Week 7 NFL Sunday Takeaways: Rams Rise, Bears Surge, Dolphins Collapse

The NFL season is cruising along, with Week 7 nearly in the books after another full slate of Sunday afternoon football. But what did we learn from those games? We’re here to tell you exactly that. 

Rams 35, Jaguars 7 

One Takeaway: The Rams are Super Bowl contenders. 

The Los Angeles Rams boatraced the Jags in London, and Matthew Stafford tossed five touchdown passes in a game that never felt close. The Rams dominated on both sides of the ball and showed why they might be the best team in the NFC. That might seem like an overreaction, given that the Jaguars entered the game with a misleading 4-2 record, but I wrote earlier in the week about the Rams being perhaps the best team in the conference. 

I now firmly believe that, and Stafford is easily the best quarterback in the NFC. 

Bears 26, Saints 14

One Takeaway: Don’t look now, but the Bears are hot. 

Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears are quietly on a four-game winning streak. Following an embarrassing blowout against Detroit in Week 2 where the Bears gave up 52 points, Chicago has rattled off wins against the Cowboys, Raiders, Commanders and Saints.

Now, that’s not exactly a murderer’s row schedule, but Bears fans certainly aren’t complaining. Given the state of quarterback play in the NFL, second-year starter Williams is playing at a top-ten level right now and that’s great news for a team that has a very soft schedule the rest of the way. 

Browns 31, Dolphins 6

One Takeaway: The Miami Dolphins have quit on head coach Mike McDaniel. 

I’d say the Dolphins are a complete dumpster fire, but that’s offensive to dumpsters. And fires. Speaking of fire, how can Dolphins owner Stephen Ross justify keeping head coach Mike McDaniel employed? It’s not just that the Dolphins are bad. And they are very, very bad. But the team has quit on the coach. 

READ: Miami Dolphins Just Played The Kind Of Game That Gets NFL People Fired

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw teammates under the bus for showing up late to meetings, and all signs point to a dysfunctional team with no leadership. That falls on McDaniel, who failed to motivate his players to even show up against a poor Browns team. 

Patriots 31, Titans 13 

One Takeaway: Cam Ward looks completely overmatched by the NFL. 

Rookies usually get better as their first NFL season goes along, but Ward seems to be getting worse. He took five sacks against the Patriots and committed arguably the ugliest turnover of the season so far. 

It’s not all Ward’s fault; he’s already on his second head coach after the first, Brian Callahan, was fired prior to Week 7. Still, I’d like to see some growth from Ward and that he’s learning to adapt to the NFL. But he holds the ball far too long, doesn’t seem to get through his progressions quickly enough, and makes awful mistakes like the fumble against the Patriots. 

Chiefs 31, Raiders 0

One Takeaway: The Chiefs are just fine. 

There was never a reason to panic in Kansas City, even after the 0-2 start. Xavier Worthy suffered an injury on the third play of the season, Rashee Rice missed the first six games, and the Chiefs had a tough schedule to open. But they’re still the class of the AFC because they have Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. 

Winning games in September is nice, but winning games in January and February is better. Mahomes and Reid know that better than anyone in the NFL. They’re not worried about a few earlier losses, and neither am I. 

Eagles 28, Vikings 22

One Takeaway: The Eagles can win in different ways. 

It’s not incredibly inspiring that Philadelphia let the Carson Wentz-led Vikings hang around for most of the game, but Minnesota has a solid roster, and it was a good road win for the Eagles. More importantly, though, is that Jalen Hurts showed he can win games with his arm. Philadelphia generally leans heavily on its run game, but the team tied a season-low with 45 rushing yards. In the previous two games when the Eagles rushed for fewer than 80 yards, they lost. That changed against the Vikings. 

A few weeks ago, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith appeared upset with their roles in the offense. Those complaints were put to rest on Sunday, with the pair combining for a ridiculous 304 yards receiving and three touchdowns. I’d take the Rams over the Eagles right now, but Philly is a threat to win the NFC yet again. 

Panthers 13, Jets 6

One Takeaway: I’m so glad we don’t have to watch this game again. 

Talk about a bad football game. The Jets benched Justin Fields for Tyrod Taylor, who wasn’t much better, but at least Taylor is capable of completing a forward pass (unfortunately, he’s very capable of completing passes to opposing defenses, too). Neither team had more than 177 yards passing, and it just wasn’t a fun watch. Thank goodness it’s over, and we never have to talk about it again. 

Colts 38, Chargers 24

One Takeaway: The Colts are for real. 

I wrote earlier this week that I wanted to see Indianapolis beat a good team, and the Colts did just that. They went on the road and pounded the Chargers. The final score made it seem closer than it was; Indianapolis led 23-3 at halftime before the defense took its foot off the gas in the second half. 

Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor belongs in the NFL MVP conversation. 

(Isaiah J. Downing/Imagn Images)

Daniel Jones is receiving some NFL MVP buzz, but that might be misplaced. If there’s a Colts’ player deserving of the award right now, it’s running back Jonathan Taylor. Taylor had 132 total yards and three touchdowns; he leads the NFL with 10 rushing touchdowns, and he’s currently on pace to hit paydirt 26 times. 

Cowboys 44, Commanders 22 

One Takeaway: I’m not sure what to make of the Dallas Cowboys. 

Seriously, are the Cowboys good or not? They lost a close game to the Eagles in Week 1, beat the Giants, got smoked by the Bears, tied the Packers, beat the Jets, lost to the Panthers and then smoked the Commanders. Talk about an enigma. 

The defense looked somewhat competent against Washington, though Dallas certainly benefited from the Commanders committing 11 penalties for 118 yards (However, the Cowboys committed 10 penalties of their own in a flag-happy game). Dak Prescott is playing at an MVP level, so Dallas can make some noise. We’re going to learn a lot about this team during Weeks 12–14 when they face the Eagles, Chiefs and Lions in consecutive weeks. 

Packers 27, Cardinals 23

One Takeaway: No NFL team finds ways to lose better than the Cardinals. 

It started in Week 3 when Arizona scored a safety to take a two-point lead against the 49ers with 3:15 left in the game. They failed to run out the clock, punted to San Francisco, and the 49ers drove down the field for a game-winning field goal as time expired. One week later, the Cardinals tied the Seahawks on a touchdown with 28 seconds left. Then, the Arizona kicker failed to have his kickoff reach the landing zone, which gave Seattle the ball on the 40-yard line. They would kick a game-winning field goal as time expired. 

Week 5 represented the worst loss any NFL team has suffered this season. The Cardinals led the winless Titans 21-6 to start the fourth quarter. Arizona was about to take a 28-6 lead when Emari Demarcado inexplicably dropped the football at the one-yard line, celebrating a touchdown too soon. It was all downhill after that, and the Titans came back and won. 

Arizona led in the fourth quarter last week against the Colts and lost. And, once again on Sunday, the Cardinals led in the fourth quarter against the Packers and lost again. They’ve had the lead in the final quarter in six of their seven games, and they are 2-5.

Broncos 33, Giants 32

One Takeaway: The Broncos, Sean Payton and Bo Nix are still overrated. 

This game was more about the New York Giants losing the game than the Denver Broncos winning it. The Giants led 19-0 entering the fourth quarter before basically forgetting how to play defense. New York allowed Denver to set a franchise record with 33 fourth-quarter points, and they needed every one of them. 

The Giants missed two extra-point kicks, including one after scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 37 seconds left. Then, they allowed the Broncos to gain 56 yards on two plays (including an offside penalty). Sure, you could give Nix credit, but the truth is his receivers were wide open. Seriously, how did the Giants just not guard anyone with the game on the line? 

Here’s a fun stat: On extra-point plays only, the Broncos outscored the Giants 6-2. Denver converted two 2-point conversions and two kicks on its four touchdowns. The Giants missed two kicks and a 2-point conversion (and made two PATs) on their five touchdowns.