Year: 2021

As the teams head down the stretch in the second half of the season, one key factor will be how many players will be sidelined after testing positive for Covid.

The Cowboys were hit this week and have to live with consequences.

The Cowboys will go into Sunday’s game against the Chiefs without Amari Cooper, who wasn’t vaxxed and tested positive for Covid. It will probably mean he’ll also miss the Thanksgiving Day game against the Raiders.

Although some vaxxed players have also tested positive, it is totally irresponsible for players not to get vaxxed.

The good news for the Cowboys is that the game isn’t that important for them except in the battle for the first-round bye. They have a four-game lead in the loss column over the other three games in their division. The other three teams have all lost six games.

The Cowboys are one of the three two-loss teams in the NFC along with 8-2 Arizona and Green Bay. If they lose their third game, they could fall a game behind those two teams in the loss column. Arizona plays Seattle and Green Bay plays Minnesota.

The game, though, is critical for the Chiefs, who have struggled this year but looked like they were back last week when they routed the Raiders. Now they have to show it wasn’t a mirage. They lead their division at 6-4. But Chargers and Raiders are 5-4 and Denver is 5-5 so they have no margin for error.

Another team to watch is defending champion Tampa Bay, which has lost its last two games sandwiched around a bye to fall to 6-3, although they still lead their division.

They should stay on top Monday night since they have what happens to be an easy game against the 3-6 Giants, but they can’t afford an upset.

In the AFC, Tennessee is the only team in the division with just two losses at 8-2 and is in the lead for the battle for the top seed. But they face a tough task against 5-4 New Orleans.

Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Buffalo are all a game behind at 6-3 while the Patriots are 7-4 after their Thursday night win over the Raiders and the Chiefs, Chargers, Raiders and Bengals also have four in losses. There is no clear favorite in the AFC, especially since Tennessee will play the rest of the regular season without Derrick Henry.

Baltimore figures to beat Chicago and the Bills are expected to beat the Jets while Pittsburgh has a tough Sunday night game against the Chargers in the Sunday night game.

Another factor to watch is whether underdogs will continue to pull off upsets the way they did the last two weeks when nine teams who were in first place or tied for first lost to teams at .500 or below.

This is the season of parity run wild.

Every team in the league now has at least two losses at the 10 game mark. The last one-loss team, Arizona, lost to Carolina with Kyler Murray sidelined. Cam Newton had a winning homecoming for the Panthers.

And just three other teams besides Arizona – Dallas, Packers and Titans – have two losses.

For the second straight week, four teams at .500 or below upset division leaders. And the Rams, who are now 7-3, lost to the 49ers, who were desperate at 3-5.

So it is too early to say even the two-loss teams have the inside track in the Super Bowl race although they figure to at least make the playoffs in a 14-team field.

One of the three-loss teams is Tampa Bay. The defending champions have lost two in a row sandwiched around a bye. Tom Brady threw a couple early picks and was outplayed by Washington’s Taylor Heinicke, but the Bucs defense was the real problem as Washington put together a 19-play drive that lasted over 10 minutes to wrap up the game.

The only two loss team in the AFC is Tennessee at 8-2, which edged New Orleans, 23-21, but faces the challenge of playing without Derrick Henry.

Dallas routed the Falcons 43-3 and has a four-game lead in its division and could be the team to beat in the NFC, but then they lost to Denver 30-16 a week ago.

Kansas City looked the Chiefs of the last two years when it routed Las Vegas as Patrick Mahomes threw four touchdown passes. The Chiefs now get a big test against Dallas this week.

A 6-4 team to watch is New England with rookie quarterback Mac Jones. The Patriots posted their fourth win in a row by routing Cleveland to stay a game behind Buffalo. The Patriots play the Bills twice down the stretch.

While Dallas has a four/game lead in its division, Tennessee and Green Bay have three-game leads in their divisions.

Put those three teams down for division titles and a home playoff game. They’re going for a first-round bye. The other five divisions are up for grabs in this year of parity.

The 10^th week of the season started off with another upset, continuing the trend of the last two weeks.

Baltimore’s loss to 2-7 Miami Thursday night came just five days after the 1-6 Jaguars knocked off the Bills. Both Baltimore and Buffalo are now 5-3 and Tennessee is now the only AFC teams with just two losses but the Titans will play the rest of the regular season without Derrick Henry.

There are now five 5-3 teams and five more four loss teams so the AFC race continues to be wide open.

In the NFC, Arazona has the best record in the NFL at 8-1 and the Rams, Bucs, Packers and Cowboys have two losses. But those teams all seem vulnerable.

The Rams, Cowboys and Packers all lost last weekend and the Packers are dealing with the fallout of Aaron Rodgers’ positive test and his apparent lie giving the impression he was vaxed.

In the Sunday night game, the 5-3 Raiders will play the 6-4 Chiefs as they jockey for position in AFC West while the 5-3 Chargers play the 3-5 Vikings in a late Sunday game.

A Minnesota upset win wouldn’t be a surprise because all but one of the Vikings games has been decided in last minute of play. They are probably better than their record.

Another vulnerable team is the 5-4 Broncos, who face the 3-6 Eagles. The Eagles may be better than their record. A fifth loss this year would likely be a major setback to the Broncos’ chances of making a playoff run.

Tennessee also could stumble against the 5-3 Saints because they are playing without Henry and New Orleans is desperate for a win to stay in midst of NBFC playoff race.

Another game to watch is the Cleveland-New England game, a battle of four loss teams who both need to avoid a fifth loss.

In the other games, Buffalo is favored over the Jets, Indianapolis over the Jaguars, Tampa Bay over Washington, Pittsburgh over Detroit, Arizona over Carolina and Dallas over Atlanta.

Considering all the recent upsets, it won’t be a surprise if some of their favorites stub their toes.

Four teams – Cincinnati, Chicago, Giants and Houston — have byes but only Cincinnati at 6-4 has fewer than six losses and the Bengals have lost two to the Jets and Browns in a row after a fast start. They need to use the bye week to regroup.

Jordan Love isn’t ready to step in at quarterback, the Titans proved they can beat a top foe without Derrick Henry, the Bills may not be a Super Bowl contender if they can’t improve their running game and the Super Bowl race is wide open.

Those were some of the conclusions after the ninth week of the season, which is virtually the halfway mark of the league’s first 17-game season.

Just a week ago, the Cowboys, Rams and Bills were all considered prime Super Bowl contenders, but they all were upset to scramble the Super Bowl picture.

Arizona, playing without Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins, showed it can win without its two best offensive players by beating the fading 49ers to boost its record to 8-1, the best in football. The 49ers dropped to 3-5.

But behind the Cardinals are six teams with between two and four losses in the NFC and 11 in the AFC. With 14 teams getting playoff spots, those 18 teams are all in playoff hunt.

Even the four five loss teams can’t be counted out.

This is parity run wild.

As far as division races, Tennessee, Dallas and Green Bay all have a three-game lead in their divisions, but Tennessee will have to play the rest of the regular season without Henry. They beat the Rams without him, but they will miss him down the stretch.

Dallas remains a puzzle. They won last week with Cooper Rush only to get smoked by Denver after Dak Prescott returned, 30-16.

Buffalo was considered a contender but is now 5-3 after losing two of the last three. The problem is their running game has collapsed and they are the worst rushing team in the league the last three weeks. They now only lead the Patriots by a game and play them twice in second half of the year.

And Green Bay’s future looks up in the air after the Aaron Rodgers Covid fiasco and the fact that Love struggled when he started for Rodgers against the Chiefs.

Baltimore leads the AFC Central at 6-2 but Pittsburgh is 5-3 and Browns and Bengals are 5-4 so it is wide open.

Cincinnati is fading after a fast start.The AFC West is also wide open with Chargers and Raiders at 5-3 and Chiefs and Broncos at 5-4.

The NFC South and West are both two team races. In the South, the Bucs are6-2 and the Saints 5-3 and in the Wet, the Cards are 8-1 and the Rams 7-2.

When the NFL schedule came out this spring, the Green Bay at Kansas City game seemed like one of the highlights of the season.

The idea of Patrick Mahomes dueling Aaron Rodgers figured to be ratings gold and Fox wanted the game to be a late afternoon doubleheader.

Now it turned out Rodgers won’t play because he tested positive for Covid, but that hasn’t deflated the matchup. Jordan Love will now make his first start for the Packers, and now it is even a better story.

To start with, Rodgers did not admit he was not vaxxed before he tested positive and didn’t follow the protocols for players who aren’t vaxxed and then tried to act as if he is the victim.

Anyway, how Love plays is critical to the Packers’ future. Rodgers wants out and if Love, drafted in the first round a year ago, is the long-term answer, they don’t have to find a new quarterback once Rodgers leaves.

There’s also the question of how long Rodgers will be sidelined and if the NFL will issue fines for him and the Packers for not following protocols for players who aren’t vaxxed.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs have a lot of issues on their own. They haven’t played like the team that made the Super Bowl the last two years and desperately need a win to stay in the race. There is a lot at stake in this game.

This game overshadows the two prime time games. The Titans-Rams Sunday night game lost a lot of its luster when Derrick Henry was sidelined with a foot injury. It would have been must-see TV if he were running against Aaron Donald.

The Monday night pits Chicago vs. Pittsburgh. Fox has the doubleheader and Arizona and San Francisco is the other second game but it will get limited exposure compared to the Green Bay-Chiefs game.

Fox has three 1 p.m. games featuring Dallas-Denver, Baltimore-Minnesota, New Orleans-Atlanta and Houston-Miami.CBS has a single game in each market including four 1 p.m. games. Cleveland-Cincinnati is the feature attraction. The other three 1 p.m. games are Las Vegas-Giants, New England-Carolina and Buffalo-Jacksonville. Their late game is Chargers-Eagles.

A flurry of upsets and two major developments off the field scrambled the playoff races as the teams neared the halfway mark after eight weeks of play.

Tennessee seemed a lock to win the AFC South after it beat the Colts but then learned after the game that Derrick Henry will undergo foot surgery and be lost for the rest of the regular season. The Titans signed Adrian Peterson to see if he has something left in the tank.

But the Titans are no longer a lock despite their three game lead over the Colts.

Meanwhile, the Rams gave up second- and third-round picks next year to trade for Von Miller to add him to a defense that already includes Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald.

It remains to be seen whether Miller is still at the top of his game. The Rams are tossing draft picks around like confetti because they are all in trying to win this season.

The Rams are tied in the NFC West with Arizona at 7-1. Green Bay has the same record in the NFC North but it has a three-game lead. Dallas, after beating Minnesota Sunday, has a 6-1 mark but a four-game lead in the NFC East.

So the Packers and Cowboys seem locks to win their division races while the Rams and Cardinals are likely to both make the playoffs, one as a division winner and the other as a wild card team.

So at the eight-week mark, here is a look at the two conference races:

AFC

Four teams — Tennessee, Buffalo, Baltimore and Las Vegas — are all 5-2 with Buffalo having a two-game lead over the surprising Patriots. Baltimore is a game ahead of Cincinnati after the Bengals were stunned by the Jets and the Raiders are a game up in the loss column over the Chargers, who were upset by the Patriots, and two games up on the Chiefs, who struggled to beat the Giants on Monday night.

The Titans’ fate depends on how they overcome the loss of Henry and whether the Colts can regroup and Carson Wentz stops throwing interceptions.

There are three 4-3 teams, Chargers, Steelers and Bengals who will be looking for wild card spots if they don’t win their division race. The four 4-4 teams, Browns, Patriots, Chiefs and Broncos, have uphill climbs trying to get wild card spots, and the Broncos appeared to write off this year when they traded Miller.

NFC

Only six teams have winning records and seven make the playoffs. Four teams, Cowboys, Packers, Arizona and Rams all have one loss and Bucs and Saints have two.

Assuming those six get in, there will be a wild race for the seventh slot.

Three teams have four losses and four have five losses and one has to get in because seven teams make the playoffs.

It is the downside of having seven teams in the playoffs. Even a team with a losing record can make it.

The weekend got off to an exciting start Thursday night as Green Bay handed Arizona its first loss when Kyler Murray threw an interception in the end zone on second down with 12 seconds left.

But it wasn’t his fault as A.J. Green failed to make the game-winning catch because he didn’t turn around.

Two plays earlier, Murray suffered a knee injury while being tackled. He insisted it isn’t serious and has 10 days to get ready for the next game. We’ll see.

The Arizona loss left five NFC teams with one loss including the Cardinals and Packers. Besides Tampa Bay, which figures to beat New Orleans, and the Rams, who are a virtual lock against Houston, the other team is Dallas, which has to worry about whether Dak Prescott will be at the top of his game because he was limited in practice this week as they prepared to face Minnesota. That will be the Sunday night game.

The Monday night game figures to be a rout with Kansas City likely to beat the Giants. The Chiefs are struggling but should be able to handle the Giants.

CBS will have the single game and will have six of them with Pittsburgh at Cleveland and Tennessee at Indianapolis as the best of them.

In three other games, Cincinnati figures to beat the Jets, Buffalo is likely to handle Buffalo and Chargers figure to beat New England. The Seattle-Jacksonville game is likely to be close because Russell Wilson is hurt but neither team is a contender.

The late afternoon doubleheader Fox games are Tampa Bay at New Orleans and Washington at Denver. Neither figures to be compelling except that Jameis Winston faces his old team when he goes against the Bucs, but the Saints appear to be outmatched even at home.

There are six AFC teams with two losses and three of them, Buffalo vs. Miami, Cincinnati vs. the Jets and Chargers vs. New England. Tennessee vs. Indianapolis, figure to be close while Baltimore and Las Vegas have byes.

Tennessee at 5-2 can virtually wrap up the AFC South division title and a home playoff game with a victory at 2-4 Indianapolis.

A victory would give them a three game lead in the division plus the tie breaker with the Colts. But a Colts victory would put them just one game behind the Titans.

This is like a midseason playoff game for the Colts.

The loser of the Pittsburgh-Cleveland game will be in last place in the division at 3-4. It will put them two games behind Baltimore and probably two games behind Cincinnati.

This is the year of the NFC.

There are five NFC teams with zero or one loss while every AFC team has at least two losses.

That is the difference in the two conferences after the first seven weeks of the season.

Arizona is the only unbeaten team at 7-0 and currently has top seed in the NFC after the Cardinals routed the woeful Texans as expected.

Meanwhile, Green Bay, Tampa Bay and the Rams all won to go to 6-1. And 5-1 Dallas had a bye but has a four-game lead in its division with the other three teams at 2-5. So those five teams are virtual locks for the playoffs.

The game of the upcoming week is Arizona taking on Green Bay on Thursday night. A Green Bay win would leave five teams with one loss. An Arizona win keeps the Cardinals unbeaten with Green Bay at two losses.

Minnesota, New Orleans and Atlanta are leading the pack in the race for the last two playoff spots at 3-3. The Saints beat Seattle to reach .500 and drop the Seahawks to 2-5. They trail 3-4 Chicago and Carolina and 2-4 San Francisco. But the NFC team in the Super Bowl figures to be one of the first five teams.

Meanwhile, there is a wide open race in the AFC with Cincinnati of all teams currently the top seed after its takedown of Kansas City with a 5-2 mark. Baltimore, Tennessee and Las Vegas, which has won two in a row after the departure of Jon Gruden, are also 5-2. The Bills and Chargers are at 4-2 and Cleveland is at 4-3. Pittsburgh is at 3-3 Kansas City and Kansas City, Indianapolis and Denver at 3-4.

So that means 12 AFC teams are within two games of each other in the race for the seven playoff spots although Cincinnati, Buffalo and Tennessee are currently in the best positions.

The Bengals and Bills are led by quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Josh Allen while Tennessee’s offense features Derrick Henry, who is putting up Jim Brown-type numbers.

—The four one win AFC teams – Jets, Miami, Jacksonville and Houston– are the only teams out of the playoff race and are the AFC teams fighting for the first pick in next year’s draft along with winless Detroit in the NFC. Every other NFC team has at least two wins.

—Mac Jones became the first of the rookie quarterbacks to win three games for the Patriots with the rout of the Jets while Zach Wilson, who has one win for the Jets, suffered a knee injury that will sideline him for two to four weeks. That prompted the Jets to trade for Joe Flacco. Trey Lance also missed the 49ers game Sunday night with an injury. Justin Fields had his worst game for the Bears, throwing three picks and losing two fumbles in the loss to the Bucs. He is now 2-3 as a starter. Trevor Lawrence, who has a 1=5 record, had a bye.

The seventh weekend of the season is a good one for CBS.

It has the best game of the day – Kansas City at Tennessee, featuring the great passer (Patrick Mahomes) vs. the great runner (Derrick Henry). It also has another good early game – Cincinnati at Baltimore.One or both of those games should have been in prime time because the Sunday night game (Indianapolis at San Francisco) and the Monday night game (New Orleans at Seattle) are not premier attractions.

And the CBS third early game – Jets at New England – doesn’t figure to be a good matchup. The two late games – Chicago at Tampa Bay and Houston at Cincinnati – figure to be routs.

Fox only has a single game, three early and two late, and none of them are compelling. The early games are Washington at Green Bay, Carolina at the Giants and Atlanta at Miami. Green Bay figures to rout Washington and not much is at stake in the other two games except for Carolina trying to get to 4-3.

The two late Fox games are Philadelphia at Vegas and Detroit at Rams. The winless Lions figure to have no chance against their former quarterback Matthew Stafford. The Raiders will go for their second straight win with a new coach after Jon Gruden resigned.

So here is what at stake this weekend in the interesting games:

—Kansas City needs a win at Tennessee to avoid falling to 3-4 while a Tennessee win would keep the Titans in command of AFC South at 5-2.–Arizona, Green Bay, Tampa Bay and the Rams all figure to post wins to keep Arizona the only unbeaten team at 7-0, while the other three teams would remain a game behind at 6-1 in the AFC. Dallas has a bye and will stay at 5-1. Those five teams seem playoff bound while the rest of the teams will fight for the two remaining NFC slots.

—Baltimore at 5-1 can take a two-game lead in the AFC North in a win over 4-2 Cincinnati. A Cincinnati win would leave them tied at 5-2. It would also mean that every AC team would have at least two losses.

—The Raiders at 5-2 can take a half game lead over the 4-2 Chargers, who have a bye, with a victory over the 2-4 Eagles. A Raider lost would put the Chargers on top of the AFC West.

The NFL saved the best for last in Week 6.

Going in, it looked like there weren’t a lot of good matchups, so it wasn’t surprising that after Jacksonville upset Miami in the Sunday morning game in London, all seven favorites at 1 p.m. won.

And there was only one upset in the late afternoon and Sunday night game – Raiders over Broncos – although Dallas had to go to overtime to beat New England.

So Arizona remained the only unbeaten team at 6-0 by beating the Browns while five one loss teams – Baltimore, Dallas Green Bay, Rams (on Thursday night) and Tampa Bay all won. The only one loss team to lose during the day was the Chargers, who lost to Baltimore.

But the primetime action Sunday and Monday nights was captivating. Pittsburgh went to overtime to beat Seattle as Geno Smith was strip-sacked to set up a game-winning field goal. And in Tennessee, Buffalo spurned a field goal that would have sent the game into overtime and had Josh Allen try a quarterback sneak. He slipped and was stuffed as Tennessee got the win.

Buffalo’s loss means Baltimore is the only 5-1 team in the AFC. The Ravens, who lost their opener before winning five in a row, are followed by five 4-2 teams – Bills, Chargers, Bengals, Titans and Raiders.

The Chiefs, Browns Broncos and Steelers are all 3-3 so it is a wide-open race. In the NFC, while Arizona is unbeaten at 6-0, Tampa Bay, the Rams, the Packers and the Cowboys are 5-1.

In battle for top draft pick, Jacksonville’s victory in London means Detroit is the only winless team at 0-6 while five teams – Jacksonville, Houston, Giants, Miami and Jets all have one win.

—Buffalo’s decision to go for a first down on the quarterback sneak will be the most debated decision of the weekend. The decision made sense not to kick field goal and go to overtime, but they could have had a better play call than quarterback sneak.

—Dak Prescott suffered a calf injury but the Cowboys have a bye so they can hope Prescott recovers in two weeks. He seems to be at the top of his game and makes the Cowboys a Super Bowl contender.

—The Seahawks contacted Cam Newton but didn’t sign him, so they seem committed to sticking with Geno Smith until Russell Wilson comes back. He is playing for his future, trying to convince teams he can be a starter in the league.

—Head coach Kliff Kingsbury was sidelined by Covid but Vance Joseph took over the duties and the unbeaten Cardinals didn’t miss a beat in dominating the Browns. With the Texans coming up next, they are likely to go to 7-0.

—While Tom Brady is 5-1 in Tampa Bay, Bill Belichick is 2-4 in New England and is getting questioned for playing it too conservative at the end of regulation against Dallas as he let the clock run out instead of trying to get a game-winning field goal. The Patriots then lost in overtime.

—Aaron Rodgers led the Packers to the win over the Bears but what will be remembered is that he told the fans after scoring he owns them. He said he blacked out and didn’t know what he said after a fan gave him the double bird.