One of my neighbors shouted across the street between our two houses yesterday, “Boy, this is a strange NFL season, how’s it going for you?”
A National Football League season is like the weather. Seems every year people will say something to the effect of, “Isn’t this strange weather we’re having?”
Truth is, if that is said every year, perhaps it's just weather. Same with a football season, every year there are upsets and results that surprise. But, given it happens every year, it is not strange, it is just what is.
Okay, this year the seeming abnormal results find the first place Denver Broncos beating both the AFC and NFC Champions from last season, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. But they have lost against the point spread to the Tennessee Titans, New York Jets, New York Giants and Las Vegas Raiders, a quartet of teams that have combined for seven wins and 34 losses.
Then there is the Jacksonville Jaguars, they opened October with a victory over the Chiefs, then lost three of their next four games while losing against the spread all four times and only having a one-point win over the Raiders to interrupt their four straight point spread setbacks. Then, on cue, they knocked the AFC West Division leading Los Angeles Chargers out of the top spot while handing them a 35-6 loss last week.
Now Trevor Lawrence and company head for Arizona to meet a Cardinals team that has lost seven of their last eight games after opening the season with back-to-back wins. But, a closer examination of the seven losses suffered by the Cardinals find them competitive in most of their losses, covering the spread in narrow losses to the San Francisco 49ers, Indianapolis Colts and Green Bay Packers … three teams in prime position to crack the playoff field this year.