NFL Week 8: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Welcome back to another segment of The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly.
We’re halfway thru the NFL season and teams have molded into legit pretenders or contenders. We have some teams fall back to the norm of being close to title contention but just not quite there yet. Luckily for those teams, is there is a lot of great football yet to play which will consist of big division games for teams that are trying to grasp that first-round bye in the playoffs. On the other hand, there are the teams that have, at this point, lost all hope in their season and are looking ahead to next year. The injury bug and COVID have hit this season hard and certainly has impacted some teams but as one knows this is the league of no excuses and next man up, whatever sports cliche you want to throw out there. Here are the teams that hare riding high and here are the ones that are land sliding.
Welcome ladies and gents, every week after the final game in the NFL week we will analyze, condemn, and celebrate all the crazy plays and mishaps that have happened so far in the league. Whether it’s a game-winning field goal or the interception that costs the game in the closing moments, we are on it. Let me introduce you to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. What team gets the feature?
The Good: Steelers have returned to title-winning form
The Pittsburg Steelers are coming off a great division win against rival Baltimore Ravens to vault them to 7-0 on the season. They’re the only undefeated team left and could quite possibly keep that streak going for the next couple of weeks with the next three teams on their schedule under .500 until they see the Ravens again on Thanksgiving. But what stands out from this team is how they have returned to their all-mighty Pittsburg defense that has won the championships in the past. And not to mention their offense don’t look that bad either with weapons like Chase Claypool, Diontae Johnson, and James Washington rounding out to help out Juju Smith-Schuster and Big Ben.
The Steelers have slowly but surely returned as one of the elite defenses in the NFL. You could see the trend in the right direction for this team the past couple of seasons as they have built their defense up again after losing franchise pieces like Troy Polamalu, James Harrison, Casey Hampton, and Ryan Clark. The Steelers have since drafted well, getting star players like T.J Watt and Bud Dupree in the first round and then trading for guys like Joe Haden and Minkah Fitzpatrick to bolster up the defense. Now, they sit as a top-five defense in the league and leading the league in sacks at the halfway point in the season, along with playmakers on that side of the ball.
But with all this success the Steelers have been having, they are still not looked at as the best team in football, that title belongs to the Kansas City Chiefs until proven otherwise. Also, they’ll still have to see the Ravens again because truthfully they were supposed to lose that game this past Sunday. The Ravens physically outplayed them for a duration of the game but in the end, their defense came through. The Steelers are still a force and should not be taken lightly, as this team has the defense to get them to the Super Bowl again.
The Bad: Eagles win despite Carson Wince
The Philadelphia Eagles escaped an SNF matchup against rival Dallas Cowboys with a win this past weekend. When I say escaped I mean if the Dallas Cowboys had anybody better than Ben Denucci at QB they would’ve won this game. The Cowboys defense played their tail off for most of the game, causing havoc and creating four turnovers against Philly but the Eagles still managed to get the dub because the Cowboys QB situation just sucks without Dak Prescott. And sadly for the Eagles, it still looks like Carson Wentz is declining before our very eyes after getting a big deal last year.
Wentz currently is second in turnovers this season (14), just under Daniel Jones for that top spot. Despite leading the division currently, the Eagles are lucky to be in the position there are now with how bad Wentz has been in games. He is still trying to make superhero plays when they are not there and is just throwing up the rock for defenders to make a play on the ball on some questionable throws. The playcalling for the Eagles hasn’t been great either with some very questionable fourth-down calls by Doug Pederson but that doesn’t hide the fact that Wentz has had poor execution for a guy being paid like an elite QB.
As I mentioned, the Eagles still lead the NFC East but you can argue that both the Football Team and the New York Giants have looked better than them this season. The Giants’ defense looks better than advertised and Danny Dimes gives you flashes of greatness but follows with bad throws. The Football team is still trying to figure out their QB situation but their defense can be stifling at times. The only thing that is separating these teams is Wentz is a slightly better QB than the field and thus they have one more win than the competition, just one. Maybe it’s time to consider getting rid of Wentz and that contract and look for some better QB play as the Buccaneers did with Brady.
The Ugly: Niners revenge tour off-railed by injuries
If it is one team that has been hit by the injury bug bad it is the San Francisco 49ers. Week after week they have a key player on their team going down with an injury and now it seems their playoff hopes are gone with their latest injuries. This time it is QB Jimmy G going down again with his ankle injury and heartbeat of the team George Kittle out indefinitely with a foot injury. Other injuries that happened earlier was losing Nick Bosa for the season with his ACL injury, Debo Samuel has been in and out of the lineup, and has Richard Sherman even played a snap this season? Everywhere you look on this team they are suffering from injuries while their division just keeps getting better and better.
After their SB loss to the hands of the Chiefs, many had this team returning to at least the NFC Championship game but it seems now that is out of their grasp. They are still only 4-4 on the season but are last right now in their division. With the added playoff spot there is still a little bit lit of hope but with Jimmy G out they have no real backup at QB to keep them in the race. Maybe it’s time the Niners make a call to a former QB they had on this team some seasons ago that led them to the SB. You know who he is and the NFL does too, yet somehow he still isn’t signed to a team despite the bad QB play league round.
Stay tuned for more of The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly.
