Week 10 Thoughts

Who else is excited for Rams Seahawks?

10:22 a.m. Brother’s picks were in.

10:45 a.m. Mother’s followed. How disappointing. We didn’t even get the opportunity to speculate about the possibility.

Then, having finalized her choices, and dealing with ridicule from her children over her Jets pick, Mother said “and now to continue with my nap.”

Flag on the play. Taunting. 15 yard penalty.

Even more disappointingly, a week after being disqualified she returned to the winner’s circle. Sigh. What on earth must we do to stop this. On the bright side we had another first this week.

A three way tie.

How did we get there?

Raiders 7 Broncos 10. This is result we all expected but there was no need for us to experience what can only be described as visual torture. The only thought I have from this is how have the Broncos won eight games. I know their defense is elite but if you can’t score more than 10 points against the two win Raiders who can you score more than 10 points against? As ugly a win as a team can have in the NFL but hey 8-2. Can’t scoff at that.

Falcons 25 Colts 31. Now to actual football. The Falcons are making a habit of competing and at the last moment securing a L. They’ve now done it in back to back weeks, although to be fair to them the two teams they lost to are both currently 8-2. For the Colts, Daniel Jones got over his Steelers nightmare but the real story is Jonathan Taylor. Again. 32 carries for 244 yards and three touchdowns, including the game winner. He also had three catches for 42 yards. That’s a total of 286 scrimmage yards for Mr. Taylor. Watching the Colt’s last drive in OT, when they handed him the ball again and again, felt as close to inevitable as is possible in sports. A very serious contender for MVP is Mr. Taylor.

Browns 20 Jets 27. A two game winning streak for the NEW YORK JETS. As you will recall, Mother picked them and thus she had the last laugh, which is just brutal. However these Jets wins are providing a real moral dilemma for my coworker. For seven weeks he bet a Jets win. They lost every single time. The last two weeks he hasn’t and suddenly they’re a wagon. Inquiring minds are very interested to know if he has been holding back his beloved Jets back. I propose he bet on them tonight just to see if it is indeed the case. Strictly for scientific purposes of course.

Saints 17 Panthers 7. All this game did for me was confirm my opinion the Panthers are not a good team and thus the NFC South is bad, just like I proclaimed it to be many weeks ago.

Patriots 28 Buccaneers 23. This was real ball. A feeling we Patriots fans have been yearning to feel again. Excitement and expectation when a good team is the opponent. Banged up though they are the, now 6-3, Bucs at home off a bye lead by Todd Bowles’ defense is a good team. And on the opening drive they showed it. Baker Mayfield drove them down the field easily and in double quick time is was 7-0 Bucs. Enter Drake Maye and the Rookies. The Pats first TD was a 72 yard play from Maye to rookie Kyle Williams . The second was a great throw and an even better catch from non rookie Stefon Diggs to give New England a 14-10 lead at half time. Then rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson thought it would be fun to score a 55 yard touchdown and a 69 yard touchdown and you know what, he was right. It was fun. 8-2 is also fun, and that’s what the Pats are.

Ravens 27 Vikings 19. This game was a slog. The Ravens have now won three in a row and I think they’re in the driver’s seat to win the AFC North but that also has a lot to do with the Steelers. I know the Vikings defense is quite good, but the Ravens offense with Lamar Jackson is very good and yet they struggled against Minnesota despite J.J McCarthy’s two interceptions. But a win is a win. I also checked the Vikings upcoming schedule and it’s big uh oh hours for them in my opinion. Green Bay Packers performances depending.

Bills 13 Dolphins 30. Dear Buffalo fans I understand the pain of having your dominant division winning team go down to Miami and lose an infuriating game. It is truly awful. That being said this loss was particularly horrific because of how terrible the Dolphins are right now. And not scoring a point before the fourth quarter. Just putrid football. I mean Tua gave them two interceptions and the Bills still lose by 17. Thanks for the game and a half lead in the division guys.

Giants 20 Bears 24. My brother picked the Giants and for three quarter he looked like a genius. Then he started texting me about Russell Wilson and I knew my pick (I’m sorry for betraying my principles again) would be right. I thought the Giants were hopeless with all their injuries but Jaxson Dart may be the truth. Unfortunately when the spark plug gets injured, there’s no light left in Big Blue. The Bears are currently in a playoff spot and I am openly rooting for the rest of the schedule to sink them.

Jaguars 29 Texans 36. New worst loss of the season just dropped. The Jags were destroying the Texans. They led 20-3 in the second quarter and 29-10 going into the fourth quarter. And they lost. They didn’t score a single point in the fourth and the Davis Mills led Texans scored 26. To lose that game is devastating. To lose that game to an divisional rival is catastrophic.

Cardinals 22 Seahawks 44. The Cardinals lost by 22 and the score greatly flatters them. Seattle, for the second time in two weeks and the third time this season, scored 30+ points in the first half. This time Sam Darnold only had one touchdown but the Seahawk’s defense decided they wanted to score points too. So they forced two fumbles and proceeded to scoop and score on both. This team is a wagon at 7-2 and are undefeated on the road. Which may come in handy this weekend…

Lions 44 Commanders 22. The Commanders are firmly back in No Jayden Daniels No Dice Territory. The Lions meanwhile clearly wanted to take out their anger from last week’s loss on Washington and thus did so. And just like that they jump right back to the top of the division.

Rams 42 49ers 26. Oh boy are the Rams serious. They should’ve won the first game against the Niners and clearly they decided not to give San Fran a sniff this time around. While the Seahawks were annihilating the Cardinals, the Rams were doing their own demolition project to an NFC West team. Just another four touchdown day for Matthew Stafford. Mac Jones was excellent for the Niners but these Rams are a wagon which makes their next game mouthwatering. My brother is going to be in hell.

Steelers 10 Chargers 25. I was worried about the Chargers in this game because of their offensive line. Any offensive line that has to spend 60 minutes defending T.J Watt and Cam Ward is not going to have a good time. When every player is literally the worst or second worst in the Pro Football Focus Rankings. Yeah it’s going to be a longggggg night. However, I forgot the Chargers defense is elite and the Steelers offense is putrid. They needed six turnovers to beat the Colts by seven and with none on Sunday night there was no chance they would win that game. Justin Herbert was very good and the Chargers kept adding on slowly but surely. A win is a win.

Eagles 10 Packers 7. To start and end this week with two 10-7 games feels like punishment. This game was better than Broncos Raiders but that isn’t saying very much. Both defenses played very well, getting timely turnovers and keeping the other team out the endzone for three quarters. But there were ten punts in this game and neither quarterback threw for more than 185 yards. Oh joy. That being said the Eagles just continue to win games. Since their shocking back to back defeats they’ve won three in a row and are the number one seed. The Packers meanwhile continue to lose games where their defense gives up less than 17 points. I don’t really know if I can believe in them anymore.

That Packers loss cost me the win this week. So did the Jets win truth be told but I can accept the Jets beating the Browns more than I can accept the Packers putting up seven points at home.

I’m just hoping we finally get a good Thursday night football game tonight. And by good I mean my Patriots winning in dominant fashion over those beleaguered Jets.

But we shall see.