Division Locked Up

The snow was falling the entire game, but by the way the Buffalo Bills were playing, you would have thought it was a balmy 70 degrees. Nothing is fazing this team and they are the first team to win their division this season. They are keeping pace for home field advantage in the AFC with the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of them by one game. The Bills own the tiebreaker as they are the only team to have beaten the Chiefs so far this season. There was an expectation that the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets would have made it a bit challenging for Buffalo to repeat as division champions for the fifth straight season. Miami and New York have been massive disappointments and we won’t go into the state of the New England Patriots. Buffalo will make some noise in the playoffs once again, but I believe they’ll need home field advantage to punch a ticket into the Super Bowl.

Concerns At Quarterback Now

The Atlanta Falcons returned from their bye week playing at home against the Los Angeles Chargers. Not a gimme game by any means, but one that the Falcons had an extra week to prepare for. What they didn’t expect to happen is that QB Kirk Cousins would throw four interceptions and look worse than he did in his first start as a Falcon during Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. One of his interceptions was on a zip line directly to the defender and had no chance of the ball making it to the intended receiver. This is now the third consecutive loss for Atlanta and they are currently tied with Tampa Bay for the division lead. Atlanta holds the tiebreaker against the Buccaneers, but that won’t matter if the Falcons have more losses than Tampa Bay. Atlanta’s next game is on the road against Minnesota. After that they play Las Vegas, the New York Giants, Washington and Carolina. Not the most difficult schedule by any stretch, but Kirk Cousins cannot have anymore four interception games.

The Perfect Example Of Mediocrity

Another head coach has been fired in the middle of the season. This one takes the cake as a had to happen moment for the Chicago Bears after that debacle of a game against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day. Their now former head coach Matt Eberflus can take that final timeout he held onto at the end of the game with him to his next destination. He’ll likely never be a head coach again in the NFL, but he can do with it as he wishes. They were trending in the right direction with a 4-2 record going into their bye week. It all came crashing down due to the Hail Mary they allowed to the Washington Commanders. That was the start of their current 6-game losing streak. The offense combined to score 12 points in their next two games and then lost back-to-back games to Green Bay and Minnesota at home. This last loss forced ownerships hand as Eberflus defended their final play on Thanksgiving Day in which they refused to call a timeout and let the clock run out with QB Caleb Williams throwing an errant pass towards the end zone. Everyone deserves blame for how that whole sequence played out. However, the head coach has to have the awareness to say, ‘timeout’ and get his team reset to get it right. He essentially said, ‘nah, it’ll be fine’ and the results are what we saw. He only won 14 games in a little over two and a half seasons as Chicago’s head coach. He makes the days of Dave Wannstedt look competent. Their fan base will continue to long for the days of Mike Ditka roaming the sidelines. And depending on who they hire next, they might still be longing for the days of QB Sid Luckman who won four championships for them in the 1940s. This doesn’t mean that I’m throwing in the towel on Caleb Williams, but he has to make some serious adjustments with his pocket presence and getting the ball out early and often if he wants to make an impact in the NFL. Cue up the ‘Da Bears’ SNL sketch if you want to put a smile on your face if you’re a Bears fan.