Welcome to your Monday roundup of the best and worst of NFL Sunday — by which we mean the single very best thing and single very worst thing. Because the stuff in the middle doesn’t matter, really.
THE VERY BEST THING ABOUT THE NFL THIS WEEK: Is the somehow-competitive AFC East. No, seriously, you guys — it’s competitive. Sure, eventually the Patriots will probably take the division title as they have the past eight years running and in 13 of the past 14. But for now every team in this division is .500 or better and the Pats needed a patented Tom Brady-Rob Gronkowski comeback onslaught, as well as an extremely questionable negated touchdown, just to defeat the Jets on Sunday.
Watching the suddenly human Patriots needing to pull out all the stops to edge out a divisional rival was exhilarating, an event that wouldn’t have even been fathomable in August. Keep in mind that, before the season began, both the Jets and Bills looked to be selling off or releasing every useful player who wasn’t deemed necessary to future plans, each seemingly embracing a tank and hunting for a blue-chip piece via the draft.
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Instead, the Bills have a pretty great defence and the Jets an eye-opening offence — in as much as Josh McCown, at age 38, can still open eyes — and the Pats are scrambling to slap together some semblance of a secondary while Bill Belichick has to coach his butt off to establish a one-game division lead six weeks into the season.
It’s entertaining, obviously, because the Pats have been so good for so long that even the notion they may not simply waltz to another first-round bye is nice to contemplate. But on another level, it’s a rare and compelling thing to watch a dynasty, hobbled by age and circumstance and decline, forced to really work for formerly obvious wins. It’s a reminder that the world catches up with even the greatest among us, and even the all-timers sometimes have to launch themselves into a ragged sprint just to stay ahead of the pack.
THE VERY WORST THING ABOUT THE NFL THIS WEEK: Eventually, the worst thing about an NFL week was going to be a heartbreaking injury. Frankly, I’m amazed it took six weeks to get here. But a league without Aaron Rodgers — lost for multiple weeks and perhaps the rest of the season due to a broken clavicle — is a league without its singular talent.
For all the deserving accolades Brady gets as the greatest quarterback of all time, at this point in their respective careers, Rodgers can simply do things nobody else, not even Brady, can do.
It’s horribly fitting that the week after Rodgers led the Packers to a vintage game-winning drive, throwing the winning touchdown with ball placement that perhaps a handful of quarterbacks ever have possessed, the Packers will now find out exactly what “replacement level” means.
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So bring on the Brett Hundley era in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the Kevin Hogan era marches on — or rather, stumbles drunkenly towards the gutter. And in San Francisco, the age of CJ Beathard is upon us, while Case Keenum holds down the fort in Minnesota, Jay Cutler throws for 150 yards in a victory for the Dolphins, Matt Cassel makes perhaps another start tonight and the Bucs may spend the week searching for a warm body to back up Ryan Fitzpatrick after losing Jameis Winston Sunday.
By the way, Colin Kaepernick has filed a grievance against NFL owners over his lack of a job. As evidence on his behalf, I present the paragraph directly above this one.
