After two weeks, there are 10 undefeated teams, one in each division, except for the NFC West, which boasts 3 unbeatens. And there are 10 0-2 teams, one of which is the Chiefs. KC is 0-2 for the first time since 2014.
This week, two undefeated teams meet when the Rams go to Philly in a rematch of last season’s close divisional game. And two more undefeated teams, both from the NFC West, meet when the Niners host the Cardinals. The undefeated Bengals will face the next 3 months without Joe Burrow, starting with a trip this week to Minnesota, who will be without quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Justin Fields and Jaydon Daniels both face uncertain status for their Week 3 games. And MNF may be an interesting game when the Lions travel to Baltimore.
Here are this week’s lines. All spreads taken from ESPNBet on Tuesday the 16th at 9:15 am CT.
The 49ers come home now after the first 2 on the road. Mac Jones did alright for them last week. And Brock Purdy is healing faster than originally estimated and there’s a chance he will play this week.
The Ravens remain at the top, while the Bills and Eagles have fallen off a little bit.
Super Bowl LX Winner
Baltimore Ravens +490
Buffalo Bills +600
Green Bay Packers +700
Philadelphia Eagles +750
Kansas City Chiefs +1200
Detroit Lions +1700
Los Angeles Chargers +1800
Los Angeles Rams +1900
San Francisco 49ers +2000
Washington Commanders +2200
Tampa Bay Buccaneers +2200
Denver Broncos +3000
Houston Texans +3300
Minnesota Vikings +3500
Arizona Cardinals +3500
Indianapolis Colts +4000
Jacksonville Jaguars +4500
Atlanta Falcons +5000
Seattle Seahawks +6500
Dallas Cowboys +7000
Cincinnati Bengals +7500
Pittsburgh Steelers +8000
Chicago Bears +10000
New England Patriots +12500
Las Vegas Raiders +15000
Miami Dolphins +22500
New York Giants +35000
Cleveland Browns +40000
Tennessee Titans +40000
Carolina Panthers +40000
New Orleans Saints +40000
New York Jets +40000
The only team with a loss in that division (Seattle) lost to another team in the same division (so barring a tie there was no chance of every team being undefeated). I have a feeling that if those teams hadn’t played each other, there would be 4 undefeated teams in the division.
In other news, the Dolphins appear to be in shambles and now have to face the Bills on Thursday. I think it is very possible if the Dolphins get shallacked that Miami fires HC Mike McDaniel and uses the longer week to install an interim HC.
What else is he supposed to say, though? You’re not throwing a guy under a bus who was already under it. He obviously screwed up.
I don’t see this as, the guy is a rookie and needs to be protected, nor do I know how you’d do that; pretend you and your other coaches didn’t know the rules either and your organization is inept, so it wasn’t his fault? Anyway, I see it as, he’s a rookie and it’s only week 2, he’s going to make mistakes, he’ll get better. As a matter of fact, by pointing out that he’s young, he is giving him some cover there. Reminding people that it happens with rookies. That’s why the term “rookie mistake” exists.
I’m not a Steelers fan but I respect Tomlin, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with how he handled that question. It’s not like he was trying to put undue blame on Kaleb Johnson or implying he’s a bad player. If you watch the press conference, he just gave a quick, matter-of-fact answer to the question about what happened on that play. Basically, anyone who saw that play knew what happened, it was kind of a dumb question to ask him in the first place.
That seems on paper to be a brutal matchup, and I would not be shocked if you are 100% correct about McDaniel. It looks like that team is getting driven off a cliff, and if you had to blame one person, who else would you blame?
Well, Stephen Ross, of course - over the last 15+ years, the only constant out there.
But, McDaniel has totally lost that locker room and certainly has his own share of the blame for their recent performance. And bad owners never really face any consequences for their part of bad teams.
ETA: Even Dan Snyder wasn’t kicked out for the way he was running the organization or his horrendous personal behavior. He finally got kicked out when it turned out he was shorting other owners for their share of revenue. That tells us everything we need to know about the NFL as a business.
Really, owners are just accountable to each other for the most part, and what owner is going to complain about his competing owner failing to build a good team? I mean, if it was so bad that it brought down the NFL as a whole, maybe, but with 32 teams that’s not likely to be an issue. (Otherwise the Browns would have been a problem long ago.)
I was going to bring up Dan Snyder, but nobody in power really cared if Washington wasn’t very good at winning games, it was all the other crap he was doing that got him in trouble.
“Yes, that was an unfortunate error. He’s a new player and kickoff rules have changed recently, and so it’s on us coaches to make sure everyone we’re putting on the field knows how to handle every situation.” As opposed to saying they practice it every day and making his player look like a fucking chump.
I’m not a Steelers fan and I don’t respect Tomlin. That may be coloring our respective reactions
I thought you were a Patriots fan. Do you even remotely remember the responses Belichick used to give whenever he got the typical mindless questions at post-game pressers?
They’re coaches, not PR flacks. The response was fine
Belichick was gruff with the press, yes.* But he also took a lot of responsibility on his and his coaches’ shoulders when things went wrong, and he didn’t throw his players under the bus (publicly). Look, I don’t think this is a big deal or anything, I just think it’s a subtle indicator of the kind of coach Tomlin is, and I personally think the “not my fault” attitude is not a good look. YMMV.
Tomlin was definitely being gruff. In the video I saw, he looked like he was pissed off that his team lost and then he had to answer to the press about it. Which I sort of get. Not all coaches are like that; for over a decade I watched Pete Carroll try to spin everything into a positive, and I would expect him to answer much the way you suggest, where he bends over backwards to make excuses for a guy. But I don’t think that’s necessary for a coach to do that, and I don’t think most coaches would do that. And no, Belichick would almost surely give an answer like Tomlin did. That’s nothing against Belichick; I think he’s probably the best head coach in the modern era of the NFL, if not all of NFL history.
There’s a vast middle between throwing a player under the bus (where you are trying to put unnecessary blame on a player) and trying to make excuses to cover for someone. Tomlin was definitely in that middle, and I think what he said was totally fair.
What you’re suggesting Tomlin do just sounds pretty much like lying. Which, let’s be honest, coaches do all the time. They’d be stupid to have a policy of never lying. Lying is a good strategy when talking to the press. You can mislead your competitors with a lie, you can help make your team look better, sometimes it’s stupid to not lie. But I don’t think lying should be the default. And I don’t think it’s better to throw your coaches and organization under the bus to protect a kid either.
Tomlin could have tried to minimize the mistake, emphasizing more about the guy being new, about the rule being new, about how it was one mistake and that mistake alone didn’t cost them the game, etc. But he was being terse overall (like Belichick can be) and that’s certainly how some coaches are with the press, especially when you lose your home opener.
The injury news gets worse for the Vikings: their starting running back, Aaron Jones, is being placed on IR with a hamstring injury which he suffered on Sunday, meaning that he’s out for at least the next four games.
With QB J.J. McCarthy expected to miss 2 to 4 weeks with a sprained ankle, the Vikes signed Desmond Ritter today; it’s expected that they will also bring in another running back, possibly Cam Akers.
Well that’s NFL scheduling for you. Giants demonstrate offensive capabilities for the first time in years and the very next week they get the SNF game. Was this really part of the schedule in the off-season? Why would they think the Giants would make a good primetime matchup in week 2? (3-14 last year!)
This will at least give me a chance to try red zone. I’ve been mesmerized by the condensed games, having watched 7 games last week and 10 this week. I don’t want to watch red zone when the Giants play at 1:00; I’d much rather wait a few hours and start with the Giants game spoiler-free. (I don’t mind being spoiled for the Jets.)
Speaking of spoilers, NFL+ Premium does a really good job of not spoiling scores. The only issue I had was when I finally fired up the Giants game on Sunday, it was hard not to notice that the video length was 3:39. Pretty obvious the game was going to overtime, but I don’t think there’s a reasonable fix for that kind of spoiler.
Week 3 but same point. Flexing for Sunday night games doesn’t start until week 5.
The more important consideration was probably Kansas City. A championship team against a NY team (guaranteed to garner bigger ratings no matter their record) was almost certainly the thinking.
I doubt they were thinking the Giants were the team in this matchup most people wanted to watch. They probably still don’t. There’s a lot of people probably wanting to see KC either turn it around or collapse.
I think it is different in college though - according to the 2023 NCAA Rulebook Rule 6 “Kicks”,
Ball Dead in End Zone ARTICLE 7. a. When a free kick untouched by Team B touches the ground on or behind Team B’s goal line, the ball becomes dead and belongs to Team B. b. If the result of the free kick is a touchback (Rule 8-6) for Team B, they will put the ball in play at their 25-yard line.
(a kickoff is a type of free kick as defined earlier) He’s a rookie, so 3 games ago what he did was the correct play. So I’d chalk that up at least somewhat to the coaches for not hammering into him that you MUST field a ball that’s in the landing zone.
