Is there anything more indicative of NFL parity than the NFC East right now? Here’s a division that many have pegged as one of the league’s most competitive, with the determined Eagles, a Cowboys team ready to prove they can be elite, a revitalized Giants, and a healthy Commander. It’s been five weeks of a dismal group of teams in the league.
The Giants are in first, mostly by default. They play decent football, sure — but no one believes this team really has a chance without Jaxson Dart and Brian Burns. The team has more or less floundered, benefiting more from teams that are worse than them, rather than doing anything spectacular in their own right. Sunday is indicative of that, as facing the Commanders is the Giants’ type of game must dominate to make anyone confident in their ability to advance.
Then there are the Eagles, who are still in contention, somehow. Losing three straight games, riddled with injuries, and with a Hall of Famer offensive lineman retiring, Philadelphia is coming to the faucet in a world where every week their coach Nick Sirianni stands at the podium and admits he did something critical to cause the team to lose. The Eagles became the first team in NFL history to lose back-to-back games with a 97% or higher probability of winning the fourth quarter. Arguably the most disappointing team in the NFL based on their preseason prediction, Philly sits at 2-3 and is primed to fire their head coach.
Maybe the Cowboys can be the team to put it all together? Just kidding, they found a way to lose to the 0-4 Buccaneers on Thursday night football, raising questions about the team’s construction. Maybe they have the wrong head coach, maybe they don’t have enough QBs to get the job done, and they don’t have enough cap space to get better. Meanwhile, the man they fired, head coach Mike McCarthy, is competing with the Steelers on a more troubled roster than the one he left as a 12-5 coach in Dallas.
Washington Commanders also exist.
Overall, the NFC East is a combined 8-10-2. Not the worst division on paper but it owns some of the most embarrassing losses in the NFL right now. Their collective schedules get tougher from here, and we could easily see three coaches fired from the East before the end of the season — unless there’s some dramatic improvement. This shouldn’t happen in the NFC East. Basically, it’s one of the league’s best conferences, home to some of the richest rivalries, and has more trash talk than most of football combined. Instead of talking trash to each other, these teams can just point out how trashy they’ve been.
Sad situation.
And now to the other winners and losers of the week…
Winner: The rise of the Patriots
It’s easy to fall prey to early-season doubt when it comes to New England, but now they’re roaring back. The Pats’ blowout loss to the Jaguars in Week 3 ignited a fire under them, which continued back-to-back weeks with big wins against the Bills, and now the Raiders — who have been extremely competitive this season.
The nexus is Drake Maye, who has been a different quarterback in each of the last two weeks. He has regained his confidence under center, despite the fact that the protection is still pretty terrible. There is only one level of consistency and comfort with the pressure changed. Maye is standing tall in the pocket and taking hits, and getting more faith in his receivers to make plays – instead of trying to force himself.
That was abundantly clear against the Raiders, as he was under pressure most of the afternoon, sacked once, six times, and pressured 12 times in total – but it didn’t feel like it. Maye carved up Las Vegas, finishing with 357 yards and four touchdowns in a perfect game.
It’s hard to know what’s next for the Patriots, but at least they’ve shown they can hang with the NFL’s best and win. That’s several orders of magnitude better than they looked after three weeks.
This whole situation in Tennessee is not working. The main problem with Cam Ward as the No. 1 pick he really needed time to adjust to the NFL game, but the Titans forced him to start right away, and it blew up in their faces. At no point Sunday did it look like Ward could be an NFL quarterback, and while he was playing a tough Texans defense, he didn’t look like he would succeed.
It’s very clear what needs to happen in Nashville: Cam Ward needs to be benched. there is zero shame on you for being benched in your second year, just ask Bryce Young. Tennessee has nothing good waiting in the wings, and turning the ball over to Mitchell Trubisky would be treading water — but Carolina is in the same position by putting Andy Dalton in to give Young room to learn the position, accept failure, and bounce back.
When we get to the brass tacks it’s pretty simple really. If Ward can sit, learn, study, and bounce back — then he’s the man. If he can’t handle being benched, he will never be the player the Titans needed in the first place. The biggest concern watching him is a complete lack of awareness when it comes to the pass rush, and when paired with less-than-stellar blocking there are major issues.
I want Cam Ward to succeed. The only way is to bench him and see what happens next.
Winner: The 49ers … again
Is San Francisco the Super Bowl favorite at this point? It feels really good. No matter what is thrown at this team, they just keep finding ways to win. Sunday was far from their most dominant performance of the year offensively, clearly struggling against a diverse, creative Seahawks defense — but this team is restless.
No team in the NFL is better at adapting on the fly than the Niners. Kyle Shanahan is gifted at feeling out the nuances of a game, and changes his plan to target what the game gives him, rather than what was planned for the entire week. Sometimes it comes together, and the 49ers look dominant, but when they get stuffed early, it becomes a lot of fun to see how Shanny and Co. can find a way.
There’s just something different about this team.
Loss: LeSean McCoy celebrated early
This is one of the worst community records imaginable.