Most of week 7 is in the books and it started back on Thursday night with a game between the Broncos and Saints. This was Sean Payton’s first game back in New Orleans since becoming the head coach of the Broncos and Denver would go onto win with a score of 33-10. The Denver Broncos are now 4-3 and while Bo Nix hasn’t had the best rookie season imaginable – they are over achieving and they are 4-1 in their final 5 games. They play Carolina in week 8 and there is a good chance this team is 5-3 midway through the year. Denver also ran for over 220 yards as a team and with how rough Denver’s past several years has been – this was without a doubt one of the best wins they’ve had in the past 7 or 8 years. The Saints part of the recap has to start with the injuries. They had multiple offensive lineman out, their top two receivers out, and their starting quarterback out and to make matters worse – a 5th round rookie was making his second career start on a short week against an elite defense. I wasn’t surprised to see the Saints struggle in this game, but going from 2-0 to 2-5 is telling for how the rest of the Saints season will go. They’re not a good team, and I predicted that Dennis Allen would be fired before the season started and healthy or not – this team isn’t good. They’re okay, but not great and the defense is old. We’ve been saying this for years, but it’s time to commit to a full rebuild.
The Jags beat the Patriots in the London game with a score of 32-16 and I think there’s two ways to look at this game if you are a Patriots fan. The positives are a short list – and I think it’s one name – and that’s Drake Maye. It’s hard to win for a rookie quarterback in his second start or for a prime Tom Brady when your team rushes for 38 yards in the entire game while your top 3 receivers are Hunter Henry, JaMycal Hasty, and Kayshon Boutte. I know we’re only 7 games into the Jerod Mayo era but I have serious concerns with him as the teams head coach. This is a bad football team and when you’re in a rebuild – you want to be competitive – but the Patriots have 4 double digit losses in the first 7 games. It’s premature to say Mayo should be let go, but it is something to pay attention to over the course of the season. The Jags are 2-5 and Tank Bigsby and Brian Thomas Jr looked great. I can’t praise the Jags front office enough for trading back in the ’24 draft and still getting Brian Thomas Jr. There’s no huge takeaway for Jacksonville especially when their next 5 games are as tough as they are. Enjoy the win now, but please know – there are very very tough times ahead
The Colts are 4-3 after beating the Dolphins 16-10 and like we mentioned in the week 7 preview – out of all of the games being played this year – this was certainly one of them. This was a very ugly game and unfortunately Tyler Huntley got hurt midway through the game which brought in Tim Boyle – and collectively the Dolphins quarterbacks finished 15/26 for 161 yards. Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combined for 2 receptions for 19 yards and if there’s any takeaway for Miami – regardless of when Tua comes back – they’re done. They already have too many losses to seriously compete, and this team is not going into Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City or Buffalo in 3 straight road games and making it to the Super Bowl. Good luck moving forward, but the Dolphins future is to me – bleak. You never know where the ball is going when Anthony Richardson is quarterback. And after starting 0-2 – the Colts have won 4 of their last 5 with their lone loss coming to the Jags back in week 5. They have a very difficult stretch coming up and given the uncertainty at the quarterback position week in and week out – I think they’re an okay team – but my takeaway is they’re not a serious team. Not when their quarterback struggles to complete 50% of his passes regularly.
The Bills beat the Titans by 24 points and I thought this game was going to be a lot closer than it was but after a big of a rocky start – Josh Allen played at MVP level Josh Allen. This was also Keon Coleman’s first career 100 yard game and I was surprised to see the Bills turn it around as much as they did against the number team in defensive yards allowed. This was a huge win for Buffalo already on a short week and after their little two game hiccup against Baltimore and Houston – Buffalo has responded with two straight wins. The everybody eats offense was on full display as they had 4 receivers have 50 or more yards in this game and Amari Cooper even caught his first touchdown as a Bill. This was as good of a day as you could have asked for for Buffalo. This Titans team is bad. Period. Their lone win was over the Dolphins in a very ugly Monday night game in week 4 and I don’t see a lot of wins for this team in the future. They’re already an aging offense at receiver and Deandre Hopkins had one catch for -2 yards in week 7. Do not be surprised if he’s traded to Kansas City this week because that’s unacceptable. The Titans need to be sellers at the deadline and build for a better tomorrow because at the moment – this is a train wreck,
After going from 3-0 to 3-3 and with a lot of questions to answer – Seattle put it on Atlanta in week 7 as they won by 20 points in the big A. They won the turnover battle 3 to 0 and this may be a crazy stat – but the Seahawks are now undefeated when first round pick Byron Murphy plays. Geno had one of the best touchdown passes you’ll see all season as he fit a ball in an incredibly tight window and when I envisioned the 2024 Seahawks – this was the type of game I envisioned from them. When healthy – they’re a very good football team and a pretty complete unit and we saw that against Atlanta. Seattle plays Buffalo and the Rams before their week 10 bye and if they play those teams like they played Atlanta – they can win both games. It was also a noticeable difference without Stone Forsythe at right tackle. Games like this are why I’m always going to be hesitant to fully buy in with the Falcons. They play at Tampa in week 8 and there’s a very good chance they go from 4-2 to 4-4 in a span of 120 minutes. I thought the Falcons were a good team entering the year and just when you think they have a chance of being a great team – and improving to 5-2 with a very bright outlook – they remind you of who they are. They’re a very flawed team and this game showed that.
The Bengals beat the Browns in Cleveland for the first time since 2017 and both Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins scored. Aside from that – division games are usually close and it’s because these teams know each other best. I still have a lot of concerns with the Bengals moving forward and it’s because of how one dimensional they can be at times. And for reference – the Bengals running backs combined for 48 rushing yards on 21 carries and Chase Brown had a gain of 22 one one play – so they had just 26 rushing yards on the other 20 carries. In terms of true takeaways from this game – a win is a win and 3-4 is a lot lot different than 2-5 – and the Bengals play the Eagles and Raiders in each of the next two games – and 5-4 isn’t out of the cards for them. Nick Chubb is back and it was great to see him in the end zone. Deshaun Watson also suffered a season ending injury in this game which allowed Dorian Thompson Robinson and Jameis Winston to play. I don’t think DTR is a good quarterback and I think Jameis Winston clearly gives this team the best chance to win down the stretch. Jameis certainly isn’t perfect, but the main takeaway for Cleveland is – I think they’re going to be able to finally put up more than 20 points in a game. Also the Cedric Tillman pre draft hive – this was a game for you.
Saquon Barkley and the Eagles went back to his old stomping grounds and stomped the Giants to the tune of a 28-3 victory. I know there were a couple of Eagles fans that wanted Saquon to have a multi touchdown game against his former team – as Jalen Hurts had a 2 touchdown game himself. This game started slow and it was clear at times that both teams were missing key offensive lineman – and especially Andrew Thomas in the Giants case. This was a much needed stress free win for Nick Sirianni after chirping the fans in week 6 and even bringing his kids to press conferences to lessen the blow from the media. Saquon had 176 total yards of offense while the Giants as a team had 119 yards of offense and this was very much big brother getting the best of little brother. The Giants have 10 points in the last two games and have one playoff win in the past decade. This is a bad situation and there’s really no way around it. The lone bright spot offensively at this point is Malik Nabers – but when you watch this team play – it feels like they’re done if they allow more than 14 points. This is not going to be an over night fix and this is truly one of the worst situations in football. There’s no way around it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this team has less than 4 wins on the 2024 season – with a win coming over the Panthers in week 10.
The Packers beat the Texans 24-22 in what was one of the better games of week 7 that came down to the wire. One of the biggest positives for Houston so far this year has been Joe Mixon. I thought he was on the very last legs of his career heading into 2024 – but he’s having a great season and had over 110 yards and 2 touchdowns against Green Bay. However there was a lot of bad in this game from Houston and the play calling at the end was questionable and this was a very winnable game for the Texans. CJ Stroud only threw for 86 yards in this game and was sacked 4 times and they certainly felt the rath of a Jeff Hafley defense. I don’t think Houston has anything to worry about in the division – at least in the long run – but this is undoubtedly a tough loss to swallow. Daniel Whalen had 5 punts in this game for Green Bay and averaged over 56 yards per punt. Punting was a big factor in this game and the Packers survived the Jordan Love rollercoaster. Jordan is a very up and down player and he reminds me a lot of a young Matthew Stafford – both good and bad – and the one touchdown pass he threw to Tucker Kraft reminds me of the good – but there’s times where he needs to play it safe. They play Jacksonville next week and I look for this team to improve to 6-2. It was also great to see Romeo Doubs have a second straight good game.
The game of the week was in Minneapolis with the Lions coming out on top 31-29. This was a great all around game as Minnesota jumped out to a 10-0 lead, then Detroit scored 21 unanswered, before eventually being behind 29-28 – and then winning – 31-29. I have some concerns with the Vikings after this game and it’s that they are a good team – and not a great team. You can argue that’s fine because of the pre season expectations – but the Lions offense is incredible and the Lions were my preseason pick to go to the Super Bowl – and they’re still my pick through 7 weeks. And games like this are why. Jared Goff played great and he absolutely deserves to be in the MVP conversation. The only player I would argue over him right now is Josh Allen. But when healthy – this Lions team is damn near unbeatable.
Ben Johnson is one of the best offensive minds in all of football and they were down 10-0 with all the momentum going against them – yet out scored the Vikings 31-19 the rest of the way – and even within that – allowed a defensive touchdown. I think the Lions are a better team than Minnesota and I think this game showed that. Truly. Minnesota is going to be a tough team to beat every week don’t get me wrong – and I think they have a very good defense – but when it comes hell or high water – I am picking the Detroit Lions to go to the Super Bowl
The Washington Commanders embarrassed the Panthers with a score of 40-7 and this game summarized the 2024 Panthers. They fell to 1-6 and I hate to pile on a bad team – but every time the Panthers lose – it truly seems like there’s a “but wait there’s more” coming. Over the last 3 weeks they have two 25+ point losses and the Panthers have been outscored 114-37. And no that’s not made up. They play the Broncos next week and I would be surprised if they put up more than 13 points against the Broncos defense. They had 180 yards of offense against Washington on just 43 total plays. This is truly historic levels of bad. And it’s most definitely not going to be an overnight fix – and I truly feel bad for Panthers fans. This was Washington’s 3rd 21+ point win of the season and it’s the first time they’ve had 3 of those since 1999. And it’s the middle of October. We obviously hope Jayden Daniels is okay and he looked to be in positive spirit on the sideline – which I think is a good thing. Washington took care of a bad team, they’re 5-2 and they have a favorable schedule. If Jayden’s okay – I truly think this team can win the division
Here we are again with another weekly recap with another Raiders loss in a game where they made mental mistakes. The big thing for me I want to discuss is the decision with less than 3 minutes to play to kick a field goal to make a one score game – a one score game. Would the Raiders have got the touchdown on 4th and goal from the 9 yard line based on how their day went? Probably not. But this team is incredibly uninspiring and it shows every week. Raiders quarterbacks in week 7 were 21/44 for 206 yards and 3 interceptions in a game where they failed to score a touchdown. This won’t be the final game in which the Raiders fail to score an offensive touchdown for the remainder of the season either. Brock Bowers is one of the very few bright spots on this team, and heading into the final drive it truly felt like Gardner Minshew was going to throw an interception – and low and behold – he came through and threw a game sealing interception. LA is now 2-4 and they get Cooper Kupp back on Thursday for week 8. If they can manage to beat the Vikings – which they can – they play Seattle, Miami, and New England in the following weeks. My takeaway for the Rams is – if they win Thursday and improve to 3-4 – there is a path where this team makes the playoffs. Their defense and specifically defensive line is going to get better over the course of the season – and if they win Thursday – the Rams are going to be a sneaky team
The Chiefs beat the 49ers in a Super Bowl rematch with a score of 28-18 and this was in a game where Patrick Mahomes threw for just 154 yards and 2 interceptions. The scariest part about the Chiefs is they’re not close to playing their best game yet. Patrick Mahomes has not played well in 2024 and we’re nearly mid way through the year. Blame it not the receivers, injuries, or whatever you want – this is the worst version of Patrick Mahomes we’ve seen – and they’re 6-0. And that’s scary for the rest of the league. Kansas City ran for over 180 yards as a team and held the ball for over 35 minutes. Even when Mahomes isn’t on – they figure out ways to win games. And a lot of it is due to the defense too. Intercepting Brock Purdy 3 times is much easier said than done and especially when all 3 were in Kansas City territory. My biggest concern with San Francisco moving forward is this team reminds me a lot of the 2020 49ers. I know nobody wants to hear about moral victories – but Jordan Mason replacing an offensive player of the year award winner without much notice has been impressive. He didn’t play his best In week 7 sure, but it’s been a brutal year for the 49ers. No CMC, no Deebo, and the fear is Brandon Aiyuk tore his ACL. If that is indeed true – and we have no idea on the Christian McCaffrey timeline – although at this point I would be surprised if he plays this year – the 49ers situation scares me. Because nobody knows what’s next. It’s 1 step forward and 5 steps back. And winning a singular super bowl requires nearly everything to go right and the 49ers are about as far from that as possible. And I think they’re done. I hope you enjoyed the week 7 recap! Please watch the video below if you’re interested!
