I have said it before, but this time it's real I swear. The league is finally settling down. The better teams won this week and the bad teams lost this week. Bad quarterback played like bad quarterbacks and although this week was fairly predictable, it was nice to have a normal week. That's why in the rankings this week you'll see that not much has changed at the back end and the top end. The middle had some movement, including putting some teams higher than I'd like (and that I'll most likely regret). Anyway here are this weeks rankings, as usual I don't change the ranking of teams who don't play which is partially why some teams are pretty high. They'll drop again quickly once the Steelers and Packers begin to play again, unless they lose.
32. Oakland Raiders. Nothing to see this week from them.
31. Arizona Cardinals. I expected the Cardinals to lose this game and for their offense to be poor, but not this poor. Like is tradition on most Thursday nights one team plays well and the other gets blown out. It was the Cardinals' turn to have that happen to them this week. I really didn’t take away anything positive for this team on Thursday. Maybe they can turn it around next week against the Niners.
30. New York Giants. The Giants are a unique combination of bad and depressing to watch play football. If not for Odell Beckham Jr. then this team would have no hope, specifically on offense. Their big issue is that they constantly fall behind early and are forced to throw the ball which takes away Saquon Barkley, one of their best offensive weapons. Then if they cant get the ball to OBJ, they punt the ball and their defense plays just poorly enough to give up some sort of score by the opposing team. This is the life of a Giants fan. This is why they are nearly dead last.
29. Buffalo Bills. The Bills are bad, really, really bad. However, for those keeping track at home we have a Quarterback controversy after this weekend! Derek Anderson or Nathan Peterman? Or play Josh Allen who's still hurt?? Three QBs who all are set up to fail and all ones who shouldn’t want to play. Also your defense got a safety this week! High five!! I bet Vontae Davis wishes he was playing now.
28. San Francisco 49ers. I feel like it's not even fair to criticize the 49ers each week because they are so depleted on both sides of the ball and no matter what they do to prepare for teams during the week, they don’t have the chance to win because of their talent. I'll just move on from them now.
27. Indianapolis Colts. I'm happy for the Colts! They have had a brutal schedule so far this year and have lost a multitude of close competitive games. I'm glad to see they got an easy win at home against a bad team. The Colts are a classic team whose record is worse than the team actually is. They lost a close game to the Eagles, a OT game to the Texans and a tough game in New England. They have a fortunate schedule coming up over the next three weeks as they face the Raiders, Jaguars, and Titans again. That being said they'll still probably go 1-2 during this stretch because I am high on them.
26. Seahawks. Did not play.
25. Cleveland Browns. They started off poorly but rallied back…and like usual found a way to lose the game in the end. The Brown's hypothetical record is now 0-1-6.
24. New York Jets. The Jets looked like a team who didn’t want to wake up for this game and didn’t look like they were prepared to play. This starts with Sam Darnold who regressed back to being a rookie as he threw three interceptions and posted a horrendous QBR of 5.9. I don’t want to even say anything positive about them this week.
23. Tennessee Titans. I respect their decision to go for 2 down 1 with :30 seconds left, but I didn’t like their play call in that situation. I thought a simple pass play was the wrong call and I would have used something that integrated Mariota's legs more and allowed him to create a play. The Chargers were just able to sit back in their zone coverage which took away any realistic shot the Titans had to win the game. This was an exciting game and the Titans needed to win this game. They are now second in the conference as the Texans have won 4 in a row and the Titans' schedule is as follows: at Dallas, vs New England, at Indianapolis. Certainly all winnable games, but this season could get ugly quickly if they can't get a win soon.
22. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Their poor defense actually played well in the first half and made the Browns look bad until the Browns got going in the 2nd half. Winston looked okay and the Buccaneers snuck away with a win in OT that should have been secured by the end of the 3rd quarter.
21. Dallas Cowboys. Good news: You now have Amari Cooper. Bad news: he can't help you last Sunday's game and you still lost to the Redskins because of a frankly (confusing?) call. The referees called the Cowboys' long snapper for a "snap infraction" because he moved the ball underneath his hand before snapping which caused a Redskins player to move. This made a 47 yard field goal a 52 yard one and was just enough for Dallas' kicker Brett Maher to miss. This call was a surprise to everyone and I personally didn’t see anything that would trigger this penalty. This is a tough pill to swallow for the Cowboys, but at least you have the bye week to regroup and Amari Cooper to help your offense going forward.
20. Atlanta Falcons. Matt Ryan put together some really good drives (including 18 consecutive pass completions) and Julio Jones made a big enough impact in the game to help them win, but not score a touchdown! So all is right in Atlanta and you could say this Monday night game was just another day at the office for them.
19. Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins beat the Bears in OT last week so it was only natural that they'd lose this game to Detroit at home. However, the Brocketship had another successful takeoff and for the first time ever, I can say that Osweiler has put together two good games in a row! A positive take away in a bad loss at home.
18. Denver Broncos. Von Miller guaranteed last week that the Broncos would "kick (the Cardinals) ass" and his defense stood by his comments as they routed the Cardinals. I still don’t think Denver is good despite their big win on Thursday. Their offense didn’t contribute to their scoring much at all (Denver returned 2 interceptions for touchdowns) and if you exclude the Emmanuel Sanders's touchdown pass, then the Bronco's offense accounted for only 24 points against a very bad Cardinals' defense. The Broncos' defense set their offense up to succeed and only netted 309 yards. Only bottom tier teams are putting up that few of yards in the NFL this year.
17. Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars offense is bad and until this most recent game I think the issues are more of fundamental ones, not necessarily Bortles ones. They couldn’t run the ball, they are down to their fourth string left tackle, and their offense overall seems uninspired. Their offense was uninspired this week for a different reason: Bortles fumbled on the third play of each half killing all of their offensive momentum they had. He was not so gracefully benched by Doug Marrone as a way to send a message and his team did not respond well. Their defense gave up 20 points and the backup Cody Kessler threw for 156 yards with an interception. There is trouble in Sacksonville and they need to get to London as soon as possible so that they can start winning again and Bortles can play like an average QB again.
16. Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles melted about as badly as they could Sunday when they couldn’t find a way to score a single point in the 4th quarter to put the Panthers away. After rolling over the Giants last week and looking like they fixed their offensive woes, the Eagles settled right back in to their early season struggles as they let a very winnable game slip away from them. It only gets worse for them next week as they travel to London face Jacksonville who's the greatest team of all time when they play in England.
15. Detroit Lions. The Lion's offense was clicking again and unlike the Bears last week, didn’t let the hot weather get to them. Detroit let the Dolphins hang around for most of the game as they messed up some good Redzone opportunities (including Golden Tate dropping a touchdown in the 3rd quarter), but didn’t allow the Dolphins to feel like they actually had a chance to win the game.
14. Chicago Bears. DA BEAR-…I figured I'd stop the phrase one letter short of what's necessary to finish the phrase because that’s exactly what the Bears managed to do Sunday. Kevin White was so close to scoring on the Hail Mary pass from Mitch Trubisky that I actually believed for a second he was close enough to get it. I wasn’t a fan of the Bears play calling on Sunday. I felt like they purposely limited Trubisky's deep ball opportunities and as a result he was forced to make plays with his feet. He did that effectively (including a 70 yard run to score an 8 yard touchdown), but we already knew that he could do that. I need to see him put together at least 5 good drives per game in order to prove he can be a franchise QB. This week he had 3 so he's getting close and I expect him to be a competent starter by the time the playoffs roll around.
13. Steelers. No Steelers or Le'Veon Bell this week. Hopefully both next week!
12. Packers. Didn't play this week.
11. Houston Texans. Well what do you know? The once written off Texans have won 4 in a row and are making us seem like we aren't dumb for picking them to win the division before the season began. For the first time ever, Clowney and Watt are both healthy and playing well together as they have led this dominant defense to four straight wins. Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins have guided their offense on the other side of the ball and the Texans look to be a team to reckon with. They made the Jaguars look silly on both offense and defense in Jacksonville which is hard to do and something that should be commemorated.
10. Carolina Panthers. Down 17 going into the 4th quarter, Cam Newton and the Panthers did what they needed to mount the massive comeback against the Eagles and win on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Newton to Greg Olsen. This week the Panthers proved that they are a good team and that they can put together back to back stops and back to back drives when they need to against another "good" team.
9. Cincinnati Bengals. We all knew how this was going to go. Andy Dalton has never won a Sunday Night Football game and unless you're an optimistic Bengals fan, there was no reason to think they would win this week. This game was over quickly as Patrick Mahomes tore apart the Bengals defense the whole night.
8. Washington Redskins. The controversy after this game is about the final penalty against Dallas, but the real talk of this game should be the Redskins defense. They put pressure on Dak Prescott all game and even forced a fumble which Ryan Kerrigan recovered for a touchdown. For two weeks in a row the Redskins have played tough, solid defense. Is this a trend or just a good two week stretch? Tune in next game to find out!
7. Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens could have won this game if not for the worst kicking luck in the history of football. Justin Tucker is a guaranteed as anything to make an extra point and the fact that he missed that is as impossible as can be. Despite that loss, the Ravens have many positives to take away from this game. They kept the Saints offense to their second lowest scoring amount of the season and made Drew Brees work hard for every point they got. The Ravens should be disappointed they lost, but encouraged because of their play. My biggest question from this game is this though: is Tucker's missed extra point going to cost someone a win in Fantasy Football this week?
6. Minnesota Vikings. Latavius Murray has been the Vikings MVP for two weeks in a row now as the Vikings have seemed to fix their Redzone, rushing woes. Murray had two touchdowns against a respectable Jets' run defense and Adam Thielen had another 100 yard receiving game. He is now the 5th player in NFL history to get at least 100 yards receiving in seven consecutive games. Harrison Smith said it after the game: "now you see the fruits of his labor". Theilen's hard work and determination has put him and his team in the position they are in now.
5. Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers have found their rhythm as they've won 4 straight now and their two losses this year were against the two best teams in the NFL (Rams and Chiefs). This week their defense remained stout again as Melvin Gordon didn’t play which means that they needed to lean on their passing game and defense unlike they have the past few weeks. They even managed to make a London game exciting which is an added bonus for all of us that woke up early on Sunday to watch the game! The Chargers are trending very positively and are finally coming into form.
4. Kansas City Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes is really good. The Chiefs' offense is really good! And this week, their defense was too! There isn't much I can add that hasn’t been said about this team already. They are one of the top five teams in the NFL.
3. New Orleans Saints. This was the biggest test in the first half of the year for their offense and the Ravens defense made them work hard for every touchdown they scored. Besides the Bucs/Browns game, this was the best game of the day and confirmed that the Saint's offense is legit. I was curious to see how they'd play against a top two NFL defense and they did not disappoint.
2. New England Patriots. No Gronk, basically no problems. The Pats' special teams showed up big by scoring two touchdowns for them and Josh Gordon has shown to be a crucial part of their offense. Tom Brady threw to Josh Gordon on multiple bail out third down plays and Gordon successfully pulled them off. They fell behind early, but due to well rounded team play and the Bears lack of confidence in Mitch Trubisky, the Pats escaped with a win in Chicago. Obviously the loss of Sony Michel is a blow to their run game since he found his stride the past three weeks. Fortunately the injury is just a sprain, nothing serious, but it was still a scary moment for Pats fans.
1. Los Angeles Rams. Their defense is just so good. I say this week after week, but their defense is too talented to lose any games this year if they remain healthy. Aaron Donald had a career high 4 sacks and their defense had 7 total!! Todd Gurley scored two rushing touchdowns and he now officially has more points than the entire Bills team this year (88 points to 81 points total). Jared Goff was creating offensive opportunities through the air and the only bad thing the Rams did this week was not hit the over (52 points). The frequent criticism I have seen of the Rams is their schedule hasn’t been that good. Even if you concede that point to someone, you still have to admit they beat everyone in front of them and you can only play who's on your schedule. They do have a brutal schedule for the rest of the season though as they play the Packers, at New Orleans, the Seahawks, Chiefs, in Detroit, at Chicago, and versus the Eagles (they finish the season against the Cardinals and 49ers). Every one of those teams (except the 49ers and Cardinals) have a chance to make the playoffs so this stretch will prove if the Rams are for real or not. I think they are, but I am excited to see how they play against top NFL talent the rest of the year.
Didn't play this week: Packers, Steelers, Raiders, and Seahawks.
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