GKJ
Global Moderator
- Feb 27, 2002
- 192,508
- 43,235
As we slowly make our way to the midpoint of the season, the quarterbacks are starting to get hurt. And anyone who plays fantasy football knows that the offenses are already down. No Europe game, or games in strange windows, it’s the traditional schedule this week, and 5 late window games which will either give us a better chance at more engaging activity, or simply more drek.
Thursday Night - Minnesota at LA Rams: Very short week but long trip for the Vikings to play prime time on Amazon. They had a tough loss at home to the Lions, while the Rams beat the Raiders. The Vikings are only(?) 3-point favorites, but there are all kinds of smoke around the Rams future plans. Cooper Kupp’s name came up in trade rumors with the Chiefs before they traded for DeAndre Hopkins, but his name remains out there. Unsubstantiated internet rumblings have included Matthew Stafford, which seems to be a bridge very far. The Rams were very aggressive in building their Super Bowl team, good reason to suspect they’ll be aggressive in taking it apart.
MAPS
Philadelphia at Cincinnati was flexed out of the late window spot, but it still feels like an important game, especially for the Bengals, who are favored. The Bengals have not lost to to the Eagles since December 24, 2000, a run of 3-0-2. The Eagles have never won in Cincinnati, 0-3-1.
Indianapolis at Houston: I think this is the first week we have the back end of divisional games. Texans won 29-27 in Week 1. Anthony Richardson returned last week but didn’t look very good despite a win. Texans lost a tough one in Green Bay, and CJ Stroud had his toughest day of the season. Both their losses are within the NFC.
NY Jets at New England: The Jets had the beat on the Steelers last week, but managed to allow Russell Wilson to get his shit together. They beat the Patriots in Week 2 24-3. Drake Maye wasn’t at QB for that game, and the offense doesn’t seem inspired yet even with him. The Jets will be out of time if they somehow let this get away, with the Texans coming to town on Thursday.
Baltimore at Cleveland: Deshaun Watson is out for the season again, which naturally led to some optimism despite the visceral reaction around his newly torn Achilles. It’s easy to see why the Browns could rally around their offense to turn around their season, but they were 4-1 even with Watson last year. Now, they’re 1-6. Jameis Winston has emerged as this week’s starter as Dorian Thompson-Robinson also got hurt last week. The Ravens have won 5 in a row after starting 0-2, but their defense has given up less than 23 points just once, playing a team that hasn’t scored more than 18.
Chicago at Washington: it’s strange to think these two teams would get flexed into a bigger window, though looking at the map, not sure how much bigger they are than other games being aired in the late afternoon. We’ve seen a few horrible prime time Thursday games between these two recently, but the first two overall picks in last years draft playing well is why this got flexed. Unfortunately, Jayden Daniels is week-to-week with an abdominal injury, so we don’t know if he’s playing. Caleb Williams has been anchored by the Bears defense, and they are favored with the WFT QB uncertainty. Marcus Mariota would take the reins.
Kansas City at Las Vegas: Gardner Minshew is back in his natural habitat as the replacement for a starter, Aidan O’Connell has a thumb injury that has him on the shelf. Chiefs took care of the 49ers last week, they are the lone undefeated team, and it would likely take a repeat of last Christmas’ bizarre game for them to lose to the Raiders again.
Carolina at Denver: Bryce Young replaces Andy Dalton at QB, after a car accident hurt Dalton’s hand. The Broncos come off the half-bye and have a great opportunity to get to 5-3 with some much tougher games coming up.
Green Bay at Jacksonville: The Jaguars are back from their London excursion, and a win over the Patriots meant everyone was allowed to come home. The last time the Packers played in Jacksonville, they lost 38-3 to the New Orleans Saints. Packers are favored, but this is a trap game with the Lions, Bears, and 49ers coming up.
Atlanta at Tampa Bay: These two teams just met on October 13, a 36-30 overtime win for Atlanta. Tampa Bay is giving up a shit ton of points all of a sudden, and now they’re less Mike Evans and Chris Godwin - the latter of which’s injury has been speculated to be able to recover sooner than some may have thought. Both teams are 4-3, the winner here takes the division lead. And if that’s Atlanta, hard to see where they’d lose it before the playoffs.
Tennessee at Detroit: The Lions seem to be laser focused, winning in Minnesota last week, to take the division lead. Jared Goff has people thinking about the MVP. They’re the biggest favorite of the week at 11 points, as the Titans look like a mess. There’s a lot of teams with 2 wins or less.
Arizona at Miami: I saw a line this week from 506 that Jerry Glanville, when he was at Fox, called these skim milk games. Only 2% are watching. One of the smallest coverage areas you’ll see on the map. Some of those Gulf Coast markets in southern Florida took the Bucs game.
Buffalo at Seattle: This feels interesting. It’s two division leaders, but it doesn’t feel like it. The Seahawks ended a 3-game skid by handing the Falcons their own asses last week, in Atlanta. The Bills make the trip as the favorites, a tough place to play, especially if you’re not familiar with it. It’s only the third time the Bills are playing at CenturyLink.
New Orleans at LA Chargers: professional football is set to be played between two professional football teams.
SUNDAY NIGHT - Dallas at San Francisco: Jerry Jones made sure to keep his name in people’s mouths since their 47-9 loss to Detroit on his birthday two weeks ago. And this same matchup last year produced a 42-10 win for the 49ers. SF is favored here by 4, and at 3-4, their margin for error is very thin. Brock Purdy played poorly in last weeks Super Bowl rematch with KC. However, sounds like Christian McCaffrey could be back after their bye, as their schedule gets tougher.
MONDAY NIGHT - NY Giants at Pittsburgh: a proper society has only one game on Monday Night, and if the reporter viewing numbers from the ESPN+ exclusive were any indication, we won’t see that again either. Mike Tomlin rolled the dice on Russell Wilson last week, and after a very slow start, paid off with a huge second half on offense, as Wilson cooked up 31 points straight on the Jets. Wilson ain’t gotta try to play MVP ball. The Steelers are playing their second consecutive New York team, the Giants failed to score a touchdown against the Eagles at home, but the road has been far kinder somehow.
Thursday Night - Minnesota at LA Rams: Very short week but long trip for the Vikings to play prime time on Amazon. They had a tough loss at home to the Lions, while the Rams beat the Raiders. The Vikings are only(?) 3-point favorites, but there are all kinds of smoke around the Rams future plans. Cooper Kupp’s name came up in trade rumors with the Chiefs before they traded for DeAndre Hopkins, but his name remains out there. Unsubstantiated internet rumblings have included Matthew Stafford, which seems to be a bridge very far. The Rams were very aggressive in building their Super Bowl team, good reason to suspect they’ll be aggressive in taking it apart.
MAPS
Philadelphia at Cincinnati was flexed out of the late window spot, but it still feels like an important game, especially for the Bengals, who are favored. The Bengals have not lost to to the Eagles since December 24, 2000, a run of 3-0-2. The Eagles have never won in Cincinnati, 0-3-1.
Indianapolis at Houston: I think this is the first week we have the back end of divisional games. Texans won 29-27 in Week 1. Anthony Richardson returned last week but didn’t look very good despite a win. Texans lost a tough one in Green Bay, and CJ Stroud had his toughest day of the season. Both their losses are within the NFC.
NY Jets at New England: The Jets had the beat on the Steelers last week, but managed to allow Russell Wilson to get his shit together. They beat the Patriots in Week 2 24-3. Drake Maye wasn’t at QB for that game, and the offense doesn’t seem inspired yet even with him. The Jets will be out of time if they somehow let this get away, with the Texans coming to town on Thursday.
Baltimore at Cleveland: Deshaun Watson is out for the season again, which naturally led to some optimism despite the visceral reaction around his newly torn Achilles. It’s easy to see why the Browns could rally around their offense to turn around their season, but they were 4-1 even with Watson last year. Now, they’re 1-6. Jameis Winston has emerged as this week’s starter as Dorian Thompson-Robinson also got hurt last week. The Ravens have won 5 in a row after starting 0-2, but their defense has given up less than 23 points just once, playing a team that hasn’t scored more than 18.
Chicago at Washington: it’s strange to think these two teams would get flexed into a bigger window, though looking at the map, not sure how much bigger they are than other games being aired in the late afternoon. We’ve seen a few horrible prime time Thursday games between these two recently, but the first two overall picks in last years draft playing well is why this got flexed. Unfortunately, Jayden Daniels is week-to-week with an abdominal injury, so we don’t know if he’s playing. Caleb Williams has been anchored by the Bears defense, and they are favored with the WFT QB uncertainty. Marcus Mariota would take the reins.
Kansas City at Las Vegas: Gardner Minshew is back in his natural habitat as the replacement for a starter, Aidan O’Connell has a thumb injury that has him on the shelf. Chiefs took care of the 49ers last week, they are the lone undefeated team, and it would likely take a repeat of last Christmas’ bizarre game for them to lose to the Raiders again.
Carolina at Denver: Bryce Young replaces Andy Dalton at QB, after a car accident hurt Dalton’s hand. The Broncos come off the half-bye and have a great opportunity to get to 5-3 with some much tougher games coming up.
Green Bay at Jacksonville: The Jaguars are back from their London excursion, and a win over the Patriots meant everyone was allowed to come home. The last time the Packers played in Jacksonville, they lost 38-3 to the New Orleans Saints. Packers are favored, but this is a trap game with the Lions, Bears, and 49ers coming up.
Atlanta at Tampa Bay: These two teams just met on October 13, a 36-30 overtime win for Atlanta. Tampa Bay is giving up a shit ton of points all of a sudden, and now they’re less Mike Evans and Chris Godwin - the latter of which’s injury has been speculated to be able to recover sooner than some may have thought. Both teams are 4-3, the winner here takes the division lead. And if that’s Atlanta, hard to see where they’d lose it before the playoffs.
Tennessee at Detroit: The Lions seem to be laser focused, winning in Minnesota last week, to take the division lead. Jared Goff has people thinking about the MVP. They’re the biggest favorite of the week at 11 points, as the Titans look like a mess. There’s a lot of teams with 2 wins or less.
Arizona at Miami: I saw a line this week from 506 that Jerry Glanville, when he was at Fox, called these skim milk games. Only 2% are watching. One of the smallest coverage areas you’ll see on the map. Some of those Gulf Coast markets in southern Florida took the Bucs game.
Buffalo at Seattle: This feels interesting. It’s two division leaders, but it doesn’t feel like it. The Seahawks ended a 3-game skid by handing the Falcons their own asses last week, in Atlanta. The Bills make the trip as the favorites, a tough place to play, especially if you’re not familiar with it. It’s only the third time the Bills are playing at CenturyLink.
New Orleans at LA Chargers: professional football is set to be played between two professional football teams.
SUNDAY NIGHT - Dallas at San Francisco: Jerry Jones made sure to keep his name in people’s mouths since their 47-9 loss to Detroit on his birthday two weeks ago. And this same matchup last year produced a 42-10 win for the 49ers. SF is favored here by 4, and at 3-4, their margin for error is very thin. Brock Purdy played poorly in last weeks Super Bowl rematch with KC. However, sounds like Christian McCaffrey could be back after their bye, as their schedule gets tougher.
MONDAY NIGHT - NY Giants at Pittsburgh: a proper society has only one game on Monday Night, and if the reporter viewing numbers from the ESPN+ exclusive were any indication, we won’t see that again either. Mike Tomlin rolled the dice on Russell Wilson last week, and after a very slow start, paid off with a huge second half on offense, as Wilson cooked up 31 points straight on the Jets. Wilson ain’t gotta try to play MVP ball. The Steelers are playing their second consecutive New York team, the Giants failed to score a touchdown against the Eagles at home, but the road has been far kinder somehow.
