bukie

I now have no idea who the top 10 teams in the NFL are. The Pats, Broncos and Bears have the best records, but the weakest schedules. The Rams had the #1 defense and #1 offense efficiency, but lost to the Panthers. The Panthers have beaten the Rams and Packers, but lost to the Cardinals and Saints. The Chiefs and Ravens are just 6-6 and may not even make the playoffs. The Bills have a great offense, but their defense can't stop anyone and are 2 games and a tiebreaker behind the Pats. The Packers lost to the Browns and tied the Cowboys. The Lions have a great point differential, but they're 7-5 and out of the top 7 right now in the NFC. The Seahawks lost to the Rams and squeaked by the Titans. The AFC South is a mess, the Colts offense may be broken under Daniel Jones, the Houston defense is almost singlehandedly keeping them in it, and the Jaguars are quietly in first place now. The Cowboys are suddenly hot offensively, but still have one of the worst defenses in the NFL. So there are like 15 teams that have an argument, and that doesn't include the 7-4 Chargers, who nobody really thinks are good but are 6th in the AFC playoff race right now despite losses to the Giants and Commanders. Or the 7-5 Bucs who had lost 4 of 5 before squeaking by the Cardinals at home. After that? There's a giant drop off and everyone below that is basically varying degrees of terrible.

The only thing that changed the last 4 days was Alabama won, so Ole Miss didn't make the SEC championship.

Bears 9-3, 1 seed in NFC Niners 9-4, 7 seed in NFC.

The ACC championship will be played between a team that lost 2 ACC games but only one counted, and a team that won a SOV tiebreaker because a California team beat a Texas team at the last second.

Cal scored with 40 seconds left, now SMU driving, at the Cal 40 with 16 seconds left.

Cal blew a 17 point 4th quarter lead to prevent the funniest outcome because of course they did, now they have 2 minutes left to preserve the hilarity.

Personally, I'm still quietly rooting for the "Duke wins the ACC but ends up not being the 4th or 5th highest rated conference champ and the ACC is completely shut out of the playoff hilariously" scenario.

I don't think a Miami team that the committee already ranked below ND will jump ND for beating a team ND just beat 2 weeks ago by basically the same margin, unless ND absolutely lays an egg tonight against Stanford.

Quick look at the CFP: At this point, I think you have to lock in Indiana and Ohio State at 1-2, regardless of the B1G championship result. Winner gets 1 and loser gets 2. 3 I'd probably give to Texas Tech if they win the Big 12 championship. Committee will probably give it to SEC champ with TT 4 but I'd reverse it. Maybe if Bama wins it they'd be 4, but I'm still hoping they just lose tonight. Oregon locks up a spot with a win today, along with Georgia, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Notre Dame. I'd personally have Georgia 4, Oregon 5, Ole Miss 6, A&M 7 and ND 8 (though I think ND is currently a better team than any of the SEC). Now, BYU probably should be next, but the committee likes OU and Bama better (thus I'm hoping both lose yet today), but only 2 of those 3 are sneaking in. ACC champ is 11 and G5 champ (North Texas) is 12.

The Ravens had won 5 straight before Thursday.

The more SEC I watch, the more convinced I am that there are no top 5 teams in that conference, but there are about 8 top 20 teams. Right now, the top 5 teams in some order are Indiana, Ohio State, Texas Tech, Oregon, and Notre Dame (which has 2 losses yes but right now are better than either team they lost to)

This win also gives the Bears the best conference record in the NFC at 6-2. Eagles are now 7-3, and Rams are 4-2 (they've played 5 AFC games and 6 NFC games thus far). They also now have the tiebreaker against the Eagles, should it come down to it.

Why did Ben Johnson take his shirt off in the locker room?

How do you score just 14 points against this Bengals defense? That's just unfathomable.

Well I finally feel okay about the secondary. Front seven, though...

Honestly the best example of the conference championship being unnecessary is probably Ohio State, both last year and this year potentially. Last year, they lost to Michigan, fell a couple spots in the playoff, and then ran through everyone to the title having played one fewer game than most. This year, they could probably lose to Michigan and still get a bye, making the conference championship even more pointless for them.

"Coach, I don't remember getting concussed." "That just tells me it was really bad."

I think the thing I like most about Ben Johnson this year is the Monday press conferences, after he's had a chance to look at the game tape. Level of expertise and understanding I haven't seen in a Bears coach since....?

Caleb Williams has had 4 games this season when he's completed over 60% of his passes. In those games, the Bears are 1-3.

Very real chance the Eagles will be playing with a chance to clinch the NFC East next Friday.

With their OT loss to the Lions, the Giants are the first team eliminated from playoff contention.

The Steelers D was vulnerable to the pass, pretty good against the run, lots of sacks. Most impressive was the Steelers getting just a single QB hit all day (which was unfortunately in the worst spot possible)

It's going to be hilarious next week when the Bears somehow win by 1 and still end up with a negative point differential on the season.