Blog

Usually this would be a place to say “first quarter of the season done”. However, since we now have 17 games you can’t say that. After four weeks a lot of discoveries have been made about NFL teams and players. The Falcons are forever cursed, the Chiefs need to improve on defense if they want to win, and the Cowboys are legit. Five things to talk about from this week. Let’s get into it.

1. Zach Wilson and the Jets grab their first win

After two touchdowns and seven interceptions throughout the first three weeks, Zach Wilson settled in and brought the J-E-T-S JETS, JETS, JETS their first win of the season. Wilson had a great day against a weak Titans defense as he threw for 297 yards along with two touchdowns and one interception. Wilson also had an impressive completion percentage, finishing the game with 62%. The Jets still have a long way to go, but as a football fan don’t be too quick to count out these rookie quarterbacks. Give them time to settle in and in Zach Wilson’s case, give this man some protection besides Greg Van Roten and George Fant.

2. Justin Fields season has officially arrived

The Chicago Bears officially announced today that Justin Fields is the starting quarterback going forward. This comes only two days after Matt Nagy was quoted saying, “when Andy [Dalton] is healthy, he’s our starter”. It seems that the McCaskey’s got to Nagy and told him to finally make one right decision for this team. After a horrible day in Cleveland, suffering nine sacks against the Browns, Fields & Co. bounced back against Detroit at Soldier Field. Fields didn’t have the most “eye-popping” stats with no touchdowns and one interception, but he did enough to pull out the win for the Bears. Since it’s his job now all eyes will be on Fields, and his next two games (at Vegas & vs. Packers) will be closely watched by everyone. We’ll see if Fields can break the Ohio State quarterback stigma.

3. Kyler Murray is going crazy and is currently a possible MVP front-runner

In my NFL Award predictions article this past August I said Kyler Murray was a sleeper pick for the MVP this year. The Arizona Cardinals are now 4-0 after beating the Titans, Vikings, Jaguars, and Rams. And three of those four victories were away. Murray is currently 3rd in the league in passing yards (1273), first in the league with completion percentage (76.1%), fifth in the league in passing touchdowns (9), and third in QBR (74.5). Murray is in complete control of the offense, and the connection between Murray and Kingsbury looks like it has finally come to fruition. The Cardinals will definitely be tested in these next two weeks against the 49ers and Browns. We’ll see if they can keep the momentum going.

4. Mac Jones is almost there with the Patriots offense

Against the defending champions, on Sunday Night Football, Michael McCorkle Jones played a pretty good game. He had his best night in terms of completion percentage (77.5%) and touchdowns (2). Jones seems to be settling in the offense and is finding his favorites in the passing games. Jakobi Meyers has been targeted at least 12 times in back-to-back games and both new tight ends Hunter Henry and Jonnu smith both caught their first touchdowns as Patriot players. The Patriots are a Damien Harris fumble and a Nick Folk 56-yard field goal away from sitting at 3-1 right now. It’s all about executing in the final phase of the game. Potential losing Isaiah Wynn and Michael Onwenu to the COVID-19 list will definitely not help that, but hopefully they’ll be ready for this Sunday against the Texans.

5. Justin Herbert and the Chargers are the truth

I said this in my season predictions article, the Chargers are going to make the playoffs. Brandon Staley has this team behind him and they are playing great football. They are a Greg Zuerlein kick away from starting off 4-0. Both the AFC and NFC West are looking to be the toughest divisions in football, but I feel that Herbert & Co. will be able to grab a playoff spot. Maybe they’ll even sneak in to win the division if the Chiefs defense needs to rely on Mahomes and the offense to drop 40 points every game. Herbert has started off with an efficient 1,178 passing yards for nine touchdowns and three interceptions. Mike Williams is having a career year, Austin Ekeler is coming off a great game, and the Chargers are also 7th in total defense. Although they’ve looked very strong in their start they are up against a tough stretch of opponents in the upcoming weeks. They will be taking on the Browns this upcoming Sunday and then the Ravens, Patriots, Eagles, and Vikings. I think they should be able to come out of that stretch still in the playoff contention, but we’ll have to wait and see.

NFL ratings are higher than ever, as it continues to show that it is the sport that runs this country. And we are set to get some even bigger games this week as Thursday Night football kicks us off with an NFC West battle of the Seahawks and Rams in Seattle. The Jets and the Falcons kick off Sunday across the pond in London at 9:30 a.m., followed by the Packers taking a trip to the 3-1 Bengals, the Chargers hosting Cleveland, and the Chiefs hosting the Bills in an AFC Championship rematch. I’m excited to see how everything unfolds this week. Once again, it’s a great time to be a football fan. Unless you live in Jacksonville, Florida or Detroit, Michigan. This is YSN, until next time, signing out.