Winners and Losers for Week 7 of the NFL season
Hello one and all, welcome back to another week of winners and losers. It was a week that was every bit as horrific as it looked on paper with just a select few quality games. Close games were few and far between in a week that had more blowouts than one possession games (8-7). Those one possession games weren’t exactly pretty either as it was poor play that was the deciding factor as opposed to some outstandingly played and coached football. Before getting into the winners and losers for the week, we’re going to have some quick honourable mentions.
First one goes to the Giants who once again defied the oddsmakers and won yet another tight game despite trailing in the 4th quarter. They managed this by taking the lead on a drive that featured precisely 0 passing yards (69 through the ground and to be fair, Jones did attempt passes). Then on the following drive, did exactly the same thing and got a FG to push the lead out to 6. Even still, Jacksonville had every opportunity to win the game but just like most Giants opponents this season, made critical errors when it mattered most. First, Etienne fumbled it into the Giants endzone. Then Lawrence was unable to QB sneak a yard on 4th down on the Giants 21-yard line (go watch the attempt if you want a picture-perfect example of how not to do one). If all that wasn’t bad enough, they fell a yard short on the games final play that would have won them the game. As it stands, the Giants are 6-1 despite not having a single two possession lead this entire season and have won 4 of their last 5 despite trailing in the 4th quarter in 3 of those wins.
Second one goes to the Jets who won an ugly, UGLY game against Denver (is there any other kind). After Denver responded to the Jets first quarter score, we wouldn’t see another TD for the rest of the game. Wilson has still yet to prove he’s what the Jets are after at QB and the loss of Breece Hall could potentially sink their offence for the season. But beating the Denver defence is no joke, no matter who’s at QB and they’ve placed themselves just a single game back from the Bills in the AFC East.
The last honourable mention goes to the Seahawks who took advantage of a couple early Charger mistakes to take a 17-0 first quarter and never looked back. To the Chargers credit, they did rally to bring back to a 3 point in the second quarter. But the banged up and leaky Chargers defence wouldn’t hold and the squad would ultimately be killed by their own mistakes, something that seems to occur every Chargers season. Special mention goes the absurd Seahawks drive in the third quarter that lasted 10 minutes of game time. Even though it only resulted in a FG, to kill the clock in such a major way while up two possessions, is something we haven’t seen much this season. Kenneth Walker also looks like a star in the making, grabbing a pair of TD’s to go with 168 yards. Seattle aren’t the best team in football but they do own the lead in a tight division race that where every team has its major flaws.
Now onto the proper winners and losers for week 7 of the NFL season.
Winners
CHIEFS
In a game that was billed as an elite offence playing an elite defence, it was the offensive firepower of KC that shone through. It didn’t initially appear that way though as KC faced an early 10-0 deficit after a Mahomes INT. But the limitations of Jimmy G didn’t take long to shine through as he’d throw an awful floater of a ball that got picked off despite being gifted a red zone opportunity thanks to a KC special teams turnover. Combine that with settling for a couple first half FG’s and the Niners would walk into halftime down one despite a pair of KC turnovers as well as a missed KC FG to end the half. Mahomes and co would march down the field and score TD’s on both possessions of the second half while the Niners had to settle for yet another FG while in KC territory. That gave KC a 12 point lead entering the 4th. But all was not lost for the Niners as Jimmy G led a surprisingly lost and un-Niners like drive, throwing the ball on every play but one and overcoming two different first and 20 downs to bring the game back to a one score game after a Kittle TD. All the sudden, this game resembled a shootout as with 14 left to go in the 4th, the game had already eclipsed it’s predicted total points scored. But beating KC in a shoot out isn’t something any team wants (not even the Bills). KC would rally back and score a TD of their own before a monstrous Frank Clark sack resulted in a safety. Mahomes would notch his third TD of the game and just like that, the game was over. Chad Henne and Brock Purdy would get some garbage time work before wrapping things up.
It was a strange game to watch as you felt like it was just a matter of time before KC blew it open and while that’s what eventually happened, the Niners were in it for far longer than you’d think. KC’s defence continues to be extremely hit or miss as Jimmy gashed them through the air throughout most of this game. Were it not for his litany of mistakes, this game likely comes down to the one possession affairs we’ve seen from the Chiefs throughout most of this season. But you can’t argue with the results as KC dropped 44 on a defence that was meant to be one of the best in the league. Mahomes threw for over 400 yards and Juju had his second straight game of 100+ yards and a score to boot. Perhaps the most encouraging sign for the Chief’s offence though was the rushing attack that continues to have glimpses of productivity before disappearing like a fever dream. This week it was a triumvirate of Pacheco, CEH and Mckinon that showed there may just be some balance in the KC offence yet. Now entering their bye week with a 5-2 record and a clear lead in their division, it should be cruise control throughout the rest of the season. They have 3 games against the abysmal AFC South still to play while their own division continues to flounder. The Chargers still pose a threat given they’re only one game back and played KC tightly the last go around. But a lot has changed since that week two outing and it’s hard to see a future in which the Chiefs don’t comfortably take the one or two seed in the AFC.
Bears/Justin Fields
For those who read my power rankings piece back in week 4, I’m certain you’re finding this incredibly amusing. Three weeks ago, I wrote an obituary of Justin Fields and the Bears. I was so disgusted by their offensive output that I felt quite comfortable writing the following
“Yeahhhhhh, the Fields era may be done after just a couple years. They may have a 2-2 record but their two wins are a monsoon-esque win over the niners and a 3 point victory over the winless Texans. That tells you all you need to know but if your desperate for more, here it is. They’re third in the league in rushing which is great. They average 97.5 yards per game passing which is not so great. They’re 4th in the league in passing defence which is great. They’re 32nd in the league in rushing defence which is not so great. Still need more? Fine. Fields has attempted 67 passes through 4 games, completing 34 of them while throwing 2 TD’s and 4 INT’s. Despite so few passing attempts, he's been sacked 16 times for a loss of 81 yards. All hope for this team centres around losing more games and acquiring professionally trained offensive lineman and a professional QB.”
To be fair, since writing that, the Bears have only won a single game. That being the decisive victory this past week against the Patriots. But Fields has shown some gradual improvement in the following weeks since that piece was written. He’s thrown for 208,190 and 179 yards his past three games while having a passing TD in each. He’s thrown an INT his past two games and has had 9 sacks his last two games combined (not to mention 4 fumbles this past week). However, he’s also had 80+ rushing yards his past two games and is coming off a performance that showed glimpses of a future that features himself as the Bears QB next year. If all of this sounds like I’m complimenting Fields whilst dancing on eggshells, it’s because I am. There’s clear improvements in his play but it’s coming from a bar that was set incredibly low. Like, Barbados Slim limbo low. Were this an most QB prospects, his numbers would still be earning obituary rights. But submitting a solid performance in a dominant victory over Bellicheck and the Patriots is going to garner you a lot of attention. It likely doesn’t last but for the week, it’s hard to argue that Fields hasn’t earned at least one week in the winners column.
Bengals
Our final winner for the week isn’t one I’m going to spend a ton of time on. Especially after the news of Jamarr Chase being potentially out for the season which limits them moving forward. Likewise, I won’t spend a ton of time dissecting the victory over Atlanta. It was an fairly impressive win given the injuries to the Bengals defensive line and the Falcons ability to stay in games through their unorthodox rushing attack. But that’s not the real story of the game given the Falcons are the team least likely to rally a comeback from a major deficit given their style of play. Instead, it’s the Bengals ability to gain the large lead in the first place which should be cause for celebration for Cincy fans. The Bengals scored TD’s on their first four possessions of the game, opening up a 28-17 halftime lead. While the second half saw the scoring dry up quicker than a Big Ben alibi, Cincy stayed in control for the rest of the game and cruised to an easy victory. After a shaky start to the year, Burrow is on a heater, throwing for 342 yards and 3 TD’s in just the first half against ATL. Likewise in a win against the Saints, Burrow had his first 300-yard game of the season and threw for another 3 TD’s and 0 INT’s. The offensive line still has its issues. Neither the Falcons nor Saints possess the world’s greatest pass rush but were still able to get to Burrow more often than they should. But if this Bengals team has any hope of replicating last years magic, it’s going to be through a dynamic, high-powered offence. Even with Chase out, if he’s able to return, Cincy can survive November pretty comfortably given their opponents and they’re neck and neck with the Ravens in a race to win the division.
Losers: Packers-Tampa
I’ll dive into each team separately but given the nature of the losses, it feels appropriate to clump both these teams together. It’s hard to know where to begin with both these teams given almost nothing changed from last week. But let’s start with the Packers. This is what I wrote of the Packers last week:
“It’s the first time in the Lafluer-Rodgers era that they’ve lost back to back games. It quite literally can’t get much worse. Fortunately for Rodgers, they have the Commies this week. If there was ever going to be a get right game, it’s this one. But the Commies have a feisty defence. That pass rush is as legit as they come and it won’t be a cruisy win where Rodgers gets to feel good. It’ll likely be a fight for the offence. But defensively, this is the game where GB should feast given the news of Wentz being out and Heinickie getting one last chance to dance.”
Turns out I was half right. The defence initially appeared to feast, holding the Commies to just 10 first half points with all but one drive being convincing shut outs of the Commander offence. Neither team had much of anything resembling success moving the ball as Heinickie and Rodgers were doing they’re best spiderman “you, no you” meme impression. It was as sloppy mess that resulted in a 14-10 GB halftime lead where GB’s defence had just as many points as it’s offence. What no one expected though is for the Commies to come out in the 2nd half and just march all over GB defence. Of the first 3 2nd half possessions for the commies, they scored 13 points and controlled the clock for 15 minutes of game time, giving them a 23-14 lead with just 6:40 left to go in the 4th. Were this the Packers of old, it would’ve been safe to say that settling for two chip shot FG’s against Rodgers is a recipe for disaster. But this is far from the “fear the dragon” era of the Packers at this point. While GB would come back to score a TD and bring it to just a two-point game, the defence was unable to get one final stop, reminiscent of the Giants loss a couple week prior.
Speaking of games prior, this is now the third straight loss for the Packers, the first sub 200-yard game of the season for Rodgers and the first game where the Packers didn’t have a third down conversion in a game since 1999. Unbelievably, this isn’t even a game where you could argue the Packers snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Instead, it was the commanders who were the better team throughout and it was only the late score at the end by GB that made this game appear closer than it actually was. It appeared as though the Jets loss was the low point of the season but it seems like the worst is yet to come. They play the Bills in prime-time next week and it’s hard to envision a world in which they snatch the division title anymore. Instead, the best the Packers can hope for it seems is a wildcard berth. Luckily for them, they’re far from the only team sinking in the ocean of 3-4 though a loss to the Bills will only set them even further behind the pack.
Tompa Bay
What is left to say of the Bucs…. Honestly. If the Packers loss was disaster then the Bucs loss to the Panthers amounts to a full blown apocalypse. The awfulness of this loss wasn’t even comedic. Unlike the joyful and hilariously entertaining losses of your typical Broncos or Browns games, the Bucs failures have just been a tragedy. Despite walking in as a 13.5-point favourite, Tampa not only failed to cover but failed to even score the amount of the points they were favoured by. It’s not even worth recounting the game given its quality. Instead, let’s focus upon the futility of the Bucs this season. Last week, this is what I wrote of the Bucs:
“In each of those games, Ryan Succop has kicked more FG’s than Brady has thrown TD’s”
“Brady has just a single game of passing for more than 1 TD. He’s thrown 40 or more times in each of his past four games and has thrown 50 or more in two of the past three. This is an offence that’s desperately slinging the ball and has little to show for it. Besides the KC game, they’ve failed to score anything more than 21 points this season”
“They’ve beaten ATL and NO already and Carolina aren’t a threat to anybody. So they may wind up winning the division by default. But any hope of a SB run seems tenuous at best unless their able to fix the offence.”
YEESH. It turns out even a mention of a SB run seems so outdated just a week later. Carolina, who may not be a threat to anybody, turned out to be a very real threat to the Bucs. The rest of those statistics got even stronger by the way. Succop scored the only points for the Bucs as Brady threw for his first game without a TD all season. He threw for 49 times in a 3 point effort and has just 9 TD’s off of 340 attempts, good for one TD every 37.7 pass attempts. That’s simply staggering given what this team has been since Brady joined them 3 years ago. There’s little else to say about this game and this team. It has to rank as the lowest point of Brady’s career and despite that, they’re still in the NFC South title race with no team having a record above 500 let alone at 500.
Wrap Up
A shorter article than I typically write I know. Also, only two losers for the week instead of three isn’t something I ordinarily do. I initially had the Pats in the loser’s column but after careful consideration, decided against it. Although it was a bit of an embarrassing lose for NE, given the season’s expectations placed on them, it’s hard to call a loss to the bears worthy of the loser’s column. That game comes across as one of those we’d witness every season in the Brady era and wonder if this was the year where the wagon would fall off. The only difference now is that the Patriots are capable of games like these without the comfort of knowing it’ll all turn around. This is more or less who the Patriots are now. A well-coached team (most of the time), capable of pulling off some stupid losses and lacking the talent at QB to make up for the talent deficiencies in other areas. So with all that said, I hope you’ve enjoyed a slight tweaking to the winners and losers formula for the week. Moving forward, I’ll likely incorporate more honourable mentions as it gives some shine to teams who may pull off a nice win but do so against some lacklustre opponents. That’s it for this week, I’ll see you next time out.
Kurtis Wenban