The Aftermath: Week 7

What a weekend of NFL football. We had a couple upsets, some very exciting games, and an overall exciting slate. It started on Thursday night with the Bears getting a home win against a Patriots team that looks to be living up to their schedule reputation. The Falcons got an impressive home win against the Niners and the Buccaneers beat the Panthers handedly. A big division game between the Packers and Lions didn’t disappoint, setting up what might be the game of the week between the Lions & Vikings in Week 8.

Cincinnati Gets Important Division Win

The Bengals won after falling behind early, in what was an important division game with the Browns beating the Titans. We talked about it in The Rundown heading into Week 6, but the key to the game was the Bengals run defense against the Ravens rush offense and the Bengals passing offense against the Ravens pass defense. Cincinnati won both of these areas. Joe Burrow was 22-30 for 292 yards and 4 passing touchdowns. The other side, the Bengals only allowed Henry to rush for 45 yards on 17 carries. Very impressive win for the Bengals and a loss that brings into question the Ravens future.

Green Bay Struggles in Detroit

This was my Game of the Week going into Week 7. It lived up to that tag after coming down to a walk off field goal by Detroit to win it in regulation. Green Bay’s passing offense had the clear advantage heading into this matchup and Jordan Love threw the ball 45 times for 274 yards and two touchdowns. It wasn’t one receiver who had a big day, but rather the collection with the yardage being spread out with four guys getting over 40 yards. Detroit’s defense got some key stops on fourth down and allowing no points in the redzone on a couple occasions. That proved to be a big difference maker in this one. Green Bay had a ranking of 22 in rush EPA heading into this game and it showed. Gibbs ran for 116 yards on 29 carries and couldn’t be stopped. A little surprisingly, Goff had a great day in the air as well throwing for 303 yards with 153 of those going to Amon-Ra St. Brown. The Brown Gibbs duo proved to be too much for Green Bay.

Statement In Seattle

The Sunday Night game wasn’t on my list for games of the week but this game was complete domination by the defending Super Bowl champs. The anticipated K9 versus this Seattle defense was a big mismatch. Seattle’s defense only allowed him to rush for 36 yards and completely shut down the Kansas City run game. The Seattle offense has been struggling for weeks and they answered the call to respond. Darnold threw for 257 yards being efficient on 20-28 passing. Smith-Njigba reminded the world in primetime why he is the best in the league with 150 yards, 9 receptions and 1 touchdown. What a response from the champs. The question becomes can you do it again against Chicago.

Week 7: Winners and Losers

Winners:

• Tampa Bay: The NFC South is a wild division, with the Panthers being at the top with a 3-3 record but the Bucs just got a leg up on them in the tie breaker scenarios. With the Falcons winning, the matchups between the Bucs and Falcons just became more exciting.
• Denver: I know the Cardinals aren’t some super impressive win, but scoring 30 points gives confidence to the offense and this win puts them right behind the Chiefs in the division. Huge matchup coming this week!
• New York Giants: What a win for the Giants. On the road, against a team that is supposed to be a defensive juggernaut and you put up 420 total yards.

Losers:

• Carolina: Sometimes its not your day. This game got out of hand quickly and the Panthers shut down and had zero response. Suspect defense showing up again and when the offense can’t score, it becomes apparent the Panthers can’t win.
• Houston: What is this team? They have zero identity and the unit thats supposed to be leading the charge looks like a bottom feeder. What do they decide to do sitting at 2-5 with the trade deadline looming?
• Las Vegas: This game had Game of the Week tag for storyline purposes, and unfortunately the story line is the Raiders beat 3 bad teams but they can’t beat anyone good. Kubiak is already starting to get Mendoza questions and it looks like the season might be spiraling.