VITO'S VIEWS

This was the weekend for the 1972 Dolphins to toast their perfect season. The last two unbeaten  teams, the Eagles and Bills, both lost so this will be the 53rd season in  a row  there will be no unbeaten teams. The Dolphins like to claim they are the only unbeaten team in NFL history but the NFL now counts AAFC records and Paul Browns Cleveland Browns had a perfect  season in 1948.

–There are now six teams tied at 4-1, so there is no dominant  team now. The Bills lost to the Patriots and the Eagles lost to the Broncos and fell to 4-1. The Colts beat the  Raiders, the Lions beat the Bengals, the  Jaguars beat the Chiefs and the 49ers beat  the Rams as they all went to 4-1. The Steelers had a bye and remained 3-1.

–There is only one winless 0-5 team, the Jets, who lost to the Cowboys, plus seven 1-4 teams  So basically eight are longshots to make  the playoff and the other 24 teams are  bunched between one and three losses fighting for 14 playoff spots. The most surprising 1-4 team is Baltimore,  which has suffered a rash of injuries.

 –The most talked about  play of the week came  when the Titans appeared to fall behind the Cardinals 28-6 when Emari Demercado dropped the ball on the goal as he was about to score on a 72-yard run. Coach Jonathan Gannon was so irate that he got in the player’s face and appeared to brush him. He apologized the next day.  The Cardinals wound up  losing 22-21.

–A lot of  questions are being raised about the Chiefs after they fell to 2-3 with the  loss to the  Jaguars. Is their dynasty over? Are they just complacent? Can they still make the playoffs?.  We will get more answers when they play the Lions and Bills the next two weeks.

–With the byes starting this week, there will be 14 games with Atlanta, Chicago, Green Bay  and  Pittsburgh getting the byes.  That means the league will have two national games that aren’t good attractions. Minnesota figures to beat  Cleveland in London, a game that will start  at 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast on NFL Network. And Buffalo figures to remain unbeaten on Sunday night with a win over New England.

–But the other  two prime  time games figure to be interesting. San Francisco and the Rams, tied at 3-1 with Seattle in the NFC West, will meet Thursday  night. Seattle hosts 3-1 Tampa Bay  in a CBS  late Sunday game that won’t get much coverage.

–The  other prime time game features 2-2 Kansas City  at surprising 3-1  Jacksonville, which leads the league  with 13 turnovers on Monday. Indianapolis, tied with the Jaguars, hosts Las Vegas in a Fox early game. 

–The Fox doubleheader Sunday game shown too much of the country will feature 2-2 Washington at the 3-1 Chargers.

–And then there were two. After four weeks,  there are just two unbeaten teams left  — Philadelphia and Buffalo at 4-0. The Eagles built up a 31-20 lead after three quarters and beat the Bucs, 31-25. The Bills beat the winless Saints, 31-19. The Eagles and Bills meet in the second  to the last game of the regular season on Dec. 28 in Philadelphia. 

–The Detroit Lions took over first place in the NFC North by beating the Browns, 34-10, to go to 3-1. Green Bay fell to second at 2-1-1 with a wild 40-40 overtime tie with Dallas on a field goal on the final play.

–Indianapolis lost to the Rams, 27-20, to fall into a first place  tie in the AFC South  at 3-1 with Jacksonville, which upset the the 49ers, 26-21. The Jaguars had four turnovers and lead the league with 13.

–The San Diego Chargers lost their first game to the Giants. 21-18, but still lead the  AFC West at 3-1. Kansas City and Denver  both  won and are tied for second at 2-2. 

–The Pittsburgh Steelers beat Minnesota in Dublin to take over first place in the AFC North  at 3-1. Cincinnati lost its second straight  without  Joe Burrow with  a 28-3  loss  to Denver and is 2-2.  

—The  International games start this Sunday with Minnesota facing Pittsburgh at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on the NFL Network from Dublin. The Steelers like to play in Dublin because the Rooney family has its roots there. Both teams are 2-1, and Carson Wentz will start in place of  J.J. McCarthy, who has a high ankle sprain. Aaron Rodgers remains the Steelers starter.

–The premier game of the  weekend is the CBS doubleheader game with Baltimore at Kansas City. Both are at 1-2 and desperate for a win. Baltimore has to protect Lamar  Jackson, who was sacked seven times Monday night  by the  Lions.

–The four night games are Seattle at Atlanta Thursday night, Green Bay at Dallas on Sunday night, and a Monday doubleheader of Jets at Miami and Cincinnati at Denver. The Packers and Cowboys have a lot of history and tradition with each other, and they will show Ice Bowl clips, but Green Bay should win easily and none of the games are all that compelling.

–One of the best games pits two 3-0 teams with the Eagles at Tampa Bay, but it is one of three FOX 1 p.m. games so it won’t get national coverage. The big challenge for the Eagles will  be dealing with steamy heat, so they will arrive early, but the key  for them is to hydrate all week long.

–Indianapolis, a surprising 3-0 team, gets its biggest test yet yet when they go to Los Angeles to meet the 2-1 Rams, who lost to the Eagles on a blocked field goal on the final play after the Rams couldn’t hold a 26-7 lead.

–Sunday was the kind of “Any Given Sunday” that helped the NFL become what it is today: Five games were decided on the final play.

The most dramatic was Philadelphia coming back from a 26-7 deficit to take a 27-26 lead only to have the Rams line up to try a game-winning field goal but the  Eagles blocked it and scored to seal the win and are one of six 3-0  teams. Often called a boring team  because of their run-oriented offense. they showed they can come from behind with Jalen Hurts at quarterback.

–Tampa  Bay and San Francisco also boosted their records to 3-0 with last-play victories over the Jets and Cardinals, but the 49ers lost Nick  Bosa for the season and backup quarterback Mac Jones is day to day with a knee injury so Brock Purdy may return against the Jaguars.

–Green Bay suffered its first loss on the final play against the Browns after the Browns overcame a 10-0 deficit and blocked a Packers field-goal attempt to set up their own game-winning field goal.

–Two surprising teams, the Colts and Jaguars, seem set for a battle for the AFC South title after the Colts beat the Titans and Jaguars beat the Texans. The Colts and Jaguars are 3-0 and 2-1, while the Texans and Titans are 0-3. 

–The Ravens fell to 1-2 after a Monday night loss to the Lions, who have won two in a row after an opening-game loss to Green Bay. Lamar Jackson was sacked seven times, and the Ravens may not be as good as they were thought to be this year.

When Liam Coen was named the head coach of the Jaguars, he had three main priorities to improve the offense,

They were establishing a good running game, improving the line to help the running game and protect the quarterback.

Two  games is a small sample size, but Coen appears to have accomplished two of the goals. They lead the league in rushing and, according to analyst Warren Sharp, they are seventh in the league in protecting quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

But the passing game is a work in progress. Lawrence makes  too many errant throws and the receivers either drop too many passes or don’t run routes well. Sharp said a third of his incompletions are due to receiver error.

According to Sharp, the receivers drop 11 percent of his passes, which is most in the league, and 21 percent of the drops are in the red zone. The result is that Lawrence is completing slightly less than 59 percent of his passes overall.

And it is not like Coen is asking for big throws. He likes the short passing game, and 32 percent of the throws are behind or at the line of scrimmage.

Also, while Travis Hunter has proved he can play two positions, former receiver Steve  Smith Sr. says Hunter must learn to run better routes. And Brian Thomas Jr. has yet to show the form he did as a rookie and sometimes acts as if he is wary to get hit.

With a critical division game coming  up Sunday against Houston, it’s time for the Jaguars to get their passing game rolling. A victory would put the Jaguars at 2-1 and the Texans at 0-3. The Colts will be 3-0 if they beat the Titans.

But the  Jaguars have to upgrade their passing game to beat the Texans.

The feature game of the week is Detroit at Baltimore on Monday night. Both teams are 1-1 with Detroit losing their opener to Green Bay and Baltimore losing its opener to the Bills.  The Ravens have won the last five meetings with the Lions last victory in 2005. The Ravens are favored by 2.5 points. Last year, they both won their division titles with Lions at 15-2 and the Ravens at 11-5. Both lost in playoffs, Detroit to Washington and the Ravens to the Bills. The loser drops to 1-2 so it is critical for both teams.

–The other two prime time games don’t figure to be good attractions with the 2-0 Billls likely to rout 0-2 Miami Thursday night, and the Chiefs figure to get their first win against the 0-2 Giants.

–Fox has two 4:25 p.m. games with the Cardinals a one-point choice over the 49ers, who will have  Mac  Jones making his second start over injured Brock Purdy. Both are 2-0. The 1-1 Cowboys are a slight favorite over the winless Bears.

–The defending champion Eagles host the Rams with the winner going to 3-0. Jalen Hurts has yet to throw a touchdown pass in the victories over Dallas and Kansas City, but they still win. It will be interesting to see if they can do the “tush push: without jumping offsides.

–The surprising Colts with Daniel Jones at quarterback are favored to go to 3-0 when they play the winless Titans. If the winless Texans beat the Jaguars, they will both be 1-2, and the Colts could have a two-game lead in  the  division.  

–Just seven months ago, the Kansas City Chiefs were a game away from becoming the first team of the Super Bowl era to threepeat. Instead, they were routed by the Eagles, 40-22 in the Super Bowl. Now after losing to the Eagles in the rematch, 20-17, the Chiefs are off to an 0-2 start for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era and facing questions about whether they’re in a rebuilding stage. Mahomes doesn’t have enough weapons, and Travis Kelce suddenly seems near the end. A pass went off his hands at the goal line and turned into an interception that was the turning point in the game, although Mahomes said he could have made a better pass and it appeared to be tipped. Meanwhile, the defending champion Eagles are 2-0 in their quest for a repeat. The Eagles weren’t particularly impressive, but they find ways to win and their “tush push” keeps drives alive, although there may be another attempt to ban it after the officials failed to call the Eagles for being offsides on the play once Sunday. Coach Nick Sirianni said to the naked eye it might not be as obvious they were offsides as in slow motion, but they have to clean up the play. 

–The Bengals beat the Jags 31-27 but probably lost their season when Joe Burrow suffered a turf toe injury and will undergo surgery for ligament damage that will sideline him three months, if not the entire season. Backup Jake Browning led the Bengals to a victory over the Jaguars for the second time in three years but is unlikely to take them to the playoffs, so the Burrow injury may open the door for another team in the AFC to make the playoffs. Burrow’s injury also raised questions about whether the Bengals need to do a better job of getting him a good offensive line so he doesn’t become another Andrew Luck. 

–The Colts are a surprise team with a 2-0 start with Daniel Jones at quarterback after the Broncos tried to block a 60-yard field goal attempt at the end and were called for leverage. The Colts then kicked a 46-yard field goal to win the game. The Broncos probably shouldn’t have attempted to block the long kick. Even coach Sean Payton said it was a mistake not to go into their usual  field-goal formation because it was such a long kick instead of the one that they use to try to block game-winning field goals, and it resulted in the leverage penalty. Payton admitted the officials made the right call.

–The NFC West is the only team with three teams at 2-0 as the 49ers beat the beat the Saints 26-21 with Mac Jones replacing the injured Brock Purdy, while the Rams beat the Titans 33-20, and the Cardinals beat the Panthers, 27-22. It should be a good division race. All four teams play the four AFC South teams. 

–The Lions bounced back from the opening loss to Green Bay to spoil Ben Johnson’s homecoming and beat the Bears, 52-21. The Bears are off to an 0-2 start under Johnson, one of nine teams at 0-2. The odds are against them making the playoffs. Only 32 0-2 teams since 1990 made the playoffs.  

The best game of the week and maybe the season is the Fox doubleheader game Sunday in a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl with Philadelphia at Kansas City. The league often doesn’t get a rematch because teams only play four interconference games a year. The league would prefer this game in prime time but Fox and CBS are allowed to protect a few games this year so Fox probably protected it. It is the only Fox late game so it will be a truly national game. Kansas City has a lot of incentive because they lost the Super Bowl and lost the opener last week to the Chargers so the Chiefs want to avoid an 0-2 start. Philadelphia is fortunate Jalen Carter wasn’t suspended for spitting at the start of the Dallas game last week. The key for the Chiefs is their offensive line protecting Patrick Mahomes better than they did in the Super Bowl.

–The weekend starts with the Washington at Green Bay Thursday night. Both teams won their openers. The teams didn’t play last year so this will be Jayden Daniels first game against the Packers.  The Packers have a new defensive weapon in Micah Parsons, who had a sack and three pressures in limited duty in his first game against the Lion last week.

–The Sunday night game pits Tampa Bay at Houston. The Texans need a victory to avoid an 0-2 start going into next week’s division game at Jacksonville. The Texans lost their opener at the Rams. Tampa Bay is playing its first two games on the road after winning at Atlanta last week. If the Bucs win this one, they have a good shot at a 3-0 start since they host the Jets next week in their first home game.

–The Monday night game features the Chargers at the Raiders. Both won their openers so both are going for a 2-0 start. A win would put give the Chargers a 2-0 start in the division since they beat the Chiefs in their opener. The Chargers swept the Raiders last year. But the Raiders have a new coach in Pete Carroll after Antonio Pierce was fired after going after going 4-13 last year.

–Indianapolis hosts Denver Sunday as it goes for a 2-0 start after a surprising rout of Miami with Daniel Jones at quarterback. Jones is trying to jump start his career after being a bust with the Giants. He beat out Anthony Richardson in training camp. Denver is also going for a 2-0 start after beating the Titans in their opener.

–The big question is what are the ramifications of the Bills coming back from a 40-25 deficit in the last four minutes to beat the Ravens. The Ravens became the first team to score 40 points and rush for 235 or more yards and lose. Was the victory a springboard to a Super Bowl season for the Bills since their two remaining challenging games are at home against the Chiefs and Eagles. They figure to sweep their six division games Their next five games before the bye are against the Jets, Miami, Saints, Patriots and Falcons. After the bye the non divisional games besides the Chiefs and Eagles are against the Panthers, Bucs, Texans, Steelers and Browns. The table is set for the Bills.

–For the Ravens, the question is how they bounce back from another devastating loss. They have a habit of blowing leads or failing in crunch time in big games. Last year they lost in the playoffs to the Bills when Mark Andrews dropped a two point conversion that would have tied the game. This time they had 40 points with 11:42 left  and didn’t score again. Derrick Henry’s fumble and coach John Harbaugh’s decision to punt the ball back to Josh Allen instead of going for it on 4th and 3 at the Ravens’ 38 with a minute and a half left sealed their fate. It likely means that if they play the Bills in the playoffs, they will have to go to Buffalo again. 

–The Green Bay Packers and the San Diego Chargers turned in two of the biggest victories with the Pack beating Detroit and the Chargers beating the Chiefs. And the Pack got early dividends from the trade for Micah Parsons when he got a sack and three pressures. Now both the Lions and Chiefs are a game back in their divisions. Last year Detroit lost its second game to the Rams and then reeled off 11 wins in a row. The Chiefs won their first nine last year.

–The Eagles got their bid for a repeat off to a good start by beating the Cowboys despite the Jalen Carter ejection for spitting. Now they go to Kansas City for a Super Bowl rematch that will be  good test for them against a Chiefs team that is desperate for a win.

–The Cincinnati Bengals weren’t impressive in their 17-16 victory over the Browns  but they found a way to win after having slow starts in recent years. Even Joe Burrow said they lost those kind of games last year. The Bengals were swept by the Ravens last year and missed the playoffs with a 9-8 record so maybe a fast start (they host the Jaguars next week) will get them in the playoff picture.