Your “Movin’ On Up!” Late Slate NFL Football Open Thread

That early slate was something wasn’t it? (is composing this at 9am EST) It had all kinds of this and more than a little bit of that. The other thing was employed very judiciously as well. All in all, quite satisfying if I do say so myself. So let’s do it again.

TO THE GAMES!

Panthers/Niners:

One thing about a team being good/above average right out of the blue is that all of their games become relevant and it lifts the league a bit. That was the case last year as the Browns shed their ‘shabby loser’ status midway through the season and chased the .500 mark. Now it’s the Niners with their sporty 6-0 record making the NFC and especially the West far more interesting. Look for Carolina to try to get McCaffrey in space (catching the ball) rather than try to attack San Franny’s formidable D-line head on.

Browns/Pats:

Maybe Myles Garrett gets to Tommy Boy? Maybe Baker temporarily gets his shit together? Maybe Chubb breaks a few long ones? All that could happen. What will happen is that the Pats D will force at least 2 turnovers and will capitalize on them because Skynet doesn’t want us to have nice things.

Raiders/Texans:

The secret to Josh Jacobs’ success? Practice, practice, practice. Oops, sorry. He leads the league in yards after contact and is second in missed tackles forced. The only qb more cautious than Derek Carr is the suddenly benched Theodore Bridgewater. His adjusted completion percentage (drops are excluded) is 84.2%. With Will Fuller gone you can expect Hopkins usage rate of 33% to go even higher.

Now get out there and tap!