NFL Week 10 Short Takes

The Pittsburgh Steelers took another step forward to an undefeated regular season last weekend when they beat the Cincinnati Bengals but the highlight of the week had to be the ending to the Arizona/Buffalo game. Summaries of all the action follows.

Indianapolis 34 / Tennessee 17. The Titans were my pick but I missed on this one as the Colts made a nice comeback for the victory to even up the division lead in the AFC South.

New England 23 / Baltimore 17. Don’t ever count out Bill Belichick. I had picked the Patriots as it felt that the Ravens were just primed to be beat. This helped the Pittsburgh Steelers get to a three-game lead in the AFC North.

Cleveland 10 / Houston 7. No offense? No problem in Cleveland. A win is a win, right? A much-needed win for the Browns.

Green Bay 24 / Jacksonville 20. If not for their season-opening win, the Jaguars may be competing with the Jets for the first overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. They still might get there but they gave the Packers a run for their money.

New York Giants 27 / Philadelphia 17. The NFC East used to be a solid division. Now it’s a joke. This is embarrassing to be leading a division with just three wins. But that’s how it is.

Tampa Bay 46 / Carolina 23. How can you gauge the Bucs big win against the Panthers when Tampa has three losses to the Saints, Bears, and the Saints again? When they defeat a solid winning team, some might begin to believe they are as good as their record. Until then many believe they are not that good.

Detroit 30 / Washington 27. Outside of these two cities, does anyone care who won?

Arizona 32 / Buffalo 30. Kyler Murray probably pulled off the play of the year on his last-second hail mary game-winning 50+ yard bomb to DeAndre Hopkins. Both get credit for an amazing play that has propelled Murray into further stardom.

Las Vegas 37 / Denver 12. It seems Jon Gruden has finally got his groove on and has his Raiders winning bunches of games. Unfortunate for Las Vegas is that they reside in the Chiefs division. At 6-3, the Silver and Black are riding a three-game winning streak. Wild card? Very strong possibility for “Chuckie” and his gang.

Miami 29 / L.A. Chargers 21. Interesting that two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks switched teams this season and their former teams are mired in a dismal season. Tom Brady has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers riding high while Philip Rivers and the Colts are in first place. Their former teams, the Patriots are struggling and these Chargers have just two wins. Miami is just one win out of first place and is probably the surprise team this season.

Pittsburgh 36 / Cincinnati 10. This was supposed to be an easy game for the undefeated Steelers and it was. Welcome to the NFL Joe Burrow so said the Steelers defense. The Steelers' run game is not as effective this season as their reputation of running the ball goes but they find ways to win offensively while the defense has just been stifling. Pittsburgh’s Achilles Heal for years has been the secondary but this year they are playing lights out.

New Orleans 27 / San Francisco 13. Injuries can decimate a team and in San Francisco that fact has marred their season. They should consider themselves lucky to be 4-6. For the Saints, they took a huge blow when Drew Brees got hit hard and suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Now the onus is on Jameis Winston to keep New Orleans winning as Winston was cast out from Tampa after Tom Brady was signed.

L.A. Rams 23 / Seattle 16. The Rams tightened things up in the NFC West with this win and with Seattle’s victory over Arizona on Thursday night, the Rams take over second place in the division. Los Angeles is a quietly solid 6-3.

Minnesota 19 / Chicago 13. The Nick Foles show failed in Jacksonville last season and is now failing in Chicago. Four straight losses for the Bears while the Vikings are mounting a comeback. The Vikings have won three in a row after a 1-5 start. It seems Bears’ head coach Matt Nagy is trying hard not to re-start Mitch Trubisky even though the former starter is still trying to come back from injury.