Week Seven in the NFL didn’t look too pretty on paper. With teams like Buffalo, Los Angeles Chargers, Dallas, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh on byes and a bunch of good team versus bad team matchups, this week didn’t have as much appointment viewing as typical weekends. That prediction ended up being mostly right with a lot of blowouts and ugly games. Fortunately, there aren’t too many weekends in an NFL season where the interest in watching isn’t extremely high. Here are some Week Seven Takeaways:
A TITANic Smackdown
The Tennessee Titans completed an impressive back to back win combo against the two teams who played in the AFC Championship last season after a 27-3 destruction of Kansas City. This is coming off of a win over Buffalo less than week prior. This is the same Titans team that lost to the lowly New York Jets early in the season. When Tennessee plays bad, they tend to play really bad. When they play well, they’ve shown they can beat absolutely anyone. The craziest part of this game was that Derrick Henry didn’t even have to run all over the Chiefs defense. The Titans didn’t let the once prolific Chiefs offense to do anything as Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill were barely noticed. Patrick Mahomes also had another interception which gives him an NFL leading (yes, that’s not a typo) nine on the season. The Titans will likely continue their roulette style quality of play, but for the time being it is time to take them seriously as a potential AFC contender. As for Kansas City, this might be a team that may not even make the playoffs, something that would be clinically insane to say prior to the season.
The AFC Leaders Wear Stripes
In other clinically insane preseason predictions, the Cincinnati Bengals are your current leaders in the AFC. In a conference lead deciding game against Baltimore, Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase continue to show the unbelievable chemistry they had when playing in college at LSU. It’s still hard to truly believe that the Bengals, an extremely young team who had the number one pick just last season, could really be this far along in their development but here we are. They will certainly get tested more through the remainder of the season with games against Cleveland (twice), Los Angeles Chargers, Las Vegas, Kansas City, and another matchup against Baltimore. That being said, a 41-17 demolition of the Ravens on the road is this team’s signature win so far and should have Bengals fans not only excited for the remainder of this season, but the many years ahead of the Burrow & Chase Show.
Same Old Jets/Patriots Matchup
There are few better examples of domination than Bill Belichick against the New York Jets. The mastermind of the Patriots now has 12 straight wins against New York with a 54-13 blowout. This has nothing to do with Tom Brady. This is just an example of two different franchises who are in two entirely different places. It is also likely that no team motivates Belichick more than the Jets considering his history with the team. That might explain the piling on of 20 more points during the fourth quarter in a game that was clearly out of reach. The Patriots, a team who had playoff hopes, may not reach those expectations, but at least they can always count on beating up on their rivals to the south twice per season.
Top Shelf NFC Teams Continue Winning Ways
Arizona, Green Bay, Los Angeles, Tampa Bay. Four of the top five teams in the NFC with Dallas on a bye and all continued to win to keep pace with one another in the NFC playoff race. The Rams were the only one of the four whose game was within single digits. At this point in time it feels like these five are clearly the best in the NFC with the Bucs, Packers, and Cowboys almost certainly expected to win their division barring some catastrophic injuries. Oddly, the Cardinals are not as clear to win the NFC West due to the fact that the Rams (who they’ve already beaten once) are hanging around as well. You can’t be anything but impressed with how Arizona looks so far. They are fast in so many areas and Kyler Murray continues to be dynamic, but they are still new to being the hunted. They will get a major test as they welcome Green Bay to State Farm Stadium on Thursday. The Rams get another likely win when they play Houston, but Tampa Bay goes on the road to New Orleans and Dallas travels to Minnesota for this Sunday night’s game. There will no doubt be some type of movement at the top of the NFC after next weekend. Just how much, we will have to wait and see.
Looking Ahead to Week Eight
Hey NFL, let’s not do the six teams on bye week again. One, for the benefit of my fantasy football team and two, for the pleasure of my Sunday viewing experience. Fortunately, only Las Vegas and Baltimore will be off this weekend. As mentioned, we are blessed with the rare, great Thursday Night Football game between Green Bay and Arizona. I really like Arizona, but need to see more signature wins before I’m completely sold this is a title contender. Green Bay has won games, but often in unimpressive fashion. Hopefully this game will give us all some clarity for both teams. Tennessee and Indianapolis suddenly has some attraction as both teams are playing well right now and are clearly the top two teams in the AFC South. New England traveling to Los Angeles to play the Chargers should be an interesting battle. The Bucs/Saints should also be good and the Cowboys/Vikings Sunday Halloween Night game should at the very least be entertaining. To wrap up on Monday Night Football, I think most of us are wondering how the Chiefs respond now. A loss to the Giants at home will likely be the last straw for Chiefs fans and any hope that this team can turn the ship around in 2021.