I made a post about how now the NFC and AFC North contain exactly half of all winning teams. To follow up, I ran a regression by the latitude of a team's stadium and both their wins and their division rank. The answer was entirely conclusive. Yes!* Please note that for the first graph I did add a minor jitter effect so you can see all the team's dots. TLDR: If you want to win, be northern and if you can't be northern at least be more north than the rest of your division (cough Carolina)

* Correlation does not equal causation.

This table was created using the following criteria to determine which seasons were the top seasons for each, and then create a cumulative total points combining the top 6 seasons for each. Clearly this criteria combines statistical achievement (which strongly favors modern Qbs), Team acheievements (which strongly favors Qbs who were blessed with great teams) and some awards (which can be unfair/subjective).

• Passing TDs - 1 point.
• Interceptions - Negative 0.5 points
• Rushing TDs - 1 point.
• Passing Yards - 1 point per 100 yards
• Rushing Yards - 1 point per 100 yards
• Regular Season Wins - 4 points
• Regular Season Losses - Negative 1 point
• Playoff wins (wild card or division) - 6 points
• AFC/NFC Championship wins - 10 points
• Superbowl wins - 15 points
• Regular Season MVP - 15 points
• Superbowl MVP - 5 points
• Regular Season Passer Rating: If #1 in the league in passer rating that specific year, 10 points. If #2, 5 points, if #3, 2 points.

**EDIT**

On another comment, I removed wins, postseason wins. I left MVPs. But this is the rankings for the top 6 seasons for each with this criteria:

1. Passing TDs - 1 point.
2. Interceptions - Negative 0.5 points  
3. Rushing Tds - 1 point. 
4. Passing Yards - 1 point per 100 yards
5. Rushing Yards - 1 point per 100 yards
6. Regular Season MVP - 15 points
7. Superbowl MVP - 5 points
8. Regular Season Passer Rating: If #1 in the league in passer rating that specific year, 10 points.  If #2, 5 points, if #3, 2 points. 

• Rodgers - 627
• Brady - 588
• Manning - 587
• Mahomes - 565
• Brees - 525
• Young - 492
• Allen - 489
• Favre - 485
• Ryan - 471
• Wilson - 458
• Marino - 457
• Jackson - 445
• Warner 0 440
• Rivers - 436
• Stafford - 436
• Montana - 429
• Prescott - 425
• Romo - 425
• Newton - 424
• Roethlisberger - 416

I heard something interesting about Kenneth Walker that might explain why the Seahawks were able to shut him down so easily. If you go back and watch the game, Walker is definitely moving his head around and scanning the defense before the snap on running plays, but on passing plays he doesn’t seem to do it.

That’s a pretty significant tell if it’s something he does consistently. The Seahawks know Walker better than just about anyone, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they picked up on that tendency and used it against him.
You have to wonder if that’s part of the reason they were able to contain him so well. And now that it’s being talked about, I wouldn’t be surprised if other teams start looking for the same thing. NFL defenses spend countless hours studying film, and something that simple could give them a huge advantage before the ball is even snapped.

Possible Super Bowl LXI matchup? Maybe.

If the Seahawks handle business tonight at home, the 6-0 Vikings have a chance at being the last undefeated team in the NFL for the first time since 2016.

Surprisingly, the 1998 team who went 15-1 (the one that people remember fondly and prefer thinking about through rose-colored glasses, because the ending was absolutely traumatic), with the Big 3 of Randall Cunningham, Cris Carter and Randy Moss, wasn’t the last undefeated team that season. While the Vikings lost their first game in Week 9, the Broncos went 13-0 in 1998 before losing back to back games to the Giants and Dolphins.

The sirens were blaring Sunday from the City of Light to Charm City to Nashvegas. The AFC North features four teams with winning records, paced by Pittsburgh and the upstart Cleveland Browns (5-2), who shook off a miserable start to defeat the Tennessee Titans, 27-24, on a walk-off, 32-yard field goal by Andre Szmyt.

Speaking of comebacks, the visiting Cincinnati Bengals (4-2) overcame a 13-0 halftime deficit thanks to Joe Burrow’s second-half rampage, rolling to a 35-13 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. That dropped the Ravens (4-3) into last place in the division, but with a pretty significant caveat: There’s hope that two-time MVP Lamar Jackson, who sat out his third consecutive game with a sprained left ankle, can return for next Sunday’s road game against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.

Jackson. Burrow. Rodgers. A resuscitated Deshaun Watson, who has five fourth-quarter, game-winning drives for the Browns in 2026. This division has no chill.

In a league that guarantees a home playoff game to division winners, geography is a big, big deal in 2026. Seven weeks into the season, not only does every team in the AFC North have a winning record, but the entire NFC North is north of .500, too. It’s the first time in NFL history that two divisions have been populated exclusively by winning teams at this stage.

The NFC North is paced by the league’s lone remaining undefeated team: the Minnesota Vikings, who defeated the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday by a 16-10 score. The Vikings (6-0) got it done, as usual, on the strength of defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ aggressive and player-empowered unit, terrorizing former Minnesota quarterback Daniel Jones by blitzing (according to TruMedia) on 85 percent of his dropbacks, the highest rate for any NFL team in at least a decade.

Later Sunday, the Detroit Lions (4-2) — despite a dubious fourth-down debacle deep in their own territory (more on that later) — prevailed in a tense division showdown with the Green Bay Packers (4-3), securing a 20-17 victory on Jake Bates’ 22-yard field goal as time expired. The Lions remain half a game behind the second-place Chicago Bears (5-2), whose head coach, former Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, would be justified in busting out his “Good, better, best” chant to describe the state of the division.

All these teams had best get used to suspenseful Sundays from here on out, for playing in either the NFC North or AFC North affords a margin for error thinner than Elizabeth Holmes’ logic regarding the word “can” in “You Can See Everything.”

Other notable trends: Tyler Shough only had about 2.5s time to throw which resulted in a 4.7 ADOT (second worst). Jordan Love had 2.77s time to throw and had the second largest ADOT (10.4)

Source: https://nextgenstats.nfl.com/stats/passing/2026/REG/7#yards

https://www.nfl.com/news/2026-nfl-season-week-7-what-we-learned-from-sunday-s-games

I can’t exactly stomach the script if we start another Mahomes dynasty because we didn’t give the ball to Charbonnet on the one, or worse K9 gets the ball on the one yard line and scores the game winning TD

Also for the opponents apparently every 12 years the teams play the same opponent rotation (interconference, intraconference, one intraconference home & away and now one interconference). For those wondering the disparities in opponents are the Bears and Patriots

First half of Patrick Mahomes career was incredibly special and he was playing at a very high level but his last few years he has been no where close to top 5 production for QBs in the league.

Where he ranks over the last 3 years among other QBs during that timespan

Passing TD: 11th with 69 passing TDs (for comparison sake: Jared Goff has 104 and Matthew Stafford has 97)

Passing Yards: 9th at 10,990 yards (for comparison sake: Jared Goff is 1st with 13,654 yards and Josh Allen is 2nd with 11,368)

Completion Percentage: 14th at 65.4% (for comparison sake: Joe Burrow is 1st at 70.2% and Jared Goff is at 3rd at 69%)

Interceptions: 4th most with 35 interceptions (for comparison sake: Geno Smith has 39)

RTG (Passer Rating): 19th at 91.6 (for comparison sake: Lamar Jackson is 1st at 111.7 and Joe Burrow is 2nd at 107)

Games played: 12th with 45 games played (for comparison sake: Josh Allen and Jared Goff are tied at 1st w/ 50 games played)

EPA // SUC%

2023: +0.082 13th // 46.2% 11th

2024: +0.118 10th // 49.3% 8th

2025: +0.125 10th // 47.6% 9th

Tldr; Patrick Mahomes has not been a top 5 QB for a few years now and the first half of his career is doing the heavy lifting when people discuss where he ranks in the league.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/stats/player

https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/3139477/patrick-mahomes

Alex Moore is in his 5th season as an NFL official and his 2nd as a Referee. He took the place of Tra Blake who was demoted to umpire prior to the 2025 season. In the 2025 season, Moore's crew threw 311 flags, the most in the league with Shawn Hochuli's crew throwing 290. The league average was 250. This year, Moore's crew is throwing the 2nd most in the league behind Scott Novak's crew prior to this week. Below are Moore's crew's stats per week:

Alex Moore Crew Accepted Flags Update;

Week 1 - 17 flags for 191 yards Week 2 - 15 flags for 102 yards Week 3 - 16 flags for 114 yards Week 4 - 24 flags for 233 yards Week 5 - 21 flags for 149 yards Week 6 - OFF Week Week 7 - 13 flags for 131 yards

Total: 106 flags for 920 yards

Obviously I'm biased, but this product is really difficult to watch. I also don't know why they would put this crew on the NFL game of the week but I digress. What are your guy's thoughts on the penalty situation int he NFL? Worse than usual, or more eyes on the product? Role of gambling?

Sources: https://nflpenalties.com/all-referees.php?view=total&year=2026

Bo Nix (today)

Lamar Jackson (2022)

Justin Fields (2022)

Cam Newton (2012)