It’s Tuesday evening and that’s the best time to sit back and reflect on the weekend of NFL action that was just beamed directly into our faces (or that some of you saw live, if you wanted to pay $10 for a beer).
Here’s what we’ve learned…
THE COWBOYS HAVE A CLEARER SHOT AT THE SUPER BOWL
With Aaron Rodgers going down for the season and Ezekiel Elliott’s suspension once again getting a temporary restraining order, the stage is set for a Cowboy run beginning with a bounce back game against the San Francisco 49ers this week.
Rodgers has been the Cowboy killer for the last two seasons at AT&T Stadium and with him out of the picture, much better playoff match ups loom in Dallas’ favor. Of course, they have to make the playoffs first.
https://twitter.com/Kdstrickland8/status/919645401321431040
Their schedule is a tough one. After a pushover 49ers squad, they play at the Washington Redskins, then host the Kansas City Chiefs. After that, it’s the Atlanta Falcons on the road and then a must win game against the Philadelphia Eagles at home. It’s a gauntlet, but one that the Cowboys can finish at 7-3 heading into the final six games of the year. They wrap up the regular season at the Eagles in a game that could not only be for the NFC East crown, but for home field advantage. An advantage that Rodgers won’t have the opportunity to ruin this time.
THE CHIEFS LOST TO THE STEELERS, NOBODY PANIC
As I wrote earlier today in my NFL Wrap Up, I kind of saw this one coming and talked myself out of it. No team is going undefeated in the modern day NFL and Kansas City was due a loss. The Steelers came into this one with their backs against the wall and maybe their season on the line. It makes sense they got the job done.
The @steelers came in to Kansas City and handed the Chiefs their 1st loss of the season! #HereWeGo
Full #PITvsKC highlights! https://t.co/2dZR6EzGAp
— NFL (@NFL) October 16, 2017
Like Aaron Rodgers and the Cowboys, sometimes a team or a player just has your number. Pittsburgh can’t beat the New England Patriots, but can handle the Chiefs for whatever reason. Even in the loss, Alex Smith had a solid day, completing 19 of 34 passing for 246 yards and a touchdown. Kareem Hunt, who was slowed down running the ball with nine carries for 21 yards, still caught five passes for 89 yards. It just wasn’t meant to be.
What Kansas City needs to do is stay the course, keep doing what they’ve been doing and lock in home field advantage. With any luck, they won’t see this Steelers team in the playoffs at all. If they do… well, that would really suck for them.
THE BRONCOS LOST TO THE GIANTS, EVERYBODY PANIC
This was a home game, after a bye, against one of the worst team in the league playing receivers that were on the practice squad or street just a week before. And the Broncos were never even in the game.
It doesn’t matter how good the defense is when the offense is consistently turning the ball over. Trevor Siemian threw for a lot of yards, 376 of them, but tossed two killer picks, one for a touchdown, and was sacked four times. It was an ugly performance and it came off a couple of shitty games. They barely beat an Oakland Raiders team without Derek Carr in the line up.
https://twitter.com/TB12Terry/status/920342681166974977
Meanwhile the Giants, who have not been able to run on anybody, put up 148 yards on Denver with 21 carries for 117 yards going to Orleans Darkwa, who I’m pretty sure shares a name with a tie fighter pilot from Star Wars: Rogue One. Last year Darkwa ran for 111 yards total and he beat that in one start against one of the best defenses in the league?
Everybody in the stadium knew Evan Engram was the only real receiving target Eli Manning had, yet the kid caught five passes for 82 yards and a touchdown. It was his best game of the year and he was playing alongside a bunch of Fudrucker’s Grillmasters and Subway Sandwich Artists.
Here’s the real problem. The Broncos play at the Chargers next week, which can’t be overlooked now. Then they play at the Chiefs, at the Eagles then host the New England Patriots. Yeah. Panic.
THE RAIDERS LOST TO THE CHARGERS. FORGET PANIC, HIDE THE RAZOR BLADES
OK, to be fair, there’s no way Derek Carr was 100 percent in this game. He wasn’t even 90 percent. He was 81.7 percent at best. Even with that, this was still a bad loss. You can blame a missed extra point from Giorgio Tavecchio, but this game shouldn’t have come down to that.
Oakland took the lead in the fourth quarter with 10:13 to go in the game and went three and out with a chance to close out the game. They even tried some trick play shenanigans on a pass to Michael Crabtree and lateral to Cordarelle Patterson on third and 12 that didn’t work.
The Oakland Raiders currently hold the No. 5 overall pick in the draft. The NFL is so weird and unpredictable.
— Jordan Reid (@Jordan_Reid) October 17, 2017
With 4:09 to go and nursing a two point lead, the Raiders defense forced just two third downs on an 11 play game winning drive from Los Angeles and those were a third and three and third and goal. On the first play of the drive, Philip Rivers hit Hunter Henry for a 34 yard gain. How do you give that up in that situation when you’re a contender? To the Chargers, for God’s sake?
Meanwhile, Beast Mode was again Least Mode, gaining 63 yards on 13 carries. Lynch is averaging 3.7 yards per carry for the Raiders, which should be a surprise until you see he was averaging 3.8 yards per carry with the Seattle Seahawks in his final year with them.
OTHER THOUGHTS
At 4-2, this is the worst possible time for the Los Angeles Rams to host a division opponent (the Arizona Cardinals) in a London game. I realize the Rams probably had to agree to playing a game a year in the U.K. to move to L.A., but you hope this isn’t a momentum killer for them.
3-0 on the road for the first time since 2001 ✊ pic.twitter.com/8OiLL2Bwiw
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) October 17, 2017
Marcus Mariota took a major step forward with the Tennessee Titans. Hobbled by a hamstring, he played from the pocket the entire game and lit up the Indianapolis Colts Monday night to the tune of 23 of 32 for 306 yards and a touchdown. He did throw a pick, but it was a freak flypaper hands play from John Simon on a quick screen.
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