Neil Reynolds of Sky Sports has the final say in week seven in the NFL; join Neil and the guests at Inside the Huddle every Tuesday at 9pm on the Sky Sports NFL as they recall the weekend’s highlights …
There was a slight shortage of drama in the NFL in week seven, and our Sunday at Sky Sports provided an average winning margin of at least 20 points, making it the third-biggest one-sided day in NFL history!
The Cincinnati Bengals came into play on Sunday knowing they had lost five in a row to the Baltimore Ravens. And in four defeats under head coach Zach Taylor, Cincinnati’s average loss was north of 25 points.
It began as a sly, tense, difficult romance. At the start of the second half, the Ravens took the lead 17-13 before the Bengals played the piano and defeated the home team. Cincinnati scored four touchdowns in the second half en route to a 41-17 win.
Quarterback Joe Burrow was an outstanding player who threw 416 yards and three touchdowns, and the Bengals have a superstar receiver in Ja’Marr Chase, who has a first-year influence that hasn’t been in the league since Odell Beckham Jr. joined her. New York Giants in 2014. In today’s attack-friendly NFL, the Bengals have enough firepower to go a long way. Can they go all the way?
Bengals are definitely in this campaign as we approach the middle of this 2021 campaign season. But they are far from the only ones that turn into an exciting piece of fame at every conference. This is the most open season I can remember in my 25 years, when I fully dedicated myself to working in the NFL.
In the AFC, six teams have only two defeats so far. Baltimore, Cincinnati, Las Vegas Raiders and Tennessee Titans are all 5-2, while the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Chargers are 4-2 weeks away.
Top-notch NFC looks just as talented and capable of anything. There are five teams participating in this conference with no more than one defeat. The Arizona Cardinals are perfect 7-0, the Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 6-1, and the Dallas Cowboys are 5-1. Perhaps there is some other team lurking in the pack, which of course can warm up, but there are already many clubs that look like they can win this entire season.
The obvious team lurking in the pack that can warm up and do another serious run is the Kansas City Chiefs as their protector is Patrick Mahomes. But there is something unpleasant about the team that represented the AFC in the last two Super Bowls.
The revs are an obvious place to start. Kansas City committed three more in Sunday’s 27-3 surrender to the Titans. They now lead the league with 17 rallies, and Magomez has nine interceptions in a year, while he only scored five in 2019 and six in 2020. But there are other concerns as well.
