We’re two weeks away from the halfway point of the NFL season and the picture gets clearer each and every week. Here are a look at what we learned this week.
Dan Campbell is screwing up the plain in Miami
Since taking over the Miami Dolphins, interim head coach Dan Campbell is 2-0, but even more than that, he’s an impressive 2-0. The Dolphins are suddenly playing like the team that many prognosticators thought they were in the preseason. Now, granted both these victories were against NFC South doormats, the Tennessee Titans and the Houston Texans, but there was no reason to believe the Dolphins before Campbell took over would even be competitive in either of those games, let alone dominate them from start to finish.
Why is this screwing things up for the Dolphins? Simply put, I don’t think they wanted to keep Campbell as their head coach. They wanted to bring in somebody new like Greg Roman or Doug Marrone and Campbell is staking such a claim to the spot they might just have to remove that “interim” tag. If Campbell can get his team to pull the upset against the New England Patriots this Sunday, that’s all but certain.
Sitting at 3-3 with games down the stretch against the Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, San Diego Chargers and the Indianapolis Colts, the Dolphins could easily finish 9-7. If they steal one of their games against the Patriots, that’s 10-6 and a possible playoff spot.
The St. Louis Rams continue to be frustrating
The Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 24-6 Sunday in what was maybe the most boring game of the weekend. Granted Todd Gurley continues to be a monster, both staking a claim to the rookie of the year award and leading many fantasy teams (including mine) to victory. But this was still a frustrating game and the notion that it was a “good” one for the Rams was summed up by their twitter page Monday morning.
#Rams fans walking into work this morning… 😎 pic.twitter.com/9wWYs6yTvT
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) October 26, 2015
That is completely ridiculous. This was the Browns, not the Seahawks. If the Rams beat, say, the Cowboys 24-6, I strut thusly about my house and the street. This was a Browns team that the Rams should have beaten 50-6. Yes, it’s great to see Gurley continue to explode on the scene, but he shouldn’t have been in the game in the fourth quarter. This game should have been over at halftime. Instead it was 10-6 and that was only because Rams safety Rodney McCleod returned a fumble for a touchdown.
The Rams offense simply must play better and must be more explosive and it all begins with an offensive line that can sometimes be a sieve and hasn’t picked up a pass blitz once in six games. When quarterback Nick Foles has even a modicum of time, he’s terrific. When he’s being hit as soon as he takes the snap, not so much. The Rams had the bye to make it better, but no significant strides seem to have been made. Ultimately, it’s up to the players, two of them rookies on the line, and their coaches to get better. They’ve all disappointed so far.
And whoever is running the Rams’ twitter page needs to relax a little.
If the playoffs started today…
We’re going to keep looking at this every week, because not only does the playoff picture become clearer, in many of these divisions these positions are all but set.
In the AFC, the Patriots (6-0) are now the No. 1 seed, followed by the Cincinnati Bengals (6-0), the Denver Broncos (6-0) and the Indianapolis Colts (3-4). The wild card teams are the New York Jets (4-2) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3). No change from last week, but the Dolphins (3-3) and Raiders (3-3) are making some noise right outside that group.
In the NFC we have some new contenders showing up. The Green Bay Packers (6-0) stay at No. 1, and the Carolina Panthers (6-0) are two. The Arizona Cardinals (5-2) are the three seed and the New York Giants (4-3) move into the fourth seed. Our wild card teams at present are the Atlanta Falcons (6-1) and the Minnesota Vikings (4-2) and the only team at present making any significant move outside of that group is the Rams (3-3)
