We all make mistakes. Sometimes this can be a big thing, like burning the last slice of toast, and at other times it can be a small one, like accidentally mailing $25,000 worth of Rams tickets to a fan who did not order them.
The important thing is that when we these missteps happen, we dust ourselves down and carry on. That is why we will not talk about what happened last week, about how nobody predicted all six games correctly or how yours truly required a miracle Washington comeback to avoid a total washout.
Instead, let’s put all that nastiness behind us and press ahead with this week’s games.
Kansas City Chiefs @ Detroit Lions (Sunday 9.30am ET/2.30pm GMT)
Madness will perform live on the field before kickoff at Wembley, which seems fitting for this game between one team that came from nowhere to beat Pittsburgh last week, and another that decided the best time to overhaul its offensive coaching staff was a few short hours before they were scheduled to board a team flight to London.
Firing Joe Lombardi, Jeremiah Washburn, and Terry Heffernan makes enough sense to me, but given that this team is already too far gone to salvage a playoff bid (sorry, Detroit fans) would it not have made more sense to wait until the bye rather than add a further layer of confusion to an already logistically challenging week?
Given this context, I feel like I ought to back Kansas City – especially after Charcandrick West showed against Pittsburgh that he may be able to pick up some of the Jamaal Charles slack after all. And yet, I find myself leaning Detroit’s way. Perhaps this is because it is easy to imagine Calvin Johnson, Golden Tate and Eric Ebron making hay against the Chiefs’ atrocious secondary, or maybe I just can’t bring myself to bet against a guy named Jim Bob Cooter.
Lions to win
Cincinnati Bengals @ Pittsburgh Steelers (Sunday 1pm ET/6pm GMT)
Even with a showdown between unbeaten teams coming up on Sunday night, this is the matchup I’m most excited about in week eight. The Steelers have fared better than I expected them to do in Ben Roethlisberger’s absence, but he returns just in time for game that may go a long way to who wins AFC North. Pittsburgh would only be one game out of first place with a victory on Sunday, but that gap is trebled with a defeat.
Roethlisberger is 16-6 in his career against Cincinnati, and whilst the Bengals have put out some pretty bad teams in that span, he also swept them last season – when a failure to do so would have meant handing them the division. Antonio Brown, in particular, has a history of going off in these games, and demonstrated last week that he hadn’t gathered any rust during his quarterback’s absence.
But these Bengals look to be cut from a different cloth even to the ones we saw in 2014. This team was good enough to go into Seattle and win, and is also coming off a bye week.
Cincinnati will need Andy Dalton to be the player who has thrown 14 touchdowns and just two picks through six games this season, rather than the one whose career passer rating against Pittsburgh rests at a paltry 79.2. But with the Steelers’ already saggy secondary potentially losing William Gay to a shoulder injury, I believe he can live up to those hopes.
Bengals to win
New York Giants @ New Orleans Saints (Sunday 1pm ET/6pm GMT)
How have the Giants won four games? This is a team that does not run the ball well (95.6 yards per game, ranking them 25th in the NFL) only does a mediocre job of moving it the air (247.9 yards per game, 14th), cannot rush the passer (nine sacks, 31st) and generally does not slow down opposing offenses at all (410.3 total yards per game allowed, 30th).
The one and only thing New York has done consistently well is win the turnover battles, leading the league with a plus-nine differential. But how much of that is truly down to the Giants’ qualities, and how much has to do with facing such quarterbacks at Matt Cassel and Bad Kirk Cousins (a separate and unrelated entity to ‘YOU LIKE THAT?’ Kirk Cousins)?
Drew Brees has not thrown more than one interception in any game this season, and after a wobbly start has begun to look more comfortable with the weapons at his disposal in New Orleans’s post-Jimmy Graham era. Throw in the fact that this game is at the Superdome, and that Mark Ingram just posted his first 100-yard rushing game of the season, and I can see why the Saints might feel optimistic.
Saints to win
San Diego Chargers @ Baltimore Ravens (Sunday 1pm ET/6pm GMT)
If the Giants’ winning record feels hard to justify, then so does Baltimore’s slide to 1-6. Defeats have come by just eight points to Arizona, six to Denver, five to San Francisco, four each to Cincinnati and Oakland and three to Cleveland. More than once the Ravens have had chances to salvage these games inside the dying seconds, only to turn the ball over in the end zone.
The Chargers have had some close calls of their own, but they were 30-6 down at halftime against Cleveland last Sunday and manhandled by the Vikings in week three. Philip Rivers’ two picks were costly, but not as damaging as the overall flimsiness of a defense that is giving up more than 28 points per game.
Injuries have hit San Diego hard, and whilst it helped to get linebacker Tourek Williams and corner Craig Mager back at practice this week, neither of those two carry as much value as the questionable Eric Weddle, Manti Te’o and Denzel Perryman on defense, or indeed Orlando Franklin and Antonio Gates on the other side of the ball.
Ravens to win
Tennessee Titans @ Houston Texans (Sunday 1pm ET/6pm GMT)
Just when Houston thought a blowout loss to the Dolphins could not get any worse, Arian Foster tore his Achilles. As he was taken off the field, what little hope Houston had of salvaging something from this latest misery of a season went with him. Yes, the Texans are still only one game out of first place in the hideous AFC South, but not even JJ Watt and DeAndre Hopkins can cure all that ails this this team.
At least for this week, though, they have a chance against the similarly shabby Titans, for whom Marcus Mariota returned to practice on Wednesday. It is not yet clear whether he is far enough along in his recovery from a knee injury to play on Sunday. If not, then Tennessee will once again be putting their faith in Zach Mettenberger, a quarterback who has lost all seven of his career starts.
This is an awkward call for me, because I do not have the luxury of waiting to see how Tennessee’s quarterback situation plays out. On the grounds that I couldn’t bring myself to back them if Mettenberger plays, I’ll have to take the home team.
Texans to win
Green Bay Packers @ Denver Broncos (Sunday 8.30pm ET/Monday 1.30am GMT)
So here we are. Two undefeated teams and yet two very different quarterbacking situations, with Aaron Rodgers in the prime of his career (albeit having to work a little harder due to injuries at receiver this season) and Peyton Manning, well, not.
Many have sought to draw the comparison with John Elway winning two Super Bowls in Denver after his personal role in the offense was diminished. But a far less flattering juxtaposition was put forward by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio - who pointed out this week that Manning’s numbers this season look dangerously similar to Tim Tebow’s in 2011, only without the helpful rushing yards.
Whilst it is true that Manning does not need to be great if the Broncos’ defense continues to rank first in the league in key categories - from sacks (26) to yards allowed (281.3), we might note that only one of the six teams they have beaten so far holds a winning record. And while both they and the Packers are coming off a bye, Green Bay might have benefited more– granting the likes of Eddie Lacy, Randall Cobb, Davante Adams and BJ Raji time to at least partially recover from their various injuries.
Packers to win
