By Travers Cummings
Falcons over Dolphins (Sunday noon): There’s not much left to say about the Dolphins. They were left for dead by the Browns of all teams last week. The coach is doing his best to put on a brave face knowing he’ll be fired any day now, players are starting to point fingers at one another—it’s just a total mess. They’re 1-6 and seem to have no chance of winning another game. This whole organization is probably getting blown up in the offseason, so their best bet is to keep losing games to secure a better draft pick in 2026.
The Falcons pulled their usual Jekyll-and-Hyde gimmick last week against my 49ers. The bad version of Atlanta showed up, and they looked awful against San Francisco—who were still missing half their team. Bijan Robinson managed only 40 yards rushing, although he did have 52 yards receiving and a touchdown; he was mostly held in check on the ground. But what better way to bounce back than to face the Dolphins at home—as long as the good version of the Falcons shows up.
Eagles over Giants (Sunday noon): The Giants had a collapse for the ages against the Broncos last week. Giving up 33 points in one quarter is unheard of, but that’s what they did—costing them the game. I don’t know how you recover from something like that, but they’ll have to put it in the rear-view mirror as they travel to Philadelphia to face the Eagles, who are looking to avenge their loss to New York earlier this year.
All the talk for the Giants right now is about how well rookie quarterback Jaxon Dart and fellow rookie running back Cam Skattebo are playing. It certainly makes the team more exciting to watch and gives their fans some hope for the future—but they’re still just 2-5 on the season. Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ offense finally let loose their potential against the Vikings, with both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith going over 100 yards receiving and scoring a combined three touchdowns. Why they don’t do this every week, I don’t know—but it certainly makes them more dangerous when they have a balanced attack as opposed to just focusing on the run game.
Steelers over Packers (Sunday night): Well, it’s happening. Aaron Rodgers—who spent most of his career as a Green Bay Packer—will finally face off against them for the very first time. It would have been a much better atmosphere had this game been in Green Bay instead of Pittsburgh, but since this most likely will be Aaron’s last year, this is as close as we’ll get. Even though most people believed Rodgers had nothing left in the tank after two abysmal years with the Jets, he’s currently tied for fourth in the league with 14 TD passes. Not too bad for a “washed-up” 40-year-old (some people say the same thing about me).
Green Bay is the top team in the NFC currently, but their last two outings haven’t exactly been convincing. They struggled against another 40-year-old in Joe Flacco two weeks ago, and last week they struggled against the Cardinals—who didn’t even have Kyler Murray. If they want people to take them seriously, they need a big statement game here against their former hero.
Last week: 2-1
Season overall: 13-8