VITO'S VIEWS

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.

Not a great weekend for national TV attractions.

The Thursday night game was a rout with the Packers clobbering an injury-riddled San Francisco team, 34-17.

The Monday night game is the winless Jets against the struggling Patriots.

And the Sunday doubleheader game is rich in tradition – Pittsburgh vs. Dallas – because they’ve played each other three times in the Super Bowl. But with the Steelers unbeaten and the Cowboys struggling, it doesn’t look like a good matchup.

Fortunately, the Sunday night game –New Orleans at Tampa Bay – should be a good one featuring two aging quarterbacks – Tom Brady and Drew Brees – although Brees probably won’t be 100 percent.

—One of the better games — 6-1 Seattle at 6-2 Buffalo — will be a 1 p.m. Sunday game. The Seahawks probably have the edge with Russell Wilson having an MVP season. The Seahawks are the only NFC team with fewer than two losses so they have the inside track on the top seed.

Another good 1 p.m. game features the 5-3 Bears at the 5-2 Titans. The key to this game is which Nick Foles will show up. He’s been very inconsistent since getting the Bears starting job. He shows flashes of being the Super Bowl Foles at times but also reverts to his journeyman status at times.

The third good 1 p.m. games features two 5-2 teams – Ravens and Colts. The Ravens are already two games behind the Steelers in the loss column in their division and can’t afford another loss while the Colts are tied with the Titans for first place in the AFC South. There’s a lot at stake in this game.

—The 7-1 Chiefs, still trying to beat out unbeaten Pittsburgh for the top seed in the AFC, figures to beat an NFC foe – the 3-5 Panthers.

—The 5-2 Cardinals are a game behind Seattle in the NFC West and can’t afford to stumble against 4-3 Miami. Tua Tagovailoa made his first start last week for Miami against the Rams and looked shaky but the Dolphins pulled it out with big plays on defense and special teams. Tagovailoa has to play better if the Dolphins have a chance to upset the Cardinals.

—And then there’s the 3-4 Broncos vs. the 2-6 Falcons, the 3-4 Lions at the 2-5 Vikings, the 1-6 Texans vs. the 1-6 Jaguars, the 1-7 Giants vs. the 2-5 Redskins, and the 2-5 Patriots at the 0-8 Jets. Enough said about those games. A lot of bad games this weekend.