Five quick takes on Week 7 in the NFL:
1. Drew Brees continues to reach new milestones. A week after he became the all-time passing yardage leader, he became the fourth player to pass for 500 touchdowns against Baltimore.The other three are Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Tom Brady. He threw for two in a 24-23 win over the Ravens. And he kept the Saints a game behind the unbeaten Rams for the best record in the NFC.
2. The league’s overtime streak continued. Each week of the season this year, there has been an overtime game. The Bucs beat the Browns, 26-23 in overtime as Chandler Catanazaro kicked a 59-yard field goal for the game winner. It was the longest game winning overtime field goal since overtime was instituted in 1974. If he had missed it, the Browns would have had great field position. The previous long one was 57 yards by Sebastian Janikowski of the Raiders in 2008. There would have been three overtime games if the Titans had kicked an extra point instead of going for two against the Chargers and Justin Tucker of Baltimore hadn’t missed his first extra point of his career against the Saints. Since the Titans dominated the second half, coach Mike Vrabel’s decision to go for two instead of playing for overtime was not a good move. Assuming, of course, the Titans had made the extra point.
3. Philip Rivers threw for exactly 300 yards in the Chargers‘ victory in London over the Titans. He now is the sixth player in NFL history to have at least 60 300-yard passing games. The other five are Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Dan Marino and Brett Favre.
4. After a 1-2 start, the Patriots are rolling again. The Patriots scored 38 points two weeks in a row against the Chiefs and Bears to go to 5-2 and they are virtually guaranteed a 6-2 mark at the halfway point because they play the Bills next Monday night. The Patriots seem headed towards another AFC title game, this time probably against the Chiefs. The Patriots are trying to become the first team to lose the Super Bowl and win it the next season since the 1972 perfect Dolphins.
5. The Houston Texans started out 0-3 and now have won four in a row to take over first place in the AFC South after beating Jacksonville last week. They are the first team to win four in a row after starting out 0-3 since the 2011 Chiefs. They are the sixth teams to do it.