Then the Ravens gave a game away to the Steelers, the Colts are 3-2 after flipping the script on Tennessee, the Chiefs almost lost Taylor Swift Travis Kelce for the season, and the 49ers showed us what a super team looks like on Sunday night.

But there is a growing one-sidedness to this season. We only had 1 lead change in the fourth quarter in Week 4, and this week we only had two before Monday Night Football. Only 3 of the last 35 games have had a fourth-quarter lead change. That rate should usually be around 25% of games, not 8.6%. We’re going through a drought of exciting games as it mostly has been one team jumping out to a lead and hanging on.

In Week 5, there were only 7 games with a comeback opportunity, which would be the third week in a row without 8 opportunities. But I have a feeling Monday night will add one more. Before we get there, let’s recap Sunday’s action.

This season in NFL Stat Oddity:

Cowboys at 49ers: Game of the Ye-Yeah It Was Another McCarthy Clusterf*ck

If this was a measuring stick game, then the 49ers took the stick and beat the Cowboys to death with it. They also put the rest of the league on notice that this is the best team in the NFL right now.

The closest Dallas came to staying with the 49ers on the scoreboard was for the 3 minutes and 50 seconds that this game remained 0-0 before George Kittle scored his first of three touchdowns on the night. Dallas trailed by at least 7 points for the final 56:10 on the way to a 42-10 loss.

I’d say it reminded me of the times when Mike McCarthy’s Packers went 0-4 against Jim Harbaugh’s 49ers in 2012-13, but those games were never this lopsided. This was much worse than the last two postseason losses for Dallas against the 49ers, which was supposed to be the motivating factor for the Cowboys to look better in this matchup if San Francisco is the new measuring stick in the NFC. Remember, it was 12-12 in the fourth quarter in the divisional round last year.

But it is looking like McCarthy will move to 0-7 against the 49ers in the years where they make the playoffs. This was the worst performance yet on both sides of the ball.

Save for one 78-yard touchdown drive, Dak Prescott played an awful game, finishing with 3 interceptions, 3 sacks, and only 153 passing yards before he was yanked in the final quarter of a blowout. Also, so much for Tony Pollard making an impact after he was injured in the playoff game last January. He had 8 carries for 29 yards, getting outrushed by Deebo Samuel (30 yards).

While the Dallas defense did come up with 3 stops in a row early in the game, they followed that by allowing 5 touchdowns on the next 6 drives. Good night, Irene. Brock Purdy looked more like the quarterback I saw shred Pittsburgh in Week 1 with a passing clinic as he ran his record to 13-0 in games where he attempts 20 passes. Purdy had 4 touchdown passes, confirming the Cowboys were no longer playing the Giants, Jets, Cardinals, and Patriots.

Christian McCaffrey scored a touchdown for the 14th game in a row despite the fact he only averaged 2.7 yards per carry and had a season-low 2 catches. But there were not even moral victories for Dallas in this one. This was the worst performance any team this year’s had against the 49ers.

It may only be a game in Week 5 and crazier things have happened before, but I don’t know how any Dallas fan could not be extremely pessimistic about the rest of the season after this. The Cowboys (3-2) still have to play the Eagles (twice), Bills, Dolphins, Lions, Chargers, and Seahawks. For a team that’s already lost to the Cardinals, we might as well mention they play the Commanders (twice) and Rams too.

Dallas was my Super Bowl loser pick in the NFC this year, and losing this game in Week 5 was part of my script. But even I would start walking that pick back after what I saw on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, the 49ers’ biggest question this year was if Purdy is a legitimate starter or if last year was a fluke. After Week 5, I think we have to admit he is capable of leading this team all the way.

The 49ers are 17-1 in their last 18 games, and you know what happened to the quarterback position in the only loss. They are only the 5th team to start a season at least 5-0 with 30 points scored in every game, joining the 2000 Rams, 2007 Patriots, 2013 Broncos, and 2018 Rams. Those last three teams all lost the Super Bowl that year, and the 2000 Rams lost a wild card game.

There’s a lot of season left, but we are witnessing something historic with the 49ers. As for Dallas, it is looking like the status quo, which means Macarena was on the Billboard Hot 100 more recently than the Cowboys were in the NFC Championship Game.

Ravens at Steelers: Respect the Rivalry

People who do not respect this rivalry do not understand that no matter what talent gap exists between these teams, they are always capable of playing a tight, low-scoring game that goes down to the wire.

Having said that, I am still in shock that the Ravens took a 10-0 lead with 12:23 left in the 2nd quarter and never scored again in a 17-10 loss. It is no understatement to say the Ravens left 30+ points on the field in one of the most egregious losses in the history of this rivalry. This is right up there with Kris Brown missing 4 field goals for Pittsburgh in 2001.

I’ll blame everyone on Baltimore except for Justin Tucker. Lamar Jackson was sharp early, but his receivers were terrible with a handful of drops before halftime. After the pressure increased as the game wore on, Jackson’s accuracy and decision making also fell apart, and he became another scapegoat in this terrible loss.

I have no idea what John Harbaugh and the Ravens were thinking to end the first half. Instead of bringing out Tucker for an easy 41-yard field goal on a 4th-and-2, the offense ran a play, and Jackson hurried a terrible throw that fell incomplete. There goes 3 points.

The Ravens may have escaped this one if not for a big blocked punt in the fourth quarter that almost turned into a touchdown, but the Steelers settled for a safety and 10-5 deficit. It was running back Jaylen Warren rather than Najee Harris who sparked the offense to get a field goal and make it 10-8. But even after getting a three-and-out, the Steelers fumbled the punt return and gave the Ravens a golden opportunity with a first-and-goal at the 7.

But on 3rd-and-5, Jackson forced a pass in the end zone to Odell Beckham Jr. and Joey Porter Jr. made a monster interception with 4:06 left. Down 10-8, Kenny Pickett is good for about one scoring drive a game. Sometimes they are timely ones like his game-winning touchdown drive against the Ravens last year.

This didn’t seem like a spot where he would step up after the offense struggled again, but he did. George Pickens had a huge quarter and came alive with two 20-yard plays. The last was a shocker as you would think the Steelers would set up a game-winning field goal with no time left, but they went for the dagger and Pickett hit Pickens deep after he beat Marlon Humphrey for a 41-yard touchdown with 1:17 left. Pittsburgh led 14-10 for the first time all day.

Jackson had plenty of time to answer, but on the second play of the drive, Alex Highsmith forced him to fumble on a sack, and T.J. Watt was there for the recovery. The Steelers saved the Ravens 40 seconds with a penalty on a kneeldown, a huge mistake. But the field goal made it 17-10 with 49 seconds left.

Things were not going well for the Ravens on the drive, and Watt made sure he was going to end it this time with a sack of Jackson on 4th-and-7 at his own 28. Game over. The Steelers somehow survived this one.

The 2023 Steelers are 3-2 and in first place in the AFC North, and I just find that so comical because this offense continues to suck. Frankly, the defense isn’t that good either, but this team’s magic sauce right now is getting quarterbacks like Deshaun Watson, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Jackson – he added to his poor track record vs. Pittsburgh – to make enough mistakes to allow them to steal a win late. The Steelers have given up 30 points and been dominated by the 49ers and Texans, two teams running the Kyle Shanahan offensive system with quarterbacks (Brock Purdy and C.J. Stroud) who seemingly can’t throw interceptions right now.

But give them a sack merchant or a risky thrower, and they are going to get enough big plays from the likes of T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Minkah Fitzpatrick to make the difference. Maybe Porter Jr. is the latest defender to save the day.

I’m still shocked the Ravens failed to score on their final 9 drives despite numerous opportunities to do so. Hell, I’m still shocked they watched Gardner Minshew pull an Orlovsky and they still lost that game to the Colts. Ditto on Sunday with the way the Steelers fumbled a punt at the 7-yard line late in the game.

Who wins the AFC North? Damned if I know at this point. It’s a mess of a division this year.

Chiefs at Vikings: Repeating Is Hard

Winning a Super Bowl is hard. Winning two in a row seems impossible these days in the NFL. But you know what might be even harder? Winning a ton of close games in back-to-back years.

The 2008-09 Colts pulled it off when Peyton Manning was at the height of his team-carrying powers, but most teams regress hard in close games the following year. The Vikings are feeling that now. After starting his career 8-0 at game-winning drive opportunities, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell is 0-5 going back to the wild card playoff loss to the Giants.

This was another failed comeback, but unlike last year, this was another difficult situation with the Chiefs leading 27-13 to start the fourth quarter. Even though it looked like Travis Kelce fell victim to a brutal non-contact leg injury in the first half, he found a way to come back on a bad ankle in the third quarter and caught several passes before scoring another touchdown, his first since turning 34 the other day.

Just when you thought the Vikings had some momentum, Kelce came back to finish the game while Justin Jefferson was out with a hamstring injury. He played much of the game, but the Chiefs held him to just 28 yards.

But the Chiefs rarely make it easy on themselves. After the Vikings made it 27-20, the Chiefs looked like they were going to go for a 4th-and-1 at their own 47 with 9:05 left after the Vikings used their last timeout. But the Chiefs were only trying to draw the Vikings offsides before they punted.

That’s the kind of decision I still don’t get with Andy Reid. You have Mahomes and you still had Kelce playing. Why not just go for it? Chances are you will convert, then you can end up adding more points and get this to a 2-score lead with little time left for the team out of timeouts.

I don’t know if it’s false trust in the defense or just the old hubris of doing things the way they’ve always done them. But this is the kind of situation I’d like to see the Chiefs start going for. Instead, they gave Cousins a shot at tying the game.

Without Jefferson, that was going to be tough. Inexcusably, the Vikings were flagged for delay of game when they wanted to go for a 4th-and-7 at the Kansas City 19. The respect for Mahomes’ ability to run out the clock is crazy but justified, because the Vikings still went for the 4th-and-12 instead of taking a field goal with 4:54 left. The Jaguars did something very similar in Week 2 against the Chiefs. Before these two plays, you have to go back to 1999 to find the last time an offense, down 7-8 points with more than 4:00 left in the fourth quarter and the ball inside the opponent 30, went for a 4th-and-10 or longer instead of kicking a field goal.

The Chiefs brought pressure, Cousins just threw one up for the end zone, and the flag for DPI was rightfully picked up as the pass wasn’t even close. There could have been a penalty on the Chiefs for their player taking his helmet off after the play. T.J. Watt was called for that in Pittsburgh in the early slate. We’ve seen this get called and we’ve seen it go uncalled. Refs are not consistent on it. I’m not a big fan of the rule period, so I don’t mind that one being let go. It still happened after possession changed, so it would have remained Kansas City’s ball.

But this time, Mahomes did not bleed the clock. He thought he could pass into the flat for a game-clinching first down, but the Vikings were there to stop it short. The Chiefs punted and Cousins had to drive 81 yards in 1:07. Crazier things have happened. It looked like Cousins had a decent shot at a Hail Mary from just 38 yards away on the final snap, but the Chiefs put that to rest right away with a game-ending sack of Cousins.

The Chiefs are 4-1 and seem to have avoided the worst with Kelce’s injury. It is a quick turnaround to play Denver on Thursday night, but you know this team will have something cooked up. But it gets scary when you see Kelce having injury issues and Mahomes has narrowly avoided some serious hits too. The repeat dream is over if this connection is not available to the Chiefs.

Bills vs. Jaguars: Josh Allen Loses Again to His Namesake

Did it help that Jacksonville stayed in London after winning there (albeit at a different venue) last week? Did it hurt that Buffalo did not arrive until Friday? I don’t know what impact, if any, it had but it probably had something to do with the Jaguars jumping out to an 11-0 lead against a team that was so dominant since Week 2.

The London travel difference had me worried about this game for Buffalo. I also remembered the weird 9-6 loss the Bills had to Urban Meyer’s Jags in 2021 when Josh Allen the quarterback imploded against Josh Allen the defender.

But this was a weird Buffalo loss as it was not the turnovers that did in the Bills this time. Their only turnovers came in the fourth quarter, and while Allen threw an interception in an 11-7 game, it was on a 3-and-15 and served as a good punt. The only other turnover was an ill-advised lateral in the final seconds when the Bills needed a miracle anyway.

The Bills punted 6 times before the fourth quarter, something the Bills have done only one other time since 2020 (7 early punts vs. 2021 Jets). That’s impressive for the Jacksonville defense, but oddly enough, I was a little more impressed with the way the Bills kept Jacksonville from scoring despite so many defensive injuries. They lost Matt Milano and Von Miller in this game among others. But twice they were able to force Trevor Lawrence into a fumble deep in scoring territory.

Unfortunately, the injuries did catch up to Buffalo as Travis Etienne burned them late in the game on his way to 136 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns. The Bills only rushed for 29 yards on 14 carries, and that even includes Allen’s contributions as a runner (4 carries for 14 yards and a touchdown). Gabe Davis and Stefon Diggs both hit 100 yards, but the Bills were stuck on 7 points for too long and caught playing catchup to a Jacksonville team that showed up to play.

The penalties were also out of control in the fourth quarter on both sides. One Buffalo touchdown drive saw 6 plays get flagged for something. But the most egregious one was a roughing the passer to wipe out a sack of Allen on a 3rd-and-1 that would have turned it into 4th-and-12 and likely a field goal attempt late in an 18-7 game. That whole play was screwed up because there was so much uncertainty whether it was 3rd-and-1 or 1st-and-10 for Buffalo. The Bills caught a break with that call, then wasted it after Etienne broke loose for a 35-yard touchdown to regain a 12-point lead.

The Bills did a great job driving 75 yards in 45 seconds for another touchdown, but the onside kick is impossible these days. By the time they got it back in a 25-20 game, they had to go 94 yards in 22 seconds. That’s when Diggs tried a lateral that was fumbled to end the game.

The Bills having a London letdown after last week’s huge win is not that surprising, especially when you consider the defensive injuries. Is it the kind of loss that adds to this team being untrustworthy in big games? Well, it was still a hell of a lot better than what the Cowboys did on Sunday night. I’m not that worried about Buffalo yet, but the injuries definitely need to chill out.

Bengals at Cardinals: Ja’Marr Chase to the Rescue

The Cardinals were my upset pick for Week 5, but I haven’t been able to get a Cincinnati game right since Week 2 when I said the Ravens would beat them.

Going to Arizona, a team playing better than expected, without Tee Higgins (ribs) did not seem like an ideal spot for Joe Burrow to get right, but he definitely knew where Ja’Marr Chase was all game. Chase had no touchdowns coming into the game but scored 3 here on his way to 15 catches and 192 yards. That’s a career game for most wide receivers, but it’s not even the best Chase game we have ever seen.

It was just the best one in 2023 as the league’s worst offense finally put things together to have a successful outing. But the game really turned on Arizona when the defense got a goal-line stand only for Joshua Dobbs to force a pick-six from his own end zone in the second quarter.

The Bengals took the lead and never looked back. Arizona had no turnovers in the last 3 games, but Dobbs had 3 turnovers in this game. The Cardinals also lost James Conner to an injury, which is not uncommon for him.

There were some bright moments for Arizona after a pick and some sacks of Burrow, but overall, the team was outclassed by a Cincinnati team that has not been playing well this year at all.

Does this mean the Bengals are “back” this year? I have no idea. I thought things were going to be better after the Los Angeles win, but then they shit the bed in Tennessee the next week. But they get the Seahawks next week, and both Cincinnati wins are against the NFC West so far. Maybe an unfamiliar opponent will help in addition to probably getting Higgins back.

Eagles at Rams: We’re Going with Brotherly Shove Now?

With the growing coverage and controversy around the “Tush Push” or “Brotherly Shove” quarterback sneak, this game was a great example of just how much better the Eagles are at it than everyone else. That strong offensive line combined with the strength of Jalen Hurts just makes it look unstoppable even when the defense knows exactly what is coming. Hurts just pushes through until he gets the first down.

He did it again in epic fashion before halftime with the Eagles down and only 2 seconds left on the clock. But when this team is at the 1-yard line, Hurts scoring is almost automatic. They called their sneak and he scored again to take a 17-14 lead after a good half saw Dallas Goedert and Cooper Kupp dominating for their respective teams. Kupp made his season debut and did not miss a beat even with sharing the ball with rookie sensation Puka Nacua.

But to the detriment of my best parlay on Sunday, the second half was a flop for scoring:

  • Stafford was hit for an intentional grounding at midfield on third down.
  • Hurts was intercepted in the end zone on a brilliant catch by Ahkello Witherspoon.
  • A screen to Puka on a third down at the Philadelphia 43 was blown up and nearly a lost fumble for the Rams.
  • The Eagles settled for a 26-yard field goal to take a 20-14 lead with 12:29 left to play.
  • Stafford missed a deep third down to Kupp, then the Eagles burned more clock for another field goal with 4:06 left.
  • Haason Reddick sacked Stafford on back-to-back plays, including a 4th-and-12 with 2:46 left.
  • Hurts converted another 3rd-and-1 with the sneak, but the Eagles were eventually stopped on a 4th-down run with only 61 seconds left.
  • The Rams were in no hurry to seriously try scoring as the clock expired with the ball inside their 40.

Just a brutal way to lose out on what looked like an easy over, but each team only had 8 possessions, and the Rams failed to score on their last 5. The Eagles had two field goal drives that consumed over 8:00 each. It was another efficient performance for a team that is rounding into shape, but they will have to play even better than this to knock off the 49ers in the NFC this year.

Titans at Colts: AFC South Dark Horse?

This one shocked me as I did not expect Zack Moss (195 scrimmage yards and 2 touchdowns) to be the dominant back in a game with Derrick Henry and Jonathan Taylor. In fact, I didn’t expect the Colts to run well at all against the Titans, who were allowing a league-low 2.9 yards per carry coming into Week 5.

That is what the Titans do going back some time now. They shut down the run and force you to throw, which is not something the Colts are cut out for like the old days. But they were proving that all wrong in this game as they ran the ball at will on the Titans with Moss getting most of the work as they eased Taylor back, and the passing game was solid with Gardner Minshew replacing an injured (again) Anthony Richardson. The Colts were 20-of-26 passing for 253 yards and only 1 sack. The Colts scored 23 points on 7 drives and gained at least 40 yards on their last 6 drives.

But the other side of the coin was the Tennessee running game, which stalled with 20 handoffs for 77 yards. Henry only had 43 yards and was stuffed on the play of the game on a 4th-and-1 at the Colts 5 in a 20-16 game with 8:03 left.

The Colts had an epic 14-play drive for a field goal that only left Ryan Tannehill a minute to drive 75 yards in a 23-16 game. Things were not going well, and he was intercepted with 10 seconds left to secure the win for the Colts, who are now 3-2.

This will go down as another low-scoring road loss for the Titans, but the game was more offensive than it looks with the tiny number of possessions for each team. But that just magnifies the 4th-down stop the Colts had on Henry.

With a game at Jacksonville next week where the Colts haven’t won since 2014, the team is in an odd position where they might be better with Minshew at quarterback than the rookie. But more than anything, they might have some real durability concerns with Richardson, who has already failed to finish 3 games due to 3 different injuries. He also missed a full game in Week 3 after a concussion. Maybe he can shake off these early injuries like Matthew Stafford did in Detroit years ago, but for now, Richardson is not someone the team can count on to stay in the game.

After what happened to end the careers of Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck in Indy, this is definitely a worrisome look. But Minshew is one of the best backups in the league, and the Colts already gave the Jaguars a tough game in Week 1.

Jets at Broncos: Hackett Gets the Last Laugh

Oh, did we learn some things in this one.

  • Sean Payton can talk the talk, but he can’t walk the walk anymore, going 0-3 at home to Jimmy Garoppolo, Sam Howell, and Zach Wilson.
  • Zach Wilson is not as good as Justin Fields at exploiting a terrible defense, but he played a serviceable game until a bad luck interception stuck to a defender late in the game.
  • Nathaniel Hackett and the Jets finally unleashed Breece Hall and he answered with 194 scrimmage yards and a touchdown.
  • Russell Wilson fell in love with scrambling and passes to running backs against this tough defense, but when push came to shove late in the game, he couldn’t find his wideouts to get a game-tying field goal.
  • Denver’s season is over at 1-4 with both Kansas City games coming up and a game with Buffalo soon.

Both offenses thrived on their running backs in this one. While not getting shredded by Zach Wilson was a triumph for the Denver defense, it was still a lousy game overall as the Jets piled up over 400 yards after driving for at least 40 yards on 7 straight drives to end the game.

But a late interception in field goal range gave Russell Wilson and the Broncos a chance from their own 3 in a 24-21 game with 2:14 left. Long field but plenty of time. Wilson did get the offense out to the 41, but with the Jets getting closer and closer in the fourth quarter, they finally got Wilson with a forced fumble that was picked up and returned for a touchdown to ice the game.

Should the Jets have gone down and kneeled it out to win 24-21? Probably, but you can tell it was personal for this team to stick it to Payton and the Broncos in their own building. It’s not like Wilson was going to put up 10 points in 29 seconds.

The better team won, and with the way Denver approached this must-win game, perhaps it is the better coaching staff too in New York. Hackett was unquestionably awful as Denver’s coach last year, but Payton is doing a shockingly bad job that could go down as being even worse.

I never would have guessed things would start this poorly for Denver this year. Fortunately, losing at home to Hackett and the Jets (without Aaron Rodgers) is probably the worst it can get this year. That’s saying something for a team that already had a game where it allowed 70 points and 726 yards.

Giants at Dolphins: Run Those Bums Off the Field

Look, the Giants are just trash. This team has played like shit for 9-of-10 halves this season, only coming back against Arizona’s nameless defense when that team was still formulating its tanking plan for Caleb Williams.

The Giants finally scored a first-half touchdown in this game, and of course it was on a 102-yard pick-six as Tua Tagovailoa got greedy before the half. A second interception in the third quarter also set up the Giants for a 4-yard field goal drive, so 10 of those points are directly on the Miami passing game.

But nothing says trash Giants team like a 10-play, 18-yard field goal drive in the fourth quarter. The Dolphins were able to cover the 13-point spread without playing anywhere near their A game.

But with these ridiculous speed demons on the field, how could they not beat the Giants by a couple of touchdowns? Miami had plays that gained 64, 69, and 76 yards, and it was basically all about the speed of Tyreek Hill and De’Von Achane. The latter now has a run of at least 55 yards in three straight games. He’s already a third of the way to Derrick Henry’s career total of 55-yard runs (9) and a quarter of the way to Chris Johnson (12). It’s Week 5 of his rookie year. His speed is just absurd to watch, and it is almost unfair that the league let Miami draft him in the third round.

Thanks to the explosive play of Achane and Hill, the Dolphins averaged 9.7 yards per play, a huge number we rarely see. Miami is the first team in NFL history to have two games in a season where the offense averaged at least 9.5 yards per play. Only five other offenses in the Super Bowl era had multiple games in a season averaging over 9.0 yards per play. Oddly enough, the 2018 Dolphins with a whole different cast was one of those teams.

Miami has averaged 8.31 yards per play over the last 5 games. The only team in NFL history with a better 5-game span was the 2000 Rams (8.51).

It looks like the 2000 Rams are the team these Dolphins are chasing in the record books. Miami’s 2,568 yards of offense are the most ever through 5 games in a season in NFL history, surpassing the 2000 Rams (2,527 yards).

But if you look at the 135 teams to have at least 2,000 yards of offense through 5 games, only 8 of those teams (5.9%) won the championship that season, and almost half of them only had to win one playoff game to do it back in the day (1941 Bears, 1951 Rams, 1958 Colts, 1988 49ers, 1995 Cowboys, 2009 Saints, 2019 Chiefs, and 2021 Rams).

For Miami’s sake, you want to be more like the 1999 or 2001 Rams than the 2000 team that had a horrible defense, turned the ball over too much, and lost a wild card game to the Saints. But the defense at least dominated the Giants, Daniel Jones left with a neck injury, and the Dolphins can beat up on a winless Carolina team next week to get to 5-1.

We’ll be history watching with this offense all season, but historically, this does not yet have the makings of a championship team. But that speed is sure fun to watch dominate the bad teams.

Texans at Falcons: Promising Day for Desmond Ridder

If you wanted a game with solid quarterback play and multiple lead changes, this is one of your only choices the last couple of weeks. Neither team was able to break 2.8 yards per carry, but their quarterbacks avoided turnovers. In fact, C.J. Stroud was able to set the record for most pass attempts without an interception to begin his career.

Stroud also did a more than respectable job in the first game-winning drive attempt of his career. Down 18-12, he engineered a 75-yard touchdown drive, finding tight end Dalton Schultz for an 18-yard score with 1:49 left to take a 19-18 lead.

The only knock you can make is that the Texans went 3-and-out on their previous drive, which led to an Atlanta field goal and 18-12 deficit. By only going up a point with so much time left, it left the Falcons some low-hanging fruit to simply get into range for a game-winning field goal with no time left.

That’s exactly what they did as Desmond Ridder had the best game of his NFL career with 329 passing yards on 28-of-37 passing. He also ran for a touchdown earlier in the game. Ridder ended up leading two go-ahead drives in this one, throwing a touchdown pass to Bijan Robinson early in the quarter and then he was 5-for-5 for 44 yards on the game-winning field goal drive. Younghoe Koo was good from 37 yards away with no time left in the 21-19 win.

It was a very good day for Ridder when you consider the running game was held to 86 yards on 32 carries. He finally got Kyle Pitts involved with a game-high 87 yards on 7-of-11 passing. He finished strong even after his teammates fumbled on back-to-back drives in the third quarter. The Falcons can win with a quarterback like this, but Ridder will have to show he can do it more often.

Saints at Patriots: Belichick Can’t Tell a Single Soul That His Soul’s Gone

I said this would be the worst New England team in the 21st century. But 34-0 at home to Derek Carr a week after losing 38-3 in Dallas? The 2023 Patriots are only the 9th team since the merger to lose back-to-back games by 34 points. The last to do it was the 2019 Dolphins, a team accused of tanking.

I doubt Bill Belichick is actively tanking when he’s trying to get the all-time wins record without getting fired by Robert Kraft first, but this is a mess. Mac Jones had 3 more turnovers, including another awful pick-six as the first score of the game, a 25-yard return by Tyrann Mathieu. The second interception was not his fault at all, but there are a lot of problems with this team now and Belichick is out of solutions.

For one, you need talent, and his roster might be battling Arizona for the worst talent in the league. When you take Matt Judon and Christian Gonzalez away from the defense, that leaves a very bland lineup that cannot provide the necessary carnage to give this weak offense a shot.

This game was over at halftime. The Patriots are the only team since 1991 to get shut out at home while going 1-for-14 (or worse) on third down. The 8 first downs are the fewest by the Patriots since Belichick took the job in 2000.

Can it get lower than this? The Patriots (1-4) go back to Las Vegas next week where Belichick can fall to 0-3 against Josh McDaniels in his career.

Panthers at Lions: By Air and Ground

The 2022 Lions had a respectable season, but one of the biggest eyesores was that 37-23 loss in Carolina where they were outrushed 320-45. On Sunday, the Lions got some revenge in a complete team effort, 42-24 win despite not having Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs available on offense.

But the Lions showed that their other draft picks and additions are more than enough to beat a bad Carolina team that has still never had a fourth-quarter lead this season. David Montgomery basically gave the middle finger to the Gibbs truthers with a 42-yard touchdown run on his first carry as he finished with another 109 yards on the ground. Rookie tight end Sam LaPorta scored two touchdowns and looks great.

The defense held Carolina to 99 rushing yards and picked off Bryce Young twice, including an incredible one-handed snag in the backfield by Aidan Hutchinson. I’m impressed with a defensive lineman who now has 4 interceptions in his first 22 games. Even J.J. Watt only had 3 of those in his career, and that includes his memorable pick-6 off Andy Dalton in a playoff game his rookie year (2011 AFC wild card).

The Lions (4-1) are doing very well and will get a decent road test in Tampa Bay next week. It is too early to talk 0-17 for the Panthers (0-5), but with a trip to Miami next, you can count on 0-6 going into the bye. But they’ll have shots against the Texans/Colts/Bears out of that to get their first win.

Next week: Quick turnaround for the wounded Chiefs as they look to make it 16 in a row against Denver on Thursday night. You will not get me up early to watch Titans-Ravens overseas. Seahawks-Bengals got much more interesting with the Cincinnati one, and I have no idea which team to trust in that one. I’m sure Nick Bosa will be in rare form against Deshaun Watson, and with the Eagles facing the Jets, I think there’s a solid shot we have two 6-0 teams in a week.  

NFL Stat Oddity: Week 1

~ Scott ~ 20 Comments

In framing the 2023 NFL season as the year of uncertainty, I at least thought there would be more points in Week 1. Only a fantastic, back-and-forth game between the Chargers and Dolphins saw both teams score more than 21 points this week. If the Jets-Bills game on Monday night does not do that, then it will be the first time since 2008 that Week 1 had just one game where both teams surpassed 21 points.

Forget points. What about seeing more teams with 200 net passing yards? Many quarterbacks failed to pass for 150 yards this week, making it feel like a trip back several decades on Sunday. The sacks in many games contributed heavily to the low yardage.

There were 18 teams that failed to hit 200 net passing yards in Week 1 with one game to go. That’s almost half the total from the last 4 seasons combined for Week 1 (35). It is the most since 19 teams did it in 2008.

There were 11 quarterbacks with a QBR under 30.0, which is more than the last two seasons combined (10) in Week 1.

These performances suddenly make Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs (minus Travis Kelce) look not so bad in Thursday night’s loss against Detroit. Hell, the Bengals just lost 24-3 in Cleveland. If the Bills lose on Monday night, that would be 0-3 for the top teams in the conference.

While the AFC has the better quarterbacks and deeper pool of contenders, the NFC elite just may be the three best overall teams in the NFL. They were flexing early on Sunday too:

  • The 49ers led 20-0 in Pittsburgh before winning 30-7
  • The Eagles led 16-0 in New England before hanging on 25-20
  • The Cowboys routed the Giants 40-0 in New York

That was a combined 76-0 start for those teams before they allowed any points. We’ll see how the Jets and Bills look Monday night, but this was a great week for the NFC’s best teams and a lot of question marks for the many AFC contenders.

Maybe these teams need to start going back to playing more starters in the preseason games. Things were looking rather sloppy in a lot of these games. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni already said he’ll reevaluate their preseason approach next year.

Glad the NFL is back but this was not that memorable of an opening weekend. I predicted Chargers-Dolphins would be Sunday’s top game, so hopefully my prediction for Jets-Bills being an instant classic works out too. In all, 9 games this week had a comeback opportunity, which is pretty normal. However, not a single team came back from a double-digit deficit to win, which happened at least once every week last regular season when 50 teams did so (NFL record).

Dolphins at Chargers: Game of the Week

After writing 6,750 words for a week I just said wasn’t that memorable, I saved the best game for last, and yet I don’t have that much to say about it. What can you say about a shootout with so many lead changes where neither team ever led by more than 7 points? It’s great.

After arguably the worst passing game of his career against the Chargers last year, Tua Tagovailoa had what I think is the best passing game in his NFL career on Sunday. He passed for 466 yards and 3 touchdowns, and he made some really stellar throws in big spots.

Of course, Tyreek Hill was also spectacular with 215 yards and 2 touchdowns, including the game winner on a perfect throw with 1:45 left. That put the Dolphins up 36-34 after the extra point failed, which should have been a huge deal, but new coordinator Vic Fangio’s defense made sure it wasn’t.

As for the Chargers, it was an odd game offensively that also reversed the script from last year’s 23-17 win over Miami when Justin Herbert had a career-high 39 completions. This time, Herbert only attempted 33 passes while the Chargers rushed for 234 yards, only the third time in the Herbert era they have rushed for 200 yards.

The first game with Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator produced great rushing results, which is exciting to think about the potential from when this team is not playing a passing game that can be as lethal as speedy Miami.

But for all the good things the Chargers did, there were some Chargering moments that caught up with them.

  • After tying the game with 9 seconds left in the first half, the Chargers let Miami get off two big passes, and J.C. Jackson was penalized 30 yards for defensive pass interference on the second one, leading to a 41-yard field goal with no time left as Miami took a 20-17 lead into the locker room.
  • Even when Jackson tried to redeem himself with his first interception in a Chargers uniform in the third quarter, he returned it from 5 yards deep in the end zone, sticking his offense at their own 4 instead of a touchback. That led to a three-and-out (nearly a safety on a Herbert sack) and set up a 35-yard field for Miami’s offense, which instantly struck with a Hill touchdown after he burned Jackson (eventful day).
  • Down 36-34 with 1:45 left, the game-winning drive attempt quickly went to waste after Herbert was penalized for intentional grounding on what looked like a busted play. He was then sacked to bring up 3rd-and-29, got a chunk, then took a game-ending sack on 4th-and-12 after Fangio sent heat.

Game over. The Chargers join the 1963 Vikings (against Johnny Unitas’ Colts) as the only teams in NFL history to score at least 34 points, rush for 200 yards, and have zero turnovers in a home loss. Teams are now 165-2 when they do those things in a game.

The Chargers technically blew another one, but Miami was worthy of winning this game. Tua and Hill were as good as ever. In a sea of bad games, this was a spectacle you had to see.

49ers at Steelers: The Preseason Is a Lie, Part I

While I did like the Steelers as an upset pick, there was a thought in my mind all week that their preseason results are going to blow up spectacularly in their face this September. Watch them go from scoring 5 touchdowns on 5 possessions with the starting offense in August to being one of September’s lowest-scoring teams.

Sure enough, the Steelers played awful football and only managed a touchdown drive before halftime in a 30-7 loss, the biggest margin of defeat at home in Mike Tomlin’s career.

It took the Steelers six possessions before they could even get their initial first down. By then, they were already down 20-0. Brock Purdy looked outstanding and had the week’s highest QBR (91.3). His chemistry with Brandon Aiyuk looked stronger than anything the Steelers had going with Kenny Pickett and his receivers.

This game also was a great reminder why no defensive player should ever seriously be in MVP consideration. T.J. Watt was an absolute beast with 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles, nearly stealing a ball from Purdy in the first half. But his contributions aside, the Steelers were crushed on defense with Christian McCaffrey breaking a 65-yard touchdown run behind some key blocks just 2 plays into the third quarter. The Steelers never put up a real fight after that knockout punch.

Pickett was sacked 5 times and threw just 1 touchdown on 46 attempts as that continues to be a struggle for him. Watching Purdy make a cut on a 3rd-and-12 scramble to convert for a first down had me chuckling that this guy could go last in the draft and the other guy was the first quarterback off the board. It was a total mismatch from the first snap.

So, the burning question: Are the 49ers this good or are the Steelers this bad? Time will tell, but this should be a wake-up call for the Steelers at how far they have to go to get back to being Super Bowl contenders. Last year, the Steelers were annihilated 38-3 by Buffalo and 35-13 by Philadelphia, two Super Bowl contenders like the 49ers look to be again. Otherwise, the Steelers were in all other games last year. But when they face a legitimately elite team, they really don’t stand a chance yet.

The AFC North race can turn on its head next week when the Ravens face the Bengals and the Steelers host the Browns, who held Cincinnati to 3 points. These teams could do a 180 in those division games, but if the Steelers can’t score against Cleveland either, then the “Fire Matt Canada” chants will get louder and louder.

But on Sunday, the Steelers had far more issues than just their offensive coordinator. I wouldn’t push the panic button on the streak of non-losing seasons coming to an end, but the preseason is a lie, and we should really stop paying attention to it.

Eagles at Patriots: Good Enough to Lose Close

Similar to the Cowboys-Giants game later Sunday night, it looked like the Patriots were going to get run out of their building because they couldn’t stop turning the ball over in the rain. Mac Jones was off on a pass that was deflected and returned 70 yards for a touchdown. Then Ezekiel Elliott christened his New England debut with a fumble on the next play, giving the Eagles a short field and another touchdown for a quick 16-0 lead.

Didn’t it used to be the Patriots who took over games like this? But the weather improved, and so did Jones’ accuracy. He threw some of his better passes of his career in this game, and the Patriots were back in it, down 16-14 at halftime.

It was a strange game for the Eagles. It took a long time for Jalen Hurts to break 100 passing yards (finished with 170). The running game was nowhere near as dominant as it usually is in the first game without Miles Sanders. Dallas Goedert did not have a catch.

The Patriots mostly outplayed the Eagles (382-251 in yards, 24-17 in first downs), but those pesky turnovers that have hurt them in so many games like this since 2020 were decisive again.

Still, the Patriots continued to hang around even after the Eagles led 25-14 with 5:33 left. Jones threw another touchdown to Kendrick Bourne, but a crucial 2-point conversion run by Jones was wiped out for a holding penalty. The end of this game looks much different if it was 25-22 instead of 25-20, because the Eagles were not able to close things out. Hurts immediately fumbled on the next play, which sounds like the New England we used to know. But the Patriots went four-and-out after a sack blew up the drive.

The Eagles again failed to end it after Hurts was incomplete on a 4th-and-2 pass at the New England 44 with 1:57 left. That set the stage for Jones, who was doing well until rookie Jalen Carter recorded his first NFL sack. A failed completion set up a tough 4th-and-11 at the Philadelphia 20. Jones threw a solid pass to the sideline to sixth-round rookie Kayshon Boutte. The initial TV angle made it look like a conversion, but the instant replay showed he clearly did not get both feet down. I’m not sure how the sideline judge blew that one, but replay got it correct, and the game was over. Another one-score loss for Belichick against a team that is likely still a top contender.

Jones is 1-9 (.100) at 4QC/GWD opportunities, the worst record among active starters (min. 10 games). This was one of his better attempts, but the end result was still another loss. For the coach who could seemingly do no wrong in games like this – this is Belichick’s 100th career loss in a game with a game-winning drive opportunity – the Patriots are only good enough now to lose close games against teams like this.

Cowboys at Giants: The Walking Dead

When the Giants lose, they at least leave no doubt who the inferior team was. If you thought the 38-7 playoff loss to Philadelphia was bad, the Giants basically knocked themselves out with a 16-0 first quarter in the rain against Dallas on Sunday night.

It was so bad I took a power nap in the second quarter and started watching the Daryl Dixon spin-off series for The Walking Dead universe at halftime. The Giants were fine for about 5 minutes, then they were hit with a false start, a fumbled snap, and a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown.

Later, Daniel Jones tried a short pass to Saquon Barkley on a 3rd-and-19, and he was popped, releasing the ball and that too was returned for a pick-six. This meant light work for the Dallas offense as Dak Prescott, who is 11-0 against the Giants since 2017, only threw for 143 yards on 24 passes. Jones ended up taking 7 sacks as the Cowboys looked incredible on defense. The Giants had 5 fumbles in the rain but were fortunate to only lose 1. The Cowboys protected the ball much better.

I think we already knew from last year that there was a gulf between these teams with the Cowboys and Eagles outscoring the Giants 78-7 over the last 8 quarters of meaningful action. But this was still a shockingly one-sided performance. The Giants are just the 12th team in the Super Bowl era (1966-present) to lose by 40 points in Week 1. They are the 5th team to lose by a shutout of at least 40 points.

Dallas is my NFC Super Bowl team, so I’m cool with that after one game. But the Giants unfortunately will be in prime time in 3 more games by Week 6, including trips to the 49ers and Bills.

I guess I’ll just have to find more TV shows to watch at halftime.

Bengals at Browns: $500 Million for These Quarterbacks?

You have to love the battle of Ohio this decade:

  • Since 2020, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski is now 6-1 against Bengals coach Zac Taylor, including a 5-1 record in games against Joe Burrow, who just signed the biggest contract in NFL history at $55 million per season ($275M total).
  • Stefanski always gets big quarterback production against the Bengals except for the last two games when Deshaun Watson was his starter, who is supposed to be his best quarterback after the Browns gave him a record deal worth $230M fully guaranteed.
  • On Sunday, these quarterbacks played in a game with 29 combined drives and just one drive gained more than 45 yards.

Burrow and the Bengals had a rough Week 1 loss against the Steelers last year too when he turned it over 5 times and took 7 sacks. But at least the Bengals eventually moved the ball in that one and would have won the game if not for an emergency long snapper situation botching two game-winning kicks from short distance.

This was just brutal as Burrow, who had a calf strain in preseason, finished 14-of-31 for 82 yards. He was sacked twice – Myles Garrett took him down on a 4th-and-4 in the fourth quarter – and the Bengals were 2-for-15 on third down. Cincinnati saw enough of Burrow and benched him with 5:15 left while still keeping Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Mixon in the game with the starters. Mixon’s 22-yard run in the second quarter was the only Cincinnati play that gained more than 12 yards. Burrow was 0-for-8 on passes to Tee Higgins.

Was the calf that bad, should Burrow have sat out and waited to face Baltimore next week, or does Cleveland just own him? Time will tell what exactly happened here, but this was a shockingly awful performance.

Burrow is just the 8th quarterback to throw more than 30 passes and gain no more than 82 yards:

  • Paul Christman (1945 Cardinals at Lions): 7/36 for 80 yards
  • Jack Concannon (1969 Bears vs. Lions): 12/35 for 79 yards
  • Dieter Brock (1985 Rams at Bears, playoff game): 10/31 for 66 yards
  • Stan Gelbaugh (1992 Seahawks vs. Eagles): 9/31 for 66 yards
  • Kordell Stewart (1998 Steelers at Dolphins): 11/35 for 82 yards
  • Chris Weinke (2001 Panthers vs. Jets): 12/34 for 76 yards
  • Ryan Lindley (2012 Cardinals at Jets): 10/31 for 72 yards

Rough company. The Browns did not fare great through the air themselves, but anything looked better than Cincinnati’s effort. The Browns rushed for 206 yards with Watson (45 yards and a score) doing some of his best work with his legs.

We’ll see how the Bengals respond to this, because things are not getting any easier with Baltimore coming to town for a big showdown.

Buccaneers at Vikings: Close-Game Regression Begins

And so, it begins. After going 11-0 in close games and 8-0 at 4QC/GWD opportunities in the 2022 regular season, things were going to catch up with Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings this year. It only took one game against Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers, but they finally lost a close game in the regular season too under O’Connell.

Justin Jefferson was still great with 150 yards, and rookie teammate Jordan Addison had a 39-yard touchdown to make a name for himself early. But Alexander Mattison did not fare well in replacing Dalvin Cook as he was held to 44 yards on 14 touches. The offensive line had a rough start with Cousins losing a fumble on an aborted snap and strip-sack. Cousins also had a big red-zone pick before halftime in a 10-10 game, a sour note on a half where he threw for 273 yards.

As the Vikings showed us in 2022, the margins between winning and losing can be razor thin in the NFL. Last year, things usually went right for the Vikings in tight games. This time, they were offside on a field goal that led to a first down and a touchdown pass from Baker to take a 17-10 lead.

While the Vikings tied things up to put themselves in line for another 4QC, the offense went three-and-out on its last two drives. The last one was short-circuited quickly by a 4-yard loss on a completion to tight end T.J. Hockenson, who had 8 catches for only 35 yards.

Props to the Buccaneers for being aggressive. They went for a 4th-and-1 at their own 32 in a tied game, and Baker converted on a sneak. The drive eventually stalled, but Chase McLaughlin made a clutch 57-yard field goal to take a 20-17 lead with 5:10 left.

The Buccaneers scored 20 points on the road one time all last year, and that included a pick-six in New Orleans. In one start with Baker replacing Tom Brady, they did it Sunday in Minnesota. But it was Baker’s legs again finishing the game in the 4-minute offense after he scrambled for a first down on a 3rd-and-3. Three plays later, Chris Godwin made a nice catch to convert 3rd-and-10 and ice the win.

I’m not sure the Buccaneers can win many more games with this offensive output, but this remains the formula for the team. Just keep it close into the fourth quarter. This won’t be the last time the 2023 Vikings drop one of these games they would have won last year.

Raiders at Broncos: Sean Payton Matches Nathaniel Hackett’s Debut in Score But Not Hilarity

No teams played more close games (15 each) or blew more fourth-quarter leads last year than the Raiders (6) and Broncos (5). Sure enough, they were in another tight game as neither team led by more than 7 points.

But just like Nathaniel Hackett a year ago, Sean Payton lost his opener with Russell Wilson at quarterback by a 17-16 final. At least this time the offense was getting the plays in on time at the goal line, and they did not try to win the game on a 64-yard field goal.

However, the results and some execution were still underwhelming. If you can name the most famous call of Payton’s career in New Orleans, you would pick the surprise onside kick in Super Bowl 44. To make an immediate impression on the Denver crowd, the Broncos started the season with a surprise onside. It would have worked if not for an illegal touch penalty, so the Raiders had a short field to score a touchdown to start the game.

The reason this 17-16 score is way different from last year’s loss in Seattle is that this was a very offensive game with a combined 13 possessions between the two teams. One of those was a kneeldown by the Raiders with 12 seconds left to get to halftime, so it was really 6 possessions per team for a total of 12 drives, a massive outlier. In fact, it might be the fewest possessions in a game in NFL history. The one I used to always point to for that was 2006 Colts at Texans, but that had 13 total possessions that weren’t kneeldowns. Raiders at Browns in 2020 also had 13 possessions.

Mistakes get magnified in a game like this with so few possessions. The only two complete drives in the third quarter saw the Broncos miss a 55-yard field goal and Jimmy Garoppolo made his only big mistake with a red-zone pick as Denver led 13-10.

But the Broncos settled for another field goal to lead 16-10, and Garoppolo did his thing on a 75-yard touchdown drive to take the lead with 6:34 left. Jakobi Meyers caught his second score on the day.

Wilson was not terrible with the 6 drives he had, but usually when he completes 27-of-34 passes, you expect more than 177 yards. Fittingly, a failed completion ended up being the offense’s last snap as an 8-yard gain on 3rd-and-11 was not enough to convert. Denver punted and the Raiders had 5:08 to burn, hanging onto a 17-16 lead.

The Raiders blew these games time after time last year, but this could be an area where Josh McDaniels trusts Garoppolo more than he did Derek Carr. On a big 3rd-and-8, Garoppolo went back to the hot man in Meyers, and he was tackled short on a nasty hit that would have brought up 4th-and-1 at midfield.

I have to say I understood where the defender (Kareem Jackson) was coming from there. If he doesn’t hit Meyers hard, the Raiders convert, and the game is all but over. It had to be a significant hit to stop his force short, and it was just an unfortunate collision that left Meyers down for some time. But he was able to get up and should be okay, thankfully. I’m just not sure what the defender can do better in that split second as he was just trying to save the game, not injure anyone.

The penalty for the hit gave the Raiders a first down. On a 3rd-and-7, Garoppolo showed some good patience and scrambled for 8 yards to ice the game and hand Payton a 17-16 loss in his first game with Denver, possibly a game with the fewest possessions in NFL history.

The Broncos tie the Raiders for the most blown fourth-quarter leads since 2022 with 6 a piece. We’ll see how things go with Wilson going forward, but the lack of possessions did produce a misleading final score. Still, it was a case of Denver coming up short again with this quarterback (no pun intended).

Packers at Bears: The Old Familiar Sting

Silly me. I thought early in the week that the Bears and Packers would play a fun, exciting game where both young quarterbacks played well, signifying a new beginning after decades of the Packers walking over this team with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. Then once I saw that Christian “String Cheese Ligaments” Watson was out and Romeo Doubs was questionable, I changed my pick to the Bears, the team I spent the most time researching why they likely won’t have a good year as some thought.

Sure enough, the Packers rolled them 38-20 in Chicago. Those big YAC plays the Bears had in the preseason that I said wouldn’t translate to the real games, the Packers had a few of them in this game as Aaron Jones went off for 86 receiving yards on 2 catches. He finished with 127 yards from scrimmage and 2 touchdowns to lead the Packers.

Jordan Love was solid in his first Week 1 start, but I would say his stat line (15-of-27 for 245 yards, 3 TD) was one of the more misleading ones in Week 1 because of the YAC. But he did a good job.

Justin Fields technically had one of his better passing lines (24-of-37 for 216 yards), but he still took 4 sacks, and he threw a pick-six that was an awful throw turned into a touchdown by an incredible effort from Quay Walker on defense. The Bears were down 24-6 with a minute to go in the third quarter before they finally found the end zone, so it was not a good game for this unit again.

It was bad for both sides of the ball, which was my whole issue with Chicago. How does a team that ranked dead last in passing and defense get so much better without making a change at quarterback, head coach, or either coordinator? Oh, Fields was 2-of-2 for 25 yards to D.J. Moore. The question is why not more targets? Moore had as many targets as Chase Claypool, who finished without a catch.

Will be interesting to see where these teams go from here, but Sunday was that old familiar sting of the Packers beating the Bears and looking better off at quarterback in the process.

Jaguars at Colts: Encouraging Signs from Both Teams

For the first time in 12 meetings, the home team did not win in Jaguars vs. Colts. But division games can be unpredictable, especially in Week 1. My research early in the week on this game showed that since 2009, Week 1 road favorites in division games were 5-22 ATS and 9-16-2 SU – truly abysmal records.

But I still went with the Jaguars, and frankly, the Colts should have covered. It was not the kind of performance I would say is repeatable for the Colts, because they scored a ridiculous fumble touchdown after many players gave up on the play thinking it was an incomplete pass, and tall receiver Michael Pittman Jr. scored a 39-yard touchdown on a WR screen. Not the kind of play you’d expect from him.

But Anthony Richardson, the “raw” prospect in the draft behind more polished, accomplished passers Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud, had the best debut among the three rookie quarterbacks on Sunday. Richardson was 24-of-37 for 223 yards and that screen touchdown. He did take 4 sacks but only lost 8 yards on them. He also rushed for 40 yards and a touchdown, and he probably would have ran for a second to cover the spread late in the game if he didn’t pull up injured. It will hopefully be nothing serious.

For the Jaguars, they had some shaky moments, but Trevor Lawrence was able to lead the game-winning drive after falling behind 21-17. Calvin Ridley lived up to the hype in his team debut, catching 8 passes for 101 yards and a touchdown. But the teams were a combined 5-for-24 on 3rd down, keeping it a close game for most of the way.

Richardson threw his only pick right after the Colts fell behind in the fourth quarter, which is the kind of rookie mistake you expect. Without Jonathan Taylor, the Colts had no running game besides their rookie quarterback. Deon Jackson turned in an epic trash performance with 13 carries for 14 yards and a pair of lost fumbles. Even his 5 catches only produced 14 yards.

If they can work something out with Taylor and get Jelani Woods healthy at tight end, Richardson will have a more formidable offense around him. But I think after the season the Colts had with Jeff Saturday, looking semi-competent against the division favorite was a respectable job by coach Shane Steichen.

Let’s see how these Jaguars fare when they get a chance to drop the Chiefs to 0-2 next week.

Texans at Ravens: Pour One Out for J.K.

Not sure how much you can really say about Baltimore’s 25-9 workmanlike win over Houston. The defense only forced rookie C.J. Stroud into one turnover, but they also did not let him find the end zone. In his debut in Todd Monken’s new offense, Lamar Jackson did not have an MVP-caliber start to his season with 4 sacks and no touchdown passes or runs, but the connection to rookie Zay Flowers was already looking good (9-of-10 for 78 yards).

The Ravens avoided a close finish with a rebuilding Houston team, but injuries continue to be a problem. They already played this game without corner Marlon Humphrey and tight end Mark Andrews, and they lost top running back J.K. Dobbins to a torn Achilles. It is a brutal blow to a young back who already has a broken fibula (college) and torn ACL (2021) in his past. The Ravens also may have lost safety Marcus Williams to a torn pec (results pending).

This team, my Super Bowl pick, just needs to stay healthy because there is a path for them in this AFC. They will be in Cincinnati next Sunday in a big one with a chance to drop the Bengals to 0-2.

Rams at Seahawks: The Other Embarrassing NFC Wild Card Team Loss on Sunday

Just to recap, earlier this summer I was all in on picking the Rams and Seahawks to swap places in the NFC West this year. The Seahawks had to come back in the fourth quarter twice to sweep the Rams last year, Geno Smith is usually bad at comebacks, and the Rams did not have their 3 best players in either game. It was that close to both teams finishing 7-10.

But the Seahawks won those games, made the playoffs as the No. 7 seed, and I still wasn’t feeling them this year and predicted a losing record. But the Rams’ roster shocked me when I realized how many people they were missing as it really is a team where Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp play catch while Aaron Donald lines up with 10 NPCs. Then Kupp landed on IR and I couldn’t even name the receiver Stafford ended up dominating with in one of the more surprising final scores this weekend.

I really thought this game was either Seahawks win by 17 or Rams win a close one this time. But the second half reversal was stunning as the Rams outscored Seattle 23-0 after halftime. It wasn’t a dominant ground game either as the backs finished with 37 carries for 81 yards (3 short touchdowns too).

Stafford looked healthy and vintage with 334 yards passing, including 119 yards each to two receivers you wouldn’t count on to do that (Puka Nacua and Tutu Atwell). I never even heard of Nacua, a 5th-round rookie, until Sunday.

Almost as importantly, Stafford was never sacked. That was a huge problem for the Rams last year when they were dealing with elite fronts in bad losses to the Bills, 49ers, and Cowboys. But against the Seahawks, Stafford was clean and dealing. Meanwhile, Geno passed for 112 yards for the entire game, continuing the late-season slump from 2022.

Sean McVay has gotten the best of Pete Carroll for years now, but without a healthy Stafford last year, he couldn’t finish the job in those losses. I’m not sure the Rams can sustain this when they play non-division games, but it was an impressive road win to start the season when many felt this team was heading to a race with Arizona for the bottom of the league.

But Seattle may have its own share of issues to deal with this season.

Panthers at Falcons: Bijan Robinson’s OROY Campaign Starts Well

The top quarterback (Bryce Young) and top running back (Bijan Robinson) in this year’s draft met as rivals for the first time. Not surprisingly, the one playing the easier position had the better day in a 24-10 win as Robinson’s first touchdown saw him break 3 tackles. It was not a play many backs in this league would make, so again, I concede the Falcons for being one of the only teams in a league who could justify drafting him at No. 8. At least we know they’ll use him.

But were they already using him too much? Robinson had 13 touches on the team’s first 28 plays. He actually finished with fewer touches than Tyler Allgeier (18 to 16), who scored a pair of touchdowns and led the team with 75 rushing yards. But wide receiver Drake London had no catches on 1 target and tight end Kyle Pitts only had a couple of catches for 44 yards. Desmond Ridder was 15-of-18 passing but for only 115 yards. They seem to be hiding him just as much as they did Marcus Mariota last year.

We’ll give the young offense time to grow, but I think the reason you end up in a 10-10 game going into the fourth quarter with Carolina is the lack of passing and the points that come in the passing game. The Falcons were also 2-of-10 on third downs. But a 21-yard run by Bijan, by far his best running play, set up Allgeier for the game-winning touchdown to break a tie with 14:12 left.

The Panthers have now lost 51 straight games when trailing in the fourth quarter, including an 0-30 record at 4QC opportunities (down 1-8 points with the ball).

Young did not have a good debut, finishing 20-of-38 for 146 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT. Safety Jessie Bates had a strong debut for Atlanta in making both picks. Young said after the game he needs to see the depth of the safety better, and hopefully that’s not an inference to his height being a factor in not seeing that. But he definitely had a tough job without DJ Chark available, and no passing offense in 2023 should be trying to go through tight end Hayden Hurst, who had a team-high 7 catches and caught Young’s first NFL touchdown pass.

A 16-yard scramble in the third quarter was Young’s longest play of the day. There should be better days ahead, but for now, this was the result Atlanta wanted. Bijan looking good and the defense taking advantage of a limited, inexperienced offense.

This is how they win in the NFC South this year.

Titans at Saints: Derek Carr Has a Defense, Take 1

This game and Broncos-Raiders were the easiest calls for games that were going to be decided by 1-8 points this week. But the expected low-scoring battle was even lower with the teams trading field goals.

Derek Carr made his Saints debut, and this really is the ideal setup for him. A soft division where he can be the best quarterback, solid weapons, a real defense for a change, and a shockingly easy schedule. Keep the games close and he can pull out several close wins to get this team a home playoff game in January.

The first test passed, but he did have some bad moments like a pick before halftime in scoring range, which maybe was karma for getting away with what looked like a fumble return touchdown on an earlier field goal drive.

But Ryan Tannehill was not doing himself many favors in keeping the calls for rookie Will Levis quiet. Not only did he toss 3 interceptions, but he missed some big plays down the field too.

Despite trailing 16-9 going into the fourth quarter, the Titans kept settling for field goals. You can definitely question Mike Vrabel on the last one as he went for a 29-yard field goal on a 4th-and-6 at the 11 with three timeouts left. With the offense struggling to move the ball, why not just take that chance for a 6-yard gain when you’re already deep in the red zone? Maybe you convert and go on to take the lead with a touchdown. If you fail, you still have the 4 clock stoppages to get the ball back, and even with the field goal, you still need to force a 3-and-out (or turnover) to get the ball back in a 16-15 game.

Vrabel is usually aggressive, but after going a league-worse 0-6 in 4QC/GWD attempts last year, maybe he is just getting conservative. All I know is the Titans remain a defense that is great at stopping the run and forces you to throw a lot against them. The Saints took advantage on a 3rd-and-6 when Carr had Rashid Shaheed, an underrated and underutilized weapon last year, running wide open for a big 41-yard gain. The throw and catch both could have been a little better as Shaheed’s momentum carried him out of bounds to stop the clock, and he almost didn’t control it with two feet in. But big play there.

On a 3rd-and-4 to ice it, the Saints broke one of their only good runs of the day, but Jamaal Williams had the ball knocked out after he was past the sticks. Fortunately, the bounce went the Saints’ way, and they were able to kneel out the clock.

We’ll need to see some more points on the board from this offense, but if Michael Thomas can stay healthy with Chris Olave, they seem to have a trio here now with Shaheed finishing with 89 yards and a touchdown.

Carr was 3-48 with the Raiders when he failed to score at least 17 points, so this 16-15 win is unfamiliar territory for him. We’ll see how often they do things like this in 2023, because the rest of the division did not show a lot of scoring prowess on Sunday either.

Cardinals at Commanders: The Preseason Is a Lie, Part II

To conclude the week and the reminder that the preseason is a lie, Washington was the other team I let myself get tricked by based on August results. Some of my favorite prop picks and parlay builders all week were Sam Howell over 1.5 touchdown passes (+154), Jahar Dotson touchdown, and Dotson going over 43.5 yards (or whatever it was) in a comfortable, 7-point cover for the Commanders at home against lowly Arizona.

But none of it worked out. The Commanders barely got the win, needing a strip-sack from Josh Dobbs – he seems to have an issue with these – to set up a short, 29-yard field going into the fourth quarter with the team down 16-10. Howell scrambled for the go-ahead touchdown, then the defense finished the job the rest of the way as Dobbs had 3 fumbles (2 lost) in the game.

But I thought this was setting up perfectly for Howell to shine against this defense and generate all those headlines about how the Chiefs miss Eric Bieniemy as their offensive coordinator when the reality is they miss Travis Kelce and having any wide receiver who can catch a ball.

This was not good, because I thought they would attack Arizona with short, decisive passing, yet Howell showed his inexperience and took 6 sacks, including a brutal fumble for a touchdown where he was trying too hard. The run game only averaged 3.3 yards per carry too.

The Commanders got the 20-16 win, but this should have been a layup instead of a struggle. If this is how they are going to play Arizona, then I am already having some regrets going with 7 wins for Washington. Arizona may also win more than 2 games if that defense can keep up the pass rush.

But it is only Week 1 and teams shake off bad starts all the time. The only problem is we used to have some assurance that they would bounce back when it was Aaron Rodgers having a brutal game (2021 vs. Saints), the Patriots melting down in the Miami heat, or the Saints losing a shootout in the Superdome on opening day.

As the great Michael Irvin once said, we’re losing recipes.

We are dealing with a lot of new coaches and quarterbacks around the league. Rookie quarterbacks were 0-3 and new coaches were 0-5 on Sunday. Some of them are going to figure it out, and some showed their true colors on Sunday.

Strap in as this is going to be another odd season.