The Lions have left no doubt that right now they are the best team in the NFC as they dominated the Packers in Green Bay. The Saints are making a case for the worst team in the league by losing their 7th straight, this time to the woeful Panthers (and the Saints coach got fired yesterday). There are now nine teams with just two wins. The Cowboys continued to slide (and Dak Prescott is injured), while the Bills and Falcons solidified their divisional leads. The most competitive division is the NFC West, where the Cardinals lead with a 5-4 record, and the Seahawks are in last with a 4-5 record. The Eagles won in spite of some analytically-correct decisions by their coach which failed, and KC stayed undefeated with a hard-fought overtime win over the Bucs.
This week, the Steelers visit the Commanders in a battle of division leaders, as do the Lions when they travel to Houston on Sunday night. The fans in Munich will be treated to a pair of 2-7 teams when the Giants and Panthers square off on Sunday morning. The Bengals will try to stay relevant in their division when they visit Baltimore on Thursday night, while the Jets try to make it two in a row at Arizona.
This week’s games. All spreads taken from ESPNBet on Tuesday, November 5 at 9:15 am CT.
I am looking forward to a week of football without political ads. I’m hoping USAA grants Gronk the dispensation he needs to get a debit card account or whatever it is that he’s after.
Saints CB Marshon Lattimore to Washington for a 2025 3rd, 4th, and 6th. Benjamin St-Juste has been one of the worst starting DBs in the league, and I still think he can be a good player but he was put into a starting role way before he was ready. This shores things up for them considerably, on paper at least. He’s injury prone. Injured now. Probably won’t even see the field for them for a couple of weeks. Wasn’t cheap draft capital-wise, but worth the upgrade while you have a hot hand.
Last night DeAndre Hopkins caught two touchdown passes from Patrick Mahomes.
Hopkins has now caught TD passes from 14 different quarterbacks in his 13-year career. (I believe that’s what the graphic said during the game last night, anyway.)
Hopkins had 8 receptions for 86 yards and those two TDs last night. Looks to be a great pickup for the Chiefs to shore up their depleted WR corps.
I will never not curse Jack Easterby to whatever appropriate level of fan hell there is for whatever backroom shenanigans he pulled to get Hopkins traded away the first time.
Tennessee trading him in the midst of a lost season and with some cap numbers to consider? Sure. But that first time made no sense whatsoever. Even if he starts losing a step or two now that he’s in his 30s, that’s still an upper tier receiver.
This one is a mystery to me. No so much the trade, but the circumstances that led to it. Herbert was a very productive back the last couple seasons, but Waldron and this new regime apparently hates him. When Swift was struggling, Herbert still couldn’t get any snaps, losing time to Travis Homer of all people. So this coaching staff effectively tanked his value in his walk year to the point that getting a 7th rounder for him feels like a gift. Had Moss not gotten hurt it seems likely there would have been no takers. I can’t believe that even the Cowboys couldn’t have been enticed to give up a better pick to help out that trainwreck of a backfield. He’s dirt cheap, so you’d think contending teams would take a flier on him. he’s definitely healthy…having hardly played a snap.
Dak Prescott’s hamstring injury is apparently fairly serious: reports are that he’s suffered a “partial avulsion” – in other words, part of the tendon has pulled away from the bone (owwww)!
While the Cowboys have not yet put Prescott on IR (which would keep him out of action for at least four weeks), sources are indicating that the recovery from such an injury could be substantially longer than just four weeks.
They weren’t playing that great with him, anyways. Dak has not been great himself, but he’s not their problem. Injuries and zero depth has killed them.
They have no running game; their leading rusher has 321 yards and no touchdowns (and it’s not even Zeke). Tony Pollard, who they let walk, has had 622 yards and 3 touchdowns for a terrible Titans team. Jalen Hurts has 322 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns.
I think this week’s game against Washington will be a good bellwether for the rest of the Steelers season. Win and they’re set up well for the second half of the season and potentially make a run at the playoffs. Lose and the rest of the year is just going be scratching and crawling for any win they can get (with all six division games remaining).
If you only go for 1, you still need to prevent the field goal. That part of the calculation is a wash.
It comes down to, do you think you can win in OT. Given the way the Ravens had found their offensive groove, going for 2 was absolutely the right call.