VITO'S VIEWS

One dynasty is apparently over and another one may be on the cusp of starting.

The Patriots lost Thursday night to the Rams, a team that was outcoached and overmatched in the recent Super Bowl loss to New England, showed the Patriots’ 45-0 thrashing of the Chargers was a mirage. The Patriots are no longer a contender.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs continue on the road to a repeat. Pittsburgh’s stunning loss to Washington opens the door for the Chiefs to get the top seed.

—The premier game of the week is the Sunday night matchup of the Bills and Steelers. Are the Bills for real? Are the Steelers not as good as their record? This game will tell us a lot.Meanwhile, the Chiefs figure to beat the Dolphins to remain the team to beat in the AFC for a Super Bowl berth.

—The Jets fired defensive coordinator Gregg Williams after his all-out blitz cost them the loss to the Raiders. Now they are four losses away from getting the No. 1 pick and Trevor Lawrence. They visit Seattle in what is likely to be a mismatch.

—Meanwhile, the Jaguars remain a game behind the Jets in the race for the top pick and they figure to lose to the Titans to remain entrenched in the second spot and a chance to pick Justin Fields.
–The Washington football club and Giants are tied for first place in the NFC East at 5-7 and both figure to lose to fall to 5-8. But if they both lose, it keeps the Giants on track to win the division because they have the tie break by virtue of sweeping the Washington team. Washington has the tougher task vs. San Francisco in Arizona. The Giants host the Cardinals.

—The Saints and Packers seem to have the best Super Bowl shot in the NFC and both are on the road. The Saints have the easier game at Philadelphia, which has benched Carson Wentz for Jalen Hurts, while the Packers figure to beat the Lions. The Saints are 10-2 and the Packers at 9-3. It won’t matter if the Saints are looking ahead to next week’s game against the Chiefs. But given New Orleans recent playoff history, nobody will be surprised if they falter again in the playoffs and don’t make the Super Bowl.

There was much chatter after the Steelers became the last unbeaten team to fall that the 1972 Miami Dolphins could celebrate being the only perfect team.

But the 11-0 Steelers, who may have been affected by all their schedule changes because of their opponents being hit by Covid outbreaks, weren’t likely to go unbeaten even if they had beaten 4-7 Washington.

The Steelers aren’t likely to get to the Super Bowl – hard to imagine them beating Kansas City to get there – much less win it.

—Washington’s upset win over the Steelers and the Giants upset win over the Seahawks left both teams tied for first place in the NFC East at 5-7. One of them is likely to host a playoff game with a losing record.

—The New York Jets remained winless and in the lead in the Trevor Lawrence Derby when defensive coordinator Gregg Williams called an all-out blitz in a Hail Mary situation against the Raiders. Rookie Henry Ruggs III ran by cornerback Lamar Jackson and caught the game-winning 46-yard touchdown pass. Williams was then fired. Why the architect of Bountygate in New Orleans was hired in the first place is a bigger question. According to Next Gen Stats, they’re the only team to send eight or more pass rushers in the last 30 seconds of a game.

—The Jets are the 12^th team to start 0-12 and may join the expansion 0-11-1 Dallas Cowboys, the expansion 0-14 Tampa Bay Bucs, the 0-16 2008 Detroit Lions and the 0-16 2017 Cleveland Browns as the only teams to go winless for an entire season since 1944 that was shortened by a strike. The Jets only have to lose to the Seahawks, Rams, Browns and Patriots to get Lawrence.

—The Chiefs tend to play just well enough to win and that is what they did in a 22-16 victory over the Broncos. But they’ve still got a great shot at repeating as long as Patrick Mahomes stays healthy.-“

—Taysom Hill boosted his record to 3-0 filling in for Drew Brees as the Saints beat Atlanta. Last year, Teddy Bridgewater went 5-0 filling in for Brees.

—The Patriots don’t figure to make the playoffs without Tom Brady but they have won their last two games by a 65-17 margin even though they threw for just 195 yards passing in those two games. They routed the Chargers 45-0.

—Cleveland is finally turning it around. They’re 9-3 after beating the Titans with a franchise record 38 points in the first half. They will likely make the playoffs.–Carson Wentz was benched for rookie Jalen Hurts in the Eagles loss to the Packers and Hurts will start against the Saints, making Wentz an expensive backup.

The NFL starts its five-week stretch run to the end of the regular season Sunday as it tries to outrun the virus.

Commissioner Roger Goodell said he has no plans for a leaguewide bubble with all the teams in one spot, but let’s hope he considers putting the playoff teams isolated in a hotel since the virus figures to be raging January with a post-holiday surge.

In the playoffs, the NFL won’t be able to postpone a game three times the way they did with the Pittsburgh-Baltimore game.

—The Steelers are becoming the kings of midweek afternoon TV. They played Wednesday afternoon last week and now will play at 5 p.m. Monday against Washington. This is a shot for Washington, tied for first place in the NFC East with the Giants at 4-7, to pull off an upset. The Steelers are unbeaten at 11-0 but all the changes in their schedule seem to be taking a toll. They didn’t play well against a Baltimore team that was depleted by the virus. The game will be shown to much of the country on Sunday Ticket. It will be shown on Fox in 71 markets in the northeast and part of the Midwest plus Kansas City, Dallas, Tampa Bay and New Orleans. But not in Houston, Indianapolis, Nashville, Charlotte, Atlanta, Jacksonville and Miami. Weird.

—With all the schedule changes, there was no Thursday night game, but there will be a Tuesday night game pitting Dallas at Baltimore, which is still recovering from its Covid outbreak. The Sunday nght game is likely to be a mismatch with Kansas City expected to beat Denver. The Monday night game features Buffalo at San Francisco and is critical for both teams but will be played in Arizona because the 49ers are barred from using their home stadium.

—The doubleheader game Sunday afternoon is a lackluster game featuring Philadelphia at Green Bay, which figures to be a mismatch in favor of Green Bay. The other CBS late game – New England at the Chargers — matches two losing teams but is likely to be a more entertaining game.

—The best early game features Cleveland at Tennessee, which has playoff implications for both teams.

—The best matchup of the day will have Jalen Ramsey of the Rams covering DeAndre Hopkins of the Cardinals. It will be shown in Jacksonville, where Ramsey started his career before becoming disenchanted with the team. He then forced a trade.

The NFL now seems to be winging it without any rhyme or reason.

They forced Denver to play without a quarterback by refusing to move their game with the Saints, but moved the Baltimore-Pittsburgh game three times. l

Things will get worse with Thanksgiving weekend being a super spreader, but the NFL has increased size of the practice squads so they can replace players on the Covid list.

The NFL seems intent on playing all the games and collecting the TV money even if the teams wind up being a 2020 version of the 1987 replacement teams.

—Patrick Mahomes outdueled Tom Brady to lead the Chiefs to the victory over the Bucs. He threw for 462 yards passing and has had at least 30 completions and 300 yards passing in four consecutive games – an NFL record. Tyreek Hill had 203 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter and finished with 269 yards. Brady rallied the Bucs but fell short in a 27-24 loss that raised questions about whether the Bucs are running the first offense for Brady.

—It has been assumed that KC and Pittsburgh will meet in the AFC title game, but the Titans can’t be counted out after they crushed the Colts 45-24. Derrick Henry had 178 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. The Colts couldn’t stop him with run stuffer DeForest Buckner sidelined. In bad weather in the playoffs, they could challenge the Chiefs and/or Steelers with their running game.

—What was the NFL thinking when it made Denver play without a quarterback? Running back Phillip Lindsay started but rookie Kendall Hinton, who came up from the practice squad, took most of the snaps in a 31-3 loss to the Saints. Hinton completed one of 9 passes for 13 yards and was picked twice. But nobody was blaming him. He was placed in an impossible situation. With one completion and two picks, he was the first quarterback to have more interceptions than completions since Ryan Leaf did it in 1998.

—Seattle beat Philadelphia, which was no surprise, but a lot of money changed hands at the end. The Eagles scored a Hail Mary touchdown and a two-point conversion to lose by 6. Since they were 6½ point underdogs, they covered the spread. Imagine having Seattle giving the 6½. There was a report that one bettor did that and put down $500,000 on the Seahawks.

—Minnesota edged Carolina 28-27 as Kirk Cousin threw the game-winning touchdown pass with 46 seconds left, but the star of the game was Carolina linebacker Jeremy Chin. He grabbed a Cousins fumble and went 17 yards for a touchdown and then on the first play of the next series, he helped force a Dalvin Cook fumble and went 30 yards for his second touchdown. He was the first player with multiple fumble returns for touchdowns in a game since 1948. He is also believed to be the only player ever to do it on consecutive plays from scrimmage.

—Aaron Rodgers set another milestone, surpassed the 50,000 yard mark in passing yardage as he threw for four touchdowns in a 41-25 win over the Bears. He has better numbers than Brett Favre in several categories but Favre won the personality and is probably more beloved in the hearts and minds of Packer fans.

—The Giants edged the Bengals 19-17 to tie Washington for first place at 4-7 in the NFC East. Imagine one of those teams will likely host a playoff game. Washington beat Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. The Giants have rebounded after starting their season 0-5 but quarterback Daniel Jones could miss time with a hamstring change.

—The Jets and Jaguars both lost to the Dolphins and Brown to retain the top two spots in the draft next year. The winner probably gets Trevor Lawrence. The Jaguars fired general manager Dave Caldwell after the loss and head coach Doug Marrone is likely to join him on the unemployment line after the season. Adam Gase of the Jets also figures to get the pink slip after the season if not before.

—The Lions fired both GM Bob Quinn and coach Matt Patricia after their Thanksgiving Day loss to Houston. Another coach on the hot seat is Anthony Lynn of San Diego, who is 4-14 over his last 18 games and has been guilty of poor game management several times.

—Will interim coach Raheem Morris get the Atlanta job at the end of the year? After the Falcons routed the Raiders, 43-6, he is 4-2 since taking over for Dan Quinn, who was fired after a 0-5 start.

The NFL may be paying the price for not putting its teams in a quarantine bubble during the season.

The pandemic may make it difficult to finish the season. Problems keep popping up.

The Baltimore-Pittsburgh game has been postponed twice and may or may not be played Tuesday night.

The Broncos have all their quarterbacks sidelined for the Sunday game against the Saints. And San Francisco can’t play in its home stadium for at least the next two home games. It is uncertain where they will play.

And if Thanksgiving turns out to be a superspreader, things could get worse.

—It may be hard to believe that of the seven early games Sunday , only one features two winning teams The Titans and Colts are both 7-3 and battling for the lead in the AFC South.

—Two of them feature two losing teams, but the game between the 3-7 Giants and 2-7-1 Bengals is of interest because a Giant victory would tie them for first place with Washington at 4-7. The division winner may have a losing record anda host a playoff game.

—The other game involving two losing teams is the 4-7 Panthers and 4-6 Vikings. Enough said about that game.

—The other games have a winning team playing a losing team and the most interesting game in that category will have the 6-4 Cardinals playing the 4-6 Patriots. A loss would leave the Patriots at 4-7 and would be the first time in his career as a Patriot coach that Belichick has lost seven games in a season. He is now 19-24 without Tom Brady but he’s a defensive coach and his defense has been shaky. It will face a test stopping Kyler Murray although he’s not 100 percent.

—The 0-10 Jets and 1-9 Jaguars are battling for the first pick in next year’s draft and figure to lose to the Dolphins and Browns. The Jaguars will start their third quarterback Mike Glennon against a Browns team that has a rash of injuries.

—The feature game of the day has the Chiefs at 9-1 taking on Tampa Bay at 7-4.It will likely be the last meeting of the best quarterback of the last two decades (Tom Brady) against the player likely to be the best quarterback for the next decade (Patrick Mahomes). Brady is coming off a shaky showing against the Rams last week and will be attempting to bounce back.

—The plus of a Thursday game is teams get 10 days off afterwards. The minus is that it gives losing teams time to make a coaching change. That is what happened to coach Matt Patricia and GM Bob Quinn after the Lions loss to Houston on Thanksgiving Day. Quinn fired Jim Caldwell after consecutive 9-7 seasons three years ago to hire Patricia, another ex-Patriot. Things got worse for the Lions, who have been spinning their wheels for decades. Now they start over. Again.

—The Saints figured to beat the Broncos anyway but what makes this game interesting is that Denver can’t play any of its quarterbacks. They didn’t wear masks in their meeting room so when one tested positive, they all were put in quarantine. So the Broncos will probably play a running back Royce Freeman or a practice squad wide receiver Kendall Hinton at quarterback. Hinton played quarterback at Wake Forest before switching to wide receiver while Freeman only threw one pass at Oregon. The last time non-quarterback started a game was in 1965 when Tom Matte, who played quarterback at Ohio State, started because the Colts’ receivers were injured.

Since the NFL is a quarterback league, it is probably not surprising that the spotlight – for better or worse — was on the quarterbacks last week.

—Patrick Mahomes had the best moment in the spotlight as he led a game winning drive in the last minute and a half to give the Chiefs a victory over the Raiders, who left Mahomes too much time when they scored the go ahead touchdown with just over 90 seconds left.

—On the other hand, Cincinnati rookie wunderkind Joe Burrow had the worst moment in the spotlight as he suffered a season ending against Washington. The injury raised questions about whether the Bengals had done enough to protect Burrow and whether he made a mistake by not refusing to play for them the way Eli Manning did when he was drafted by San Diego.

—With Burrow out, the Bengals lost to Washington, which had veteran quarterback Alex Smith at the helm. Just two years ago, Smith suffered a season ending leg injury that not only threatened his career but his life. Smith made it all the way back with that victory.

—P.J. Walker got his first start for the Panthers and a lot of help from the defense as the Panthers blanked the Lions. The loss dropped the Lions to 4-6 and raised more questions about the job security of coach Matt Patricia.

—Tayson Hill got his first start in New Orleans in place of injured Drew Brees and Hill made the move by coach Sean Payton look good by leading the Saints to a victory over Atlanta.

—Carson Wentz continued to struggle as the Lions lost to Browns to fall to 3-6-1. That still puts them in first place over three 3-7 teams in the NFC East.

—Bill Belichick and the Patriots continue to miss Tom Brady as they fell to 4-6 with the loss to Houston. Belichick was 5-13 before Drew Bledsoe got hurt in 2001 and Brady took over. He’s 4-6 since Brady left so that adds up to a 9-19 mark. Even if you add in his 10-5 record with Matt Cassel, he is 19-24 without Brady in New England. And offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is also getting roasted. Tough times may be ahead for the Pats.

—Meanwhile, Brady struggled against the Rams, throwing two picks and having problems with the deep ball in the loss to the Rams. Age may finally be catching up with Brady.

This is a critical week for the NFL.

Not on the field, but off the field. Since too many Americans seem to be ignoring the CDC’s recommendation to stay home for Thanksgiving, the holiday is likely to be a super spreader event.

And it could affect the NFL, which has issued new guidelines to try to keep teams from having multiple players testing positive in the near future and having problems fielding a team.

It’s probably time for the NFL to isolate teams in a hotel for the final six weeks of the season, but they seem reluctant to take that move so they are risking having the virus having a major impact on the rest of the season.

–The 8-1 Chiefs face the 6-3 Raiders in the Sunday night feature attraction. The Chiefs-Raiders is an old rivalry although it doesn’t appear to be the same with the Raiders now in Las Vegas. The Raiders handed the Chiefs their only loss of the year but I can’t imagine the Raiders sweeping Patrick Mahomes. In my book, the Chiefs are still favored to repeat and they should stay a game behind the Steelers in the battle for the top seed with a victory.

–The 6-3 Rams vs. the 7-3 Bucs should be a good Monday night matchup. Not so long ago Brady beat the Rams in the Super Bowl although he didn’t play a great game. This year, he’s having trouble hitting deep passes but you have to like Brady over Jared Goff. 

–The 7-2 Packers face the 6-3 Colts in the Fox doubleheader game. The key is whether Aaron Rodgers can put enough points on the board to offset the Packers soft run defense that figures to have problems stopping the Colts running game. This should be one of the better matchups of the weekend.

–The Philadelphia-Cleveland game features a 6-3 vs. a 3-5-1 team. The strange thing is that the 3-5-1 Eagles are leading the NFC East and the 6-3 Browns are three games behind the unbeaten Steelers in the AFC North. Not surprising the Browns are favored but they have injury problems so an Eagle win wouldn’t be a major surprise.

–The 7-2 Saints figure to have an edge on the 3-6 Falcons but with Drew Brees sidelined, the Falcons have a chance. The interesting thing is that coach Sean Payton will go with Taysom Hill over Jameis Winston. Now it is Hill’s chance to show he is as good as Payton thinks he is. How Hill plays will be the most interesting aspect of this game.

–Now that Tom Brady is gone, the Patriots have become more of a running team. They pounded Baltimore on the ground last week and figure to do the same against Houston’s rush defense, the worst in the NFL. A win gets the Patriots to 5-5 and gets them in the wild card race after a 3-5 record in the first half of the season.

–When a team has won only one game, good opposing teams don’t tend to take them seriously. That is what happened to the Packers last week when they barely beat the 1-8 Jaguars. Now it is the unbeaten Steeler turn to see if they overlook the Jaguars, especially since they have the Ravens on Thanksgiving Day. Walterfootball.com reports the Steelers are 4-19 against the spread the last 23 times they were favored by eight or more. The Steeler figure to win, but the only question is whether they will sleepwalk through the game and fail to cover the spread.

–The Titans and Ravens are both 6-3 and both need this game. It is one of the better matchups of the week but is a 1 p.m. game so it won’t get a lot of TV coverage. The Ravens couldn’t stop the Patriots running game last week and now they face Derrick Henry while the Ravens need Lamar Jackson to get in a groove.

–The winless Jets, one game ahead of the Jaguars in the race for the top pick, face the 2-7 Chargers so they would seem to have a shot at a victory. But the Chargers have lost several close games and appear to be better than their record, so the odds are against the Jets getting that first victory.

–DeAndre Hopkins made the play of the year when he jumped high in the air to snatch a game winning Hail Mary pass to give the Cardinals the victory over the Bills. It will be included on all the highlight reels of the top plays of the season. It was a key victory for the Cards that tied them for first place in NFC West at 6-3. The loss left the Bills tied in the loss column with the Dolphins with three in the AFC East.

–Tom Brady bounced back from the loss to the Saints by throwing for 341 yards in the victory over Carolina to keep the Bucs in the race. But it wasn’t just Brady. They also went back to the running game with 37 runs after running just three times against the Saints plus two kneel downs.

–The Baltimore Ravens suffered their first road loss in 11 starts and the timing couldn’t be worse as they were beaten by the Patriots. They are now 6-3 and three games behind the unbeaten Steelers and now will have to fight for a playoff spot. Lamar Jackson was hampered by the rainy conditions but still has to prove he can be an elite quarterback.

–The NFC East is still the NFC Least. The Eagles lost to the Giants but still lead the division at 3-5-1. Not since the 1970 merger has a team been in first place with just three wins at the 10-game mark.

–As Allen Iverson once said, it’s just practice. Ben Roethlisberger didn’t practice last week because of Covid exposure but threw four touchdown passes against the Bengals to keep the Steelers unbeaten.

–The Saints lost Drew Brees for multiple games with multiple rib fractures and a collapsed lung when he suffered a hit from San Francisco lineman Kentavius Street although all the injuries weren’t caused by the hit. Jameis Winston played the second half for the Saints. There was much talk that Brees would retire after this year. These injuries may make it more likely he will.

The Sunday night feature prime time game is Baltimore-New England. Used to be a great rivalry. But the Patriot dynasty is over and the Patriots figure to fall to 3-6 while the Ravens need a victory to go to 7-2. They are like two ships passing in the night.
–Ben Roethlisberger is off the COVID-19 19 list so the Steelers figure to go 9-0 for the first time in the history of the franchise with a victory over Cincinnati. In the Steelers six Super Bowl victory seasons, they never started better than 7-0.
–Tom Brady and the Bucs will attempt to bounce back from last week’s embarrassing loss to New Orleans when they play the 3-6 Panthers. A victory would boost the Bucs to 7-3. Brady wasn’t the only problem last week but even coach Bruce Arians noted he didn’t play well against the Saints.
–Coming off the big victory over the Seahawks, the Bills will attempt to go to 8-2 with a victory over the 5-3 Cardinals.
–The Chargers-Dolphins matchup features a duel between Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa, two rookie quarterbacks. It won’t be the last.
–Seattle needs to bounce back from the loss to Buffalo by beating the 5-3 Rams, who could tie the Seahawks, and possibly, the Cardinals in the NFC West in the loss column with three with a win. A Seattle victory would keep them in control at 7-2. Every team in the NFC has at least two losses so the race is wide open.
–The 3-4-1 Eagles can get to .500 and take a three-game lead in the NFC Least in the loss column with a victory over 2-6 Washington.
–The Saints are tied with the Packers and Seahawks with the best NFC record at 6-2. They figure to go to 7-2 with a victory over the 49ers. That would lead them tied with the Packers and Seahawks, who figure to beat the Jaguars and Rams.

It is now becoming apparent that there isn’t a dominant team in the NFL this year.

In the NFC, no team has lost fewer than two losses. Seattle appeared to be one at first but has lost two of three games and has a shaky defense.

Pittsburgh is the only unbeaten team but struggled to beat the Cowboys. The Chiefs are probably still the team to beat, but their defense is porous. The race to the Super Bowl seems wide open.

—The Seattle loss shows Russell Wilson is no longer the favorite for MVP honors, an honor he has never won. Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers are now in the conversation. So is Dalvin Cook.

—Buffalo is emerging as a contender after the Bills outscored the Seahawks 44-34 following a 2-2 stretch. Now they’re 7-2, their best nine game start since 1993.

—There is now a two team race in the AFC East. After the win over Arizona as Tua Tagovailoa played well in his second start, the Dolphins are now 5-3.–Meanwhile, the Patriots had to rally to beat the winless Jets to get to 3-5 and they no longer appear to be a contender in the post Tom Brady era.

—The 2-6 Chargers lost on the last play of the game for the second week in a row as they lost to the Raiders.

—Tom Brady played his worst game as a Buc as they were routed by the Saints. Where do the Bucs go from here? Stay tuned.

—Brady may be fortunate he never had to play Drew Brees In a Super Bowl. Brees is 4-1 against Brady.–Pittsburgh has won six Super Bowls but has never started out 8-0 before this season.