The Lions offense is inevitable, Packers defense may be Super Bowl worthy and 9 things we learned in Week 7

After seven weeks of the 2024 NFL season, only one unbeaten team remains.

Of course it’s the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs continue to thrive, even when dragged into the muck. On Sunday, that meant shaking off a two-interception day from Patrick Mahomes and winning a Super Bowl 58 rematch on the road by 10 points. That kept Kansas City’s path back to the promised land intact, but the NFC side of the bracket is much more difficult to divine — especially after big performances from the Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions.

Let’s dive into those big performances, along with the letdown that allowed Mahomes and company to thrive even when they weren’t at their best. And, sure, we can talk about the modest optimism of quarterback switches in New England (voluntary) and Cleveland (much less so) and the vacated optimism behind the eyes of Carolina Panthers fans everywhere.

Read on for more, from Drake Maye to the very real concerns following the San Francisco 49ers. Please bear with me for any Twitter embed issues. Our editing software has become a whole problem on that front the past couple weeks. Rest assured, if there’s a play alluded to in the text it’s worth clicking through to see if it didn’t make it into the article itself.

1. Drake Maye is a roller coaster

In a span of a single drive in London, New England Patriots rookie Drake Maye brought his team 94 yards on the back of deep throws. First came a deep shot over the middle to a single-covered Hunter Henry, the ball placed exactly where it needed to be for a gain of 32 on third down. Then this perfect dot to Kayshon Boutte.

Finally, a 22-yard touchdown on K.J. Osborn’s second catch of the day.

This is exactly what the Patriots wanted to see from the vaunted top three draft pick tasked with finally giving New England a proper Tom Brady replacement. Maye found openings downfield, balanced risk and reward and threw spirals through tight windows to keep the hope of a comeback alive.

He also did this against the backdrop of two botched Jacksonville Jaguars interceptions that should have effectively ended this game in time to flood the pubs around Wembley Stadium before dinner. Drops from Tyson Campbell and Andre Cisco helped make his final line look better than it actually was. Drops from his own receiving corps — including a brutal day from second round rookie Ja’Lynn Polk — helped even that out.

This is, as a whole, encouraging. Maye is building game experience and working through the growing pains that limited fellow rookies Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels back in September. He doesn’t have the supporting cast Williams or even Daniels does with a depleted Washington Commanders roster. In London, he relied heavily on Henry and tailback Ja’Mycal Hasty because Demario Douglas was recovering from an illness and the rest of his lineup, well, looks a whole lot like like the receiving corps that eventually chased Brady out of New England.

Ultimately, this is a good thing. Maye is showing signs of life in a way Mac Jones did not before him. Jones, for example, started 11 games in 2023 and completed four deep balls. With three in a single drive today, Maye’s already matched him in two starts.

Also, winning isn’t exactly productive for a Patriots team with zero realistic playoff aspirations in 2024. New England’s clearest path to a rebuild is through the draft, where it can put together the trappings of a Carolina Panthers-Chicago Bears trade to load the roster with draft picks and young, inexpensive talent around Maye. The Jaguars, also 1-5 and depressing to water through six weeks of the season, were very real competition for the top overall pick.

The Patriots needed a quarterback who could push the ball downfield. On Sunday, against an overmatched opponent, he completed seven of 13 throws that traveled at least 10 yards downfield for 143 yards and a touchdown. His passer rating on these throws? 118.4. New England converted both its red zone opportunities into touchdowns and converted half its third down opportunities with a rookie quarterback behind center.

That’s what this team needs. Especially if it doesn’t come with too many wins this fall.

2. Deshaun Watson’s injury may finally force the Cleveland Browns to play to Kevin Stefanski’s strengths

It’s rare a season-ending Achilles injury to a starting quarterback can be considered a good thing. But Watson had been so historically bad he was a rarity unto himself. Since 2000, no passer in the league had been less valuable than the man once accused of more than 20 counts of sexual misconduct and what the NFL itself described as “predatory behavior.”

The Browns stood by him, knowing they had no exit from the $230 million fully-guaranteed contract the team gave a below-average quarterback whose seven starts in 2024 are his career high with the team. Head coach Kevin Stefanski stubbornly reassured reporters he’d remain the team’s QB1 through multiple depressing post-game and mid-week press conferences. The decision to elevate Dorian Thompson-Robinson to backup and relegate veteran Jameis Winston to the team’s emergency quarterback seemed like a message in itself, telling fans the former Tampa Bay Buccaneer wasn’t in the team’s future.

But now he might be, and that’s a big deal. Watson left Week 7 with what appeared to be a serious leg injury. He had his finest performance of 2024 to date after completing 15 of 17 passes. The Browns, tellingly, didn’t score a single point before he was carted to the locker room.

This is an opportunity for Stefanski. He’s twice been the NFL’s Coach of the Year. Both times he did so with unwanted quarterbacks, whether that was the guy Cleveland later discarded to get to Watson (Baker Mayfield in 2020) or the 38-year-old veteran the team signed in November long after Watson’s season ended due to a shoulder injury (Joe Flacco in 2024).

Now he’ll wade into the fray with a 2023 fifth-round draft pick and a 30-year-old who has made 10 starts the last four-plus seasons and who has thrown a single pass for the Browns this fall. Thompson-Robinson earned three starts in relief of Watson last fall and failed to impress, tossing a single touchdown against four interceptions and eventually necessitating the arrival of Flacco. He entered midway through Week 7 and threw two more picks before exiting with a hand injury. Winston came on later to see out the rest of a 21-14 loss.

What can we expect from these backups? Probably a steady diet of play-action passes, particularly now Nick Chubb is back in the lineup. Stefanski ran these passes at a top 10 rate in his COTY seasons, rolling with them 29.4 percent of the time in 2020 and 25.7 percent in 2023. But that number was only 22.9 percent with Watson this fall, continuing a trend in which he’s faked fewer handoffs each season as a Brown.

Winston isn’t much of a play-action guy, but he and Thompson-Robinson could really use the space that creates given the inconsistent blocking of an offensive line riddled with injuries. Getting linebackers moving toward the line of scrimmage would also open room in the passing game for a receiving corps suddenly without an WR1 after Amari Cooper was traded to the Buffalo Bills.

It doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see more deep shots. While Flacco was a highlight generator with big throws, his 12.3 percent deep ball rate last season was actually lower than Watson’s (12.9). It may mean we see more deep throws actually work, however; Flacco completed 11 throws 20-plus yards downfield in five games last season. Watson had four.

On the other hand, Thompson-Robinson only threw two passes that traveled more than 11 yards downfield and, uh…

Winston eventually entered the game from his station as emergency quarterback and showed some signs of life, throwing a handful of deep balls and completing two as he led a futile comeback effort. That would suggest the veteran would get the call for next week’s game against the Baltimore Ravens, but common sense has not been a calling card for Cleveland’s ownership. They could want to see if they’ve got anything in Thompson-Robinson, especially since at 1-6 there’s little else to look forward to this fall.

The playoffs may be out of reach. That doesn’t mean Stefanski can’t find a way to ruin things for the rest of the AFC North before the season is over. It may mean making one of the league’s most volatile quarterbacks a consistent passer along the way.

As for Watson, he won’t be missed by the home crowd, that’s for sure.

3. Saquon Barkley got revenge on the team that gainfully employed him for six years

The Philadelphia Eagles won a game in which Jalen Hurts attempted 14 passes. Hurts did well on these throws, which included a fourth-and-1 deep shot to A.J. Brown for a touchdown. But, ultimately, he was not the hero of Sunday’s 28-3 victory.

That was this guy.

Barkley’s 176 rushing yards were the second-most of his career. They were the second-most any running back has ever had against his former team (we remember you fondly, Bengals version of Cedric Benson). He had three different rushes of at least 38 yards. These weren’t just a product of good blocking or breakaway speed or the power to drag defenders along for the ride. It was all of these things, occasionally on the same play.

In a season where Hurts has been good but not great, this is vital. Injuries and questionable decision making have relegated the 2022 All-Pro quarterback to a place a couple notches below elite. The Eagles can win with that if guys like A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert are healthy and the defense rises up. But that hasn’t been the case early in 2024, making Barkley a necessity rather than a luxury.

So far, he’s come through on a historic level.

4. The Green Bay Packers defense, with an assist from Jordan Love, will be a playoff problem (complimentary)

The Packers addition of Jeff Hafley as defensive coordinator last offseason was a bit unorthodox. After all, Hafley was the head coach of a decent Boston College program before opting for an assistant job in the pros.

Hafley understood the potential of a unit that consistently failed to approach the sum of its parts. Green Bay offered him a lineup filled with former first round picks and potential Pro Bowlers. Week 7 brought a big time challenge; stifling the Houston Texans and rising star C.J. Stroud.

The Packers were up to it.

The Packers hounded the second-year quarterback, sacking him four times, hitting him seven more and pressuring him on half his dropbacks. Stroud finished his day with just 86 passing yards on 21 attempts (10 completions). Factor in the sacks, that that equates to a net gain of 55 yards on 25 dropbacks — a hideous 2.2 yards per pass play.

This was all vital. Two Jordan Love interceptions and a muffed punt led to 16 Texans points in the first half. Green Bay’s offense stalled out after scoring a touchdown to open the third quarter, creating just enough space for the Packers to engineer a come-from-ahead loss. Instead, Hafley kept bullying Stroud and found the footing to limit Joe Mixon. The veteran running back finished with 115 rushing yards, but only 34 came after halftime on 14 carries.

These were the kinds of adjustments Green Bay had lacked under Joe Barry and, before him, Mike Pettine. Teams gashing the Packers on the ground typically stayed that way. But on Sunday, Hafley’s unit came together to mostly shut the door on those big runs without creating vulnerabilities in the passing game.

This gave Jordan Love just enough space to lead a comeback win. And, as is tradition, Love got there because he believes in the power of his arm through good and bad.

Love had another uneven day, throwing three touchdown passes but also a pair of interceptions — neither of which were especially inspiring.

But that’s the kind of risk Green Bay has deemed acceptable in the Love era — and the Rodgers and Favre eras before it. The fifth-year quarterback sees nothing but green lights because when he finds his rhythm downfield it’s beautiful. Two of his touchdown passes came on throws that traveled at least 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage and a Jayden Reed drop robbed him of what should have been a points-scoring drive to end the second quarter.

Dots, rainbows, drops in a bucket. Whatever you want to call it, Love has it. He’s the more pocket-bound version of what the Indianapolis Colts want Anthony Richardson to be.

He can flip the game on its head with a single throw, whether it’s a back foot floater through a rapidly closing window or an absolute laser to his tight end in the end zone. Despite a rocky start, his Packers are now 5-2 — and looking like a real problem for the rest of the NFC.

5. The Detroit Lions were ready for the Minnesota Vikings’ pressure

The Vikings came into Week 6 blitzing 41.1 percent of the time — second-most in the NFL behind only the Denver Broncos. That’s a huge number, but it’s still significantly less than the 48.8 percent of the time that coordinator Brian Flores sent extra pass rushers in 2023.

This has given Minnesota a certain reputation. Flores rode that across the Vikings’ 5-0 start with a combination of blitzes and stunts that merely looked like them. By dropping extra defenders into coverage after showing blitz, this defense was able to successfully discombobulate opponents and lead the league in defensive efficiency.

That was great, but this immoveable object was bound to fight an unstoppable force when Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson came to town. Would Minnesota’s pressure and elaborate bluffs rattle a veteran like Jared Goff, who’d been prone to rough performances early in the season? Or would Detroit stand tall and put the Vikings on their heels?

Despite an early 10-0 lead for the home team, it was the latter.

Goff was a monster in Minneapolis. He completed all 12 of his first half attempts for 156 yards and the beautiful, blitz-repelling deep touchdown to Amon-Ra St. Brown above. By the fourth quarter he’d completed 20 of 21 passes. Even when the Vikings got to him (with a standard four-man rush!):

Goff was there to prove the resiliency of his offense. With the game on the line he calmly engineered a 44-yard drive en route to a go-ahead field goal with 15 seconds left to play. That meant leaning on Jahmyr Gibbs and St. Brown, but that’s exactly what those guys are there for.

He finished his day with 280 passing yards on 25 attempts, two touchdowns and zero turnovers. He completed seven of eight throws that traveled at least 10 yards downfield, churning out 142 yards in the process. He stared down the league’s top ranked defense and carved it into tiny little pieces. Per Next Gen Stats, no quarterback in the NFL has been better against pressure in 2024; in fact, his completion rate, yards per attempt and passer rating all go *up* when he’s dealing with defenders in the pocket..

The Vikings, arguably the team in the NFL that utilizes its blitzes to the most devastating effect, couldn’t slow Goff. They may have made him better. So what’s it going to take to slow the Detroit offense down? That’s something the rest of the NFC has 11 weeks to figure out.

6. Anthony Richardson probably can’t keep running this much, but he may have to

Let’s start with the good news. Anthony Richardson led the Indianapolis Colts to a win in Week 7. He’s 3-2 as a starter this fall. He led the team in rushing yards on a day where the Colts didn’t have Jonathan Taylor and needed a spark on the ground.

The bad news: for the fourth time in five games, Richardson failed to complete more than 50 percent of his passes — and the one exception came in a game he left after four attempts. He left that game due to injury thanks to his predilection for taking hits a yard too late rather than sliding a yard too early. Only two of his 13 non-kneeldown carries resulted in first downs for Indianapolis on a day where it converted only four of 13 third down opportunities.

Richardson remains willing to air the ball out, which is good. It hasn’t worked out for him, which is bad; more than half his completions against the Miami Dolphins came within six yards of the line of scrimmage. He completed four of 11 passes that went at least 10 yards downfield.

Alec Pierce, the Colts’ most electric deep threat, had two catches for 15 yards. Josh Downs, the slot menace who’d had 30 targets and 24 catches the last three weeks with Joe Flacco as his primary quarterback, had one catch for three yards. Only Michael Pittman had more than 30 receiving yards Sunday.

This makes Richardson’s most consistent tool the fact he’s a 245-pound man with 4.4-second 40 speed. Unfortunately, that’s a major reason why he’s spent the bulk of his budding NFL career on various injury reports.

He remains a special talent, a player who can launch the ball 60 yards with the flick of his wrist. But he struggles to stand in the pocket and make his progressions on time, leading to inaccurate throws to closed windows. He had only 29 passing yards at halftime in a showdown with the NFL’s 16th-ranked passing defense.

That leaves head coach Shane Steichen with a conundrum. The Colts are 4-3 and a game behind in the race for the AFC South. Indianapolis has a playoff opportunity here, even while wallowing in mediocrity. Should Steichen continue to put his quarterback at risk by playing to his strengths as a runner? Or should he default to safer throws from the pocket that could trade longer-term development for short-term losses? Either way, it’ll be a tough bargain to strike.

7. The Carolina Panthers are a misery machine

Jayden Daniels, MVP candidate and rookie of the year frontrunner, threw only two passes against the Panthers before exiting with a rib injury. In his stead came Marcus Mariota, who had thrown 26 NFL passes since 2022. This all should have been good news for a Panthers team in dire need of some luck. And, indeed, the Washington Commanders got off to a slow start offensively:

This did not matter. At the time that box score screenshot was taken, Carolina trailed by 20 points. Mariota hadn’t seen meaningful football action in two years and still arguably hasn’t. After starting his day 0-for-3 he completed 18 of his next 20 passes for 205 yards and two touchdowns.

By the fourth quarter, the Panthers’ defense seemed wholly disinterested in anything but getting the hell out of Maryland.

Things were not better on the other side of the ball. Andy Dalton only threw 16 passes but managed to toss a pair of interceptions. This included a pick-six and the second career interception for Emmanuel Forbes, a player who’d been a healthy scratch earlier in the season.

Bryce Young entered in garbage time and completed both his attempts. This led to -4 passing yards.

If you’re looking for bright spots, rookie tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders had the most productive game of his career with six catches and 61 yards. Johnny Hekker averaged better than 50 yards per punt. Chuba Hubbard found the end zone. That’s… about it.

The Panthers can only look forward to next year’s draft, where they could once again be in position to botch the top overall selection. Carolina looks far less competent than the Patriots, particularly with Maye providing modest optimism with his downfield passing. In contrast, Dalton and Young combined for two completions that went more than seven yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

So while New England can look forward to Maye’s rise and the Browns can hope for a brighter future without Watson, the Panthers are just sorta stuck here. Maybe Young gets back in the lineup and builds some cautious optimism, but very little we’ve seen this season suggests that will be the case.

Carolina is a pessimism engine, a vortex of hope. They should be approached like a solar eclipse, watched only as a reflection processed on the back of a cardboard box. This is not a team that needs to exist in 2024.

8. The San Francisco 49ers might be in real trouble

There’s no shame in losing to an undefeated Kansas City Chiefs team, especially when it had head coach Andy Reid coming off a bye. But the Chiefs have a recent history of losing to teams they’d faced the previous postseason, including a loss to the Eagles in 2023, defeats to the Bills and Bengals in 2022 and another loss to Buffalo in 2021.

Thus, an opportunity creaked open for a 3-3 San Francisco team to create a galvanizing home win in Week 7. This is not what the 49ers did.

San Francisco fell in a 28-18 loss simultaneously better and worse than the box score made it seem. The 49ers were primed to take a third quarter lead before the Brock Purdy miscommunication above. They nearly out-gained the Chiefs while forcing Patrick Mahomes into a two-interception, zero-touchdown day. But they also converted only two third downs and turned the ball over thrice, each time while inside Kansas City territory.

There were caveats here for the Niners. Christian McCaffrey remains on injured reserve. Jauan Jennings didn’t play Sunday. Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk both left the game due to injury or illness. San Francisco’s ability to gash defenses with a long list of dynamic athletes wound up effectively relying on George Kittle, a debuting Ricky Pearsall and guys like Jacob Cowing, Ronnie Bell and Isaac Guerendo.

This created a steep learning curve and exacerbated the 49ers’ other issues. One of the benefits of that playmaker-filled lineup was the ability to run a litany of quick-hit plays that limited Purdy’s time in the pocket and liability on throws downfield. He could dump the ball off and let someone churn out big yards after the catch. But with Samuel, Aiyuk, Jennings and McCaffrey all ailing, there was little capacity for Shanahan’s best laid plans to thrive.

Purdy had to stick in the pocket and search for holes downfield. Sometimes he stood up to the pressure.

Sometimes, his leaky offensive line proved to be a fatal flaw.

That’s a three man rush and it still crumples Purdy’s pocket in fewer than three seconds. The combination of a bad decision and contact in the pocket turns into an end zone interception and, for the second straight drive, San Francisco’s push deep into Chiefs territory results in zero points.

On one hand, the Niners defense forced one of the least efficient passing games of Mahomes’s career. Purdy had some nice throws, including a 41-yard strike to Cowing and what should have been a deep completion to Aiyuk that the 2023 All-Pro dropped.

On the other, Purdy threw three interceptions without a passing touchdown. A defense that limited Mahomes through the air couldn’t stop him on the ground. The playmakers that carried this team are failing and their importance in making Purdy look like something more than a former seventh round draft pick was on full display Sunday afternoon.

McCaffrey will eventually return. Samuel will round back into shape and Pearsall will become a more integral part of the offense. But the blocking and defensive issues that were question marks in the preseason have become glowing sigils of impending failure.

The Niners are 3-4 and at risk of having their place in the NFC usurped. The Dallas Cowboys present a get-right opportunity in Week 8 before the team’s bye. Then a Buccaneers-Seahawks-Packers-Bills-Bears stretch will determine whether San Francisco course corrects in time to make it back to the postseason or heads into January wondering whether its Super Bowl window has closed.

9. Fantasy team you absolutely didn’t want to field in Week 7

• QB: C.J. Stroud, Texans (86 passing yards, 19 rushing yards, four sacks, 5.34 fantasy points)

• RB: Rhamondre Stevenson, Patriots (18 rushing yards, two catches, seven yards, 4.5 fantasy points)

• RB: Devin Singletary, Giants (18 rushing yards, one catch, three yards, 3.1 fantasy points)

• WR: Jameson Williams, Lions (one catch, -4 yards, 0.6 fantasy points)

• WR: DeAndre Hopkins, Titans (one catch, -2 yards 0.8 fantasy points)

• WR: Tyreek Hill, Dolphins (one catch, eight yards, five rushing yards, 2.3 fantasy points)

• TE: Sam LaPorta, Lions (one catch, 25 yards, 3.5 fantasy points)

• D/ST: San Francisco 49ers (two sacks, two interceptions, 28 points allowed, 2.0 fantasy points)

Total: 22.14 points

This article originally appeared on For The Win: The Lions offense is inevitable, Packers defense may be Super Bowl worthy and 9 things we learned in Week 7