2023 season, Week 7 review

[racepug]

First off - so many upsets in the N.F.L. this week! Also: lots of people "upset" over some dubious (and outcome-altering) calls in several games this week.

Let's get to it!

The week started out with a win by JAX @ 'Nawlins' when Saints TE Foster Moreau dropped a very catch-able ball in the end zone late in the game in the Crescent City. A little luck for the Jaguars but I still think they're in good hands with their head coach.

'Da Bears' beat the Raiders rather handily with a guy at QB who was playing Division II ball at this time last year. I saw that a poll came out about the Raiders under Josh McDaniels about "Which is the most embarrassing loss by the Raiders under McDaniels: 1) the loss to the Jeff Saturday [who'd been with ESPN just days before]-coached Colts, 2) the loss to the Rams when Baker Mayfield had been with the Rams for about 5 minutes, or 3) the loss to CHI" yesterday. Someone mentioned that the fact that such a question is even being asked should tell you something about the job Josh McDaniels is doing as Raiders H.C. Something tells me that the Raaayyyydaaahhs will be parting with their H.C. before too long (just as DEN did the same guy before them). On the other hand, Mark Davis is in charge in Vegas so who knows what he's thinking at this point?

CLE just barely outlasted the Colts and for the 2nd straight week there were murmurs, afterwards, of the Browns having been the beneficiaries of some VERY dubious calls by the officials. I guess the Seahawks need to be "on notice" in Week 8 as they host the Browns (and their "All-World" DE Myles Garrett), next.

"The Hoodie" got his 300th win as a H.C. (I'm not sure if that's "regular season" or "overall") as his team upset the Bills in Foxborough. I'm not sure what's up with the BUF Bills. I know they've suffered some bad injuries over the last few weeks but ever since their seeming "statement win" over MIA they've gone 1 - 3 and the one win was "just barely" and not w/o controversy over a team that's been struggling all season. As of right now I don't think that BUF's "S.B. window" is closing - I think it's already closed.

Speaking of "that team that's been struggling all season" THEY (the NYG) came up with a win on Sunday over division rivals WAS, meaning that the Commanders, after a somewhat promising start to the season, have now lost to both "Da Bears" and Los Gigantes de Nueva York at home this season which CAN'T be a good look for H.C. Ron Rivera.

Not sure what to say about the "beat down" that BAL gave DET. Maybe it was just the Lions' turn to have a bad game.

Green Bay (somehow) lost to DEN. I don't think much more need be said about that game (especially if you're a Packers fan).

The 'Stillers' got their first-ever (regular season) win over the Rams in L.A. in another game that was marred by a bit of controversy due to a spot of the ball late in the game that favored the visiting team. Still, I think PIT deserves credit for showing fight and coming back to win in a situation that they'd never emerged victorious from before.

The Seahawks, like their college counterparts (the Washington Huskies) the previous night, didn't look particularly impressive in a game against a sub-par team from AZ but they got the "W" which, I've been told, is the most important thing.

The Chiefs beat the Chargers to continue their dominance of fellow A.F.C. West teams (I looked it up and did the arithmetic: since Patrick Mahomes took signal-calling duties over full-time for the Chiefs (in 2018) K.C. is 28 - 4, combined, against the rest of the teams from their division [with the Chargers getting 3 of those wins and the Raiders getting the other one]). Impressive!

In what was maybe the most anticipated game of the week PHI hosted MIA on Sunday night and did a tremendous job, holding the high-scoring MIA offense to 17 points and 244 total yards of offense. An impressive performance by last year's N.F.C. champions showing that while MIA is good (maybe the best they've been in quite some time) they're probably not quite yet a (league or conference) championship-caliber team.

And tonight the 49ers fell to the MIN Vikings in yet another upset, SFO's 2nd straight loss after starting the season 5 - 0. Like BUF, the Niners have struggled since their seeming "statement win" (a blowout over the blowhards from TX) a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what to think about that but it does seem that Brock Purdy has found the going a bit rougher the last couple of weeks than he had previously, so I'm sure that's got something to do with it. I'm still of the opinion, though, that the 49ers are one of the best teams in the league and that they're just in a bit of a "rough patch" right now.

[Brian wolf]

Philly was impressive controlling the ball with Brown having a big game but Tua played well also. He had a TD pass to Hill called back due to a penalty--penalties killed their team with the Eagles having 0 penalties--and Hill dropped a perfect slant pass that would have been an easy TD and even on Tags' interception, a receiver ran the wrong route and drew his defender to the primary receiver. The Dolphins hopefully can get away from the trickery and go back to running the ball to set up their speed in the passing game.

Niners defense was bad tonight, with a rookie Viking receiver taking the ball away from an interception, to scoring a TD.

[racepug]

Philly was impressive controlling the ball with Brown having a big game but Tua played well also. He had a TD pass to Hill called back due to a penalty--penalties killed their team with the Eagles having 0 penalties--and Hill dropped a perfect slant pass that would have been an easy TD and even on Tags' interception, a receiver ran the wrong route and drew his defender to the primary receiver. The Dolphins hopefully can get away from the trickery and go back to running the ball to set up their speed in the passing game.

Niners defense was bad tonight, with a rookie Viking receiver taking the ball away from an interception, to scoring a TD.

Yeah, a whole lot of things went wrong for the 49ers in that game while a whole lot of things "went right" for the Vikings. Personally, I'm not sure that the 49ers ever really recovered from that early Christian McCaffrey fumble and that TD by the Vikes just before halftime was ridiculous (reminded me a little of the game-winning TD they got at the last moment against the Saints in that playoff game a few years back. Not quite the same, but. . .it NEVER should've happened). I will give credit to the Vikings' O-line - they did a really good job last night. And the few times that the Niners' penetrated, Kirk Cousins used all of his veteran savvy to avoid trouble. And Brock Purdy, while generally still pretty good last night, made a couple of really bad throws that cost his team badly. I still think that the 49ers are one of the best teams in the league and as for the Vikings? They used up a whole lot of luck/fortune in that game last night. I don't expect that to continue for them the rest of the season.