Sports

[gardenman]

I can't believe it's week eight already! Yikes! The season flies by.

We start out with a decent Thursday night game. The Ravens take on the Bucs. The Bucs are in a wee bit of a tailspin having lost two in a row. They're tied with the Falcons for the lead in the NFC South. The NFC South is not in a good place right now. Brady's about to buy a new wardrobe for his TV hosting duties. (He was smart to sign the deal last year. Fox may be looking for a loophole now given how he's played.) I'll take the Ravens. 

We have a Sunday morning game again! Denver goes to Jacksonville (well, London's Wembley Stadium) to see which 2-5 team is the worst. The Jags aren't a bad team, they're just losing a lot. They're a plus 18 when the next closest team in the AFC South is the Titans who are a minus 13. The Jags are therefore 31 points better than the Titans overall but have lost two more games. It's not easy to be that good and still lose. Will they lose to Denver? Nah! I'll take the Jags. At some point they're going to go on a run and win the games they should be winning. It might as well start now.

Carolina goes to Atlanta. It's not saying much, but Atlanta's the better team. Carolina has rolled over and played dead by trading away two of their offensive starters in McCaffrey and Robbie Anderson. And they may not be done yet. Those aren't the kind of moves that inspire the rest of the team to go out and play hard. I'll take Atlanta.

Chicago heads to Dallas. The Bears are showing some signs of life and can employ the Eagles' offensive tactics against the Cowboys' defense since they also have a highly mobile QB. Will it be enough? Probably not. I'll take the Cowboys, but the upset here wouldn't shock me. Dan Quinn probably has some sort of an answer dialed up to the Eagles' scheme by now and will be ready for it again.

Miami goes to Detroit. The Lions are the highest-scoring team in the NFC North! They've also given up a gazillion (well, 194) points. If Detroit can somehow find a defense at some point in the season they'll start to win. I just don't think it'll happen this week. I'll take Miami. (Come on Lions' defense! We want to see more celebrations from Christen Harper!)

Arizona goes to Minnesota in an interesting game. Kind of a tester for both teams. The Cards are pretty dysfunctional with a very talented QB who doesn't seem to like to study and a head coach who isn't especially QB friendly. The Vikings may be less talented overall but are finding a way to win. This is a coinflip game for me. I guess I'll take the Vikings.

The Raiders and Saints are playing for draft position as each two-win team is trying to climb to the top of the draft board by falling to the bottom of the standings. Each team went with a hopefully refurbished used head coach and each team is now learning why the head coach had been discarded earlier. Both teams could be shopping for a new head coach as early as next year. I think the Raiders are the better team, so I'll take the Raiders.

The Patriots take on the Jets in a game Jets players are probably really looking forward to. In past seasons, a Jets/Patriots game at this point of the season would largely knock the Jets out of the playoff picture. That's been flipped this year. The Jets are 5-2 and the Patriots are 3-4. A Jets win pretty much knocks out the Patriots. I'll take the Jets delivering the knockout blow.

The Steelers head to Philly in a Pennsylvania showdown. The Eagles are coming off a bye and that can be good or bad. We should be relatively healthy. (Injury report comes out later today.) The Eagles are playing well, and the Steelers aren't. Still, you never know how a team will respond after a week off. I'll take the Eagles in this one.

Tennessee goes to Houston to give the Texans another loss. The Texans are going to have a very busy early draft in 2023. Both their pick and the Browns' pick should be top-five or so picks. Fans have that to look forward to. Not much else with the Texans to look forward to. I'll take the Titans in a pretty easy win.

The Commanders head to Indy to take on the Colts. Well, someone probably has to win. The Colts did have a tie earlier though. Ehlinger versus Heinicke at QB. Not the showdown we were expecting. Matt Ryan will likely not even be active and sitting in the stands as Nick Foles will be the backup QB. The Colts are minus 27 in the points differential while Washington is minus 31. I guess I'll take the Commanders since I've seen Heinicke play. I would assume that if the Colts had any confidence in Ehlinger, they wouldn't have been QB shopping each year and he'd have been the backup to Ryan instead of Foles. 

The Niners take on the Rams in an NFC West showdown. They have a combined record of 6-7 which wasn't expected. Each team has just three wins. The Niners are coming off back-to-back losses and need to stop the bleeding. I'll take the Niners in this one.

The Giants head to Seattle to take on the first-place Seahawks led by Geno Smith. If you had a list of NFC QBs by expected value at the start of the season, you'd have had to go way, way down on the list to find Geno Smith. He's outplaying most of the field right now. Kudos to the Giants for resiliency. They've fallen behind by multiple scores in multiple games and rallied to win but rallying to win in Seattle isn't easy. I'll take the Seahawks in this one.

Green Bay goes to Buffalo in a game that looked like a really good one in the preseason, but not so great now. Aaron Rodgers is busy throwing everyone on the team under the bus and then backing over them again. Maybe not the best approach to team building. We're getting close to the point where Green Bay will do what the Colts did and bench the high-priced vet to see what their kid can do. I'll take the Bills.

And our Monday night game has the Bengals taking on the Browns. The Browns' "We just have to stay competitive until Deshaun Watson joins the team" strategy got off to a good start with a 2-1 start, but four straight losses have things looking a bit bleak in Cleveland. No one's running away with the AFC North but a loss here puts them three games behind the Bengals. And I think they'll take the loss here. I'll take the Bengals.

[kaydee50]

And the Jets, Giants and Bears all won!!!  Looking forward to a Jets-Giants Superbowl--LOL!!!

[fairydogmother]

Lions defense is only part of their problem. Jared Goff is now showing his ineffectiveness as QB. I'm with the sports writers who think Detroit needs to trade him. Overall, this miserable team continues to fail. Year after year. 
I'm finally throwing in in the towel after decades of hopes being dashed. 
Where I live now, the Tampa Bay Area, is Bucs country. Brady doesn't look sharp any more. Needs to retire and stay retired 

Same with Aaron Rodgers. 

I like the Minnesota Vikings and especially number 8- Cousins is from my area of Michigan and was my daughter's QB when they both went to Michigan State. I am following the Vikes more than any other NFL team these days. 

[redwingsgal]

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@fairydogmother wrote:

Lions defense is only part of their problem. Jared Goff is now showing his ineffectiveness as QB. I'm with the sports writers who think Detroit needs to trade him. Overall, this miserable team continues to fail. Year after year. 
I'm finally throwing in in the towel after decades of hopes being dashed. 
Where I live now, the Tampa Bay Area, is Bucs country. Brady doesn't look sharp any more. Needs to retire and stay retired 

Same with Aaron Rodgers. 

I like the Minnesota Vikings and especially number 8- Cousins is from my area of Michigan and was my daughter's QB when they both went to Michigan State. I am following the Vikes more than any other NFL team these days. 

---

I could not agree more, @fairydogmother .  I have bled Honolulu Blue and Silver for all of my 63yrs and I am now done!  I cannot live through another season of my heart being ripped out every single Sunday.  I REALLY had high hope this season coming off the "Hard Knocks" season where they really pumped up my team.  Until the FORDS sell this team, I am out!

I am now an Eagles fan, @gardenman !  The surgeon I work for is from Philly and I have now adopted both the Eagles and Phillies (as my Tigers also stink)

GOFF NEEDS TO GO!!!

[gardenman]

The Lions have outscored the Vikings, Packers, Bears, Cowboys, Commanders, Bucs, Panthers, Rams, and Niners. The Rams have only scored 104 points while the Lions have scored 146. The Rams might want Goff back about now. The Lions have given up 194 points giving them a point differential of minus 48 which is second worse in the league behind the Steelers who are a minus 55.

That Lions' defense (or lack thereof) is killing them this year. If they could patch that back together, they'd be a contender. The offense is okay this year. They're averaging a tick over 24 points a game. That's enough to win most weeks. In the entire NFL, they're about eighth in average points scored per game. The Chiefs lead at 31.9 points per game then the Bills at 29.3, then there's a drop off to the 24-26 points per game range. The problem is they're giving up 32.3 points per game. The next closest team is the Saints who are giving up 28.6 points per game. 

The Lions aren't that far away from fixing things and being a good team. They're scoring enough to win. They just need to stop the other teams from scoring as much. The NFC North isn't exactly loaded with dominant teams these days. The Packers have slipped. The Bears are on the way up but aren't great. The Vikings are the Vikings. The Lions have an opening to move up and become good. It's been forever since they were good, but they're on the cusp now.

[teganslaw]

Conspiracy theory: an article on Stampede Blue suggested that maybe the Colts offense has been bad the past few weeks because Frank Reich was orchestrating a special offense around Sam Ehlinger. Matt Ryan was just a placeholder until the team could get Ehlinger ready to start. Then Ryan was injured, and that was the perfect excuse to replace him. 

The problem with this theory is why did the Colts sign Ryan in the first place if they were set on starting Ehlinger? The above is only this writer's opinion, but it does make sense in a strange way. There are too many questions, though, to make it completely accceptable. 

[grandma r]

As a lifelong Eagles fan I am hoping for an outstanding season.  I appreciate that they play as a team.  If a player starts acting as if he's better than the others, he'll learn quickly enough that he isn't all that and a bag of chips.

Having seen firsthand how this organization cares for its fans, I am quite impressed.  The Eagles Autism Foundation is amazing!!!  The owner, management,  players, and everyone involved honestly care for the autistic community as well as their families.

As for the Phillies, well I do hope they can win the World Series.  The players really support and cheer for one another.  I've never been a big baseball fan, but, this team seems to have something special.

Back to the Birds, anything can happen, but, I'm counting on them to come off the buy week ready to make it 7 and 0. 

[gardenman]

The Eagles got defensive end Robert Quinn from the Bears for a fourth round pick. He's signed through 2024. The Bears are reportedly picking up much of his salary for this year. He was great last year. More so-so this year. A change of scenery certainly won't hurt anything. It gives the Eagles depth and more defensive weapons.

[gardenman]

It's game day one of week eight tonight. The Ravens take on the Bucs. Can Tom Brady overcome the issues the Bucs have had so far and get the win? Will Lamar Jackson run past the Bucs? It should be a pretty good game.

The Eagles are rumored to not be done with trades just yet. Getting Robert Quinn was step one, but there may be a step two in progress. Lots of rumors of a running back, mostly involving Kareem Hunt getting traded to the Eagles. After the Quinn trade, the Eagles still have most of their open cap space as the Bears are picking up all but seven hundred thousand dollars of Quinn's contract. That leaves the Eagles with around $9.6 million in cap space. 

Quite a few teams seem interested in selling guys off and the Eagles are always interested buyers, so the next few days could be interesting. Any starters who are held out of Sunday's games for unexpected reasons are likely on the trading block with deals nearly finalized. The teams trading them away won't want them to get injured and cancel the pending trade.

Quite a few teams are reportedly interested in acquiring Eagles backup left tackle Andre Dillard. The Eagles seem set on getting back a third-round pick or more which is holding things up. Dillard is also in the final year of his rookie deal and will be a free agent after the season so any team trading for him will likely want a sign-and-trade deal done where he gets extended for a few years (three?) at what they consider a fair price.

Robert Quinn looks like a good pickup for the Eagles. His stats are down this year, but that's largely due to him being double-teamed the most of any DE in the league. It'll be harder for opposing offense to double-team him in Philly, so his stats could rebound nicely. One of his best years came while playing for Vic Fangio who is now a consultant/assistant with the Eagles. Fangio knows Quinn and likely gave lots of input to the Eagles on his value to the team. Roquan Smith of the Bears broke down in tears hearing that they'd traded away Quinn which is a pretty good sign of how much he valued Quinn. They played together for three years and obviously formed a close bond.

I'm not sure we'll see Quinn this week as he's owed a bye week. He'd have to play in eighteen games instead of seventeen as the Eagles already had their bye and the Bears haven't. Odds are the Eagles will give him a bye this week and get him ready for next week's game, so he only has to play in seventeen games this year.

And having mentioned Roquan Smith, he could be a trade target for the Eagles or a priority free agent target for them in 2023. Both Kyzir White and TJ Edwards are free agents after this season and one or both could leave. Smith asked for a trade earlier in the season. He'll be a free agent at the end of the season. The Bears could tag him but forcing a guy to stay in town who doesn't want to be there is seldom a good idea. He'd be an interesting pickup. Pricier than a normal LB for the Eagles who tend to go cheap there, but a young, all-pro caliber guy might be too tempting to pass up.

[teganslaw]

Have to give credit to Matt Ryan. He said that, although disappointed, his job has changed and he will do all he can to help Sam Ehlinger. Ryan totally backs Ehlinger and thinks that the new QB will do well. I like Ryan's attitude, it shows class.