Winners and Losers from the Weekend - NFL and College Football

Couldn't decide on whether to write about CFB or NFL from this past weekend, because I sure as shit wasn't going to write about Playoff Baseball following the Cubs disappointing loss Saturday. And without any one story standing out above the rest in my eyes, I thought today's blog would be a good opportunity to take a broad look at the headlines across the football world. What teams, players, coaches, etc were the Biggest Winners and Losers from Week 6 of the NFL season, and Week 7 of the College Football Season.

NFL Winners/Losers

Winner: Baker Mayfield/Tampa Bay Bucs

Despite a smorgasbord of injuries to his skill position weapons -- Bucky Irving, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka this week -- Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers refuse to stop winning. Baker's vaulted himself to the top of the MVP conversation as he continuously finds ways to win -- he's got nearly 1,600 yards and a 12:1 TD:INT ratio through 6 weeks, and has another opportunity for an even bigger statement win @ Detroit this week.

Loser: The Philadelphia Eagles

After a disappointing home-loss to the Broncos last week, the Eagles had a chance to right the ship on TNF against the "lowly" Giants. Instead, the Eagles defense stayed home Thursday Night, as Jaxon Dart and Cam Skattebo hung 34 points on their head in Primetime, winning 34-17. Where they could lean on their run-game last year, they've been stymied lately -- after clearing 120+ rush yards Weeks 1 and 2, they haven't eclipsed 90 as a team in 4 straight games. The offense has become predictable, they can't throw, and their defense can't get a stop without Jalen Carter.

Winner: The Kansas City Chiefs

After an extremely Rocky-start to the season, where many haters (myself included) were predicting a fall-off for KC after losses to the Chargers, Eagles, and Jags. But the Chiefs and Pat Mahomes gave reason to believe they are back. A dominating win over the Lions 30-17, leaving them at 3-3 with Rashee Rice coming back in Week 7. They'll have 2 home games (Raiders and Commanders) to get to 5-3 before another match-up with Buffalo in Week 9.

Loser: Brian Callahan

Following their 5th loss on the young season 20-10 to the Raiders, the Titans have fired their Head Coach Brian Callahan as of Monday. The Titans have been a dumpster fire despite a come-from-behind win over Arizona last week, but that seemed to just delay the inevitable after another poor performance. Going to be a real long year for Tennessee fans and Cam Ward.

Winner: Drake Maye

Fresh off a primetime upset win over Josh Allen and the Bills, Drake Maye continued his hot start with a win at New Orleans to get the Patriots to 4-2. He threw for 3 more TD's (giving him 12 total TD's on the year) and steered the Pats to their 3rd straight win -- with winnable games on deck vs the Titans, the Browns, and the Falcons.

Loser: International Football

After a pair of pretty solid games Across the Pond (Vikings vs Steelers and Vikings vs Browns), we took a noticeable step down with Broncos vs Jets this weekend. 24 total points with the Broncos winning 13-11, just one TD scored in the game. The Jets had net -10 passing yards in a game where Justin Fields was sacked 9 times and had 45 yards on 17 pass attempts. Rams v Jags on paper should be better next week -- but especially if Puka sits, I'll be taking that under.

Winner: Bank of America Stadium

If you're unfamiliar -- this is the home stadium of the Carolina Panthers, where they are 3-0 this season after beating the Cowboys on Sunday 30-27 (another MONSTER Rico Dowdle game, hot seat Chuba Hubbard). Living just an hour south of Charlotte, I've already started looking at ticket prices when the Bills come to town in 2 weekends. And next week with the Panthers traveling to face the 0-6 New York Jets, something's gotta give!

Loser: Lumen Field

On the contrary, it seems the Seahawks would rather play all their games away from Seattle. After beating the Jags 20-12 on Sunday, it marked their 9th straight win on the road. They're 12-3 in their last 15 road games, and 2-8 in their last 10 home games. The 12th man is known for being one of the best crowds in football, which makes this stat even more shocking.

CFB Winners/Losers

Winner: Indiana Hoosiers

Unquestionably the biggest winners of the weekend are Curt Cignetti's Hoosiers, who earned the biggest win of the weekend (and maybe program history) beating #3 Oregon on the road. Hesiman Candidate Fernando Mendoza helped lead his team to a 30-20 win that didn't even feel that close. The Indiana defense made a statement with 2 interceptions and racking up 6 sacks and 8 TFL's, ending any doubt that last year's Playoff berth was a fluke, and announcing this year's team as an even bigger threat to win it all.

Loser: Florida State Seminoles

Wasn't that Week 1 win over Bama fun, Noles' fans? No one can take that win away from you! Holy fuck has it been a steep drop-off for FSU. A 3-0 start with a win over Bama -- to 3 straight losses: an OT heartbreaker to Virginia, a tough one to a good Miami team, and now an inexplicable home loss to Pitt on Saturday. This loss effectively takes them out of CFP consideration for a season that began with such promise.

Winner: Ty Simpson

Sorry to all my Mizzou fan friends for writing that blog last week just for the Tigers to drop a heartbreaker to Bama on Saturday. I'll allow you to blame Bean's Blog, but who you need to blame is the OC that inexplicably ran the ball to the short side of the field all day and got away from the run too early.

But on the other side of things, despite a game-plan that shockingly didn't push the pass even more against a questionable Mizzou secondary -- Ty Simpson had a great game. Efficient, didn't try to do too much, made big throws when it matters. threw for 3 TD's in the game and earned Bama a key road win against a quality opponent. With Tennessee on deck, the Tide is rolling.

Loser: James Franklin

I wish I had a Penn State fan in my life that I could make fun of, but alas, I have to settle for the Barstool employees and watching them suffer. Penn State somehow lost again, this time to Northwestern AT HOME. Disgusting. And to add to the pain, Drew Allar is out for the year with injury. Penn State had seen enough and decided James Franklin had to go -- despite his whopping $50 million buyout. He was such a bad coach that they'd rather pay him $50 mil than let him finish an already dead season -- speaks volumes.

Winner: The American Conference

There are probably some better choices for a 3rd winner of the week, but I like to give some shine to the little guys. The top dogs of the American Conference -- South Florida, Tulane, Navy, and Memphis -- earned key victories over the weekend to stay perfect in conference play (Memphis was on bye and is ranked #22 Nationally). Memphis and USF especially have real CFP chances as the Mid-major entrant -- both are ranked, boast signature wins (USF over Boise St and @ Florida, Memphis vs Arkansas) AND they play each other in 2 weeks. If they each win next week, we'll have a big-time American Conference showdown that just might decide who makes the CFP -- so long as they beat Navy and/or Tulane to stay perfect in their conference.

Loser: Oklahoma Sooners

And lastly, the Oklahoma Sooners, of whom I have much disdain. Oklahoma came out firing this year with transfer QB John Mateer looking like a Heisman-favorite -- beating Michigan and Auburn before he injured his hand. He sat out against Kent State, but shockingly was activated for the Red River Rivalry this weekend @ Texas. But he probably should've kept healing, because he returned to a 3 INT performance as the Sooners got whooped by the Longhorns 23-6. And the sledding for the Sooners doesn't get any easier -- they go to South Carolina before a 5-game stretch to end the season against all ranked opponents -- Ole Miss, @ Tennessee, @ Bama, Mizzou, and LSU. YIKES.