Two weeks ago, the best team in the AFC was a no-brainer. It was Tennessee. But now? Not so much.
So who is? Give me the winner of next Monday’s Buffalo-New England game.
The Bills are no surprise. They were a trendy Super Bowl pick prior to the season. But New England? Nope, never saw that happening. However, now I’m not sure the Patriots aren’t the team to beat in a conference where everyone has at least three losses … but only one is on a six-game tear.
That would be the Patriots, who dropped Tennessee Sunday.
“They are playing the most consistent football in the AFC right now,” said Hall-of-Fame coach Tony Dungy of NBC.
They can run. They play defense. They don’t make mistakes, but they force them. Their rookie quarterback is one of the league’s most efficient and effective passers. And they’re improving one week to the next, with New England hammering its last four opponents by a combined score of 130-26.
Cleveland was one of those opponents, and the Browns were a playoff team last year. Tennessee was another, and the Titans this year beat seven playoff teams from 2020. But it’s not that those two lost; it’s that they were obliterated, 81-20.
I know. Cleveland didn’t have Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, and Baker Mayfield is hurt. And Tennessee doesn’t have Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown. I don’t care. The Patriots suddenly look like the 2001 edition that was quarterbacked by a first-year starter at quarterback (take a guess) and defined by a lock-down defense.
That team finished 11-5 and won the Super Bowl.
This team could, too, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Patriots next play, in order, Buffalo, Indianapolis and Buffalo again. That will tell us what to make of them. Until then, all I know is that at 8-4 the Patriots have one more victory than all of last year and are somewhere we didn’t expect sans Tom Brady.
On top of their division and maybe, just maybe, the AFC.
SUNDAY SCHOOL: FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED
1. The Steelers are toast. OK, so at 5-5-1 they’re not out of anything. But let’s be honest: Their defense is leaking oil, and Ben Roethlisberger isn’t Big Ben anymore. Over its last two games – both losses – the Steelers have been shredded for 903 yards and 82 points … and that was vs. the Chargers and Bengals. Over their first nine games, no opponent scored more than 24, with the Steelers allowing an average of 20.5 per start. But now? Now their defense looks like an open window and the playoffs an unreachable goal.
2. Apparently, Aaron Rodgers can manage pain. That’s what he said after missing last week’s practice with a fractured toe. Then he went out and threw two TD passes and ran for a third. Against the Rams, no less.
3. The Bengals are back. They just swept Pittsburgh for the first time since 2009 and are closing in on AFC North leader Baltimore. In five of their past six games, they scored 30 or more points. So what? So they did that just once their previous 13 games. “They really don’t have any weaknesses right now,” said NBC analyst Drew Brees. Careful. They're the Bengals. We said that before this season.
4. Tom Brady owns the Colts. He’s 9-0 against them since 2010 (including the playoffs) --- or, since Peyton Manning left.
5. The Vikings are in deep kimchi. They can’t win close games, and now they’ve lost star back Dalvin Cook. He has a shoulder injury severe enough that he left Sunday’s game vs. the 49ers on a cart. You know the Vikes are in trouble when, on a fourth-and-goal, Kirk Cousins lines up behind guard. But he did. Honest.
THIRD AND 20
1. The more I see Tennessee without Derrick Henry, the higher he moves on my MVP ballot.
2. The Rams are a descending team. They’ve lost three straight, dropped another game behind AFC West leader Arizona and are getting diminishing returns from Matthew Stafford, with a pick-six in three consecutive games. These guys need a break … and they’ll get one. Jacksonville is next.
3. Look at it this way, Jaguars’ fans. At least Trevor Lawrence threw a touchdown pass. That’s something he didn’t do the previous three weeks.
4. Ja’Marr Chase or Jaylen Waddle?
5. It’s fourth-and-goal at your opponent’s 3, and you’re down by eight with nine minutes left. What do you do? If you’re the Minnesota Vikings, you go for it, a move broadcasters enthusiastically endorsed – calling it the only one to make. Except it wasn’t. A field goal would have reduced the gap to five, with nine minutes left to produce the game-winning TD. Instead, the Vikings passed on the field goal, Cousins missed the fourth-down pass and they lost by eight.
6. I don’t know what happens with Tampa Bay in January, but I do know this: Its defense isn’t remotely close to the one that closed out opponents in last year’s playoffs.
7. What’s so rare as a day in June? An afternoon where the Giants and Jets each win. It happened Sunday,
8. Contrary to reports, there's still a home-field advantage in the NFL. It lives in Green Bay. The Packers won their last 10 regular-season games at Lambeau and 17 of their past 18 there.
9. Tell me again why Matt Rhule was such a great hire for Carolina. He’s 10-18.
10. That makes Matt Stafford 0-17 vs. opponents that entered games with five or more wins over .500. Just sayin.’
11. Cam Newton may be back. But Superman isn’t. If you complete only two more passes to your teammates (5) than your opponent (3), produce a 5.8 passer rating and get benched, you’re Clark Kent.
12. Don’t short change Miami. After starting 1-7, the Dolphins are on a four-game roll. But here’s what’s better: Their next two opponents: The Jets and Giants, both at home. Meaning 7-7 is very much in play.
13. So what’s pushing Miami? Defense, that’s what. In the past four games, the Dolphins allowed an average fof 11.5 points a game, with 16 sacks and 10 takeaways. In other words, they’re the defense coach Brian Flores envisioned three months ago.
14. I thought Denver’s pass rush was supposed to miss Von Miller. Tell that to Justin Herbert.
15. Quick question for Philadelphia’s Nick Sirianni: When you have one pass to pull out a last-gasp victory, why throw it to Jalen Reagor? The guy can’t catch a cab in midtown Manhattan right now.
16. "And I guess for the week," NBC's Mike Tirico said after Baltimore's 16-10 defeat of Cleveland, "the final tally is Harbaughs 2, Ohio 0." Tirico lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., and, according to Sunday Night Football partner Cris Collinsworth, waited all weekend to get in that dig.
17. Not sure what it means, but Tennessee is 1-5 vs. rookie quarterbacks since 2018 … or in the Mike Vrabel era.
18. They have Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and Von Miller. So why do the Rams leak like the Titanic? They’ve given up 28 or more points in three straight games, and that’s not supposed to happen with this all-star lineup.
19. Funny thing about Lamar Jackson and multiple first-half interceptions: He’s committed them four times in his career, and the Ravens are 4-0 in those games.
20. Per ESPNStatsInfo: Jackson became the first quarterback since 2013 to throw four interceptions in a game and win. One reason why: Cleveland scored just three points off the four turnovers, and that's on a struggling offense that produced 14 or fewer points in five of Baker Mayfield's last six starts. Prior to Sunday night, quarterbacks with four picks had lost 41 consecutive times.
STAT THAT MAY ONLY INTEREST ME
A Jets’ quarterback has been sacked in 46 straight games, the longest active streak in the NFL.
ONE THAT MAY INTEREST YOU
Aaron Rodgers is 73-1-1 in his career when leading at the half.
AND ONE FOR BOTH OF US
The AFC East went 4-0 Sunday. It’s only the second time in the past decade that all four teams won in the same week. The previous instance was 2015.
SUNDAY’S GOLD JACKET QUOTES
“We have higher aspirations than beating the Steelers now.” – Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow.
“See ball. Get ball.” – New England cornerback J.C. Jackson.
"We're not doing that." -- Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski on the possibility of a quarterback change.
“When we turn it over it gives them life. That’s number one. Number two: They have Tom Brady.” – Indianapolis coach Frank Reich on the Colts’ loss to Tampa Bay.
“Once we get into a flow, it’s tough to stop us.” – Green Bay wide receiver Davante Adams.
SUNDAY’S GOLD JACKET RECIPIENT
Tampa Bay RB Leonard Fournette. He had four touchdowns prior to Sunday. Then he doubled that number in one afternoon, with three rushing and one on a 4-yard reception. It was the first time Fournette scored four times in one game, and his timing was perfect. It led Tampa Bay to a come-from-behind defeat of Indianapolis after the Bucs trailed by 14 at the half. In fact, it was at the half that Fournette made an impassioned speech to his teammates, urging them to get their act together the next two quarters. They did. “I was like: ‘You have to have a will and a want,’ “ he said. “You have to be willing to risk everything. I think they understood that message and played their lights out.”
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