NFL WEEK 7: Minutes in Heaven

The Game Room
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Here’s your lineup for the week:

Thursday, Oct. 17

8:20 p.m. Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos (NFLN/FOX) KC -3 49

Sunday, Oct. 20

1 p.m. Arizona Cardinals at New York Giants (FOX) NYG -3 48.5
1 p.m. Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts (CBS) IND -1 48
1 p.m. Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills (CBS) BUF -17 40
1 p.m. Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions (FOX) MIN -1 45
1 p.m. Oakland Raiders at Green Bay Packers (CBS) GB -5.5 46.5
1 p.m. Jacksonville Jaguars at Cincinnati Bengals (CBS) JAX -3.5 43.5
1 p.m. Los Angeles Rams at Atlanta Falcons (FOX) LAR -3 54.5
1 p.m. San Francisco 49ers at Washington Redskins (FOX) SF -9.5 41.5

4:05 p.m. Los Angeles Chargers at Tennessee Titans (CBS) TEN -2 40
4:25 p.m. Baltimore Ravens at Seattle Seahawks (FOX) SEA -3.5 50
4:25 p.m. New Orleans Saints at Chicago Bears (FOX) CHI -3 38

8:20 p.m. Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys (NBC) DAL -3 48.5

Monday, Oct. 21
8:15 p.m. New England Patriots at New York Jets (ESPN) NE -9.5 42.5

Week 7 Bye: Carolina Panthers, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The big news early this week is the Jaguars trading away Jalen Ramsey to the Rams for 2 first round draft picks and a 4th rounder. Heavy price to pay, especially when he only has 2 years (one and a half really) left on his contract. Paying that much for renting him at his current contract for a season and a half is alot. But the Rams are completely in win-now mode, because with Gurley’s and Goff’s contracts and no high draft picks, they are officially mortgaging their future (and ignoring their O line problems) to chase a Super Bowl now. They’re very top heavy now, and since I absolutely despise Stan Kroenke, here’s hoping they lose spectacularly and for a long time.

I’m very much interested in tonight’s game (thanks amazon prime). The Chiefs have looked vulnerable recently, and I don’t know if it’s Mahomes’ ankle or a lack of running game that’s mostly to blame (that defense also doesn’t much). It will be interesting to see if the resurgent Broncos can continue to slow them down with the heavy run game/time of possession plan that has worked recently. Should be interesting.

The Texans/Colts game also looks like it could be a game of the week. Playing for the #1 spot in their division, with two pretty good defenses, and exciting players like Nuke Hopkins, Watson, and Hilton should make it a good watch.

The Saints/Bears game might be worth a peek too. These two teams have very good defenses and “just don’t lose the game” offenses. Bridgewater has done just enough to win (but not much else), and the Bears, whether it is Trubisky or Daniels playing, have a lot of questions to answer about their offense. It could be a mindnumbingly boring game of WR screens, 4 yard slants, and hope someone on the other team screws up, but I hope it’s worth watching.

The Packers are at home against the Raiders. The Packers defense looked horrid at the start of last week’s game, but was able to recover and, thanks in large part to the refs, they were able to eke out a win. The Raiders are coming off a bye after a nice win against the Bears. Gruden’s commitment to the run in that game was impressive, and they may do that again. The Packers hyper aggressive coverage can lead to giving up big plays, but that’s not really how the Raiders offense has worked so far this year. I think it’s a good matchup for the Packers.

Finally, the NFL has an officiating problem, but I’m not sure there’s a solution. I’d hate to have games going on and on and on as every penalty is reviewed, but I also dont want to see teams get screwed by the refs. I’m also not sure if it’s a me problem (I certainly remember bitching about refs back in the day, but it seemed to be more of a “shit happens. Play better” attitude by people back then. Who knows. Not I.

Thoughts. Guesses? Bets? Let’s get ready for some football.

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Speaking as a Chiefs fan, it’s my opinion that KC hasn’t been the same since left OT Eric Fisher went down with an injury. That’s allowed the pass rush to get to Mahomes, and it’s also hurt the running game. Still, if the defense was just average, they would probably be 5-1 or 6-0. But they cannot stop the run, and the TOP is killing them. Even Mahomes can’t throw TD passes when he’s not on the field.

I look for Von Miller to have a field day tonight and the Broncos to win by a FG.

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The Bears offense will be one to watch. They had a bye week. Looks like Mitch will be back. They sent Kyle Long to the IR which will probably be addition by subtraction. And the scrutiny will be through the roof. Nagy really, really had to have a come to Jesus moment this break and if he comes out with more of the same it could get really ugly around here.

Not sure what I expect. Conventional wisdom is that the Bears will re-dedicate themselves to the run, but that’s never been in Nagy’s DNA. Whomever ends up replacing Long, probably Coward, should be a huge improvement in run blocking and that alone might get things rolling, especially if the RBs spent all week being coached to actually expect to hit holes for a change.

Then again, with Mitch back they should be able to go downfield a bit more. Gabriel is back from his concussion but I hope he’s not out there as the full time WR2 since I think we have a chance to be a bit more dynamic with some combination of Miller and Wims.

Whatever happens, Bears fans will nitpick every single fucking decision and that Saints defense is no push over. They team really needs a get-well game against a tomato can, but there aren’t any of those on the calendar.

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Mahomes goes down again. He’s not going to last too many years in the NFL if he keeps up like this. And Flacco is awful.

Just as I typed that Flacco makes a downfield strike. Granted, it probably should have been intercepted but a completion is a completion.

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Shit, Mahomes’ injury looked like it could be a season-ender. Hope not. That kid is special

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But dude, Flacco is elite! 2013 will verify!

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Best case scenario I’m reading is 3 weeks out. The best case, mind you. Depending on MRI results.

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The impression I get is that fans know this defense is Super Bowl worthy, and they don’t want to waste it (like the Bears wasted any year not 1985) with another bad offense. I was a bit surprised at how much leeway and how many excuses have been made for Nagy (Coach of the Year!) and Trubisky, but they really need to do something these next couple weeks.

Completed Air Yards for Daniels: 6.3.
Completed Air Yards for Trubisky: 4.

I expect Robinson to play a hefty amount in the slot to get him free from Marcus Lattimore’s shadow coverage. Having a burner on the outside may help that too.

Oh to be in the AFC East.

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I’m sure glad you were wrong about that. Personally, it’s ALWAYS a good day whenever that Colorado-based team loses.

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Seattle is 3 - 0 against the A.F.C. North this season but none of those wins has been very convincing and I think the ‘hawks should be on “upset alert” this Sunday vs. Baltimore. The Ravens’ QB is very slippery and it’s the return of superstud Earl Thomas and after the way his time in Seattle ended I’m sure he’d love nothing better than to get a “W” against his old team.

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I thought the Rams game would be “the test” to see if the Seahawks were legit but after losing (badly) to the Niners, the Rams have lost three in a row and have a mediocre 50% win rate overall. The Rams may just not be that good anymore, and their trade for Ramsey smells like desperation to try to reclaim this season and stay viable now (by mortgaging their future). So that win may not have been as telling as it seemed.

The Ravens look like a stout team and may be a better test. But if the Seahawks can’t do more than win by a small margin I expect the storyline to be, “The Browns aren’t great and smashed the Ravens, so if the Seahawks can barely beat them at home how good are they really?”

Which I kind of like. It seems like Seattle pushes itself when they feel like others doubt them (though Wilson seems to be the MVP front runner for the first time). If they can keep winning and still have people doubt the quality of those wins its kind of a best case scenario for them.

Or maybe they’re really not that good, and a combination of luck and unsustainable heroics from a few superstars have been all that’s kept them nursing a record that belies their overall lack of talent and experience. I hope not!

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Seattle has to be on upset alert every week. They usually find a way to win, but almost every win could have gone the other way. They don’t tend to dominate games anymore.

In other words, I agree. Baltimore could take this one. My prediction, for some reason, is that Seattle will step it up a bit this week and win by 10.

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Yes, I am quite happy to be wrong. I chuckled last night when Troy Aikman took a couple of digs at Elway’s moves as a GM.

I just saw that Mahomes will be out 4-6 weeks. Chiefs have the Pack and the Vikes in their next two games. Gonna be tough without him. Hopefully he’ll be back for the Patriots game on 12/8.

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The Packers fan in me is elated. Matt Moore is no Patrick Mahomes.

That said, the football fan in me is very unhappy. This could have been a hell of a game to watch, and to see a star QB go down like that makes me feel for Chiefs fans. But we have the Raiders first, and that could be a good one, too.

Is it Sunday yet?

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I’ve done a LOT of research on N.F.L. football teams and to this day the best Bears’ QB of all time last played almost 7 decades ago. Not impressive.

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Their most productive QB (most yards, TDs, etc.) was Jay Cutler by a wide margin.

If you’re thinking of Sid Luckman, he comes in second and he last played almost 7 decades ago. But his TD/Int rate was awful, almost 50/50.

When Cutler is the best QB in your history, that’s not great, especially given how long that team’s history is.

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Sid Luckman’s in the P.F.H.o.F. Jay Cutler’s not (and never will be). And from what I checked a while ago Jay Cutler’s time in Chicago left a bad taste in just about every Bear fan’s mouth.

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When Cutler broke many of the Bears’ passing records, he was, indeed, often breaking Luckman’s records (or Jim Harbaugh’s :eek: ). The fact alone that a QB who last played in 1950 still held many of the team’s passing records, given how much the passing game has opened up in the last 40 years, says a lot about the Bears’ QB history, for sure.

Cutler may have wound up being the “most productive,” at least from the standpoint of yards and TDs, but that’s largely the result of hanging onto the starting QB job for eight seasons, for a franchise which has notoriously not had long-term quarterbacks throughout the modern era. His record as a starting quarterback for the Bears was exactly at .500 (51-51), he won one postseason game, and he never made the Pro Bowl, much less the All-Pro team, as a Bear. “Best Bears QB” is probably not a term I would give to him.

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Yet Luckman was worse. Over 11 years his TD/interception rate was 136/132. His completion percentage was 51.8%. His passing yards per game was about half Cutler’s. He wouldn’t make it as a starter in today’s NFL.

Cutler is the best Bears QB because the Bears have never had a decent QB in their entire history. That’s amazing. Statistically speaking, who do you consider better than Cutler and why?

I could see an argument for Josh McCown, who had 15 TDs to 5 interceptions and a 65.9% completion rate, but that was over 11 games and is a pretty small sample. You could call him pretty efficient for the little he did.

Jim McMahon led the Bears to their only Super Bowl victory but he wasn’t that great either, slightly more efficient than Luckman.

You could make an argument that in today’s NFL, with the way the rules are and the way teams play now that Luckman might do much better but that’s impossible to know and we have to go by numbers. And Luckman was not good.

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I have to side with you on this. Sure, Sid Luckman’s numbers don’t look all that great compared to the kinds of numbers starting N.F.L. QBs put up nowadays, but neither do Joe Montana’s! Sid Luckman was named first team All-Pro several times, led his team to several N.F.L. titles, and is in the P.F.H.o.F. Numbers aside, to me that makes him the best QB in Bears’ history, by far.