Another week of sportsball has passed us by and it never disappoints with some massive news out of the NFL world this week. Over in America’s pastime, the division series has concluded and it’s on to the League Championship Series.
Starting off with the most consequential news of the week, Robert Salah has been fired and escorted out of the Jets building. Before the season started it was kind of assumed this was Salahs last chance, but nobody thought that it would be before week six. A firing this early in the season is wild, in fact the Jets owner Woody Johnson has never fired a coach mid-season before. One has to wonder how much Aaron Rodgers had to do with this after some funny looking interactions between the Jets quarterback and Saleh. Nevertheless the Jets are going to roll forward with their defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, with Nathaniel Hackett somehow still in possession of the Offensive Coordinator position. The Jets play the Bills this week and are looking to bounce back big time with a feel-good win.Â
We had the first great, and probably only great Thursday Night Football game of the season this past week. It involved the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay buccaneers in a classic NFC south matchup. The falcons ended up winning 36-30 in Atlanta but it went to overtime and required a lot of flashy plays from both sides to get there. Both teams now sit at 3-2 and look quite competitive in a weak NFC.
NFL in London was also back this week with the Jets taking on the Vikings in London. The Vikings ended up winning 23-17, but it was ugly on both sides. It was after this game ended that the former ambassador to the United Kingdom fired Robert Salah. The Vikings come out of this game still undefeated at 5-0 somehow and will stay undefeated with a bye week this upcoming Sunday.
Caleb Williams had his first standout game as a rookie pummeling the Carolina Panthers 36-10. Williams was moving the ball with authority and a lot of that went to DJ Moore in a revenge game against his former team. It is the ultimate irony that Caleb Williams was drafted with their own pick that they traded to Chicago to get the now benched Bryce Young. The Bears will try to Bear down against the goofy looking Jacksonville Jaguars this Sunday.
2 more rookies won this past week and one of them is the flaming hot Jayden Daniels who has piloted the Commanders to a 4-1 record with a win over the flailing Clevland Browns. Over in a AFC West matchup Bo Nix finally had a good game throwing no interceptions and actually moving the ball downfield. This led to them winning 34-18 over the Raiders who have no idea who their quarterback is.
The Miami Dolphins and the Patriots played last week and it was bad football. The dolphins ended up winning 15-10 behind Pro Bowl quarterback Tyler Huntly. The Patriots, who understandably were not happy about 10 points on offense have announced that big bad Drake Maye will start next week versus the Texans. I can’t see it going well, the Texans rush the most in the NFL by far, and the Patriots offensive line is in the bottom five: not a recipe for success.
The Jaguars finally got into the win column with an exciting win 37-34 over the Indianapolis Colts. That takes a lot of heat off Doug Pederson who many thought was about to be fired after the abysmal start to the season. Another coach on the hot seat, Mike McCarthy of the Dallas Cowboys turned down the heat a little with a close 20-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Though Dallas moved to 3-2 something still feels off in JerryWorld with Cee Dee Lamb looking frustrated with Dak Prescott.
In The Game of the Week Baltimore and Cincinnati squared off in a great AFC North matchup. The Ravens won 41-38 in overtime, but both quarterbacks combined for 9 touchdowns, and Joe Burrow is back with him throwing 5 touchdowns. This game was the best the Bengals have looked since their Super Bowl run in 2021, if they can overcome the horrible 1-4 start this team could get dangerous.
2 young quarterbacks operating on max contracts won this past week. Jordon Love and the Packers prevailed over the Los Angeles Rams 24-19 despite some serious silliness from Jordon Love. Kyler Murray and the Cardinals squeaked by the 49ers 24-23, and all a sudden the 49ers are below .500 with Christian McCaffrey on an uncertain timeline of return. The Packers and Cardinals will square off this Sunday to see who can keep the winning going.
Two of the 3-1 teams lost this week with the Bills losing in a tight one to the Texans 23-20. The Texans did not escape unscathed however with NFL yardage leader Nico Collins being placed on the IR. The Seattle Seahawks lost a head-scratcher to the New York Giants 29-20, and will look to get back on track during a tough NFC West matchup next week.
Monday Night Football brought one of the games of all time with the Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the New Orleans Saints. With Taylor Swift in attendance, the Chiefs won 26-13 in a not very exciting game to stay undefeated. Derek Carr did go down with a injury, and that means it’s Spencer Rattler’s time down in the Bayou. Rattler came out of the draft with some questions and will be interesting to take a look at in his first NFL game.
On to this current week, the 49ers crushed the Seahawks 36-24 in a game that was not as close as it appears. The Seahawks, after a promising start to the season are now .500 and Geno Smith has not looked great the past few games missing routine throws. That concludes another boring Thursday Night Football game.
Week six is bringing us some fun games with two rookies making their first starts, Drake Maye as said earlier and Spencer Rattler making the big leagues. Drake Maye will look to just survive versus a ferocious Texans Pass rush. Meanwhile, Rattler who is playing the Buccaneers has to play a scary defense anchored by Vita Vea who is a certified big dude.
London is also recurring this week with the Jaguars who play there the most out of any NFL team taking on the Chicago Bears. Sidenote, the Jaguars actually love to play in London thanks to owner Shad Khans business connections over there. It is very possible that losing in London could have Coach Doug Pederson fired just like Robert Salah with Woody Johnson javing the same type of connections.
Monday Night Football has a classic rivalry game with the Bills taking on the new look Jets. Both teams really need a win here with the Bills coming off a heartbreaking last second loss to the Texans, and the Jets actually firing their coach before the trade deadline. In additional Jets news Davantae Adams is sure to move soon and NYC sure looks like the favorite, Hassan Reddick looks just as comfortable sitting out the rest of the season as he did last week and looks worse by the minute.
Over in the MLB the league is certainly salivating at the thought of having the Los Angeles Dodgers versus the New York Yankees in the World Series, it would certainly be the best watched world series in 20 years. Those things are not certain in the postseason though. The Dodgers and Padres series has been downright violent with lots of baseball shenanigans occurring, most notably Fernando Tatis hitting a massive home run and then pimping the absolute crap out of it. They Dodgers play today versus the Padres in a winner-take-all all game 5 to see who plays the Mets in the NL championship series. The Mets took care of business in an electric game four where the Mets only runs came off a late game Francisco Lindor Grand slam.
Over in the AL the Yankees took care of business versus a scrappy royals team that kept it close but ultimacy couldn’t compete with the magnitude that is Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. The Yankees will play in whoever wins versus the ALDS or really the AL central division playoff that involves Clevland taking on Detroit to see who gets the privilege of meeting the Yankees. If the Yankees can win in the ALCS they have the chance to play the other New York team, the Mets. While MLB is certainly salivating at that as well, that would be pretty glorious to see in our lifetime.
Overall a fantastic week of sports all around with the thrill that is the MLB postseason, along with the always interesting news out of the NFL. PSA there is football on every day from October 3rd through November 27th and that is news that the world has to know about.
