VITO'S VIEWS

—It is still too early to be talking about February but nobody will be surprised if the Super Bowl pits the Kansas City Chiefs vs. either the Lions or the Vikings, who appear headed towards a showdown in the NFC title game 

–The Chiefs, going for the first threepeat of the Super Bowl era and the third in NFL history, beat the injured plagued 49ers and are now the only unbeaten team at 6-0. But it is not like the Chiefs are playing at the top of their game. But they just find a way to win. Patrick Mahomes had only a 44.4 quarterback rating and threw two picks, but he usually makes a big play when they need it and they have an elite coaching staff and a strong defense. They should go to 9-0 with the next three games against the Raiders, Bucs and Broncos before they go to Buffalo on Nov. 17.

.  –The Lions handed the Vikings their first loss, 31-29, and could meet two more times. They play again in the final regular season game and could well meet again in the playoffs. The Lions seem to have the edge because Jared Goff s is playing so well. In the last three games, he has completed 85.2 per cent of his passes, including all 18 against Seattle, while throwing for 887 yards and seven touchdowns. Of course, the Lions will have to overcome the loss of Aidan Hutchinson.

–The Super Bowl loser rarely wins it the next year. The last team to do it was New England, which lost to Philadelphia at the end of the 2017 season and beat the Rams in the Super Bowl the following season. Before that, the last team to do it was the perfect Dolphins of 1972, who beat Washington in the Super Bowl after losing to Dallas the previous season. Now San Francisco, which lost to the Chiefs last year, doesn’t look like a team that will return this year, much less win it. They are 3-4 after the loss to the Chiefs and they haven’t had Christian McCaffrey all year and they lost Brandon Aiyuk for the season with a knee injury against the Chiefs. The 49ers were last in the Super Bowl after the 2019 season when they lost to the Chiefs and didn’t return until last year.  And now Deebo Samuels is suffering from pneumonia. Could be a tough year for the 49ers.

–The Washington Commanders continue to be the surprise team in the league. They routed the hapless Panthers to go to 5-2, a half game ahead of the 4-2 Eagles. They get a good test in the next five weeks when they play against the Bears, Steelers, Eagles and Cowboys with a game against the Giants after the Bears games.

–The Baltimore Ravens ended last season by losing to the Chiefs in the AFC title game and started this year losing to them in the opener. But the Ravens could be headed towards another duel with the Chiefs in the playoffs. They boosted their record to 5-2 with their fifth straight win after after an 0-2 start by beating the Bucs, 41-31. The Ravens have a 1-2 punch in quarterback Lamar Jackson, who threw five touchdown passes, and Derrick Henry, probably the best free agent acquisition of the offseasn, who ran for 169 yards.Henry is on pace for a 2,000 yard season and could challenge Eriic Dickerson’s career record of 2,105 yards. He has 873 yards and can play 17 games. The Bucs suffered a blow in the final minute when they lostChris Godwin for the season with a dislocated ankle that will require surgery.

—Fox has the doubleheader of the year this Sunday. One of its early games will be Detroit at Minnesota which will be shown to much of the country. Their late game is Kansas City at San Francisco in a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl. Minnesota and Kansas City are both undefeated at 5-0 coming off byes. Detroit is 4-1 coming off a big win over the Cowboys while San Francisco, hobbled by injuries this year, is only 3-3 after beating Seattle last week. The Vikings and 49ers are both favored by about 1.5 points but nobody would be surprised if both underdogs win. The Chiefs haven’t been at the top of their game but Patrick Mahomes finds a way to pull out games And coach Andy Reid has an NFL record 21-4 coming off byes. Be interesting to see how good the ratings are.

–The weekend started with Denver’s easy win over New Orleans Thursday night and four other national games are scheduled starting with New England vs. Jacksonville at 9:30 am Sunday on the NFL Network. Both teams are 1-5 so it is not likely to have a big audience, but it is critical for Jaguars Coach Doug Pederson, who is already on the hot seat because owner Shad Khan said at the start of the season that it was time to win. His seat will get hotter if he loses to an underdog. New England is the first year of a rebuild with a new coach and rookie quarterback so there is no pressure on them.

–The Sunday night game has the 4-2 Steelers hosting the 2-4 Jets. Surprisingly, the Jets are favored. It helps they have added Davante Adams to give Aaron Rodgers one of his favorite targets. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has indicated he may bench Justin Fields now that Russell Wilson is healthy so this could be an intriguing game. Rodgers has yet to be the quarterback the Jets thought he would be but maybe the addition of Adams will help jumpstart his play.

–There are two Monday night games starting with Baltimore at Tampa Bay. Both are 4-2. The other game pits the 3-2 Chargers at the 2-4 Cardinals. The Ravens are favored by 3.5 points and the Chargers are a 1.5 choice over the Cardinals.

–The best game Sunday afternoon besides the Fox doubleheader is the Texans at the Packers. The Texans are 5-1 while the Packers are 4-2. The Texans are in control of the AFC South since the Colts are 3-3 and the Titans and Jaguars have won only one game. But the Packers are in the best division in football and need a win because the Vikings, Lions and Bears are a combined 13-3 and since the Vikings and Lions are playing each other; either the Vikings will be 6-0 or the Lions 5-1.

–The highlight of Week 6 was the Detroit Lions scoring a Pyrrhic victory over the Dallas Cowboys by a 47-9 score, the first time in NFL history that a game has ended with that score. But in the process they lost their best defensive player, Aidan Hutchinson with a broken tibia and fibula, probably for the season. The Lions had a lot of incentive after losing to Cowboys in a controversial game late last year. But can they go to the Super Bowl without Hutchinson? That is the big question. Just winning the division will be a challenge since they have to play all six division games starting with the game Sunday at Minnesota.

–The only two unbeaten teams, Kansas City and Minnesota, had byes last week and remain 5-0. There are six teams with one loss – the Patriots, Browns, Titans, Jaguars, Rams and Panthers. Two of them, the Pats and Jaguars, play in London Sunday morning so barring a tie, one of them will get a second win.

–The Ravens beat the Commanders to tie the Steelers, who beat the Raiders in the renewal of an old rivalry, so they are tied at 4-2 atop the NFL North. Despite his 4-2 start, Justin Fields may be benched for Russell Wilson, who is recovering from a calf injury. If Fields plays less than 51 percent of the plays, the Steelers give a sixth-round pick instead of a fourth-rounder to Chicago for Fields. So if Wilson plays well, the Steelers are likely to stick with him.

–Rookie Drake Maye lost his first start with the Patriots to a much better Houston team. But he didn’t act like the stage was too big for him and showed potential for the future. Now the Patriots have to build a better team around him. He threw three touchdowns in the lass. He has a shot for a win Sunday in London against the Jaguars, another 1- team.

–The Jets fired their head coach and demoted their offensive coordinator but still looked like the Jets in the Monday night loss to the Bills as they made too many mistakes, committed too many penalties and missed two field goals. Aaron Rodgers threw a Hail Mary touchdown pass at the end of the fourth period but threw an interception to end their last the drive.  A victory would have tied the Jets with the Bills at 3-3. Now they are 2-4, trailing the 4-2 Bulls by two games.

—The two unbeaten teams, Kansas City and Minnesota, happen to have a bye this week so both will go into week 7 with 5-0 records. The other two bye teams this week are Miami and the Rams.

–The weekend started Thursday night with the 49ers beating Seattle to even their record at 3-3and to tie the Seahawks, who have lost three in a row, for first place in the NFC West. The 49ers have been struggling with injuries and blew two double leads in last three weeks. Coach Kyle Shanahan has blown 18 double digit leads in his career as 49ers coach plus the 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl against the Pats as the Falcons offensive coordinator. The 49ers had a double digit lead against the Seahawks, who got within six but the 49ers pulled away to win, 36-24. 

–There are three other national games this weekend with the Bears and Jaguars playing in London at 930 am Eastern time Sunday, the Bengals at the Giants Sunday night and the Bills at the Jets Monday night. The Bengals at 1-4 are desperate for a win against the Giants to show they can stay in the race. The Giants are 2-3 and can get to .500 with a win. After posting their first win last week, the 1-4 Jaguars need a win over the Bears to try to claw back into the race.

 The 3-2 Bills have lost two in a row and need a win to get back on track with a win over the Jets. The Jets decision to fire coach Robert Saleh with a 2-3 record added some drama to the game. New Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich has decided to take the play calling duties away from Nathaniel Hackett and give them to Todd Downing, who was the passing game coordinator. Saleh had decided to make this move shortly before he was fired although Hackett will stay on the staff. Hackett was close to Rodgers, who has denied he was involved in the decision to fire Saleh but he doesn’t seem to have gone to bat for him for him. Rodgers also hasn’t been playing well since returning from the Achilles injury last year and needs to get in a groove  

–CBS has a single game and its feature attraction is Washington at Baltimore in an early game. The surprising Commanders lead the NFC West at 4-1 and the Ravens are tied with the Steelers at 3-2 in the AFC North. It is a pivotal game for both the Commanders and the Ravens. 

FOX has the doubleheader game Sunday with Detroit at Dallas. The 4-1 Lions are one game behind the 5-0 Vikings in the NFC North while the 3-2 Cowboys are a game behind the 4-1 Commanders in the NFC East.

—There are now just two unbeaten teams, no winless teams and one head coach fired. Those are the highlights now that week five is in the books.  The Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings both won to go to 5-0 while the Jaguars, the last winless team, won and the New York Jets fired coach Robert Saleh after a 23-17 loss to the Vikings dropped the Jets to 2-3.

–The Chiefs bid for the first threepeat of the Super Bowl era continues to be on track  as they won their 11^th consecutive games with the 26-13 win over the Saints to go 5-0. Of the 11 wins, nine have been by one score. 24-23. Except for the 4-1 Texans every conference team has at least two losses.

–The Vikings weren’t at their best about the Jets but still won and have been behind only slightly more than four minutes in the first five games. Five other 5-0 teams have led for all but under 4:30 and made the Super Bowl and three won it. But being in the division with the 3-1 Lions and 3-2 Packers means they have a challenge just winning the division.

–With the Jaguars beating the Colts 37-34, there are now six 1-4 teams. The other five are the Panthers, Rams, Patriots, Browns and  Bengals, Since 1-4 teams rarely make the playoffs, the odds are that 26 teams are fighting for 14 playoff spots. The 1-3 Titans probably should be added to the list.

–The Jets decision to bring in Aaron Rodgers may have cost Robert Saleh his job. Joe Flacco would have been a much better choice. Rodgers doesn’t seem to have recovered from last year’s Achilles injury and seems to create too much drama. Unless he and interim coach Jeff Ulbrich can turn the team around, the Jets are likely to have a new coach and quarterback next year.

—The fifth weekend of the season got off to a dramatic start when the Falcons beat the Bucs, 36-30, in overtime as Kirk Cousins threw for 509 yards. The only thing that marred the game was a non call on what should have been a facemask penalty on Atlanta on the Bucs last drive. The Falcons then got a chance to get the ball back and tie the game with a field goal on the last play of regulation. Had the penalty been called, the Bucs probably would have won in regulation.

–The other two prime time games are the Cowboys at the Steelers Sunday night and the Saints at the Chiefs Monday night. The Cowboys-Steelers was a great rivalry in the 70s when the two teams combined to win six Super Bowls, four by the Steelers and two by the Cowboys, who also lost two exciting Supers Bowls to the Steelers that decided team of the decade honors. The Cowboys also lost a Super Bowl to the Baltimore Colts in that decade.

The Steelers and Cowboys played a third Super Bowl in 1995 with the Cowboys winning. The Cowboys haven’t been to the Super Bowl since. The Steelers have won two Super Bowls since, the last one at the end of the 2008 season, but neither team looks like a contender this year.

–The Chiefs will attempt to boost their record to 5-0 with a victory over the Saints Monday night. The Chiefs keep battling injuries with Rashee Rice on IR and every game they play is close but they manage to find a way to win. Minnesota also tries to boost its record to 5-0 with a Sunday morning victory over the Jets in London on the NFL Network. The game starts at 9:30 am in New York and 8:30 am in Minnesota.

–CBS has three early games and two of them — Buffalo at Houston and Baltimore at Cincinnati — figure to be interesting and will get wide reviewing audiences. All four teams are playoff contenders. The Bills and Texans are both 3-1 while the Ravens are 2-2 and the Bengals 1-3. The third game — Indianapolis at Jacksonville — will basically be shown in the markets of the two teams. Indianapolis hasn’t won in Jacksonville since 2014.  The Jaguars are the only winless team in the league but are three point favorites over the Colts.

–The CBS late feature game pits the Packers at the Rams. The other late game is the Giants at Seattle. Neither is particularly compelling.

–Fox has a single game Sunday with three early games — Cleveland at Washington, Carolina at Chicago and Miami at New England and two late games — Arizona at San Francisco and Las Vegas at Denver. 

–The byes start this week so there are 14 instead of 16 games. The first four teams to get buys are Detroit, Chargers, Eagles and Titans.

—The Kansas City Chiefs continue to walk a tightrope in their bid for a threepeat. The edged the Chargers, 17-10, to boost their record to 4-0 but Rashee Rice was injured. Since they already lost Hollywood Brown for the season, their receiving corps is depleted. But they keep keep finding ways to win. It helps they have a strong defense that blanked the Chargers the last three quarters.Sam Darnold led the Vikings to the victory over Green Bay to boost their record to 4-0. Chiefs and Vikings only two unbeaten teams in the league. 

–The Jaguars at 0-4 are only winless team after the Titans beat Miami. With two 4-0 teams and one 0-4 team, the other 29 teams are bunchedbetween 3-1 and 1-3.

–The Baltimore Ravens are only 2-2, but they may be as good as any team in the AFC after thrashing the Bills , 35-10,  as Derrick Henry ran for 199 yards. 

Jayden Daniels looks like the best rookie in this year’s class. He threw for 233 yards and to touochown as the Commanders routed the Cardinals 42-14 and are leading the NFC East 3-1.

–Baker Mayfield led the Bucs to a 33-16 win over the disappointing Eagles and the Bucs now lead the NFC South at 3-1. He also said his comments about Tom Brady stressing out the players was taken out of context.

–The Detrioit lions completed all 19 passes to hand Seattle its first loss. Jared Goff completed his 18^th passes and caught  the 19fh for a touchdown. .Both teams are 3-1 after Lions won, 42-29.

—The weekend started started with the Cowboys beating the Giants Thursday night to even their record at 2-2. The ,Giants are now desperate at 1-3.

—There will be three more prime time games starting with the Bills at the Ravens Sunday night. the Bills are going for a 4-0 start when the ravens need a win to avoid falling to 1-3.

—There will be a doubleheader Monday night for the second straight week. Tennessee is trying to avoid an 0-4 start at Miami which hopes to get to 2-2 with Tyler Huntley at quarterback.

—The second game Monday night pits Seattle going for a 4-o start  at Detroit which aims for a 3-1 start.

—The doubleheader Sunday feature late game is Kansas City going for a 4-0 start at the chargers. Patrick mahomes should have an edge because ailing Justin Herbert only lasted a half last week.

Five teams – the Chiefs, Bills, Vikings, Steelers and Seahawks – are 3-0 after the first three weeks of the season. Only three teams, Titans, Bengals and Jaguars, are off to 0-3 starts. That means 24 teams are 2-1 and 1-2. Counting the five 3-0 teams, 29 teams are still very much alive in the playoff race. Since onlyone  0-3 team since 2000 has made the playoffs, the odds are against them.

–The Green Bay Packers are an example of how the league is featuring more running this year as The ackers have run for 612 yards and are only the fifth team since 1990 to rush for over 600 yards in the first three games. On top of that, Malik Willis stepped in when Jordan Love was injured and became the fifth quarterback to have a 120 rating or above in his first two games with a new team. With the Packers and Lions at 2-1 and the Vikings at 3-0, the NFC North could have three teams in the playoffs.

–Carolina benching Bryce Young for Andy Dalton was a one game success as Dalton led the Panthers to the win over the Raiders.. But the Panthers declined trade offers for Young so they may not be ready to give up on him. The bigger question is how owner David Tepper is going to run the organization going forward. He has tended to be too impulsive in making decisions.

–Damar Hamlin did not get the comeback of the year award last year after he came back from virtually dying on the field in 2022. But he now is starting at safety and intercepted the first pass of his career when the Bills routed the Jaguars. Granted, Trevor Lawrence overthrew the pass but it was still a feel good moment for the season.

–The New York Giants let Saquan Barkley leave in free agency and the Eagles snapped him up. Barkley has made a difference to the Eagles as he rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns in a victory over the Saints. In his first three games with the Eagles, he has an NFL best 351 yards rushing. And he has scored five touchdowns with a pair of two point conversions for 34 points.  And he has caught 10 passes, one for a touchdown. Barkley may play a big role to help the Eagles win their division.

—Bryce Young became the first quarterback to be benched without an injury being involved as the Panthers are sitting him down for veteran Andy Dalton. But the benching probably says more about how dysfunctional the Panthers are than about his play. The problem starts at the top with owner David Tepper. Dalton probably won’t make much of a difference as long as Tepper is running the show.

–The Dolphins placed Tua Tagovailoa on the four week injured reserve list as part of the concussion protocol. He is eligible to return in Week 8 and it looks like will play if he is cleared by then because he has shown no interest in retiring. Skylar Thompson will start while Tua is sidelined.

–Justin Fields is keeping Rusell Wilson on the bench with a 2-0 start in Pittsburgh but the defense has had more of an impact than Fields so far.

–Malik Willis stepped in for injured Jordan Love as helped the Packers beat the Colts. It is uncertain how long Love will be sidelined.

–The three rookie starters, Caleb Williams. Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix, are 1-5 as starters with Daniels getting the only victory Sunday when the Commanders got seven field goals to beat the Giants.

–Patrick Mahomes, Fields, Justin Herbert, C.J, Stroud, Geno Smith, Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen are all off to 2-0 starts. Darnold faces Stroud and Herbert, if he recovers from an ankle injury, will face Fields in the two possible matchups of quarterbacks off to a 2-0 start. The 0-2 quarterbacks are Lamar Jackson, Burrow, Nix, Williams, Will Levis, Anthony Richardson, Trevor Lawrence, Daniel Jones, Matthew Stafford, and Young. In the only battle of 0-2 quarterbacks, Williams faces Richardson.