Debrief Ravens Packs losses among most humbling of Week 9

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Debrief: Ravens', Pack's lo ses among most humbling of Week 9 Published: Nov 05, 2018 at 10:07 AM Around The NFL Podcast Co-Host The NFL is awash in winning streaks. The ' undefeated start to the season , giving way to the ' seven-game winning streak. It feels like that 1-2 start by the , which so many analysts insisted was , happened decades ago after New England came through for its sixth straight win. The have similarly put their slow start into the rearview mirror with four straight wins. The have won five straight, including an impre sive performance in Seattle. The have won six straight, even if four of those victories came down to the final plays. The Bucs are the only team in the NFC South not to have won at least three straight games. The results of Week 9 only served to further stratify the NFL's haves and have-nots. In a league where nothing stays certain for long, it feels like at least half (if not more) of the league's playoff field is nearly set. The , , and all have at least a of making the tournament, according to FiveThirtyEight's playoff predictions, with the inside tracks to playoff byes. The ' 6-2 record and easy schedule make it exceedingly likely that Los Angeles will field two playoff teams this season. The are the sixth team to have playoff odds over 80 percent, while the and the aren't far off, at or above 75 percent. Long winning streaks like Houston's tend to make seemingly wide-open divisions like the AFC South begin to look a lot more closed off to teams like the Jags and . Just over halfway through the season, there might only be four to five playoff spots still truly open. That's why each defeat at this time of year feels heavier, with the accumulated weight of the season bearing down. Before moving on to what we know and what we don't after Week 9, here's a quick look at the most humbling lo ses of the week: Most humbling lo ses 1) : Did they peak too early? Five weeks after controlling the ball and the line of scrimmage , the opposite happened for the in Baltimore. helped the convert 10 of 16 third downs because he didn't have to worry about the ' pa s rush. Pittsburgh was far better in the red zone than Baltimore, because the have a more dynamic running back and offensive line. Like a lot of defense-led outfits this year, the can't actually get stops against quality offenses when they need them. At 1-3 in the AFC North and 4-5 overall, Baltimore's chances of winning the division are all but nil. The have won the via the wild-card route before, though -- and they'll probably need to do it again to this time. 2) : Forgive fans for having this thought sometime around on Sunday night: One week after Sean McVay and the ' coaches , Green Bay made too many mental mistakes to win in Foxborough. The have proven just good enough to lose to the best teams in an entertaining fashion, which describes a lot of the Mike McCarthy era. 3) : The NFC North is down to a three-team race after the went down meekly in Minnesota, allowing to be sacked 10 times. Detroit has been a tough team to get a handle on all year, but the 3-5 record makes sense. They are just below average in a lot of areas. Mike Smith Jersey 4) : When the lose (as they have this season , and vs. the on Sunday), they lose hard. That's the sign of a limited team that was never as strong as a 5-2 start indicated. Washington's injuries on the offensive line contributed to a game where Atlanta was the more physical team on both lines -- and the ' offensive i sues are likely to get worse. Coach Jay Gruden announced Monday that starting guards and . So is wide receiver . Scherff was a huge part of this team's identity, one of the toughest interior guards in football. Richardson was theoretically the best outside receiver on a team that can't make plays to the outside. 5) :Run-run-pa s doesn't work when your defense doesn't get stops and your quarterback can't hit on shot plays. It was eye-opening to see the executing so many of the ' principles, flying to the ball on defense and pushing Seattle around on key running downs. Whereas the ran on third-and-18 early in the second quarter, the completed a 54-yard pa s on third-and-15. And then scored a 34-yard touchdown one play later. Whereas was decisive and expert at avoiding sacks, was too often hesitant, . There is something soul-crushing about losing at home to a team that does what you do, only better. Things we know after Week 9 Bill Belichick's forays into big-ticket free agency have produced mixed results over the years, but it's safe to say he's happy with his in cornerback (more than $14 million per year). While former CB , who with the this offseason, struggles in Tenne see, Gilmore is ranked as the top cornerback in football, according to Pro Football Focus. His performance Sunday night against receiver was perhaps his best of a half-season marked by consistent toughne s. Even when Gilmore gives up grabs, he rarely lets a wideout get behind him. He provides a physical presence at the position not unlike what Darrelle Revis gave the for one season, and what Ty Law Boyd Gordon Men Jersey gave them back in the day. 's made the whole. Minnesota's offense has yet to self-actualize, but the ferocious front seven everyone expected to see early in the season now appears here to stay because of Griffen's . After a quiet outing in his first game back, Griffen had three QB hits and 1.5 sacks . That was nothing compared to 's outrageous afternoon -- 3.5 sacks and a touchdown -- but there's no denying that Griffen's presence makes all his formidable linemates better. For the first time since Jared Allen was on the team, Griffen is the ' second-best pa s rusher. With Hunter playing at a first-team All-Pro level, the ' front has the potential to take over games like they did against Detroit, when 10 sacks had out of sorts by the fourth quarter. Seventy catches and 880 yards halfway through the season is wildly impre sive. Seventy catches and 880 yards on only 79 targets is outrageous for an outside receiver. It's not like Thomas is just catching bubble screens and short slants over the middle. He's bodying cornerbacks on the outside and fighting for contested catches, rarely letting the ball hit the ground. To put Thomas' catch rate in perspective, the rest of the top-five receivers in terms of yardage have, on average, 28.75 incompletions on balls thrown in their direction this year. Thomas has nine. The can be great in the red zone without . 's only increased confusion Monday regarding his murky status. This much we know: Even if the running back returns to the this week, they can't get much better in the red zone. Pittsburgh is scoring touchdowns on 75 percent of its trips to the red zone this season, good for second-best in the NFL. They hit their average in Baltimore on four trips in large part due to the play of an offensive line performing better than any other O-line in the AFC the presence of running back . Conner's ability to break tackles and create mismatches as a receiver gives coordinator Randy Fichtner a ton of options. the would be even better with Bell and Conner on the roster, but it's not like they've been struggling without Bell, especially when they get in position to score. Things we don't know If is the best short-yardage weapon in football or just the best weapon overall. has the numbers and fits the prototype in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Kids Jersey terms of what we expect in a running back. and have more yards from scrimmage. I'd still rather have the ' Kamara than any back in football. There are a lot of reasons why, but it starts with Kamara's versatility near the goal line. No running back gives defenses more to worry about, because he can expertly power through tackles, get to the outside, line up as a receiver or create space for other players. Watch Kamara every week and try to find the negative plays, the ones where he makes the wrong decision or reads a play incorrectly. They don't exist. He appears preternaturally smart, the player who could keep Sean Payton and from ever retiring. Whether will be a bigger factor after the ' bye. Jackson has seen an uptick over the last two weeks in overall snaps, especially in high-leverage situations. The results have been mixed at best, which describes the ' offense as a whole. Now 4-5 entering their Week 10 bye, the have yet to develop any consistent running game, and is coming off his worst two-game stretch of the season (59 percent completion rate, 398 yards, one touchdown and two picks). Will the ' coaching staff respond by -- or le s? If anyone is running harder than . Gordon is third in the NFL in forced mi sed tackles on runs, according to PFF, despite playing only seven games. Week after week, he runs like a man who is for on the streets of Los Angeles. Whether the ' offense will be the worst of all time. The metrics at Football Outsiders indicate that the ' offense was the through eight weeks, and that was Buffalo scored nine points with four turnovers . It takes a historically bad team to lose 41-9 while allowing just 11 first downs and 190 total yards. If the ' defensive improvement is sustainable. The ' defense doesn't need to be great. It just needs to be pa sable, to allow the team's top-five offense do the rest. It's po sible that Atlanta coach Dan Quinn self-scouted well during the team's bye week and came up with some solutions to mitigate the defensive damage, which translated to just 14 points allowed in Washington. It's also po sible Atlanta simply ran into an anemic offense at precisely the right time, when the group was short three starters on the offensive line. Now 4-4 with middle linebacker eligible to return later in the season, the are back to being realistic playoff contenders in the NFC. Fielding a "good enough" defense with an explosive offense is basically the recipe for succe s powering the top teams the NFL this year, so why can't a team with , and Takk McKinley follow that model? This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
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