Week 9 of the NFL season is in the books and now every team has reached the midpoint of their season, with a record three teams still maintaining a 100 per cent record.
As always, there were plenty of talking points to spring up from Sunday's action, so here are the five questions we're trying to answer this morning.
1. Can the Patriots go 16-0 again?
New England, Cincinnati and Carolina are all 8-0, marking the first time in NFL history that three teams have made it this far into the season unbeaten. None of them are down to play each other either, so all three could theoretically end up going all the way through the regular season undefeated.
That's highly unlikely, of course, with the 2007 Patriots the only team since the 1972 Dolphins to complete an undefeated schedule, but the 16-0 will now begin in earnest and this year's Pats are a team that could seriously make another run at perfection.
The 27-10 triumph over Washington yesterday was as comfortable a game as they are likely to have, (although when you are winning games by an average of 16 points, most of them are fairly comfortable) and the reigning Super Bowl champions have been around the block enough times that the burden of chasing history is unlikely to weight them down unduly.
They are also fuelled by the desire to ball up Roger Goodell's overturned Deflategate ruling, which initially carried a four-game ban for quarterback Tom Brady, and cram it back down the commissioner's throat, and the painful scars from the way their previous unbeaten campaign (which, incidentally, began under the shadow of another controversy, Spygate) was spoiled by the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.
Their remaining schedule has plenty of potential pitfalls, including next week's trip to those same Giants and a Week 12 visit to the Denver Broncos, but if those hurdles are overcome then it'll be all systems go on the 16-0 train.
2. Should Green Bay be looking over their shoulders?
Yesterday's defeat in Carolina, their second in a row, dropped the 6-2 Packers into a tie atop the NFC North with the surprising Minnesota Vikings.
With a young nucleus led by second-year QB Teddy Bridgewater and defensive coach Mike Zimmer, the Vikings were hoping to challenge for a wild card in the NFC, but their hard-fought win over the St Louis Rams and Green Bay's recent offensive struggles mean they can at least think about setting their sights on greater prizes.
For the second week running, Packers star Aaron Rodgers could not find a rhythm under centre, at least until the second half, when they trailed by 20 points and the Packers offence made a game of it, at the same time as the Vikings were showing great poise as they traded haymakers in windy Minneapolis against a fearsome Rams defence that had knocked Bridgewater out of the game.
https://twitter.com/TheCauldron/status/663454983837384705
Veteran running back Adrian Peterson emerged on top in the battle against rookie pretender Todd Gurley, taking his young team-mates down the field and into position for the overtime-winning field goal.
The Panthers' performance in the 37-29 win sees them supplant the Packers as the NFC's top dog for now, and Green Bay and Rodgers will have to make sure of their divisional crown - and they still face twice the Vikes twice in the second half of the season - before looking any further down the road to a possible rematch against Cam Newton and company.
3. Have the Dallas Cowboys left Tony Romo too much to do?
When quarterback Romo and wide receiver Dez Bryant both went down with serious injuries early in the season, the feeling was that the 2-0 Cowboys only needed to hang tough in the weak NFC East until their offensive leaders returned.
Nobody in Dallas can have expected the franchise to crumple to its worst losing streak in more then 25 years, capped off with a 33-27 overtime loss at home to Philadelphia last night that leaves America's Team three games back of the division leading Giants.
https://twitter.com/JoeGiglioSports/status/663710816189980675
When back-up Brandon Weeden couldn't get it done in three games of relief, the team signed journeyman Matt Cassel, a slight improvement that has yet to deliver a W, and things are now getting serious for what remains an immensely talented roster.
https://twitter.com/dpbrugler/status/663516742556061696
No team has come from a 2-6 record to make the play-offs but, remarkably, all is not lost.
Bryant is back and did his level best against the Eagles...
https://twitter.com/SBNationGIF/status/663568581263622144
... and next week's game, hopefully the last without Romo, is a winnable game at Tampa Bay which would get Dallas to 3-6.
The schedule then toughens with games against the Panthers, Packers, Jets and Bills, but the 5-4 Giants and 4-4 Eagles aren't going to run away and hide, and nine wins likely takes the division title.
4. Was the Falcons' 5-0 start a mirage?
It certainly appears so, based on the past month, to the point where my own bet on Atlanta winning at least nine games is starting to look rather shaky indeed.
The high-powered offence, which averaged 32 points a game and features NFL touchdown leader Devonta Freeman and the league leader in receiving yards, Julio Jones, has ground to a halt since that unbeaten start.
The Falcons averaged just under 17 points a game while going 1-3 against teams with a combined record of 12-22.
The latest defeat came against a San Francisco 49ers outfit in total disarray. The Niners benched wayward quarterback Colin Kaepernick during the week in favour of oft-ridiculed back-up Blaine Gabbert and were without their top three running-backs and top three cornerbacks.
https://twitter.com/Eric_Branch/status/663532132942254080
But that group of lads effectively brought in off the street this week was still good enough to beat the Falcons, who at 6-3 remain in position to claim a wild card but are no longer anybody's favourite to hold off the likes of Seattle, Minnesota, New Orleans or St Louis to reach the play-offs.
5. Has a new offensive coordinator changed the outlook for the Colts?
Something had to give in Indianapolis and it was OC Pep Hamilton who took the fall for the Colts' shortcomings this season.
Former Browns head coach and respected play-caller Rob Chudzinski was handed the playbook and the early results were extremely promising, as the Colts put up 27 points to hand the Denver Broncos their first loss of the year.
QB Andrew Luck moved the ball comfortably against the meanest defence in football as the offence converted three out of four redzone trips into touchdowns and converted 60 per cent of its third downs, all while avoiding the costly turnovers that characterised Indy's early-season problems.
The Colts are still just 4-5 in the shockingly bad AFC South, but the offence's return to form and their weak remaining schedule means Indianpolis are again division favourites, with ten wins not beyond them.
Monday Night Football... Chicago Bears @ San Diego Chargers
Another dud of a game for prime time, with Chicago and San Diego combining for just four wins at the season's midpoint.
Chargers QB Philip Rivers lost his favourite weapon, receiver Keenan Allen, to a lacerated kidney last week and continues to do a valiant job behind a shaky O-line, while Bears passer Jay Cutler also lost his safety blanket, running back Matt Forte to a knee problem.
But Chicago receiver Alshon Jeffery is in top form and the Bears are likely to have a sizeable travelling contingent at Qualcomm Stadium, so we give them the edge tonight.
And finally...
The latest chapter in Washington's inevitably doomed effort to retain the name Redskins was played out in a US court last week, as the team attempted to have a ruling that suspended their trademark to the term overturned.
How, you might ask? Well, by providing a list of other equally offensive trademarks that have been permitted and claiming double standards, that's how.
We could list them here, and they are VERY NSFW, but John Oliver did a far better, and funnier, job of lampooning the eejits in DC on his Last Week Tonight show last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4kSBzjiI6o
Week 9 results:
Cincinnati 31-10 Cleveland
Buffalo 33-17 Miami
Carolina 37-29 Green Bay
Minnesota 21-18 St Louis OT
New England 27-10 Washington
NY Giants 32-18 Tampa Bay
San Francisco 17-16 Atlanta
Tennessee 34-28 New Orleans OT
Pittsburgh 38-35 Oakland
NY Jets 28-23 Jacksonville
Indianpolis 27-24 Denver
Philadelphia 33-27 Dallas OT
