Week 4 NFL Thoughts

Week Four Thoughts…

• The Jaguars appear to be ahead of the pace for their scheduled arrival at being-a-real-pain-in-the-rear-end-to-play-against ville.
• How’s your bench look? Depth is becoming more and more important every year as guys go down seemingly every few minutes.  That extra game was a great idea.  Scouts should be looking at the Canadian football league for guys to play in those last couple weeks.
• If you just looked at the box score, you’d swear the Bills beat the Dolphins by at least 14 points.
• This is shaping up as an extremely bruising season. There will be more than one 8-9 team playing in the post season.  Mark it down.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are allowing 9 points per game. Nine!  You check Instaface at least a dozen times per day.
• If the Steelers don’t put up at least 24 on the Jets this week, Kenny Picket will start their next game.
• Are you still alive your survivor pool? Most of them will pay out before week six if things keep up like this.

• Garret Wilson is an early contender for the offensive rookie of the year. If he gets stable play from whomever his quarterback is, he may run away with it.
• Can’t remember a time where a suspension so clearly cost a team a game as Mike Evans’ suspension did the Bucs on Sunday.
• I’m old enough to remember when the Thursday night games stunk, and the Sunday night games were good.
• So, that was a back injury that made Tua look like he had a concussion? Okay, Doc.
• Jalen Hurts is 3^rd in passing yards on the season, and only 19 running backs have more rushing yards.
• The Bengals are giving Miami 4 points Thursday night. I’m taking the candy.
• The NFL plays its first game in London this Sunday. I’m not sure what exactly the people of London did to the NFL, but it must have been bad for the NFL to make them watch Jameis Winston play quarterback.

Our Heroes in Green

So much for the big comeback in Cleveland leading to big things.  Gang Green crashed back to the reality that they have only played well for the last couple minutes of the Browns game, and they are very nearly 0-3 to start the season.  On the bright side, Zack Wilson was cleared to play Sunday against Pittsburgh.  If the Jets offensive line doesn’t start earning their game checks, Zack will be cleared right back to the injured list.  Pittsburgh doesn’t do much well, but they can rush the passer even with TJ Watt injured.  If the Jets can block just a little, they can win this game.  The Jets are -4 so far in turnover differential.  Only the Saints are worse.  Mitch Trubisky is just the thing the Jets need to address their poor turnover differential.  The Jets are lucky to play the Steelers without TJ Watt; they are even luckier to play them before the Steelers realize that Mitch Trubisky is not as good as Kenny Pickett.

JetNation NFL Power Rankings

Week Three

1. Miami Dolphins 3-0 (Last Week: 5) The Dolphins found a way to beat what looked like an unbeatable team. The short week doesn’t leave them much time to enjoy it or for Tua’s back (assuming that was really his back that he hurt) to get better.
2. Philadelphia Eagles 3-0 (Last Week: 6) Philadelphia cruised against the Commanders. The Eagles have allowed under 10 points in both of their last two contests.  AJ Brown has changed everything for the Bird’s offense.
3. Buffalo Bills 2-1 (Last Week: 1) The Bills snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on Sunday.  They outplayed Miami and found a way to lose anyway.  The Bills now have to face the Ravens, Chiefs, and Packers over the next four weeks.
4. Kansas City Chiefs 2-1 (Last Week: 2) The Chiefs met with a desperate Colts team Sunday.  KC is not getting enough on the ground.  58 total yards gained is a big reason why KC wasted a solid day from their defense who only allowed the hard running Colts 82 rushing yards.
5. Los Angeles Rams 2-1 (Last Week: 4) The Rams have won two straight after treating opening night like an extra pre-season game. I am not sure I am totally on board with the back-to-back championship effort yet, but the Rams have looked better of late.
6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2-1 (Last Week: 3) Tampa just had nothing going on offense Sunday.  Mike Evans absence was a huge part of that.  The Bucs badly need some people to get healthy and for Evans to keep his cool.
7. Baltimore Ravens 2-1 (Last Week: 8) If Baltimore doesn’t fade late against the Dolphins in week two, they are probably atop the power rankings right now. They get to prove how good they are this week with the Bills coming to town.
8. Green Bay Packers 2-1 (Last Week: 9) The Pack can now point at their week one flop as an extension of the preseason.  They completely throttled the Bucs weakened offense on Sunday.  Fourteen points doesn’t inspire a ton of optimism, but a road win against a quality opponent is not something to apologize for.
9. Los Angeles Chargers 1-2 (Last Week: 7) The Chargers biggest opponent is health. Assuming things improve, this is a playoff team.  If things continue to be a challenge from a health standpoint, Los Angeles can lose to anybody.
10. Jacksonville Jaguars 2-1 (Last Week: Unranked) Yeah…the Jags – deal with it.  They have two straight wins and have outscored their last two opponents 62-10.  Trevor Lawrence has 6 TDs and has thrown just one INT.  The Jags can run the rock, and they have 7 sacks already.  Not too shabby.  They have to play undefeated Philadelphia this week, so we will know if they are worth watching the rest of the way.