2021-22 NFL (Week 10)

Games I saw (some of): 

Browns 7-45 Pats

The Browns had a nice drive early on, scored a TD, and...then...never did any of that again. The Pats looked good, Mac is settling into a right nice QB, Belicheck seems to have the defense in a good place, this team is humming right now (isn't this about the time last season that Brady got hot with the Bucs and rode them all the way to a ring?). Mac is good, man, a more low key Joe Burrow (which is probably exactly what Belicheck would design in the lab if getting a QB were that easy). The Browns are an up/down team, they've got talent and when they show up, they can still beat anybody, but when they don't show up, they can be smacked around by a good QB and/or a really intense pass rush (Pats got both right now), they need Chubb and/or Hunt, but I still think they can win games, there's time. 

Saints 21-23 Titans

All I caught was the final drive when the Saints almost tied it up. Nice drive, found a lot of different ways to move the ball, cruised down with time to spare, that penalty on the 2-pt conversion....ouch, man...felt bad for that dude. The Saints: better than the Seahawks, not as good as the Vikings? The Titans just keep winning games, that's two straight wins without Derrick Henry, and I think they're actually a pretty good squad (might be peaking too early, though, could run out of gas in December). 

Lions 16-16 Steelers

Ooof! I caught the end of the 4th quarter and all of OT. Man, it was not a pleasant watch. Neither team did anything well in any phase of the game. The kind of game where you just sorta felt sorry for everyone out there. The Lions didn't lose and that's kinda cool, the Steelers didn't look any better than the Lions (and, yeah, they're not). 

Bucs 19-29 WTF

I caught the final WTF drive to ice the game and I gotta say, it was a fuckin' thing of a beauty. Really, Heinecke did everything right, WTF was passing, running, converting on 3rd down again and again, it was a soul crushing kinda drive that Tom Brady was forced to watch from the sidelines and then just like the game was over. Big thumbs up, man, that was amazing, this team may completely suck for the rest of the year, but this drive will still be hanging on the refrigerator when they all come back next summer. The Bucs D just has yet to impress me and though Brady is kinda always awesome, sometime the Bucs offense dries up. Oh well, they're just slumping, I'm only mildly impressed with the Bucs but I'd say they'll be back.  

Seahawks 0-17 Packers

Kinda dull game. Neither team got any offense going at all until the Packers finally tacked on a coupla TD's late in the 4th. The Seahawks need Russell Wilson to be godlike to get anywhere near the post-season and he looks like he'll be playing his way into shape (in other words: I'm not seeing the Seahawks making the playoffs this year).

Chiefs 41-14 Raiders

There we go. The Chiefs needed a get-right game and though the Raiders have long bedeviled them, a division opponent is sometimes just the right thing to get your game back in gear. I'm not sure the Chiefs are quite ready to go on a killing spree but they might, we'll see. The Raiders just don't look like a team right now, been a tumultuous season so far, this ain't gonna help, they're sitting at 5-4 right now but I don't see how they're a .500 team this year. 

The rest of the slate: 

Ravens 10-22 Dolphins. Ravens fell asleep, Dolphins have been playing better lately. 

Falcons 3-43 Cowboys. Yawn! Over quick. Cowboys weren't even trying very hard, when Falcons go bad, they go all the way. 

Jags 17-23 Colts. Colts jumped out to a nice lead then lazy-river-ed their way to a W, Jags occasionally have offense, occasionally have some defense, but don't seem to be able to do both at the same time.

Bills 45-17 Jets. Yeah, Jets, man. The Bills seem like they're ready to get back to work. 

Panthers 34-10 Cards. Had a feeling the Cards were ready for a letdown game, Panthers just needed something other Sam Darnold, he had moments early in the year (is he hurt?). 

Vikings 27-20 Chargers. The two most schizoid teams in the whole league: both are good enough to be really good teams but both find ways to lose games. This week it was the Chargers that out-Viking-ed the Vikings. Nice W for the Vikes, hey sometimes they're really good, I don't really understand why they don't win more. 

Eagles 30-13 Broncos. The Eagles are the good-bad team: they've been in just about every game this year, they just got no closing power and they fritter games away; but against a so-so opponent, they can be the better team and that's what happened in Denver. The Broncos are okay, they don't suck, but they're not good either. 

Power ranking 

(AFC)

(IN) Bills, Pats, Chiefs, Ravens, Titans, Chargers, Browns; (OUT) Steelers, Colts, Broncos, Bengals, Dolphins, Raiders, Jags, Jets, Texans

(NFC)

(IN) Packers, Cowboys, Bucs, Cards, Rams, Vikings, Niners; (OUT) Saints, Eagles, Panthers, Seahawks, Bears, WFT, Giants, Falcons, Lions