Best & Worst NFL Week Seven

Another week has come and gone in the NFL! Week seven went by and the league is starting to take shape. There is a clear divide between the two New York Metro area teams. We saw plenty of teams like the Panthers, Raiders and Ravens get their doors blown off on Sunday. We also saw teams like the Packers and Texans go down by the slimmest of margins. There were great performances and ones that made you scratch your head. That being said, here's some of the best, and worst, from week seven in the NFL!

Best: J.J. McCarthy, Quarterback New York Giants
You could =make just as much for a claim for Cam Skattebo for the best here from the Giants 27-21 win over the Texans. Cam had a massive game with 124 yards on the ground, part of a massive running attack. Funny things is the running game didn't really come alive till late in the game. JJ deserves just as much credit for the performance he had in this win. The Giants gave McCarthy a shot under center over Jameis Winston. And he delivered. He went 20 for 28 for 252 yards. Sure he was sacked three times, but at the same time the passing game most of the day was able to open things up for that ground and pound attack late.

Worst: Aaron Glenn, Head Coach New York Jets
There's bad, and then there's whatever the hell the Jets are doing. You come into the game on Sunday for against a winless Miami team, one that should have been a cakewalk. And you haven't won a game in the division in almost two years. And you blew it. Miami got their first win of the year, a 28-25 win over the Jets. The seat for Aaron Glenn just got a hell of a lot hotter. New York got booed off the field at halftime Its not only the fact that they've lost two straight but the last one is one that you can't defend at all. Losing that game to Miami simply can't happen. And the next three games are against the Raiders, Chiefs and Bills. It's going to get even worse before it remotely gets better. How Aaron Glenn still has a job right now I'm not totallysure.

Best: Bo Nix, Quarterback Denver Broncos
He didn't set the world on fire on Sunday, but he did more than enough to the thing. Denvelr walked away with a big 30-16 win over Arizona. His consistency wasn't totally there Sunday, but it was one of his biggest games of the year in the win. Nix had 222 yards through the air, his second most passing yards this season, with a touchdown. He only completed 15 of his 29 passes, which is a tad alarming, but the yards were there. Oh and he also chalked up seven carries for 73 yards an another touchdown. Sure it was a win over the Cardinals, but a win is a win. And it appears something might be finally clicking right with Sean Peyton's playcalling to get Nix going again.

Worst: Baltimore Ravens Second Half
This was a total garbage second half of football, for a team that was supposed to be good this year. Baltimore had a 13-0 lead at halftime over Cincinnati and looked like they might be on cruise control. Then the second half started and the Ravens appeared to have left their game in the locker room. Here's how the second half went for the Ravens: Punt (only possession of 3rd quarter), downs, punt, interception, downs, end of game (ran out of time on final drive). All while that was going on, Cincinnati scored the 35 unanswered points. Tyler Huntley did everything he could under center but its clear to all that the Ravens badly need Lamar Jackson back under center here

Best: Blake Cashman, Linebacker Minnesota Vikings
It was a good day in Minnesota Sunday, as the Vikings walked away with a 16-10 win over the Colts. For as much as people talk about the offense the NFL, defense should be getting more credit than it does. Just look at the performance that Cashman had for the Minnesota defense. Cashman had 12 tackles, two sacks, three quarterback hits and four passes defended. Minnesota turned up the pressure on Daniel Jones all day long. It wasn't just Cashman getting pressure on Jones, it was the entire Vikings defense. But it was Cashman that was the most noticeable being around the ball all day long and diove the Colts crazy.

Worst: Trey Smack, Kicker Green Bay Packers
Green Bay had a chance to win the game on Sunday, Detroit basically gave them the game. And Green Bay blew it. Detroit somehow walked away with a 20-17 win over the Packers, no thanks to Dan Campbell. He went for it on fourth down late in the game, failed to get it. That boneheaded call gave the Packers a chance to either tie or win the game outright with good field position. They had the ball on the Detroit 22 with 4:53 left. They had the ball on the foot of Smack, who had already missed a kick earlier in the game. Then he had the chance with the game tied to win it, and he sailed it wide right. To be fair it was tipped at the line, but still. To make it worse, he started the year off great, but has now missed four kicks in the last two games.

New King In Tampa Bay

In the now thirty five year history of the Tampa Bay Lightning, there have been a lot of great skaters and scorers that have come through the organization. Guys like Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, Victor Hedman, Brad Richards, Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, the list goes on and on. When this season started, the name at the top of that list for scorers was Steven Stamkos, who sat at 1,137 career points. That is no more.

On the Lightning last road trip, Nikita Kucherov picked up four points, bringing his career total to 1,138 (and counting). Making him the Lightnings all time leading scorer. November 25th, 2013, in a home game against the New York Rangers, Nikita Kucherov scored his first NHL point, a goal in a 5-0 win. His first NHL assist (a pair of them actually) came a month later in a road game against the Panthers in Sunrise.

Since that time, Kucherov has gone on to record (at the time of this writing) 405 goals, 733 assists for 1,138 points in 890 games. In his thirteen years in the league, Kucherov has six 100-point seasons, four years of 40 or more goals and five years of 80 or more assists.

The numbers speak for themselves, he is that much of a superstar. Sure he takes some grief for not really talking much in the media, and if I'm being totally honest that's more than fine. His game really needs to do all of the talking for him. He's managed to keep his nose clean, so far as I can tell, away from the rink. His play on the ice is solid all around. Kucherov is no doubt one of the top five players on the planet at the moment and he's showing it off every night (or almost every night). Oh, and he's only 33 years old. He's still got plenty left in the tank.

Congratulations to Kucherov on becoming the Lightning all time leading scorer!

A Devil of A Deal

Man is that a different sight. We talked about it when we broke the news on the last show, but its still a big deal that's having a ripple effect on the league now. It took a little while, and the saga of it has been well documented, but it finally happened. The Winnipeg Jets have moved on from former league MVP goalie Conor Hellebuyck. HE's now tending the pipes as a New Jersey Devil.

The full trade is Winnipeg gets Nico Daws, Dawson Mercer, Alexander Command, Nick Bjugstad, a 2029 2nd round pick and a 2027 7th round pick. In exchange, the Devils got Hellebuyck.

Hellebuyck was taken in the 5th round, 130th overall in the 2012 entry draft. Up till the trade, he'd played his entire career in Winnipeg. 625 games in the Jets nets, with a 345-20855 record, a 2.58goals against average and a .916 save percentage. The biggest awards were the gold medal at the Olympics earlier this year, a four time all-star, three Vezina trophies and the league MVP in 2025. So the numbers were really good in Winnipeg. But something wasn't sitting right between him and the organization.

So, during the summer Hellebuyck came out and said that he had requested a trade from the Jets several months prior to making the announcement public. Winnipeg hadn't been able to find a suitable trade partner, as according to the team, the trades they had been offered were "terrible". So since Connor wasn't moved, he didn't show up for training camp and was promptly suspended by the team until a trade could be made, or he actually reported, whatever happened first.

The trade happened and Connor is now in New Jersey. The Jets finally get to move on from this, and hopefully it will help them maybe get better in the long run. Stuart Skinner has done an admirable job replacing Connor in the Winnipeg nets. Will he be the new answer to get them over the hump and back into playoff contention? Only time will tell.

As for Connor, this is a massive move for the Devils, who seemed to have found their guy to be the next in line of great goaltenders in New Jersey. It's kind of something they've been looking for since Marty Brodeur retired. Now having that kind of stable force in net, combined with some of the fire power that the Devils have, they have the potential to be very good.

2026 World Series Preview

And we are down to two! We started this journey of the 2026 Major League Baseball season back in late March, and the time has finally arrived. WE have one week to determine the best team in all of the baseball world. The 2026 World Series has arrived!

This year's matchup pits the best team in all of baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers, taking on the best team in the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays!

Milwaukee got here with the best record in all of baseball, finishing the regular season, going 103-59 and winning the NL Central. Then they dispatched the Padres in four games in the divisional round and swept the Dodgers in the league championship series. It's the second ever World Series appearance for the Brewers, having lost to the Cardinals in seven games in 1982.

Tampa Bay got here by winning the AL East with a 98-64 record. They swept the Yankees in three in the divisional round, before taking out the Guardians in six in the league championship series to reach their third World Series. The first two appearances were a five game loss to the Phillies in 2008 and a six game loss to the Dodgers in 2020.

This is going to be a battle of pitching, which as you know at this time of year always beets good hitting. Both teams have excellent starting rotations for the series, so it's going to come down to which bullpen can blink first. Both back ends of the pen are equally strong, so it's the middle guys that are going to have to step up to the challenge. That gives Milwaukee and ever so slight edge.

Hitting depth too is going to be big in this series. It's been well documented how top heavy the Rays lineup is with Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero. But, to be fair, the depth guys at the bottom of the lineup have been contributing more as this years playoffs have worn on. The big boys of the Brewers lineup have been delivering a tad more than what we've seen from the Rays so far in this years playoffs.

Rays pitchers get the ball in the strike zone a lot more than what the Brewers are used to seeing and that's going to throw hitters off a little in this series. But the Rays had better that the depth hitting can continue in this series or its going to go south on them real quick. Milwaukee is coming off a big 103 win season and have shown everybody why they won that many games here in the playoffs. It's going to be a battle of a series. At the end of the day, Milwaukee's old friend in Freddy Peralta is going to be getting the last laugh and a ring on his finger.

Pick: Rays in six!

Best & Worst NFL Week Six

Week six is in the books in the NFL and an interesting week it was. There's a lot to take in from this past week. Philadelphia took a blow with Hurts now being out for the rest of the season. Them and the Cowboys are falling behind the New York Giants, and even they are struggling. Then the AFC North is all having winning records, including one of the biggest surprises being the Cleveland Browns. We also had a couple of players make history, and others still have bounce back performances. With all that being said, lets take a look at some of what was. Here's some of the best, and worst, of the week that was in the NFL.

Best: Patrick Mahomes, Quarterback Kansas City Chiefs
Move over Brady, you've got company in the record books. Kansas City rolled to a 22-6 win over the Chargers on Sunday, and with that win, Patrick Mahomes went into the record books. The performance itself was solid. Mahomes went 23 of 30 for 272 yards and a pick. The game was won mostly on the back of the running of Kenneth Walker. But for Mahomes, the win was his 100th as a starter in the NFL. It was his 131st career start. It tied him with Tom Brady for the fastest to 100 career wins as NFL starting QB. The only other QB in history to hit 100 wins in under 104 starts was Joe Montana, who's third on the list at 139 starts to 100 wins.

Worst: Backup Quarterbacks
This week, we saw four backup quarterbacks make starts in the league. Yes, you read that correctly. Four backups got starts in the NFL this week. The combined record of those four quarterbacks was 0-4 on the week. We had Jalon Daniels have a roller coaster of a day in just his third NFL start in the Bucs OT loss to the Steelers. Two other backup starters, Tyler Huntley in Baltimore and Jameis Winston of the Giants, have been around longer and had higher expectations. Baltimore was favored to beat Cleveland. But the Browns kept Dereck Henry in check and forced Huntly to create offense, which he wasn't able to do in the Browns win. Winston was so bad in the Giants loss to the Saints he got benched in favor of former Vikings QB JJ McCarthy. Last there was the bad luck to fall on Tanner McKee, who's now got to take over for Janel Hurts who's out for the year in Philly. McKee, who was making his third career start, had to drop back nearly 50 times because the Eagles had no run game.

Best; Travis Hunter, Wide Receiver/Defensive Back Jacksonville Jaguars
Since the NFL merger with the ALF in 1970, there's a very short list of players who have an interception on defense and a touchdown on offense in the same game. In fact, there's only three names on it. Roy Green did it with the Cardinals in 1981. Brian Dawkins did it with the Eagles in 2002. and Now Travis Hunter has done it with the Jaguars this past week. Yes, the Jaguars lost to Houston 34-31, but it wasn't for lack of effort on Hunter's part. Most of Hunter's time in the NFL prior to this year was on the defensive side of the football. Now the Jags are starting to use him more on offense as well. Sunday was a good day on both sides for Hunter, He had three tackles and the pick on defense. On offense, he finished with four catches for 59 yards and that touchdown. That was a day for the ages for the young receiver. If that was what he did this week, he could have a very bright future going forward on both sides in Jacksonville.

Worst: Zachariah Branch, Kick Returner Atlanta Falcons
Special Teams are just as critical in the game of football as offense and defense. When you are a kick returner, your job is to be able to get the ball and set your offense up in good field position. Your main role in during this is being able to hang onto the football. Somebody forgot to tell kick returner Zachariah branch that. His butter fingers moment lead to the Bears walking way with a 31-23 win over the Falcons. He not only muffed a punt on the day, but he also fumbled a ball during a kickoff return. Both of those muffes lead to Bears scores, allowing them to build on a 31-7 lead. Atlanta almost pulled off the comeback, which would have been a miracle in its own rights. But the end of the day, those two mishandles turned out to cost the Falcons the game.

Best: James Cook, Running Back Buffalo Bills
Last week seemed like an off week for Cook, who had two fumbles on the day. Normally he's a lot surer handed than that. So, this week, he needed to have a bounce back game. And he got it. This week, Buffalo walked away with a 33-30 win over the Raiders, and Cook was a solid part of hit. He finished with 22 carries for 95 yards and a touchdown. There was only two guys to hit the hindered or more rush yards this week (Kenneth Walker and Chuba Hubbard). Buu the performance by Cook got him back on his game. Oh, and that touchdown turned out to be the go ahead score in this game. Josh Allen is what makes the Buffalo offense really go, but he needs help for the Bills to go anywhere. Cook showed that he can be that guy to be able to take the pressure off Allen so he doesn't have to be Superman.

Worst: Jim Harbaugh, Head Coach Los Angeles Chargers
Jim Harbaugh has been a winning coach almost everywhere he went. In fact, during his coaching career, between the NFL and College, he's had two seasons in which he's finished at .500 or lower. He went 5-7 at Stanford in 2008 (as well as 2-4 at Michigan in 2020 but that was the Covid year) and 8-8 in his last year in San Francisco in 2014. Otherwise he's had winning records. This year, he's going to have a losing record. The Chargers are now 0-6 on the season, following the 22-6 loss to Kansas City we talked about earlier. It was a poor start to the season, along with injuries taking hold, and it's getting to the point where this is borderline unwatchable. Harbaugh has to take his share of the blame for it. Having Mike McDaniel run that poor offense is on him. It's going to be tough out in Califnoria to watch this team.

Party In Tampa Bay

The party is on in the city of Tampa, Florida! For the third time in their history, the Tampa Bay Rays are playing for a world championship! It took six games to knock off the Cleveland Guardians, but the Rays have won the pennant for the third time in their history. And this one of the three World Series appearances the team has had, could be the sweetest of all.

They haven't won the big one yet, we will know that by Halloween the latest, which is when game seven would be played if the series goes the distance. So we have a little over a week to figure out a champion, and we will have our series preview a little later in the week. But for this writing, just the fact that the Rays are playing in the series is sweet.

Just look at what the team has gone through the last couple of years. This time two years ago, the roof of Tropicana Field wasn't a thing. Hurricanes came through and destroyed the roof of the Trop, causing the Rays to play at Steinbrenner Field last year. And last season was a disappointing one, a year in which the Rays missed the playoffs, and finished seven games under .500.

Then things started to change. Stu Sternberg is finally out as owner. Patrick Zalupski came in and got the team started to straighten out. They got the plans in place for a new ballpark in Tampa. Then the season goes along on the field. it's the first year back at the Trop. They had winning months, or at least .500 months, every month all seasons long. They played good baseball at the right times.

Then the playoffs started. It was a sweep of the Yankees in the divisional round. Then they had to prove themselves in the league championship series. Hit a couple of speedbumps, but the best players had the big moments at the right time. Now here we sit, in the World Series, four possible wins away from a title!

Best & Worst NFL Week Five

Week five has come and gone in the NFL. It started off with the Bucs finally getting off the slide and upsetting the Cowboys for their first win of the season. Jacksonville and Philadelphia turned into a slugfest in London. We had a tie this week too between the Giants and Commanders, a game which looked like nobody wanted to win. There were a ton of good performances on the weekend, and at the same time that really made you scratch your head. So let's get into it. Here's the best, and worst, from week five in the NFL.

Best: Cam Little, Kicker Jacksonville Jaguars
This was a case of getting saved by the skin of your teeth. Jacksonville walked away somehow with a 19-17 win over the Eagles. Cam Little was a big reason for it, but could have also been the goat for it as well. He missed an extra point kick late in the 4th quarter that left the door open for the Eagles. But then, just seconds later, Little got a chance to redeem himself. And He did. The snap on the extra point was too high which is why it was missed. The one on the game winning kick was a little high but it was accurate enough to allow Little to hit the 57 yard kick to win the game for the Jags.

Worst: Nick Sirianni, Head Coach Philadelphia Eagles
Talk about a bad day at the office. This one ties into what we talked about just above. Cam Little left the door wide open for the Eagles, which Philly took advantage of. After the missed extra point, the Eagles came down the field and set up Jake Elliott to hit a 48 yard field goal to put the Eagles up 17-16. Then Sirianni made the baffling decision to give the Jags a returnable kick instead of kicking it away. Jacksonville took the kick back 53 yards, taking the ball all the way down to the Eagles 39 yard line. That lead to the Cam Little kick that we just talked about. Had Sirianni not kicked it right at Ameer Abdullah who returned it to set up the winning kick.

Best: Drake Maye, Quarterback New England Patriots
For a guy who finished second in MVP voting last year, Maye got off to an ice cold start this season. Yeah, Drake found his game again this week, in the Patriots 45-17 dominating win over the Raiders. The stats are impressive. He went 26 of 34 for 374 yards and four touchdowns through the air. He added seven carries for 25 yards and another touchdowns. Those five touchdowns was the second time in his career he's had five in a game. This kind of performance could be a sign that the Patriots found their form from last season. The last two wins over the Bills and this one over the Raiders are signs that they could be back. Maye performance was a big reason for this.

Worst: Tua Tagovailoa, Quarterback Atlanta Falcons
At one point in time, Tua was seen as to be the next face of the Miami Dolphins Quarterback. Now he's fallen so far down the charts he's behind Michael Penix in Atlanta. Falcons lost 30-23 to the Ravens on Sunday and Tua issues at the start of the day lead to some of these issues. Penix had done well at the start of this game, but ended up picking up a rib injury in this tilt, forcing Tua into the game. This would have been his chance to shine and get back into the good graces of the Falcons and show the entire football world that he was that guy again. instead, he telegraphed a pass that the Ravens Kyle Hamilton easily jumped and picked off to seal the win for the Ravens. Yeah, good luck for Tua trying to get back to being king fish in this league again.

Best: David Bailey, Linebacker New York Jets
There were signs that the New York Jets knew what they were doing when they took David Bailey with the 2nd overall pick in this years draft. He had his first big impact game this weekend in the Jets 17-12 win over the Browns. Sure, the over 100 yard games from garret Wilson in the pass game and Baelon Allen 116 yards on the ground were a big plus on offense, but it was Bailey day on the other side of the ball that was just as big a day. Bailey had three sacks and a forced fumble on the day. He had a total of five solo and seven tackles overall. It was a dominating performance and it makes you realize how scary good this kid could be, because he's only 23 years old. He can stay healthy he's going to be really, really good.

Worst: Chicago Bears Offense
On a weekend that was going to be an emotional one for the Bears, there offense went ice cold. Chicago went limp against Green Bay, with the Packers coming away with a 31-7 win. Going into the week, the Bears looked like they might set an NFL record for points scoring. But the Chicago offense scoring just seven points lead to Tyson Bagent getting benched for Case Keenum. It's also worth noting that not having Caleb Williams and Kyle Monangai (who had that big week last week). With everything not clicking, Chicago produced a season low of 246 yards of total offense, and both quarterbacks ended up throwing picks. Those were two of the five turnovers the team had. Yeah it was a bad weekend for Da Bears.