Editor's note: The game recaps below are transcripts from the Harris Football film review podcasts. We would encourage you to listen to the full episodes right here. Chris has bravely accepted the burden of watching every game each week, capturing details and context not available via box scores. Here's a taste of this week's review…
Philadelphia 28, Minnesota 22
Let’s get started today with the Eagles — the champs — kind of breaking out of the funk. But I might argue not really. I mean, they did. Everyone except the running back had a big fantasy day. And for what he was asked to do, you really can’t do it any better than Jalen Hurts did it yesterday. He scored a whole lot of fantasy points, and exactly none of them came because three grown men were shoving him near the goal line.
There’s been a lot of Eagles discourse in NFL circles lately. They kind of got embarrassed a couple Thursdays ago against the Giants. I’ve read many, many thinkpieces — and some of them, I’m starting to get convinced by. The Eagles beat the Vikings here on the road — a really good defense that blitzes like crazy and, as a result, usually doesn’t give up big plays. But Hurts made so many of them. On a scramble drill on 4th and 4, Hurts held the ball forever, A.J. Brown broke his route up the left sideline, and Hurts laid it in perfectly for a long touchdown.
The rest of the first half wasn’t great, but on their first possession of the third quarter, DeVonta Smith had the longest play of his career — a double-move, 79-yard touchdown bomb. Up two in the fourth quarter, facing a third-and-13, Hurts scrambled again, kept it alive, and threw on the run to the right sideline — a laser first down to Brown. Then came two more deep shots to Brown: one for another touchdown, and one on a sluggo at the very end to make sure the Vikings didn’t get the ball back.
But here’s where my complaints come in — and I know I’m not the first to say this. Offensively, there might not be a more predictable running game in the NFL. It’s crazy. I want you to watch the Eagles play next week — the rematch against the Giants — and I want you to watch every time Jalen Hurts is under center. Because when he is? It’s a run. Every time. I was calling it out live on TV. And I’m stupid! If I know it, the defense knows it! Geez, I wonder why the Vikings’ D plays so many guys close to the line of scrimmage when Hurts is under center.
Gee, I also wonder why Saquon Barkley — despite the early commitment to him (the first four plays of this game were Barkley runs) — keeps getting met in the backfield. The fact is, Hurts isn’t comfortable with his back to the defense. So they never pass from under center, and they also don’t go play-action from under center. The fact that it turned into such a good offensive day for Hurts, Smith, and Brown is a testament to their skill. The Philly guys are playing with one hand tied behind their back — and that obviously includes Saquon, who’s creeping into full-blown disappointment levels, through no fault of his own.
Also worth noting: Barkley seemed to hurt his shoulder late in this game and punched the turf in frustration, though he did come back in to help kill the clock at the end. I guess there’ll be times when none of this matters because the talent is so good, but it’s something to watch — can the Eagles break that tendency that everyone sees?
And going the other way — defensively — the other thing that makes Philly easier to play against than they should be is their trouble defending the run to the edges. Their two best defensive players are Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, and they’re immense in the middle. So while this game was competitive, it was Jordan Mason left, Jordan Mason right — get the edge, turn it upfield. That’s something Cam Skattebo had a lot of success doing despite his limited speed in Week 6.
As for the Vikings, the quarterback situation continues to be a problem. JJ McCarthy is some combination of injured, frazzled, and/or bad, so they keep having to use Carson Wentz. You’ll see a lot of yards for Wentz in this game, but he’s the main reason for the loss. Early in the second quarter, he gets blitzed, fooled by a linebacker dropping directly in front of his face, and wings it right to him — pick-six. Next series: good Lord. First he spins around panicky and throws a backward screen out of bounds to lose yards. Then, on the very next play, he rolls out and throws a completely covered deep ball for another interception.
The Vikings hung tough — it was 14–6 and they were driving in the third quarter. In the red zone, he gets pressure, but his first read is wide open and Wentz doesn’t throw it. He grounds it instead and gets flagged, so it’s another field goal. After that, Mason scored a touchdown, had some success, and their play-action started working. Wentz can actually line up under center and turn his back to the defense and still throw a pass. Greg Olsen even mentioned that was something the Vikings wanted to emphasize. Time and time again, it was play-action, Jordan Addison on an out route outside the numbers, and Wentz hitting him — as long as he wasn’t covered by Quinyon Mitchell.
You’re going to hear people say, “Wow, Jordan Addison works better with Carson Wentz!” No, it’s just that the person not being covered by Quinyon Mitchell got the ball. Addison was a flag player, I’m psyched he had huge numbers, and you should start him. But don’t be silly. Justin Jefferson had been over 120 yards in each of the previous two games and went for 80 here. He’s fine. He’s great. T.J. Hockenson almost made the catch of his life in the end zone for a late TD, but it hit the ground. Wentz was gritty, gutty — he had two third-and-long scrambles that extended drives — and we’ve already been told he’ll likely start Week 8 against the Chargers. But he definitely made bad first-half mistakes here.
One last Eagles note: they made a switch to their backup RB. Cartavious Bigsby the Mapmaker was active; A.J. Dillon was not. Bigsby got a shotgun draw carry on the first drive, and he feels like the likeliest Barkley handcuff right now — though, of course, we have to wonder: can anyone make that run game functional?
NY Giants 32, Denver 33
I can certainly tell you the Week 7 game that made me laugh out loud the most — possibly of any game this year. It was, in fact, Bo Toxic: the Broncos winning with a miracle, then losing with a miracle, then winning again with a miracle — aided by stupidity the likes of which you don’t usually see so starkly laid out. The Giants continue to make progress, but they also blew a 26–8 lead in the fourth quarter.
This was, of course, surf-movie bad guy Jaxson Dart versus evil-dojo leader Bo Nix — and the dojo wins out by sheer insanity. Two missed extra points. I don’t think anybody exactly covered themselves in glory, but it was hilarious. The tragedy of it all is that Jameis Winston didn’t even get to play.
For much of this game — I mean, I was watching live — I was preparing to give the speech about the Giants rescuing their season with a solid, competent performance. Meanwhile, Sean Payton was in the process of peeing it all away with terrible play calls and an overall lack of trust in his quarterback. For a game that went so insane in the fourth quarter, it started stupidly close-to-the-vest for both teams: three-and-outs for two straight drives, Bo Nix starting 1-for-5 for 9 yards. On Denver’s third drive, a third-and-short drop by the fullback — but if you’re throwing short of the sticks to the fullback, you kind of deserve it.
Just like with the Jets game in London in Week 6, everything was so constipated. Everything short. Infinite bootleg three-yard passes. Denver fell behind 13–0 because the Giants had their stuff together. Late in the second quarter, you could see the Broncos realizing, “Oh, we’re terrified of our quarterback, but we can’t get away with this anymore.” They opened it up a little: a deep ball to Troy Franklin that was broken up, then a very nice rollout throw from Nix to Courtland Sutton down to the 5. J.K. Dobbins — who had 6 carries for 15 yards at that point — had a powerful carry down to the 2. But on second down, because Sean Payton is smarter than everyone, he doesn’t just run it again. No — he has to throw to the tackle-eligible. It doesn’t work. Third down, another rollout to nowhere. Fourth down, they go for it — a screen to Sutton short of the end zone. Tackled. Turnover on downs. 13–0 at the half, six first downs, 101 total yards. Just bumbling.
It didn’t stop through most of the third quarter. Finally, Dobbins got it going a bit. Nix can make good throws — he didn’t really make killer mistakes in this one, unlike the surf-movie villain — but his coach just doesn’t seem to want to put him in position to make big-time throws. Eventually, they had no choice. Nix layered a sideline throw to Sutton, Dobbins had a 30-yard run, and they were inside the 5. And, again, Payton couldn’t help himself: play-action boot, deflected and nearly intercepted. Next play: play-action again, deflected again — but this time, Troy Franklin caught the deflection for Denver’s first touchdown. My feeling watching it live: I don’t think Bo Nix is as bad as Sean Payton seems to think!
They got down 26–8 in the fourth quarter, and I’m sure you’ve seen the highlights. Nix winds up posting a big fantasy day, but if I were you, I’d try not to be fooled. He made a couple of clutch throws down two at the end, but that was also about horrendous pass defense — just knock it down, man. It looks like a shootout — I guess by the letter of the law, it is — and Nix had two rushing touchdowns, so he’s a fantasy megastar here. But watching these games, it’s pretty clear the Broncos are playing as conservatively as possible until the scoreboard won’t let them.
As for the poor, stupid Giants — how many times can you win a game and lose a game? Absolutely incredible. Taken as a whole, you probably come away feeling the opposite of what I said about Denver. The Giants’ young guys are ballsy, physical, tough — and through three quarters they went into a tough place and obviously should have won.
Denver blitzed Jaxson Dart like crazy, and he held up incredibly well. On their third drive, he ran around forever avoiding guys, threw across his body — one of those “Thou Shalt Not” throws — but it was a laser directly over a defender, caught by Wan’Dale Robinson for a first down. Then the Broncos blew a coverage on Daniel Bellinger — 7–0. They put together a long drive with good runs and short throws, then a middle screen to Cam Skattebo in the red zone for a touchdown — 13–0.
Late third quarter, Tyrone Tracy made an impact. He got carries on the first drive, played as the second back, and ended up with 26 snaps to Skattebo’s 41. Late in the third, on a key third down, Tracy broke a tackle for a first down, stayed in, and then hit a wide-open lane for a 30-yard touchdown — 19–0. The Giants missed the second extra point and failed on the two-point try after the third TD.
In the fourth quarter, Skattebo was running tough to burn clock. On a third-and-17 with ten minutes left, Dart threw a tight-window pass to Robinson that bounced off his hands directly to Theo Johnson — who took it for a touchdown. 26–8.
Over, right? Right?
The only truly bad play Dart made came when it was 26–16 with five minutes left — the one thing you can’t do is throw a pick. And he did, deep in his own territory, which made everything that happened afterward possible. From a fantasy perspective, though, you don’t throw away what was a solid performance just because of how it ended. Dart played better than Bo Nix. He didn’t win, but he played better — except for the one pick. So maybe factoring that in, he played worse. But he gives hope to the skill guys. Skattebo is a fantasy starter, we’ll monitor how much Tracy cuts into him, and Wan’Dale Robinson will be a regular in the top 36 while Malik Nabers is out.
Overall, despite the bitter loss, the Giants look like they can actually provide a better offensive environment — and maybe more wins — than they did in September.