The NFL is a passing league, right? Well. Maybe not. Aaron Rodgers did post the first perfect passer rating of his estimable career in Green Bay’s win over the Raiders, and Kirk Cousins is on a nice little three-week run, but when you look at the most impressive teams of Week 7, two things popped out: Varied running game, and clampdown defenses.
The Ravens went up to Seattle and had Lamar Jackson run all over Pete Carroll’s defense, Michael Vick-style, and the Cardinals upended the Giants with a ground attack that has sneakily become very interesting. Meanwhile, the only two undefeated teams left in the NFL – the Patriots and 49ers – are taking opposing offenses to the woodshed with some of the best week-to-week defensive performances of the last three decades. Of course, the 49ers also have among the NFL’s best and most diverse run games, which would seem to make them the best team in football… were it not for a New England defense that seems to strip the mind of acceptable descriptions on a week-to-week basis.
Perhaps as the season goes along, offenses will start to figure out defenses, and we’ll see more teams leading with the pass at the highest level. But right now, there’s as much old-school in the NFL as we can remember, performed as it is at the highest level of modern schematic complexity. Once again, it’s proven that there are all kinds of ways to win in the NFL.
Headed into Week 8, here’s where we see all 32 NFL teams:
32. Cincinnati Bengals
(0-7. Last week: 31)
Guys like Andy Dalton create quarterback purgatories for teams in which they show just enough to create the thought that their careers as starters should be extended, and those moments are followed by just as many in which the truth becomes apparent. In Cincinnati’s 27-17 loss to Jacksonville, the Bengals had four fourth-quarter drives. The first three ended with Dalton interceptions; the final one ended with a 1-yard run from the quarterback himself to make the game more look more competitive than it actually was. Not that Dalton is the only reason for Cincinnati’s horrid season — the defense is especially responsible for an epic number of face-plants — but as management looks to the future and a much-needed rebuild, Dalton simply can’t be part of it.
31. Washington Redskins
(1-6. Last week: 30)
Bill Callahan said he was going to establish the run, and you should believe the Redskins’ interim head coach when he says that. On Washington’s first offensive drive in a rain-soaked quagmire at FedEx Field, the Redskins ran the ball on 11 consecutive plays and then missed a 39-yard field goal. Per ESPN Stats & Info, the 42 total plays they ran in their 9-0 loss to the 49ers was the fewest in a game since 2001. After the game, San Francisco head coach and ex-Washington offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan gave the game ball to his father Mike, who left the Redskins after the 2013 season under less than hospitable circumstances. This franchise has had its share of humiliating seasons, but 2019 is proving hard to top.
30. Atlanta Falcons
(1-6. Last week: 29)
As we pointed out last week, the last time the Falcons started a season 1-5 was 2007 — the year Michael Vick was suspended and indicted on federal dogfighting charges, and Bobby Petrino quit on the team. Falcons fans who went through that nightmare probably thought they’d never see a less impressive incarnation of their favorite franchise, but here we are. Atlanta fell to the Rams, 37-10 in a game where they lost Matt Ryan to an ankle injury (current prognosis: maybe a week or two of Matt Schaub), allowed a 23-yard fake punt pass by punter Johnny Hekker in which they basically didn’t defend the play, gave up a rushing touchdown to Jared Goff that was about as well-defended as the fake punt, and brought about renewed question as to whether head coach Dan Quinn has lost the team. Quinn may be on borrowed time, but there are multiple problems with this team. We will discover this anew if Schaub is throwing his usual pick-sixes against the Seahawks, Saints and Panthers.
29. Miami Dolphins
(0-6. Last week: 32)
Last week, the Dolphins were a two-point conversion away from beating the Redskins. On Sunday, they held a lead and scored a season-high 21 points against Buffalo’s impressive defense before things fell apart in the second half. Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White turned things around with an interception and a forced fumble, safety Micah Hyde returned an onside kick for a touchdown, and the star-crossed Dolphins were left with another loss. But in the grand scheme of things, perhaps we should start to believe head coach Brian Flores when he insists that the team isn’t tanking for anything. Miami is uniquely bereft of talent at the NFL level. But the Dolphins are playing hard, and they’re going to be more competitive on any given day than a few other sad stories in this league.
28. Los Angeles Chargers
(2-5. Last week: 28)
The Chargers keep finding new and agonizing ways to lose football games. With 44 seconds left in their Sunday game against the Titans, Philip Rivers thought he had a game-winning touchdown pass to halfback Austin Ekeler. But the replay official ruled that Ekeler didn’t break the plane of the goal line, and the touchdown was reversed. Then, Melvin Gordon thought he had a 1-yard, game-winning touchdown run. But a false start on guard Dan Feeney negated the play. Then, Titans cornerback Malcolm Butler was flagged for pass interference, moving the ball back to the Tennessee 1-yard line. On the next play, Gordon again had a potential 1-yard touchdown run (it was called on the field) negated by review. And then … Gordon fumbled the ball, and the ball was recovered by Titans defensive lineman Jurrell Casey — 23-20, ballgame. As head coach Anthony Lynn said after the game, if you can’t get one yard, you deserve to lose, but this was a particularly cruel series of events. Things don’t get easier for a team that’s circling the drain; the Chargers have the Bears, Packers, Raiders and Chiefs over their next four games.
27. Cleveland Browns
(2-4. Week 7 Bye. Last week: 27)
The bye week came at a crucial time for Freddie Kitchens’ team as it struggles to find and maintain any kind of identity on either side of the ball. The Browns have New England coming up this week, which certainly won’t help with their offensive identity, as Bill Belichick’s defense is designed precisely to give the kinds of disguises and coverages that can bedevil a young quarterbacks such as Baker Mayfield into awful performances — and Mayfield has had more than his share of those this season. There is a get-well stretch after that in which Cleveland faces Denver, Miami, and Pittsburgh (twice), but if this team wants to get serious about anything more than a completely lost season, it will have to figure a few things out against the smartest coach in NFL history. Good luck with that.
26. Pittsburgh Steelers
(2-4. Week 7 Bye. Last week: 26)
Given that the Steelers have now lost their best offensive player (Ben Roethlisberger) and perhaps their best defensive player (lineman Stephon Tuitt, who was playing at an All-Pro level until he suffered a torn pectoral muscle against the Chargers in Week 6) for the season, expectations have to be re-calibrated for Mike Tomlin’s team. The Steelers are not a playoff team at this point, and though they have a nucleus of estimable talent at some positions, this is starting to look a lot like the rebuild that happened after their consecutive 8-8 seasons in 2012 and 2013. After that, Antonio Brown became a force, Le’Veon Bell found his way, and the defense was … well, at least decent. Bringing Roethlisberger back next season is a must, both for competitive and salary-cap reasons (it would cost the team $25 million in dead cap to release him), so they have a real quarterback for the bridge rebuild. The way Tomlin has handled the rough transitions should leave no doubt that he’s the guy to manage the team through the next couple years.
25. New York Jets
(1-5. Last week: 25)
Hey, remember when Sam Darnold returned from mononucleosis and played well enough against the Cowboys to be named AFC Offensive Player of the Week in Week 6? Darnold will probably want to hold on to that faint memory after what the Patriots did to him on Monday night in a 33-0 thumping. Darnold was absolutely helpless against a New England defense that threw every look in the book at him, and though he’s just the latest in a line of quarterbacks to go into that woodchipper, Darnold fared no better than anybody else. On the evening, Darnold completed 11 of 32 passes for 86 yards, no touchdowns, four interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 3.6. It was a severe regression for a guy who’s looked very good when healthy since the last month of his rookie season in 2018, but this is less about Darnold and more about a defense the likes of which the NFL has never seen.
24. Denver Broncos
(2-5. Last week: 20)
Sacks are often portrayed as an offensive line statistic, and that’s where most of the blame goes. Certainly, the Broncos’ front five shared a lot of it last Thursday night, as Joe Flacco was sacked eight times in Denver’s 30-6 embarrassment against the Chiefs. But Flacco, whose reaction time to opposing pressure and coverage has slowed to the point where he’s barely manageable as an NFL starter, should shoulder most of the responsibility. And with rookie Drew Lock apparently far from readiness for prime time, and players such as wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders and cornerback Chris Harris reportedly on the trading block, it looks like another wash of a year for John Elway, led by decisions at quarterback that never should have happened. How many more years does Elway get to do this? That should be an entirely legitimate question at this point.
23. New York Giants
(2-5. Last week: 23)
It’s not that Daniel Jones was horrible against a Cardinals defense fortified by the return of Patrick Peterson; it’s more that he wasn’t able to make up for several defensive miscues, a depleted receiving corps, and an uneven running game even with Saquon Barkley back in the fold. Which is to say, Big Blue’s 27-21 loss to Arizona was a lot like the rest of the season. Jones completed 22 of 35 passes for 223 yards, a touchdown, an interception, eight sacks and three forced fumbles — two of which were turnovers. It’s not time to sound the alarm on the rookie just yet, but the Giants have to realize the level of rebuilding they have to do.
22. Tennessee Titans
(3-4. Last week: 21)
Is Ryan Tannehill redeemable? The Dolphins washout enjoyed his first start as a Titan in Arthur Smith’s offense after Tennessee decided to move on from Marcus Mariota. And in a 23-20 win over the Chargers, the veteran, who underwent all kinds of coaching chaos in Miami, looked more solid and consistent than you might have expected. He completed 23 of 29 passes for 312 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, and found his receivers on eight of nine passes of 10-19 air yards for 134 yards and a touchdown — despite getting pressured on 42% of his dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats. Tannehill has never put together the game-to-game stuff you’d want for a starter you can believe in unconditionally, but this is going to be an interesting story to watch.
21. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
(2-4. Week 7 Bye. Last week: 21)
Bruce Arians spent the Buccaneers’ bye week insisting up and down that the clock isn’t ticking on Jameis Winston, despite his five-interception performance against the Panthers in Week 6, and a history of — to put it kindly — erratic play. In theory, Winston fits Arians’ quarterback prototype perfectly, in that he has the physical attributes to make any throw, and the confidence to actually make every throw. Problem is, when you make every throw, there are a lot of the wrong ones mixed in. Arians’ team is benefiting from Todd Bowles’ excellent defensive scheming and a surprising run game. If Winston continues to be the weak link, Arians may turn on him quickly, as much as his reputation as a tamer of wild quarterbacks is well earned.
20. Philadelphia Eagles
(3-4. Last week: 16)
Put simply, Doug Pederson’s team has turned into a mess. Carson Wentz had more games in which he’s thrown for under 200 yards (three) than games in which he’s thrown for over 300 (two), Jim Schwartz’s defense is an absolute disaster in pass coverage, and though the run game worked pretty well in Philly’s 37-10 Sunday night loss to the Cowboys, that’s not going to be enough to keep the boo-birds at bay. More disconcerting is the fact that nobody seems to have any answers. Pederson has cut multiple defensive players in recent weeks — linebacker Zach Brown and cornerback Orlando Scandrick are the most notable — but nothing seems to be heading in the right direction at this point. Pederson’s promise that his team would take care of business against the Cowboys — and Ezekiel Elliott’s unprintable response after the Eagles decidedly didn’t — tell you all you need to know.
19. Arizona Cardinals
(3-3-1. Last week: 24)
As it turns out, the Cardinals can win without David Johnson as the fulcrum of their offense. Johnson had just one carry for two yards as he was dealing with a back issue, so Kliff Kingsbury put his run game in the hands of Chase Edmonds, a second-year back out of Fordham who had gained just 369 career yards on the ground before he gashed the Giants for 126 yards and three touchdowns in Arizona’s 27-21 win over the Giants. While it’s true that Arizona’s three wins this season are against three of the league’s worst defenses (Bengals, Falcons and Giants), it’s also true that quarterback Kyler Murray is developing exponentially as a passer, and that ground game is for real, no matter who the main guy is in the backfield. If Kingsbury wants to prove the strength of that offense, he’ll have two serious opportunities in the next two weeks, as the Cardinals must deal with the defenses of the Saints and 49ers.
18. Jacksonville Jaguars
(3-4. Last week: 18)
The Jaguars did what you’re supposed to do against the Bengals — they stopped the bleeding on a two-game losing streak, and they did so by running Leonard Fournette as much as possible against a team that’s been outrushed 1,323 yards to 372 this season (that’s not a typo). Fournette had 131 yards on 29 carries, which switched the focus from Gardner Minshew just enough for the rookie quarterback to throw a touchdown pass in a mostly uneven performance. Opposing defenses are playing more two-high coverages against Minshew of late, bracketing his downfield receivers and forcing him to read through disguises he’s not used to. This particular bully-ball performance was the right approach, but if the Jaguars want to come up ahead of the Jets next week, Minshew will have to do more against a Gregg Williams defense that not only can stop the run, but presents as much pre-snap trickery as any team in the NFL.
17. Oakland Raiders
(3-3. Last week: 17)
It wasn’t a great day for Jon Gruden’s team, as it allowed the first perfect passer rating in Aaron Rodgers’ estimable career. More specifically, it was a very bad day for Paul Guenther’s defense, as the Raiders had few answers for what Rodgers was throwing at them. Rookie running back Josh Jacobs continued his monster season with 124 yards on 21 carries, and quarterback Derek Carr had his moments before two turnovers — including a fumble in the end zone — turned things in the wrong direction. It was disappointing after their win over the Bears in London and a bye, but Gruden’s guys don’t have long to get over it. That leaky secondary, now absent cornerback Gareon Conley after a trade with the Texans, will face that very Houston team and Deshaun Watson’s aerial attack this Sunday.
16. Chicago Bears
(3-3. Last week: 14)
The Bears traded up to select North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky with the second pick in the 2017 draft. Nearly three seasons later, they don’t have a lot to show for it. As Trubisky proved against New Orleans’ vicious and intelligent defense on Sunday, he struggles mightily with any opponent who forces him to decipher disguised coverages. Heck, any defense that makes Trubisky roll past his first read has a decent chance of making his head explode. This is not what you want in a third-year quarterback, especially when his misadventures can wreck the efforts of an imposing defense. In the short term, the Bears can switch to backup Chase Daniel if Trubisky is stuck where he is. In the long term, this franchise may be looking hard at the 2020 quarterback class without a first-round pick. Not an ideal position.
15. Los Angeles Rams
(4-3. Last week: 19)
It’s interesting how the Cowboys’ and Rams’ fortunes mirror each other this season. Both teams started the season with three impressive wins, followed that with three straight losses, and each beat their Week 7 opponents, 37-10. While the Cowboys dismantled the Eagles, the Falcons were Sean McVay’s patsy. Newly acquired cornerback Jalen Ramsey looked good covering Julio Jones, quarterback Jared Goff somehow juked Atlanta linebacker Deion Jones for a rushing touchdown, and Goff was also able to dissect Atlanta’s pass defense, as he should. It’s not the kind of thing that has the Rams at the top of the NFC West in anybody’s mind, but it’s a nice turnaround for a team in desperate need of one.
14. Detroit Lions
(2-3-1. Last week: 12)
The Lions had a short week to recover from their Monday night loss to both the Green Bay Packers and Clete Blakeman’s officiating crew before running directly into the unlikely buzzsaw that Minnesota’s passing offense has become. Kirk Cousins blew apart Matt Patricia’s man and match concepts for four touchdown passes, and Vikings running back Dalvin Cook gashed Detroit’s front for 142 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries. Lions wide receiver Marvin Jones enjoyed his second career four-touchdown game, putting him in rarefied air with Jerry Rice, Sterling Sharpe, and Bob Shaw as the only receivers in NFL history with multiple games of four or more touchdown catches. But Jones also became the first receiver in NFL history to catch four touchdown passes while gaining fewer than 100 yards (93 yards on 10 catches and 13 targets), which kind of sums up Detroit’s season so far. There’s talent up and down this roster, and it’s the NFL’s best team with a losing record, but these kinds of defeats take their toll after awhile.
13. Dallas Cowboys
(4-3. Last week: 15)
After three consecutive losses in which the offense looked very much like the predictable stuff ex-offensive coordinator Scott Linehan put on the field for years, the Cowboys looked far more like they did under new kid Kellen Moore in the first three weeks of the season in their 37-10 win over the Eagles. Dak Prescott benefited from more backfield action and option concepts, Ezekiel Elliott ran all over Philly’s depleted defense for 111 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, and Dallas’ defense met every challenge from Carson Wentz with a quality performance. It would behoove Jason Garrett to remove whatever clamps he had on that offense, and let Moore do his thing. The Cowboys will be better for it — and could easily ride it to an NFC East title.
12. Seattle Seahawks
(5-2. Last week: 7)
Pete Carroll said midweek that the key to facing Baltimore’s run game is to stay disciplined, read your keys and do your job. The Seahawks tried their best to do all those things, but Lamar Jackson still ran all over them. When Jackson combines great throws with out-of structure runs, as he did in the Ravens’ 30-16 win, there’s no adequate defense for him. Far more disconcerting for Carroll has to be the pick-six Russell Wilson threw to Marcus Peters, and the fumble by rookie receiver D.K. Metcalf that Ravens cornerback Marlon Humpries returned 18 yards for a touchdown. Carroll preaches ball security above all, and this was the opposite. The Seahawks travel to Atlanta to get better against the Falcons, but this team has defensive questions that transcend a couple of offensive turnovers, and the extent to which the Ravens exposed that should be Carroll’s primary concern at this point.
11. Buffalo Bills
(5-1. Last week: 6)
Remember when we thought the Bills would have an easy path to 5-1, based on the fact that they were playing the Dolphins on Sunday? It didn’t quite work out that way. The Dolphins were more than competitive, and were it not for two turnovers caused by cornerback Tre’Davious White and an onside kick returned for a touchdown by safety Micah Hyde, this could have been a major upset. Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen has a couple of upcoming get-well games against the secondaries of the Eagles and Redskins, which will go a ways to determine whether this game was an example of the Dolphins’ surprising competitiveness, or the Bills’ vulnerability as a passing team.
10. Houston Texans
(4-3. Last week: 3)
Following the Texans’ 30-23 surprise loss to the Colts, in which they allowed Jacoby Brissett to throw four touchdown passes, Houston and de facto general manager Bill O’Brien sent a third-round pick to the Raiders for cornerback Gareon Conley. In 228 coverage snaps this season, per Pro Football Focus, Conley has allowed 18 receptions on 26 targets for 266 yards, four touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 126.0. Outside of Bradley Roby, no Texans cornerback has played as expected this season (Lonnie Johnson Jr. has been particularly bad), but Houston isn’t exactly adding Marcus Peters or Jalen Ramsey. The Texans look far too fallible in this category for a deep playoff run — at least at this point — and that really shows up whenever Deshaun Watson doesn’t play perfectly and give Houston a sizable lead. The good news? Conley will be allowed to play more man coverage than he was in Oakland this season, and he’s better at that, so perhaps he will be an upgrade over time.
9. Carolina Panthers
(4-2. Week 8 Bye. Last week: 11)
On Monday, Panthers head coach Ron Rivera announced that Kyle Allen will remain the team’s starting quarterback as Cam Newton continues his rehab from a foot injury. This represents a lot of confidence in Allen, as the heretofore undefeated backup-turned-starter has to deal with San Francisco’s constricting defense in Week 8. It should also represent the idea that until and unless he’s fully healthy, Newton doesn’t give the Panthers a better chance to win at this point. For Rivera’s team to pull off this upset and drop the 49ers from the ranks of the undefeated, it will require more than a spot-on game from Allen. Carolina has the horses to put serious pressure on Jimmy Garoppolo, and the fronts to at least limit Kyle Shanahan’s multiple run game. If Allen can outplay Garoppolo — and that’s been easier to do than you might think this season — the Panthers have a real shot here. Carolina’s two losses came in Weeks 1 and 2 by a total of nine points. This is a team to be taken seriously.
8. Indianapolis Colts
(4-2. Last week: 8)
Through the first six weeks of the 2019 season, Jacoby Brissett had thrown 10 touchdown passes to just three interceptions. He was the only player this season with more than one touchdown pass in each of his first four games this season, but when he didn’t throw a touchdown pass in Indy’s Week 5 win over the Chiefs, you started to hear the same old stuff — Brissett’s just a placeholder until the Colts can find somebody else to replace Andrew Luck for the long term. Hopefully, Brissett’s four-touchdown performance against the Texans in a 30-23 Sunday win will silence some of his doubters. Brissett isn’t a perfect quarterback at this stage of his development, but he’s ideal in Frank Reich’s offense, and he’s producing at a level many bigger names should envy.
7. Minnesota Vikings
(5-2. Last week: 10)
As much as we are loath to say this given Kirk Cousins’ up-and-down career and tendency for stat-collecting without meaningful performances, it might be time to take him a bit more seriously in the context of Kevin Stefanski’s offense. In Minnesota’s 42-30 win over the Lions, Cousins became the first quarterback in NFL history with three straight games of more than 300 passing yards, and a passer rating over 130. Cousins has been especially deadly as a play-action passer in that time, completing 76.2% of his play-action throws for 592 yards, seven touchdowns and no interceptions. Over that period, Indianapolis’ Jacoby Brissett, Seattle’s Russell Wilson and Houston’s Deshaun Watson are tied for second with three play-action touchdowns each. Cousins should be nobody’s idea of a first-tier quarterback, but he’s in the ideal system that magnifies his talents and minimizes his limitations, and that can be all a decent quarterback needs.
6. Green Bay Packers
(6-1. Last week: 9)
Aaron Rodgers has been a top-flight NFL starter since 2008. He holds the record for single-season passer rating (122.5 in 2011), and he’s the NFL’s career leader in passer rating at 103.2. But his performance against the Raiders in a 42-24 Sunday win marked the first time in Rodgers’ distinguished career that he registered a perfect passer rating of 158.3 in a single game. Rodgers completed 25 of 31 passes for 429 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions, and he ran for another score. Clearly, he’s getting the hang of Matt LaFleur’s offense, and when you combine that with Green Bay’s run game and estimable defense, this is a legitimate 6-1 team with the ability to hang tough against any opponent.
5. Kansas City Chiefs
(5-2. Last week: 5)
We don’t yet know when Patrick Mahomes will return to action — the smart play would be to sit him down until he’s fully recovered from his dislocated kneecap and the ankle issues he’s been dealing with throughout the season. With his ability to move outside the pocket limited, Mahomes had been muted the past few weeks, and the Chiefs do have a bit of leeway at 5-2. Andy Reid’s team has a couple of very tough outs in the Packers and Vikings over the next two games, so it will be up to Steve Spagnuolo’s defense to stack up in ways it generally hasn’t, though a nine-sack performance against the Broncos on Thursday night was a nice start. This is a team playing for the Super Bowl — not just a nice postseason run — and anything less than a healthy Mahomes is a major obstacle to that particular mission.
4. Baltimore Ravens
(5-2. Last week: 13)
“Not bad for a running back,” Lamar Jackson likes to crow at the critics who insisted that the Louisville alum was not developed enough as a passer to make it as an NFL quarterback and should thus switch positions. You’d think those guys would like a do-over about now. Yes, Jackson has been up and down in his first full season as a starter (seven touchdown passes to no interceptions in his first two games, a total of four touchdowns and five interceptions in Weeks 4 and 5, and none of either in Weeks 3, 6, and 7), but the effect he has on enemy defenses can’t possibly be overstated. In a 30-16 win over Seattle on Sunday, Jackson ran all over Pete Carroll’s previously vaunted defense, making the linebackers trying to spy him look like defensive tackles from a comparative speed perspective. Jackson had a couple of nice shot plays in his 20 passing attempts, and he was hurt by five drops from his receivers. So, he demolished Seattle’s defense with his wheels, both in and out of structure. Add in a secondary fortified by the presence of Marcus Peters (who pick-sixed Russell Wilson), and the Ravens should be seen as a potential AFC powerhouse.
3. New Orleans Saints
(6-1. Last week: 3)
The Saints keep rolling on, and with the news that Drew Brees is close to returning, the rest of the league should be worried. Not only because Dennis Allen’s defense continues to shut down opponents — though Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky was happy to inflict enough of his own damage in a 36-25 loss — and not only because Teddy Bridgewater has worked perfectly in Sean Payton’s concepts. Outside of a 27-9 Week 2 loss to the Rams (the game in which Brees got hurt), the Saints have been as competitive as any of the NFL’s top teams, and adding Brees to an offense that was already working very well with Bridgewater is like adding an extra gear to a perfectly running performance car. Is this a Super Bowl contender? Absolutely, and the Saints are about to get even tougher.
2. San Francisco 49ers
(6-0. Last week: 2)
Here’s what we know about the 49ers. They have a defense that, through the first seven weeks of any NFL season, is one of the best of the past 30 seasons. We also know they’ve maintained their identity as a diverse running team despite fullback Kyle Juszczyk’s sprained MCL. We know that they’re the NFC’s only undefeated team, and though they encountered more resistance from the weather than from the Redskins on Sunday in a 9-0 win, their record is legit. But what do we make of Jimmy Garoppolo? San Francisco’s ostensible franchise quarterback has completed 68.3% of his passes this season, but he’s also thrown six interceptions to just seven touchdown passes, and he’s been inconsistent at best when throwing deep and under pressure. Head coach Kyle Shanahan may have a Jared Goff on his hands here — a quarterback who must have a highly schemed passing game to succeed, and who doesn’t look very good outside of that. You can do some damage in the postseason with such a quarterback, but at a certain point, the 49ers are going to need Garoppolo to tear it loose outside of structure. Their season may hinge on his ability to do that.
1. New England Patriots
(7-0. Last week: 1)
Monday night marked the fifth time this season the Patriots have opened up a 24-point lead in their seven games. The 33-0 final against the Jets seemed like a fait accompli. Safety Devin McCourty, who picked off a Sam Darnold pass in the first quarter, now has five picks on the season on seven targets. At one point this season, McCourty had four interceptions on three targets. Jets quarterback Sam Darnold, who looked quite good in his return from mononucleosis against the Cowboys last week, had absolutely no answer against a defense that zero-blitzed him into oblivion, and gave him pre-snap looks he couldn’t work his way out of. And given Darnold’s AFC Player of the Week performance against Dallas in Week 6, it’s time to stop the “who have the Patriots played?” argument. This is one of the best defenses in NFL history, it’s probably going to take Bill Belichick back to the Super Bowl, and there doesn’t seem to be a single thing the rest of the NFL can do about it.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018-.
