Each week of the NFL season brings a host of new questions… and answers some old ones, too. Let’s recap what we learned in week 10… and what we’ll be wondering about in week 11 and beyond.
ASKED: Does Kyler Murray get it?
One of the real surprises at the midway point of this season is the way the Arizona Cardinals find themselves, while every other NFC West team is lost. At 6-4 heading into their bye week, the Cardinals lead the division and are in position to make just their second postseason in the past nine seasons. It all starts with Murray shaking off all the criticism that has been built up against him in the first five years of his career: too small, too erratic, too injury-prone, too focused on video games instead of the football field. Murray dissected the Jets 31-6 on Sunday, a feat that is more difficult than it seems given the Jets’ own reputation these days.
What else does he do? Murray handles pressure phenomenally well, the open man believes – at one point on Sunday he completed 17 consecutive passes – and he makes the right decisions time and time again. Murray completed 22 of 24 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown on Sunday, and his unpredictability on the ground led to two more rushing touchdowns. Add that to the fact that Arizona now has some serious weapons both in the backfield and in open space, and you’re looking at a Cardinals team that will give someone a headache in January – and this year it’s not their own fans.
ANSWER: Something special is happening in Pittsburgh
So yeah, all those hot stories about how the Steelers should keep Russell Wilson on the bench and continue to ride Justin Fields this season? You don’t hear that very often these days, do you? Wilson proved why Mike Tomlin had so much faith in him, and Tomlin proved why he is among the elite minds in the game today. The Commanders may be a pound-for-pound more talented team than the Steelers, but Pittsburgh played chess against Washington’s checkers on Sunday and came away with the win.
Wilson is technically only in Week 3 of his season, so there’s reason to wonder if he’ll remain as sharp in the postseason. It’s also fair to wonder how far he can take Pittsburgh, as he’ll be facing much more explosive offenses at the top of the AFC. But here’s something interesting: Pittsburgh hasn’t faced a divisional foe yet. Six of the final eight games will be against AFC North opponents, so we’ll find out very quickly just how legitimate the Steelers are.
QUESTION: Time to blow everything up in Chicago?
This might even qualify as an “Answered” instead of a “Asked” – we know change is coming to Chicago, the only question is how deep that change will go. Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson might as well go ahead and start mapping Zillow listings in Chicago neighborhoods. After another embarrassing loss – this time a 19-3 Patriots win – the Bears need to shine a bright light not only on the sidelines, but in the front office as well. General Manager Ryan Poles received a lot of well-deserved praise for getting the Panthers the No. 1 overall pick that became Caleb Williams…team All-Pro since), trading a second-rounder for Chase Claypool (who had 18 receptions, 191 yards and 1 TD produced before being traded away for a sixth-round pick) and most importantly didn’t do enough to amplify the Bears’ very real problems up and down the roster. (For example: an offensive line that allowed nine sacks on Sunday.)
Also a problem: Williams is in first place in the general classification. It’s likely that the Poles will jettison Eberflus and bring in a smart attacking mind to see what Williams can do… but if that doesn’t work, the fury of Bears fans will spread from the field to all corners of the spread organization.
ANSWERED: The Chargers are the best team you don’t watch
It’s one of the most baffling elements of this NFL season that the coach who captured the sports world’s attention last year while at Michigan is virtually anonymous in Los Angeles this year. Granted, there are reasons why Jim Harbaugh’s profile is so much lower these days — for starters, he coaches the Chargers, the NFL’s equivalent of a witness protection program, and he’s also not facing sign-stealing charges. So he’s free to be the gloriously weird, brilliant coaching mind he’s always been, and the results are clear. The Chargers won their sixth game of the year on Sunday, a year after winning just five all season.
He has created a tough, smart and inventive team – in other words, he has reinvented the Chargers in his own image. Granted, the Chargers fattened up bad teams, but you play the schedule in front of you. Further down are the Ravens, Falcons and Chiefs, and that will provide a much better barometer of how good this team is this season. So far, though, the Chargers are so in line with the Harbaugh ethos that they might as well start wearing khaki pants on the field.
QUESTION: What do the Giants do with Daniel Jones?
Under most circumstances, this would be the time of year where we’d completely forget about the Giants for the rest of the season. But if you can manage to wrest the title of “Worst Team in the NFL” from its reigning holder, then that’s worth some attention. The Giants exposed their entire backline to Germany on Sunday and lost in overtime to the Carolina Panthers. Two red zone interceptions dashed the Giants’ hopes, and Jones’ continued inability to find open receivers reared its ugly head again on Sunday. Jones finished the day with just 190 yards and no touchdowns at all.
But maybe everyone is too hard on Jones. Maybe he just needs the right system around him. For example, look at what happens when he has time to create:
…Yes. It’s time to think about a post-Jones era.
ANSWER: You can’t trust the Falcons yet
If you’ve been a fan of the Atlanta Falcons for a while, you know that their biggest enemy isn’t the Saints or the Bucs, it’s prosperity. This team simply cannot deal with luck, and every time something good happens, something bad is sure to follow. (You already know the indisputable example of this.) Sunday’s loss to hated rival New Orleans and its interim coach was pure Falcons; anyone in Atlanta who hasn’t bet a month’s rent on the Saints just doesn’t know it. Atlanta wasted a 116-yard, two-touchdown performance from Bijan Robinson and a 300-yard passing game from Kirk Cousins. A backbreaking interception and horrendous endgame management – plus Younghoe Koo’s very un-Koo-like three field goals – cost the team a game it absolutely should have won had it gone.
The Falcons still have the talent to win the division and even a playoff game or two, but the best way to get this team a Lombardi Trophy is to convince them that the Super Bowl actually happens in March .
