Here are my thoughts from Week 9 of the NFL season, which coincidentally also marks the half-way point of the season!
Game of the Week
San Francisco 49ers 28 at Arizona Cardinals 25, This game earned bonus points for being on a Thursday night, which are traditionally HORRIBLE. San Francisco holding off a game Arizona Cardinals team lead by rookie Kyler Murray (241 yards passing, 2 TDs, 34 yards rushing) and newly arrived Kenyan Drake (110 yards rushing, 1 TD, 54 yards receiving) to stay undefeated, and, as the weekend unfolded remain the only undefeated team in the NFL. Jimmy Garappolo threw for 317 yards and 4 TD, buoyed by the newly arrived Emmanuel Sanders (7 receptions, 112 yards, 1 TD).
Best Team Performance
Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens hosted the New England Patriots (and their supposedly vaunted defense) on Sunday night, and sent the Patriots home with a 37-20 defeat. Lamar Jackson threw for 163 and a score, and rushed for 61 more with 2 TDs, and handed the ball off to Mark Ingram II for another 115 yards - thus announcing a Baltimore challenge to New England supremacy in the AFC.
Least Impressive Team Performance
Jacksonville Jaguars. The darlings of London traveled to their second home only to get easily handled by the Houston Texans 26-3. Gardner Minshew II's 3 turnovers and otherwise lackluster performance (albeit aided by a number of drops by the Jaguars wide receivers) will make his way to the bench as the recovered Nick Foles resumes the starting role after next week's bye week.
Most Impressive Individual Performance (Offense)
Russell Wilson, QB - Seattle Seahawks. In what many expected to be an easy game, the Seahawks needed every bit of Wilson's 29-43 for 378 yards and 5 TDs as Seattle defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 40-34. Wilson has cemented himself as one of the 4 MVP candidates of the half-season (the others being Lamar Jackson, Christian McCaffrey and Aaron Rodgers).
Most Impressive Individual Performance (Defense)
Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram III, Nick Bosa, DEs, Los Angeles Chargers. Bosa and Ingram totaled 1 1/2 sacks each against Aaron Rodgers, but were even more impressive as they harassed the Packers' offensive line all day, not giving Aaron Rodgers enough time to set up and pick apart the defense, as he finished only 23-35 for 161 yards.
Most Impressive Individual Performance (Special Teams)
Dustin Hopkins, K - Washington Racists. Not really important, but he hit all 3 of his kicks and scored the teams only 9 points during a 24-9 shellacking at the hands of the Buffalo Bills.
Most Impressive Team Performance (Premier League)
Sheffield United. Sheffield United had the most dominating performance this weekend, dropping Burnley 3-0 at home. behind a brace from midfielder John Lundstram. The 3 points pulled Sheffield United up into 6th place in the table, only a point behind Europa League qualifying.
Most Impressive Individual Performance (Premier League)
Sadio Mane, F - Liverpool. Trailing 1-0 to Aston Villa, all Mane did was assist on the game-tying goal in the 87th minute and score the game-winner in the 90+4 minute. Honorable mention to the Chelsea youngsters Tammy Abraham, who scored his 9th league goal good for second in the Premiership, and Christian Pulisic, who coming off a hat trick scored again for his 4th goal in the last 2 games.
Goat of the Week
Gardner Minshew II, QB - Jacksonville Jaguars. Perhaps it was the pressure of playing for his job in the face of Nick Foles returning from injury, perhaps it was just the NFL getting some tape on him, or perhaps it was just Minshew regressing to the mean, but his 3 turnovers (despite over 300 yards passing), and overall lackluster performance in a 26-3 thrashing had Londoners ('ites?) wishing for Blake Bortles.
Goat of the Week (Premier League)
Heung-Min Son, F - Tottenham Hotspur. Son, who I believe is the most underrated soccer play in the world and whose offensive abilities are often overshadowed by club teammate Harry Kane (think Evgeni Malkin), instead earned a red card for a literal ankle breaking tackle on Everton midfielder Andre Gomes The send-off occurred with Tottenham leading 1-0 in the 79th minute. Of course, 18 minutes later Everton scored the game-tying goal through second-half substitute Cenk Tosun.
Hit of the Week
Heung-Min Son, F - Tottenham Hotspur. Son, who I believe is the most underrated soccer play in the world and whose offensive abilities are often overshadowed by club teammate Harry Kane (think Evgeni Malkin), instead earned a red card for a literal ankle breaking tackle on Everton midfielder Andre Gomes The send-off occurred with Tottenham leading 1-0 in the 79th minute. Of course, 18 minutes later Everton scored the game-tying goal through second-half substitute Cenk Tosun.
This is not a cut-and-paste error, this is also the hit of the week.
Breakthrough Performance
Devin Singletary, RB - Buffalo Bills. Partly because the team is interning him behdind Frank Gore, and partly because of an early season injury, Singletary is slowly being worked into the primary back role for the Bills. Sunday, against the Washington Racists, Singletary was the primary back, carrying the ball 20 times for 95 yards and 1 score, while also garnering 3 receptions for 45 yards. Now, a lot of Singletary's carries came after the game was well-in-hand so there was no use to subject Frank Gore to injury, but the youngerster is showing why the Bills have him in their present and future plans.
Finally
Dwayne Haskins, QB - Washington Racists. This finally really goes to the team, who finally decides to start their first round draft pick Haskins despite the fact that they have been horrible all year, even if Case Keenum and Colt McCoy are better. At some point you have to let the kid loose to see what you have. The Racists finally did that. Even if they don't like what they find in Haskins, they need to know if he is their quarterback of the future, or if they need to select one in what everyone says is a quarterback heavy draft in 2020.
Impact Injury
Adam Thielen, WR - Minnesota Vikins. The All-Pro played only 9 snaps and saw only 1 target before being removed in this week's 26-23 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs because of a hamstring injury. Coach Mike Zimmer would only say that Thielen will play whenever the doctors say he is ready. Losing a receiver of this caliber hurts the team in general, but especially Stefon Diggs, as defenses can roll safeties and double coverages toward the mercurial Diggs.
Team Rising
Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers rise to 4-5 after a 26-11 victory over Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. A 4-5 record may not seem like the team is "rising", but with this performance and the gradual return to health of all of their players, combined with Melvin Gordon being almost fully phased into the lineup after an early season holdout, and the team is poised to make a possible run toward the playoffs.
Team Falling
Chicago Bears. Ugh! Matt Nagy and Mitchell Trubisky are on a short list.
Best Teams
(All teams will be ranked by record, even if teams with more losses may be better than a team with fewer losses, since Bill Parcells always said that you are what your record says. The inverse is true for the Worst Teams rankings.)
1. San Francisco 49ers
2. New England Patriot
3. New Orleans Saints
4. Green Bay Packers
5. Seattle Seahawks
Worst Teams
(All winless teams will be ranked here until all teams have at least 1 win, then I will rank them based upon which teams I think are the worst, regardless of record.)
32. Cincinnati Bengals
31. Washington Racists
30. New York Jets
29. Atlanta Falcons
28. Miami Dolphins
Middle Teams
15. Philadelphia Eagles
16. Pittsburgh Stelers
17. Oakland Raiders
18. Detroit Lions
Last Week's Trivia Question/Answer
Last Entry's Trivia Questions were:
1. With Josh Rosen now starting for the Miami Dolphins, there are now 3 quarterbacks to make starts for 2 different teams in their first two seasons in the NFL. Who are the other two?
Answer: Spurgeon Wynn (Cleveland Browns, Minnesota Vikings); and Jacoby Brissett (New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts).
2. With New England's most recent victory over Buffalo in Buffalo, Tom Brady now has the most wins of any quarterback in the NFL in Buffalo this century (since 2001). Who has the next most?
Answer: Drew Bledsoe and Tyrod Taylor (14 wins)
Preview - Game(s) of the Week
6. Los Angeles Rams v. Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh at 4-4 has a legitimate shot at the playoffs, and they host the surging Rams, who themselves are chasing both the 49ers and Seahawks in the NFC West.
5. Los Angeles Chargers v. Oakland Raiders. As noted earlier, the Chargers are now healthy and surging. Oakland is playing much better than expected. Can Oakland run against the stout Charger defensive line? The answer to that question likely holds the winner of this game.
4. Liverpool v. Manchester City - This is the LSU v. Alabama of the Premiership. The top two teams clash against each other, in a divisional battle (for those that don't know - the Premier League is just one big division).
3. Carolina Panthers v. Green Bay Packers. Green Bay is coming off an embarrassing loss at the hands of the Chargers, and Carolina is playing better with Kyle Allen behind center.
2. Minnesota Vikings v. Dallas Cowboys. A game with huge playoff implications. This will be a fun one to watch. Even though Dalvin Cook and Ezekial Elliott will not actually be facing each other, this will be a de facto "best running back in the NFL" fight (with apologies to Saquon Barkley and Christian McCaffrey).
1. Seattle Seahawks v. San Francisco 49ers. NFC West supremacy at stake. Yes, if the Seahawks win they are still in second place, but a win would make it clear that Seattle is the best team in the division. If San Francisco wins, the 1972 Dolphins will have to wait at least another week to pop champagne.
Trivia
In Week 7, Aaron Rodgers passed for 400 yards and 5 TDs, while also rushing for a TD. What other quarterbacks (2) have done that in the history of the NFL?
Sports Bar Review of the Week
I was traveling home from the Artist Formerly Known as the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, so no sports bar to review this week.
