WHAT WE LEARNED: NFL WEEK 7

BY ADAM GREENE

We had a weird week of NFL football. Her’s what I want to talk about this week.

THE NFL IS WIDE OPEN

For maybe the first time in years, we’re all sitting here after Week 7, heading into Week 8, and have no real idea who should win the Super Bowl. Last season, the Philadelphia Eagles were undefeated and, regardless of Travis Kelce (and forgive me Swifties, I’m a fan), post Super Bowl rant of “nobody believed in us,” trust me. We all believed that the Kansas City Chiefs could make and win the Super Bowl. This year, for the first time, it feels that anything could happen.

Back in 2021, the Los Angeles Rams went all in with trades for Matthew Stafford, Von Miller and signing Odell Beckham, Jr. and, obviously, it all worked out. You couldn’t be shocked that a team with those guys, plus Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp (who won the NFL’s Triple Crown) and Jalen Ramsey, somehow ended the year with a Super Bowl title.

It’s the same with the year before, with Tom Brady joining a loaded Tampa Bay Buccaneers team hoisting the Vince Lombardi at year’s end. Was anyone shocked, really? We were sad, sure. No one wanted that outside of a Tampa Bay strip club, but surprised? I’ll say no.

This season, we have no clue about what is happening.

Are the Chiefs still good? Yes, but they look very beatable. Literally, every game seems like it’s way closer than it should be and, considering they’re 3-4 against the spread right now, the books obviously agree.

How about the Eagles? They still look like the best team in the NFC and if we get a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl, nobody’s complaining. Unbeatable though? Far from it.

Everybody else? No one knows and none of us, not a one outside of maybe Nick Wright and Taylor Swift, would be surprised if neither of those teams made it to the Super Bowl. If ever there was a year of just making it into the bracket and seeing what can happen, it’s 2023-24.

We’re in Week 8 right now and we’re already starting to see a playoff picture forming. The only teams you can comfortably say are out of it are the New England Patriots, New York Giants, Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers and the Arizona Cardinals. Everyone else is in the mix and, if the chips fall right, could make a run.

WHEN A WIN IS THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN

Last Sunday inside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., a disaster happened. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Los Angeles Rams 24-17. Now, if you’re a regular reader of mine (or follow me on social mead — and please do), you know the Rams are my team. Though I presently (and always have) lived in Tennessee, the Volunteer state didn’t have an NFL team until I was in my early 20s. And while I’m glad the Tennessee Titans are here and that younger fans in Tennessee, especially 30 and under, root for them, I had already picked my team…. From a poster of all the NFL Divisions in my cousins Jesse and Bobby’s shared bedroom back in 1979 — the Los Angeles Rams. I selected the Rams because I thought they had the coolest helmets and, at 49 years old, I still do.

But my belief that the current LA team, even in a year where they’ve shed tons of dead salary cap, can be a playoff team, isn’t the only reason that Steelers victory was a disaster. For Pittsburgh, it’s the worst possible outcome.

Because offensive coordinator Matt Canada must be fired to save the Steelers as a franchise and second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett’s career. If this team finishes with a winning record or, even worse, sneaks into the playoffs to get obliterated by a team like the Miami Dolphins 44-10, it will be even worse. Mike Tomlin has never recorded a losing season as an NFL head coach. The only chance the Steelers have of him admitting that he was wrong, that Canada was a bad hire, was to experience the first losing season of his career.

That game, against the Rams, should have been a loss. Los Angeles should have won by 10-plus points, but the offense faltered in the second half. Matthew Stafford hasn’t been fully healthy since he took a hit on his hip against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4, but he’s playing through it. Kenny Pickett, as he has in every Steelers win this season, drew up plays in the dirt to put together a couple of scoring drives in the fourth quarter to win the contest, owing a whole lot to two missed field goals and a missed extra point from former Rams kicker Brett Maher.

And Steelers fans rejoiced? They were at the game, it was roughly 65-35 Pittsburgh to LA fans, as expected, and you were happy? Why? Because you want to keep Matt Canada as the OC? I feel as if the chants at every Penn State, Pitt, Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Pirates games show that isn’t the case. You do know there is no way Tomlin is firing Canada if you win, right?

Tomlin is a great coach, one of the best in the league. He’s also smug and doesn’t like to be proven wrong. Canada was his handpicked guy. Tomlin elevated him from QB coach in 2020 to OC in 2021. If this team can finish 9-8 or better? He’s going nowhere.

Steelers fans are an odd bunch. I have lots of friends who root for Pittsburgh. I’ve dated Steelers fans. They’ve had, in my lifetime, three head coaches who’ve all won Super Bowls. No other team on the planet can claim that.

Pittsburgh fans don’t know what it’s like to actively root for your team to lose so they’ll fire their horrible coach. Rams fans? Oh, make no mistake. We know that all too well. Jeff Fisher was the last garbage coach in a string of garbage coaches for the Rams post Mike Martz, who basically got himself fired for cutting Kurt Warner.

Since Chuck Knoll was hired in 1969, five years before I was born, Pittsburgh has experienced a total of nine losing seasons. And some of those were 7-9 campaigns. In 54 years, nine losing seasons. You can see how that would skew a fanbases’ expectations. Knoll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin all won Super Bowls. All have coached in multiple Super Bowls. Steelers fans don’t understand that sometimes losing can save your franchise.

But it can. Winning last week, against the Rams, was bad for both teams. Root for Pittsburgh to lose. Trust me. You get a Brian Grese in there, the San Francisco QB coach as your offensive coordinator, and you’re a Super Bowl team. With Canada? You’re just this, for years and Kenny Pickett is the next David Carr. He deserves better and so do you.

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

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