The first week of October isn’t even over and the NFL has already seen every team take a loss. Unfortunately for the New York Jets, the league still has yet to see every team record a win, though.
Week 5 was incredible from start to finish and delivered a candidate for Game Of The Year, although given how bonkers this season has been through five weeks, we might forget all about it by next week. The point is that football is fully rocking and rolling and that is the best news of all.
How do we feel about the state of things as matters start to get more serious? Our job here at The Skinny Post, between Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa, is to figure that out.
Who is more for real, the Colts or Broncos?
The Indianapolis Colts are 4-1 through five games and appear to have gotten rid of the label that had to do with playing subpar competition. Also of note, the Denver Broncos just took down the Philadelphia Eagles and appear to have reignited discussion that they are contenders.
These are two teams who are struggling to break through the top-shelf AFC units and I think that if I had to put one there right now between the two… I’d go with Denver. Indy is a ton of fun and what they are doing is impressive, but the Broncos appear more capable of going the distance.
It is amazing that this is a real question in mid-October, though!
I’m probably going with the Colts in this one because I like both defenses, but I think the offensive edge goes to Indy. That’s wild to say, but Daniel Jones is playing very well and the offensive weapons of Michael Pittman Jr., Tyler Warren, and Jonathan Taylor are one of the best trios in the NFL through five weeks. I mean, the friggin’ Colts are second in the NFL in points per game at 32.6! The Broncos are averaging almost 10 points less per game.
As long as Indy continues to show out each week, I’ll begin to not only take them seriously as a team, but as a serious Super Bowl contender, as well.
Who is a bigger disaster, the Cardinals or Jets?
I think this one has to be the Jets because that stat about being the first team unable to record a takeaway through their first five games since the 1933 season is absolutely wild. They are also 0-5 to begin the season after hiring Aaron Glenn, who was just serving as the defensive coordinator for the Lions.
They invested in someone to help make the defense a unit worth fearing in the NFL again and through almost a third of the schedule, they can’t record a single takeaway. You’re not going to win many games at all if that doesn’t change ASAP. I think based on this shortcoming alone, they’re a bigger mess than the Cardinals, who at least have some star power to lean on.
At the beginning of this season I picked the Cardinals to win the NFC West and hate myself for it. I thought the Rams would take a step back (lol), the Seahawks wouldn’t get it together (lmao), and the 49ers might just not be good (rofl). I also have always had a hard time quitting Kyler Murray. He has so much athletic ability.
Right now things seem really bad with the Cardinals. I have no idea what their purpose is in the NFL. They simply exist and have occasional moments that pop. They aren’t really doing much. It is strange.
What’s more is that the Cardinals just became the first team to lose to Cam Ward’s Tennessee Titans and did so by blowing a fourth-quarter lead. They are becoming relevant for really bad reasons and that makes them worse than the Jets in this moment for me.
Is this year just bad luck for the Ravens?
Next year when the Ravens have a really low win-total projection I am totally going to swoop in and capitalize off of people living only in the most recent season.
This isn’t to say that I think the Ravens are “just” experiencing bad luck, though. Baltimore has been a contender for so long and I think they are just running into a wall at long last. There is no shame in that whatsoever.
It is unfortunate, but if anything it leads me to believe that this really is Buffalo’s year. Kansas City is still finding their whole footing, Cincinnati is down bad, and now the Ravens are struggling.
The Bills better get it done.
As someone who is also watching their team (Chargers) get decimated by injuries to a large group of their best players, I can totally relate to what the Ravens are going through. They took the field against Houston without a number of their defensive starters AND without quarterback Lamar Jackson.
I mean, what else can you expect from this Ravens team? Cooper Rush is…uhh…a very different quarterback. The offense that the team worked hard all offseason to master is drastically different, and also has a vastly lower ceiling.
Sometimes it really is as simple as which teams are able to stay healthy and which aren’t. And the thing is, it really does come down to luck. Every franchise (some more than others) pour dollar after dollar into their facilities and strength programs to make sure they’re as physically hard to break as possible. So why is it that some teams still see their best players sidelined by injuries while other teams – usually the ones who do end up winning a lot of games and making the postseason – stay relatively healthy? It’s because they got to play 17 games with most of their starters available each week.
The Ravens have been wildly unlucky this year and at some point, the worm will turn. When that happens, don’t be surprised to see them make a run for a Wild Card spot down the stretch.
Can the Buccaneers sustain this all season long?
No, I don’t think it’s possible for the Bucs to sustain this style of winning for the entire season. The Bucs are a good team too! But it sure seems like there’s a small amount of voodoo magic keeping them in the win column most weeks.
They’re barely leading in their games and somehow also always land in position to win it in the end. The regression to the mean will hit eventually and it may hit a lot harder than Bucs fans want.
When the team gets back receiver Mike Evans and running back Bucky Irving, and starts winning in a more efficient manner, then we can start believing this team is a contender like the rest of the Tier 1 teams.
FTN Fantasy has the Buccaneers with a negative DVOA through five games despite the team’s 4-1 start. This is just a statistic. It can’t hurt you.
The Bucs’ four wins have ALL come on final scores that took place as the clock was expiring in each game won. This isn’t to say that Tampa isn’t for real or that they are frauds, but that information and context matters.
The Buccaneers are certainly a contender and probably going to easily win the NFC South, but I don’t know that I would take them against the mightiest of teams just yet. I am very interested to see how they stack up against the Lions which is their next true test.
