Week 7 in the NFL turned out to be a great equalizer. The Chicago Bears, New England Patriots, New York Giants and Denver Broncos all improved to 2-5 with victories that ranged from dominant to stunning to just flat out ugly.
The Philadelphia Eagles won their showdown with the Miami Dolphins on Sunday night. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns remained 0.5 games behind the Baltimore Ravens in the rugged AFC North.
There’s plenty to overreact to after Week 7 entered the history books, so let’s get cooking.
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5. The Detroit Lions are, in fact, still the Detroit Lions
In perhaps their most hyped game in years, the Detroit Lions took a 5-1 record to Baltimore on Sunday. They left with the kind of loss the Lions have shown themselves oh so capable of over the last two decades.
Detroit fell behind 35-0 before taking a 38-6 pummeling at the hands of the Ravens. The defense was cooked for 503 yards, as Lamar Jackson shredded it for 357 passing yards and three touchdowns, adding a score on the ground.
Over the course of 17 games in 18 weeks, just about every team is going to throw a clunker out there at least once. But no fan base is more primed for heartbreak than the faithful of the Lions, who have gone 31 years and counting since their last playoff win and 65 years since last tasting a title.
The sheer carnage Baltimore imposed on Detroit made the loss that much more alarming. Most teams can flush such a performance and move on. We shall see if the Lions can bounce back.
Reality: Detroit gets a break in the schedule, hosting the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night before hitting their bye. If the Lions go to their off week at 6-2, all is well. A loss to the Raiders? That is an entirely different story.
4. Bill Belichick Dispels Rumors about the Patriots
After weeks of speculation about his job status, Bill Belichick engineered a stunning victory on Sunday, as the Patriots scored with 12 seconds left to upend the Buffalo Bills 29-25 at home.,
That snapped a three-game losing streak and Mac Jones was terrific, completing 25-of-30 passes for 272 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner. The defense forced two turnovers and allowed just two plays of 20 yards or more.
So perhaps the old man still has some tricks up his sleeve and reports of the game passing him by are premature.
Reality: New England is not a good team. But they went toe-to-toe with the talented but enigmatic Buffalo squad for a much-needed win and now go to Miami on Sunday for their second game with the Dolphins.
3. Speaking of the Bills …
Buffalo is that team in 2023. The one that, on any given Sunday, can lose to anyone in the NFL. Mixed in with dominant wins over the Raiders, Washington Commanders and Miami Dolphins are losses to the New York Jets, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Patriots.
Josh Allen completes 70.7 percent of his passes with 15 touchdowns and 1,841 yards. But he added another interception to his total on Sunday, bringing it to seven in seven games. His heavy dependance on Stefon Diggs (78 targets and 55 catches) makes it easy for defenses to nearly ignore everyone else.
Can Buffalo figure out how to not play up or down to the level of its competition? That’s the key question as the Bills host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night.
Reality: While the Bills have lost games they came in as favorites, when you have a quarterback and wide receiver tandem like Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs the team can go on a run even if it is playing arguably in the hardest division in the NFL.
2. Questions arise about the San Francisco 49ers
Just two weeks ago, the San Francisco 49ers eviscerated the Dallas Cowboys to improve to 5-0. Now the Niners are 5-2 with consecutive road losses at Cleveland and Minnesota.
Monday night’s sloppy performance included three turnovers, surrendering a 60-yard touchdown just before the half and a missed 40-yard field goal. Still, San Francisco had a chance to win late, but didn’t get it done.
Brock Purdy threw two picks on Monday and the absence of Deebo Samuel was noticeable. Christian McCaffrey played through his oblique injury to score both 49er touchdowns, but his 17 touches netted 96 yards and he lost a fumble.
More troubling was the defense, which didn’t get to Kirk Cousins. A clean pocket makes Cousins a very dangerous quarterback, as he showed with 378 yards on 35-of-45 passing. Minnesota’s 452 total yards were a season-high against the Niners and it was the first time all season they have given up more than 300 yards through the air.
Reality: Close games expose flaws in a way that blowouts don’t. San Francisco won its first five games by an average of nearly 20 points, but has faltered in tighter contests the last two weeks. After hosting the Bengals on Sunday, the 49ers hit their bye week in need of a reset button.
1. The more things change, the more they stay the same
Since the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII last February, dozens of players changed addresses as teams sought to catch up with the conference champs.
After NFL Week 7, the results of all that movement are … the Chiefs and Eagles sharing the best record in the league at 6-1 and everyone else in chase mode.
Not to get all philosophical, but Friedrich Nietzsche’s doctrine of eternal recurrence states “time is a flat circle.”
And after all the wheeling and dealing, the billions of dollars in new contracts and extensions and five coaching changes, look where we find ourselves at the end of NFL Week 7. The Chiefs and Eagles are the best teams in their respective conferences, just like eight months ago.
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