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Water will always find its level. The same holds true for contenders and pretenders in the NFL. Here are my observations from Week Seven:
The Good
-When the Ravens faced off against the Seahawks in Seattle, we were treated to two of the most dynamic playmakers at the quarterback position in the league with Lamar Jackson facing off against Russell Wilson. While neither guy completed more than 50% of their passes, it was exciting to see them work. They are amazing to watch scramble around and make plays. Wilson is the better passer, while Jackson is the better runner. The Ravens won 30-16 thanks to their two turnover returns for touchdowns. Would love to see this matchup in a Super Bowl one day.
-The Patriots keep on rolling. They mashed the Jets 33-0 on Monday Night Football. While Tom Brady will get most of the credit, Bill Belichek and that defense deserves their fair share. They held the Jets to 154 total yards and even that is about 107 yards less than their season average. Brady is averaging almost 300 passing yards a game this year at age 42 and is showing no signs of slowing down.
-The San Francisco 49ers are 6-0 for the first time since 1990. They gained their sixth victory by way of an ugly 9-0 win over the Skins in what seemed to be played in the middle of a monsoon. To put that into perspective: the average rent was $465/month, gas was $1.34/gallon, a home was $123,000, and I was in 4th grade. Watch out for this team. They're legit on both sides of the ball.
The Bad
-Seahawks rookie receiver DK Metcalf committed a virtual non-contact fumble in crunch time. Down by 10 with about four minutes left, he caught a bubble screen, tried to make a move, and dropped the ball after minimal to no contact. The Ravens' corner Marlon Humphrey eventually picked it up and scored to put the game out of reach. Metcalf will be going through ball carrying drills this week.
-In a battle of the top two quarterbacks taken in the past draft, the Cardinals' Kyler Murray and Daniel Jones both committed boneheaded mistakes. Jones tried to lead block for Saquon Barkley and was laid out by Haason Reddick. Later on, Murray was scrambling while in field goal range and up 24-21 with just over two minutes left. Instead of sliding to take more time off the clock, he ran out of bounds. It didn't cost them the game, but it was a dumbass play nonetheless.
-Dolphins rookie defensive tackle Christian Wilkins was ejected a couple weeks ago for suplexing Chargers' running back Austin Ekeler and said he "didn't know" he couldn't do that. This week, he was ejected for throwing a punch on the second play of the game
The Ugly
-Falcons running back Devonta Freeman got himself ejected in the 3rd quarter of their loss to the Rams for trying to fight Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald of all people! Donald, at one point, lifted Freeman off the ground as if he were a small child. It's bad enough the Falcons have fallen off a cliff since blowing the biggest lead in Super Bowl history. It was compounded when Freeman's backup Ito Smith left the game with a concussion.
-Dolphins safety Bobby McCain had an ugly encounter with Bills fans after their 31-21 loss. McCain got into a verbal sparring match with a 13 year old and allegedly spit in the face of another fan. While fans have every right to express themselves, they shouldn't overstep any boundaries. At the same time, players need to act accordingly, especially knowing fans affinity for trolling them into something.
-Several key players sustained injuries this past week. Vikings' receiver Adam Thielen went down with a hamstring injury in the 1st quarter. Lions' running back Kerryon Johnson (knee) and corner Darius Slay (hamstring) both went down. The Falcons also lost quarterback Matt Ryan with an ankle injury in the 4th quarter. Keep an eye on the injury report later this week, especially if any of these guys are on your fantasy football teams.
There's only two undefeated teams left now. One isn't a surprise at all (Patriots), the other is a complete surprise (49ers). I doubt either one stays undefeated due to the law of averages. New England will slip at some point to someone, and the 49ers will have a game in which their inexperience will catch up to them. Besides, there are too many good teams out there that can give either one of them a loss. There are nine other teams with either one or two losses that can be considered serious contenders right now. To say there are 11 teams in the league that have zero, one, or two lossess at this point in the season and all of them are a threat feeds into the parity narrative. Here's to the ride the rest of the way and hoping it has as much parity as the first seven weeks have had.
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Astros lose tight one despite brilliant outing from Hunter Brown
May 15, 2025, 10:29 pm
It’s a fun series between the Astros and Rangers through the weekend in Arlington, but by no means is it a critical series. It would be nice for the Astros to not lose three out of the four games (or obviously all four) to their upstate rivals. The Astros have lost their last five road series, dropping two out of three games in each of them. As with the Astros, pitching has been the strength of the team for the Rangers thus far. After the humdinger Hunter Brown-Jacob deGrom mound matchup Thursday night, the Rangers give the ball Friday to Nathan Eovaldi with his earned run average at 1.78, then Saturday it’s Tyler Mahle with his even more sparkling 1.47 ERA. Heading into Thursday play, the Mariners having lost five of their last six games meant just a game and a half separate first from fourth place in the American League West. The Astros, Rangers, and Athletics are all right there. Only the Angels are inconsequential.
Star power!
There is an asterisk to attach but Jeremy Pena is making a real charge at becoming a first-time All-Star game selection. Among American League shortstops, the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. is clearly the best. The clear number two in the pecking order coming into this season was the Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson, who is on fire after a slow start that began with him missing seven games on the injured list. Athletics’ rookie Jacob Wilson goes into the weekend batting .350 and amazingly has struck out just nine times in 164 at bats. Rangers’ stud Corey Seager being on the injured list with a balky hamstring for the second time this season helps the Astros this weekend and likely frees up an All-Star spot.
Now to that aforementioned asterisk. Pena has been sensational so far, indisputably the Astros’ best everyday player. We just need to see more staying power of performance before fully slotting Pena in the top tier of shortstops. Pena’s four-hit game Wednesday night hiked his batting average to .315, his OPS to .840. Well, last year Pena put head to pillow the night of May 15 with his batting average at .333, his OPS at .830. The rest of the season Pena hit .240 with a meager .653 OPS. That Pena drew a paltry 18 walks over his last 114 games. 2025 Pena has showed markedly better plate discipline. He’ll never be a high walks-drawn guy but incremental improvement matters, and can bear fruit in other ways.
Fruitless continues to describe an awfully high percentage of Christian Walker’s plate appearances. 2023 Jose Abreu was better (2024 Abreu was not). Plenty of season still remains for a turnaround, but more than a quarter of the season is gone and it’s not as if Walker is trending in the right direction. In three games against the Royals he went zero for 12 with seven strikeouts. With his final whiff, Walker reached the 50 strikeout “milestone” for the season in his 154th at bat. Feeble and lousy are fair characterizations of a .208 batting average and .625 OPS, magnified for someone batting clean-up most nights. Starting play Thursday 13 big leaguers actually had struck out more than Walker so far this season, among them only the Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds carries a lower OPS. Walker has been even worse with runners in scoring position, batting just .171, with a sub-abysmal 20 strikeouts in 41 at bats.
Using Baseball-Reference's Wins Above Replacement statistic, the Astros’ three worst non-pitchers this season are Walker, Yordan Alvarez, and Jose Altuve. Those are the three highest paid players on the team. Altuve’s extended funk has him hitting .202 over his last 27 games with a .538 OPS. Altuve was dropped to second in the batting order basically at his request. It has not sparked him. If Altuve doesn’t pick it up, manager Joe Espada will have to consider dropping Altuve several more spots down the lineup. Alvarez is at 11 games and counting missed with a muscle strain in his right hand. He will not be approaching the career-high 147 games played last season.
Relief pitcher Tayler Scott was a revelation last season. Before joining the Astros at age 31 Scott had a big-league ERA of 9.00 in 46 innings scattered over three seasons. So it was pretty much out of nowhere that the only South African pitcher in MLB history posted a scintillating 1.36 ERA into early August before fading and winding up with a still stellar 2.23 mark. The clock struck midnight on his Cinderella story this year though, and with the Astros needing to open a roster spot this week, Scott was designated for assignment.
Book it!
Longtime Astros’ broadcasting stalwart Bill Brown has authored several books. His latest is Wartime Athletes, which tells the stories of athletes across a number of sports who served in the U.S. military during various wars. If you know anything about Bill Brown, you know each story was meticulously researched and makes for an interesting read. I’m no Oprah when it comes to the power of suggestion for reading material, but Wartime Athletes is worth your time and/or is a worthy gift for someone else.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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