Thursday’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders marked the beginning of Week 9 of the 2018 NFL season, which means we’re about to dig into the second half.
Teams have gotten through the early-season hiccups, flukes and roster re-adjustments and are now headed in one of two directions: the post-season or the draft.
There are, of course, a few sure things as far as contenders go: The L.A. Rams will, barring total disaster, be in the playoffs; The Chiefs won’t stop scoring touchdowns; and the Patriots will finish atop a weak AFC East.
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The same can be said for those at the bottom of the standings: The Bills can’t score; the Giants are bad; and Gruden’s Raiders are counting down the days ’til Vegas.
But then there are the teams in the middle — the teams that could very easily make a strong playoff push as the contenders they’re expected to be, or suffer a few key losses and miss the post-season altogether.
Those are the teams that offer the most intrigue heading into the final weeks of the season, and the teams we’re looking at right now.
Philadelphia Eagles
At 4-4 going into a Week 9 bye, the .500 reigning champion Eagles aren’t showing any panic in their game, nor should they. The smart pickup of Golden Tate from the Detroit Lions gives quarterback Carson Wentz another versatile weapon — it’ll be fun to see how head coach Doug Pederson uses Tate in the short game — and tells the league they’re still very much in it.
Adam Schefter on Twitter
NFC East busy over past eight days: *Redskins land safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. *Eagles acquire WR Golden Tate. *Cowboys trade for WR Amari Cooper. *Giants trade away CB Eli Apple and DT Damon Harrison.
It’ll be tough sledding ahead for Philly, who face some difficult opponents in the second half of the schedule. Weeks 11 and 15 (at Saints and Rams, respectively) will be must-watches, while late-season matchups against Washington (5-2) in Weeks 13 and 17 will more than likely determine each club’s playoff fate.
It’s also worth noting that Washington’s remaining schedule suggests a much easier path to the post-season than their NFC East foes.
Mike Clay on Twitter
D.J. Swearinger is the No. 2 graded safety at @PFF this season Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix is the No. 3 graded safety at @PFF this season Both are now Redskins
New Orleans Saints & Carolina Panthers
After losing their season opener, the Saints have won six straight games and the only team that might be able to stop them just happens to be the one they’re facing this Sunday.
NFL Research on Twitter
The #Rams and #Saints have a combined record of 14-1 & a combined win pct of .933 This is the 4th highest combined win pct of 2 teams to meet Week 9 or later since the 1970 merger In each of the 3 games prior, the winner advanced to the Super Bowl that season So..
The 5-2 Panthers, while not as hot as their division leaders, could easily have a record to match that of the Saints by the end of Sunday as the playoff race begins to form.
Now, here’s why we’ve grouped these two clubs together:
This is going to be a fun race to the post-season in the NFC South.
The entire NFC North
Raise your hand if you predicted the Chicago Bears would be leading the NFC North at the halfway point of the season.
(Put your hands down, you guys.)
No other division in the NFL is as tightly-contested as this one is right now. The Bears and Vikings have four wins apiece while the Packers and Lions each have three. Of the four teams, we’ll be keeping an especially close eye on the Packers and Vikings. The Packers dealt HaHa Clinton-Dix and Ty Montgomery at the deadline, two players who weren’t expected to stick around in free agency anyway. The Vikings stood pat, but have their work cut out for them with a tough second-half slate filled with division matchups.
As for their head-to-head? They tied in Week 2, and will meet again at the end of the month in a Sunday night showdown. We may know by then who’s eying a reasonable shot at the playoffs and who isn’t.
Houston Texans
It took a few games, but Deshaun Watson and the Houston Texans are playing like the dynamic club we saw last year before the injuries hit, winning five straight games.
James Palmer on Twitter
Deshaun Watson has thrown the 2nd-most TD passes (34) in a player’s first 15 career games in NFL history. But Watson would need 6 TD passes this week vs Broncos to pass @kurt13warner record 39 through his first 16 games.
They haven’t exactly had the toughest of schedules, though (they beat the Colts, Cowboys, Bills, Jaguars, and Dolphins), and that will continue through the second-half of the season that could see them quickly runaway with the division.
Pittsburgh Steelers
From the Le’Veon Bell situation to perceived tension between Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown, the Steelers’ season has had no shortage of drama once again. Early-season struggles, especially on defence, suggested that drama was spilling out onto the football field but a three-game win streak (two of which came in the division) indicates the 4-2-1 club is back on track — and even thriving without Bell in the lineup.
Aditi Kinkhabwala on Twitter
Run through all the best @NFL RBs in your head. Then guess who has forced the most missed tackles this year. That’s right: James Conner. He’s forced 26 missed tackles on rushes, 20 on catches. That’s a missed tackle on 28.9% of his touches, the highest of 54 RBs w/ 50 touches.
Los Angeles Chargers
The Chargers were the trendy team to pick heading into the season, and they’re a tough club to label at the halfway point. At 5-2 and riding a four-game win streak, they’re keeping pace with the Chiefs in AFC West — even without Joey Bosa, who’s keeping everyone guessing as to his return from injury — but we should take that record with a grain of salt. All five wins have come against underwhelming opponents: Bills, 49ers, Raiders, Browns, Titans.
The second half of the season — which includes games against the Seahawks, Broncos, Steelers, Bengals, Chiefs and Ravens — should pose a few more challenges and answer the question many of us are asking: Which Chargers team will we get?
NFL Research on Twitter
With a start Sunday, Philip Rivers will become the 4th QB in NFL history to start 200 consecutive games… Most Consecutive Starts by a QB in NFL History: * Brett Favre – 297 * Eli Manning – 210 * Peyton Manning – 208 * Philip Rivers – 199 #Chargers
Seattle Seahawks
If we’ve learned anything, it’s to never count Russell Wilson out and this season is no exception. Wilson had a perfect passer rating Sunday against the Lions and he’ll have to be nearly flawless in the coming weeks as the Seahawks face a tough slate of games against opponents like the Rams, Packers, Panthers, Vikings and Chiefs. Yikes. It may not take long to learn the fate of this club.
Steve Palazzolo on Twitter
Russell Wilson when targeting Tyler Lockett: 25-for-29 394 yards 6 TD Passer rating of 158.3
