Scott Van Pelt's One Big Thing: Ravens, Patriots surprise in Week 7
Another NFL Sunday is in the books, and the exclamation point at the end of the sentence was the Philadelphia Eagles' dominant win over the Miami Dolphins in a matchup of 5-1 teams.
But starting with the beginning of the day, a week after failing to score a touchdown on five of six red zone trips, the Baltimore Ravens flipped the script in Week 7 against the Detroit Lions. The Ravens became the fifth team this season to score five red zone TDs. Detroit entered Sunday with the NFL's best defense, but Lamar Jackson was brilliant and after hearing about it all summer, is this is the kind of game that shows you what they can be offensively?
The Buffalo Bills are 4-3 and they're lucky they aren't 3-4 after the end of that New York Giants game last week. They have a four-game stretch later in the season: at Philadelphia, at the Kansas City Chiefs, home for the Dallas Cowboys and at the Los Angeles Chargers. I'm not writing an obit here, because we saw the ceiling in that blowout of Miami, but they're making this an uphill climb and they've got a short turnaround Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this week.
The New England Patriots enjoyed this one for a lot of reasons -- the 300th win for Bill Belichick chief among them. How many more wins remain for Bill with the Patriots is hard to know, but their time together has been legendary.
The Seattle Seahawks' defense is nasty, and the team keeps identifying young talent it can plug and play immediately. Two home run drafts in a row, apparently. Devon Witherspoon is the latest. He's not a big dude, but his impact is felt in a big way... his nine pass breakups this season are tied for third most in the NFL and he has played only five games.
I feel badly for the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers -- they never have home games. Dallas came in and took over SoFi Stadium last Monday against the Chargers and the Pittsburgh Steelers did it Sunday against the Rams. Yes, those are two of the biggest traveling fan bases in the NFL, but the Rams and Chargers are a combined 2-5 at home this season and 3-3 on the road. My point is, they just never have a home-field advantage.
Speaking of which, I'm convinced Patrick Mahomes has it in perpetuity. Kansas City just keeps rolling along and I'm becoming convinced Mahomes will never play a road playoff game. He has played 14 postseason games with 11 at Arrowhead Stadium and three in the Super Bowl. That feels unfair, but not as unfair as Mahomes when he is scrambling. It feels almost unjust. I don't mean he is breaking rules -- I just mean it is third-and-15 and he scrambles for first downs. After Sunday, he has a pair of runs for a first down on third-and-15 or more this season -- the rest of the NFL has one.
And since he became the Chiefs' starter in 2018, they have converted on 22% of their third-and-15s while the NFL average is just 9%. If I were playing against him I would want to pull my hair out -- and I'm in no position to do that.
