Lots of big games today, and I got to watch 5 of them!
Patriots vs Jags, Pats had a well scripted first 2 drives, but were totally lost after that. However Maye looks very promising. Get some skill around him and he'll cook. He's proven to me already to be a better prospect than Nix. Jags looked real good, but it's the Patriots. Most importantly here though, was not a ton of dropped passes.
Vikings vs Lions delivered a tremendous NFCN battle that came down to the wire. Talk about back and forth - it started looking like it would be a Vikings route, then the Lions fought back to take over. They still almost lost to the turnover, but sealed the win in the end. Awesome exciting game
Packers vs Texans wasn't as exciting in terms of offense, as both teams were getting destroyed by each others defensive fronts. I think each team had over 10 plays for negative yards, so the run games weren't working. Jordan Love is highly underrated IMO
Even more of a stinker was Chiefs vs 49ers, both teams are decimated by injury, but only one has Mahomes so of course they're going to win. Mahomes faking going out of bounds is a dirty play that is going to get him killed some time since defenders are just going to say fuck it, I'm going to get a 15 yard penalty either way, I'm going to take this faker's head off. What really stood out to me was Purdy's awful play when The Avengers aren't available other than Kittle.
Then you got the Jets vs Steelers, where the Jets just crumbled under the oppressive defense of the Steelers. Jets defense is also incredibly beat up, and though it took a quarter and a bit, Wilson was able to eventually pick on them. Rodgers had some INTs but I don't think they were his fault. Garrett Wilson kind of stinks. Davante should be a bigger part of the picture next week, but it might be too late.
Steelers at 5-2 is insane lol. But if you look at their opponents, it makes sense. Game 1 vs Atlanta with an immobile Kirk Cousins, Denver with Bo Nix's second career game (and more importantly, their defense still coming together), Chargers with a broken down Herbert, then the free-falling Raiders and troubled Jets. Their two losses were against the only two decent teams they played, a Flacco led Colts, and the Cowboys.
They have the Giants next which should be another easy win, going into their bye, then it gets tougher - They have to play all 6 of their divisional games so that's 2 Ravens and 2 Bungles, with the Commandos, Eagles, and Chiefs mixed in.
Difficulty of schedule is quite important in the big picture if you're trying to evaluate a team, and can make teams look better or worse than they really are.