The Good, The Bad, and The Weird
We've already noted that this season the league has sorted itself into haves and have nots relatively early in the process. Many teams have been almost preordained a spot in the playoffs and many never had a chance of getting there. Right now, though, let's take a moment to celebrate the handful of truly strange, almost inexplicable performances.
ATL (6-6): Weirdness is nothing new for the Falcons, of course, but they seem to be writing a new chapter this year. Possessors of a decent defense, in the offseason ATL pushed a large pile of chips to the center of the table to obtain Kirk Cousins to generate some offense. While 'ol Kirk did lead a brilliant two-minute drive to beat PHI early in the year, he has been less productive of late. That decline reached a new low at home on Sunday vs. LAC, where the Falcs managed just 13 points and Kirk was picked off four times in a 17-13 loss. Still, ATL is 6-6 and holds the division tiebreaker over TB, an only-slightly less strange team.
CHI (4-8): A team has never so repeatedly self-destructed on national TV as much as the Bears.
The entire NFC West: Favorite SF gets bit hard by the injury bug. So does second choice LAR. AZ, despite losing in MIN Sunday, looks competent and executes well. But the division leader at the moment is SEA, arguably the division's least talented team, led by the somehow revived Geno Smith.
HOU (8-5): A preseason darling of the NFL chattering class, and the worst 8-5 team I've ever seen.
CLE (3-9): Monday night against DEN captured it all.
CIN (4-8): The best offense coupled with worst defense makes for the NFL's weirdest team. The dichotomy between the two units is beginning to attract national attention. Too bad for Joe Burrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment