NFL Week 10 Sunday early live open thread

Chicago Bears (4-3) at Buffalo Bills (2-6)

1pm ET, FOX

At this point in the season, most teams have produced enough outputs to develop a narrative summing up their performances to this point. That’s certainly the case with these two.

The Bears, as many predicted, look much better under new Head Coach Matt Nagy. Their three losses have come by a total of just 11 points including a one-point loss to the Green Bay Packers and a one-possession loss by seven points to the New England Patriots. Not exactly a ton for them to rue. But this is a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010. If they’re going to end that streak, it’s going to have to come with some maturation that I’m not sure should be surprising should it come to pass.

As for the Bills...yeah. One note? They are passing for less than 150 yards per game. No team has passed for less than 150 per since the 2011 Jacksonville Jaguars. That is bad.

Kansas City Chiefs (7-1) at Cleveland Browns (2-5-1)

1pm ET, CBS

The Chiefs remain in the top tier of 2018 contenders and for good reason.

The Browns do not. And after firing their head coach and offensive coordinator, they’re clearly already in the bag this year.

New York Jets (3-5) at Miami Dolphins (4-4)

1pm ET, CBS

I mentioned that “most” teams have a developing narrative at this point. Most.

The Jets are still well off the mark, but much of that has to do with the quality of their roster and not necessarily the job of Head Coach Todd Bowles. They’re likely to be without former Los Angeles Rams CB Trumaine Johnson for the fifth week in a row which certainly hasn’t helped.

As for Miami, they’re probably the least-impressive four-win team in the NFL as of right now. And with QB Ryan Tannehill still out, it means the Fins have to stick with backup QB Brock Osweiler.

Detroit Lions (3-4) at Minnesota Vikings (4-3-1)

1pm ET, FOX

This one’s actually a pretty fun NFL North battle.

Most metrics rank the Lions’ defense as one of the league’s worst. That has put QB Matthew Stafford and the rest of Detroit’s offense under pressure for most of 2018.

And of course after a berth in the NFC Championship last year, the Vikings were expected to compete among the best teams in the conference this season. And honestly, it’s not like they’re far off. Losses to the Rams and New Orleans Saints and a tie to the Pack is nothing to really condemn the team. And in all sincerity, the Week 3 home loss to the Bills stands out as probably the single biggest anomaly of a game in the NFL this year. But it does mean at 4-3-1 they have left themselves very little margin for error. Beyond this game, they have four contests coming up of significant difficulty.

Atlanta Falcons (3-4) at Washington Five-game Winners (5-2)

1pm ET, FOX

Atlanta is one of the least predictable teams this year. The offense has been strong but wildly inconsistent. The defense hasn’t been good as a whole since a Week 1 loss. They’ve got to solidify things on that side of the ball quickly to avoid dropping another few disappointing ones over the next month that could put them out of the playoff picture.

Washington is one of the strangest teams in the league in 2018. Their defense has improved significantly while the underlying metrics don’t support the performances suggesting a fall back to reality. They’ve won four games scoring 24 points or less.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-4) at Carolina Panthers (5-2)

1pm ET, FOX

Fitzmagic continues to amaze, but the real story is QB Jameis Winston who has been benched for this game. Now in his fourth season after being taken first overall in the 2015 NFL Draft, Winston’s performance level has seemingly declined. After losing four of their last five, they’ve got Head Coach Dirk Koetter on a hot seat that’s gaining heat quickly.

Carolina on the other hand has managed things well to this point though QB Cam Newton has a worrisome shoulder injury. That doesn’t bode well on a short week with the Pittsburgh Steelers inviting the Panthers north on Thursday.

Pittsburgh Steelers (4-2-1) at Baltimore Ravens (4-4)

1pm ET, CBS

Probably the best game of the early slate.

The interesting thing here may be momentum as the Steelers are riding a three-game win streak while the Ravens are on a two-game losing skid.