Five Wide: 2022 Week Nine

By Thomas Willoughby

Felt like this past weekend was built on upsets. Lions over Packers, Jets over Bills, Jaguars over Raiders (despite the Raiders having a billion-point lead at one point), there were weird things afoot everywhere you looked. Even the Buccaneers won a game, which, I fear, will kickstart their season anew.

It’s starting to get spicy in the NFL. Each division seems to have a storyline or two that’s bound to last a good few weeks yet. There doesn’t seem to be a clear winning in all but the NFC East. It’s not gotten boring, yet. That’s all you can ask for, I guess.

Minneapolis Miracle-Workers

I’ve been holding off on this one for a little while, but with every passing week it becomes more and more apparent that the conversation needs to take place. The Minnesota Vikings. Are they…are they good? 7-1, 4 games clear at the top of an NFC North that has belonged to the Green Bay Packers exclusively for the better part of half a decade…this feels like a fairly significant moment in time for them, and the division at large, right?

If you’re 7-1, the chances are that you’re actually good. So that’s my question answered. But I ask because it doesn’t feel like they’ve done anything different or exciting. Justin Jefferson is doing Justin Jefferson things, Dalvin Cook is doing Dalvin Cook things, even Kirk Cousins is (largely) doing the good Kirk Cousins things. And their defense is looking the business. Za’Darius Smith? Hell of a pick-up, man.

So why does a 7-1 team feel like they’re floating under the radar? Are we all collectively scarred by the failings of old? Maybe. It does feel like their story is being played out at the same time as their division-mates, the Green Bay Packers, falling apart is taking the spotlight away from them. The lack of prime-time games certainly helps them avoid losing. Bills, Cowboys, and Patriots make up their next 3 games. Come away from those 2-1, and we might have a legit outfit.

Indianapolis Clowns

We’ve spent the past 12 months believing the most dysfunctional organisation in the NFL is the Washington Commanders. And for good reason. As my good friend, Paul Mainwaring, will attest; that team is the pits. But, man, if the Indianapolis Colts haven’t made a play for that title over the past 8 weeks.

A once proud organisation, steeped in historical and (relative) recent success, reduced to pure clownery. Having endured the Carson Wentz experience last season, the Colts looked to twin their elite offensive line, stellar run game, and burgeoning defense with a quarterback that knew how to do it. The dealt a 3rd round pick to Atlanta Falcons legend, Matt Ryan, setting up their 5th starting quarterback in as many years. And the early pre-season buzz was positive! But it didn’t translate to success.

Ryan was unceremoniously benched, albeit with the understanding that he wasn’t necessarily to blame for the team’s fortunes. The reigns were handed to Sam Ehlinger, who has subsequently played not well. 301 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT, granted one of those games coming against the eternally excellent Patriots defense. 0-2, season still somehow not over…but they’ve called time. Frank Reich has been fired, and they’ve decided to focus on 2023. That isn’t where things get weird.

Usually in this situation, you’d see a coordinator step in for to steady the ship, a la Steve Wilks in Carolina. Not here. Indianapolis have turned to a franchise legend, Jeff Saturday, to turn it all around. Jeff Saturday has zero NFL or collegiate coaching experience, by the way. Jeff Saturday has hired former personal assistant, Parks Fraizer, to call offensive plays. Hunker down, the tanks are rolling in.

To add a final cherry to this ridiculous cake, they play the Raiders this weekend. Just over a week ago, he tweeted that they “look horrible”. The seriousness of the franchise has ebbed away. Ridiculous.

Vorsprung Durch Fußball

Big weekend for the league coming up. Big, big, weekend. For the first time ever, the NFL will see a regular season game played in Germany. The Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take over the Allianz Arena, the home of Bayern Munich, as the shield looks to bed itself deeper into European lands. Feels weird, right?

Purely from the point of the game, we have two teams enjoying opposing fortunes. One tops their division, multiple games ahead of their nearest rival, and are in a rich vein of form. The other also top their division, but they’ve been pretty poor, of late. Laboured offensively, beatable defensively, it took a last-second touchdown to snap their losing streak. At the start of the season, you’d expect those respective teams to the Bucs and the Seahawks. Incredibly, it’s the Geno Smith-led Seahawks marching to Munich with their tails up.

What I’m most interested to hear about is the organisational setup. It’s been a little while since a new country was added to the NFL’s international roster. If there’s any weight to the “European division” concept, this needs to be a seamless, hiccup-less experience for all involved. With Frankfurt set to host a game in 2023, it’s certainly exciting to see how far this train can go.

AFC East: The Division Of Endless Possibilities

The AFC East might be the best in the league. I’m calling it. At the time of writing, you have four teams on records of 6-2, 6-3, 6-3, and 5-4. The worst team in the AFC South would steamroll the NFC South, and I can’t tell if that says more about the Patriots or the Buccaneers. Sublime stuff, there.

The big story from the division this weekend was the New York Jets handing a defeat to the all-conquering Buffalo Bills. They looked really good, too. They’ve so much work to do offensively (Zach Wilson is very much a work in progress), but they’re getting the job done. They’re being allowed to learn and grow offensively, however, by a really good-looking defense. Sauce Gardener is different gravy, isn’t he? For the Bills, it’s a misstep, but you’d expect them to win the division despite this loss. You can’t win them all.

The Dolphins are interesting because they’re 6-3. But their 3 defeats have come when Tua Tagovailoa was dealing with injuries. They’re 6-0 with him, and you can make the argument that they could have won the three games they lost with better QB play. They need to tighten up defensively, though, because you can’t be conceding 32 every week and expect to be winning. They’re a really good team, guys.

The Patriots are wild, because they’re so deficient in so many areas. I’m not fully sold on their quarterback situation, and they don’t really have a reliable receiving option, but, man, do they know how to build a defense. 20 points conceded, total, over the past two weeks, and only 166 points conceded over the whole season. They’ve got a bit of a tough run coming up, but I don’t think I can bet against them, ever, even now.

So, there’s a one-win difference between 1st and 4th. That makes for excellent content. I don’t expect that to be the case coming up to the final two weeks, but I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that we have all four teams grappling for a playoff spot in that period. What a division.

Fields Of Dreams

Not so much a lap of honour, not so much an “I told you so”, but certainly an acknowledgment of his development. The Chicago Bears haven’t exactly had it all go their way at the quarterback positions for a long time. Jay Cutler was a longtime member of the Bears, and got them a game from the Super Bowl in 2010/11, but his time as their signal-caller was largely maligned. His heir, Mitchell Trubisky, was dealt a bad hand, and his ability to develop into the player many thought he could be was hit hard by coaching upheaval and poor roster decisions. Despite two playoff berths. So, Justin Fields, come on down. And you know what, he might be the guy?

He’s not had it easy, of course. 2021 was an awful season for the Bears in general, but Matt Nagy handed the keys to Fields well before his time in a last-ditch effort to save his own job. 2022 didn’t start much better, either, and questions began to be asked over Fields’ long-term future in the NFL. But something clicked on Monday NIght Football, against the aforementioned Patriots. Not only did he looked good, but he was making players around him loo good. It felt like they’d cracked the code.

They’ve lost twice since then, albeit to two very good teams. These Bears aren’t built for 2022, but they need to know their foundational pieces are worth building around. Fields is coming off a game where he broke the record for most rushing yards from a quarterback in a single game. He also threw 3 touchdowns. There’s a player in there, and he’s starting to wake up. He might be the guy, you know.

Features Image Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

THOMAS IS A WRITER, AND REGULAR GUEST ON THE TOUCHDOWN REVIEW SHOW PODCAST, FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. YOU CAN FIND HIM @WILLO290592 ON TWITTER

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