Who are your best 6 teams in the NFL after the first week of the 2017-2018 NFL season?
NFL 2017 Discussion
Hard to tell from this Cowboys fan, but I will go:
New England
Green Bay
Atlanta
Dallas
Minnesota
Oakland/Las Vegas and Seattle- Tie
- No team really played well in week 1
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KC
Raiders
Atlanta
Dallas
GB
NE, just because I need a 6th, but I would put Honorable mention-
ViQueens, Ravens, Broncos, and Eagles....Panthers not far behind, and don't rule out the Lions!
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Random thoughts from the Pats loss to the Chiefs.
- The Patriots defense was awful / horrendous.
- Brady misses Edleman.
- May not have this exactly right, but either 2 or 3 of their Super Bowl wins started with a loss in game 1 of that season. I do remember when Buffalo beat them 30 to 0 in their season opener one year they won the Super bowl.
- Glad this 16 and 0 crap can come to end (early).
- What was it 3 years ago when the Chiefs spanked the Pats in September and everyone was calling to an end to the Brady and Belichick era. Trent Dilfer was one of those that made an ass of himself as I remember. That was the game that Belichick famously said after (that) "we're on to Cincinnati." I believe they won the Super Bowl that year as well.
- Even if the Pats aren't as good as last year, their AFC opponents haven't improved to the extent that I don't see anyone challenging them.
- It's only one game and with all the new personal and the Patriots having a very complicated playbook, it's way too early to say whether this game was a bellwether game or a sign of things to come. History points to the latter. In a good way for Pats fans............... Time will tell...........
Is the Vikings offense really that much better or was the Saints defense just terrible?
Same question about the Rams and the Colts.
Was the Giants offensive line so bad that it hid how mediocre the Cowboys defense is?
Are Houston fans cursed into continually seeing the worst QB performances?
How many INTs will Cutler throw in his Miami debut?
Brady's out two of the receivers he knows now, but will start to work with the new receivers and should be clicking after a few games. Can't really afford to lose anyone else though. Glad to hear your house made it through the storm.
Top 6 teams:
Atlanta
Carolina
Kansas City
Denver
Pittsburg
Baltimore
I believe New England will definitely be powerful if they aren't plagued by more key injuries. I also believe, and hope I'm wrong, that Watson will start to make plays with Houston soon and they will be nasty if that happens. Tampa looks great on paper, but we'll have to wait until week 2 to get a look at them in action.
Top 3 NFC
Atlanta
Dallas
Green Bay
Top 3 AFC
KC
New England
Denver
(Honorable mention Pittsburgh)
Offensive line weakness looked like a big issue for Houston, Seattle, and the NYG. All three have good defenses but their offenses look to be in trouble. O-line also looked bad for both Washington and Philly in their game.
Both Dallas and GB looked good, but it's worth noting in both instances that their opponents failed to generate any meaningful offense.
I think New England will struggle this year without viable receivers. They need to make some moves to get someone in there that can create some means of separation and be an option for Brady. I suspect that this is management's most pressing issue at the moment. A huge part of their defense is fueled by offense, much more so than any other team in the league imo.
KC looked good, or better yet - Alex Smith looked great. I don't know where they will stand come December, but they kicked off their season on a great note, beating up on New England the way they did. But (imo) they're not as good as NE made them out to be. New England couldn't have played worse.
There's talk that Andrew Luck might be out of Indianapolis very soon, and if so - I find that bad for the organization. The Colts have morphed into a 4-12 team under Pagano's leadership, so maybe they should keep Luck and get rid of Pagano. GM Chris Ballard just walked into the job back in January, so it's too early to tell if he knows what he's doing. Judging by the personnel moves made in the off season however, there's not much to be excited about there. Then again, Irsay is as much a problem as anyone else. There not gonna fix that, not as long as he's writing the checks.
Officiating has already been absolutely dreadful in just the first week this season. Not a Seahawks fan by any means, but there were at least 4 mind-boggling bad calls in that game alone. Might be time for the league to develop full-time officials, me thinks. Some of these refs are just clueless.
The O-line for Philly continues to be an issue. And aging vets with ongoing injury issues continue to plague them. Jason Peters has been a warrior for the Eagles during his time there, but 35 years behind him aren't helping matters.
If Wentz has to continue running for his life, this team will continue to struggle doing better than 8-8.
Way too early to be throwing in the towel, but this team stands no chance to win the division with such a porous front line.
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I've mostly been unimpressed with Gruden since taking over. Their defense, typically, has made them competitive, much more so than their offense in recent years.
As a Philly fan (and a sentiment that is probably appreciated by Redskins fans as well) I am growing very weary of the easy 2-3 yard completed check-down pass.
Both Wentz and Cousins have good arms. Why these QB's continue to do the check-down plays on 3rd and long is simply beyond my understanding. It was a common theme last season and I hope that it doesn't carry over to this season. Of course - when your team's best deep-threat receiver is Nelson Agholor, it's kinda hard to expect much of him.
Talent development is needed in the receiving corps, for sure.
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I agree. That was simply mind boggling. The officiating has been directed to cut down on aggressive hits and taunting, but there was nothing there to warrant a penalty, much less an ejection.
Not to mention the pass interference no-call against GB that was clearly pass interference. That said, Richard Sherman has a history of playing a similar brand of defense, of which an official could throw a flag every other play on him. Not sure how much of that played a role, but it was nevertheless clearly pass interference on that one particular play by GB that went uncalled. Pete Carroll would've been well within his right to make a call to Goodell Monday morning asking him WTF is going on with the officiating.
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My two big takeaways from week 1:
The Colts suck. And not that we didn't expect them to suck early-on this season, with Luck being injured and his status being week-to-week, but nobody in their right mind would've expected them to no-show the way they did against the Rams, giving up 46 points no less.
Dallas has picked up where they left off from last season. Although the Giants suck on offense, their defense is still very good. And the Cowboys defense isn't too shabby either. Prescott played a solid game, throwing no interceptions, and Elliot carried for 104 yards on 24 touches. They were the best team in the NFC East heading into the season, and their status hasn't changed after week 1.
As for New England... as we've learned in the past - premature panic isn't warranted, as the Pats have 3 Super Bowl winning seasons after losing their opening game. In other words - they've been here before. But it wasn't that they lost Thursday night, but rather how they lost. They resembled nothing remotely close to the team that won the title just 8 months earlier. They need to find Brady some competent receivers, first and foremost, and that defense needs to show up and put out. This was the first time in 82 games that the Pats lost while holding a halftime lead @ Gillette Stadium, and the first time in what seems like forever that Brady failed to throw a single touchdown pass, 16 for 36 and a total of 267 passing yards. While it might be too early to panic, this was at the very least a huge wake-up call in their season opener.
Two coaches are (imo) already feeling the pressure and in the hot seat: Marvin Lewis and Chuck Pagano. I will be surprised if either of these coaches are still with their current teams shortly after their seasons end. Cincy failed to score a single point in their opener against Baltimore, and the Colts did their best 2016 Cleveland Browns impersonation on Sunday. I can appreciate the fact that Pagana is a well-liked coach and (not to mention) it is extremely difficult to let go of a guy who went through a life-changing struggle with cancer. But I think he's running out of leeway in Indianapolis, and would be shocked if he lasts through the remaining 15 games this season, unless something dramatically changes before then.
Most impressive QB performances in Week 1:
Alex Smith, who completed 28/35 passes and threw for 368 yards and 4 touchdowns against the Pats.
Sam Bradford, the league's official "stat-padding check-down specialist" who completed 27/32 passes and threw for 346 yards and 3 touchdowns against the Saints.
2 months later
Spuzz Just a matter of time before Smith returns to super conservative form, imo.
Genius right there!
LOL
Anybody still think Alex Smith is "under appreciated" ?
I type this as he fails to convert yet another third down by trying to run for 6 yards after holding the ball too long, against the Buffalo Bills! hahahaha
Wentz best in league. It’s the Eagles then everybody else
The Eagles are the best team in the worst Division. They might do well in the playoffs, tho. I'm watching with interest.
