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Top Three NFL Games to Watch: Week 10

Date: November 14, 2021

By: Chris Kiely

The Jaguars and Bills play against each other in the NFL.

Bob Self/Florida Times Union

We have now reached the two-digit mark of weeks in the NFL regular season. Before we begin, I think it would be best if everyone takes a moment to enjoy this point of the season because everyone will be upset in seven weeks when the NFL regular season is over.

With that, take five seconds to tell yourself you are going to enjoy these remaining Sundays of the regular season. The good thing with Week 10 is that you are that point of the season where you get to see the “in the hunt” section of the standings, which means playoffs are near.

One thing I am not trying to take more than five seconds to do is to look back at my predictions from last week that aged poorly. While I did expect the Broncos to be competitive, everyone else and I had no idea that they would just embarrass the Cowboys at home. I did correctly predict the Browns to win, but they did so in much more dominating fashion. The week ended with me being absolutely wrong on the Rams, as they got dominated at home by the Titans.

Now, taking a look at where everything stands in the NFL, the main takeaway has been that there is major lopsidedness between the NFC and the AFC. The AFC now have no clear number one team.

Also, after 10 weeks, I am now agreement with those who think the Cardinals are the best team in the NFL. With the Buccaneers, Packers, and Rams all looking mortal in multiple games, and the performance by the Kyler Murray-less Cardinals, the best team is Arizona

Lastly, this week has several teams, such as the Vikings, Seahawks, and 49ers, that are one loss away from me officially saying their season is finished. With that, here are your Week 10 games to watch.

1. New Orleans Saints (5-3) at Tennessee Titans (7-2) – 1 p.m.

The Titans celebrate during an NFL game.

Gary Vasquez/USA Today Sports

Was there a team that had better a win than the Titans on Sunday? The answer is no. After being talked about the entire week, about how much they will be missing Derrick Henry, the Titans responded with an absolute dominant performance over the Rams.

Since their ugly loss in MetLife Stadium to the Jets in Week 4, the Titans have stringed together five straight wins, including wins against Buffalo and Kansas City. What is even more interesting has been that they have won four straight games as an underdog and are 6-0 this year against teams that made the playoffs last year.

Even without Henry, they have a smash-mouth, physical football presence with Coach Mike Vrabel and new addition Adrian Peterson, which is a name I had no plan on ever mentioning for in-season gameplay ever again. If their defense can continue to play great against the run and force opponents to beat them by passing, I think they are the best team in the AFC. Lastly, they have the easiest strength of schedule for the remainder of the season.

If I mention how good the Titans’ defense has been against the rush, the Saints deserve equal justice. The Saints' run defense is the best in the league, allowing only 73.8 yards-per-game. While the Saints’ defense has been incredible, being the key to their wins over the Packers and Buccaneers, their injuries on the offensive side of the ball are starting to mount up, as Alvin Kamara will be out this week.

I think this will end up being the Saints’ kryptonite this year, as injuries are too much for them to win the division, but the defense will get them to the playoffs. I like the Titans in a Big 10 low-scoring type of game on Sunday.

2. Cleveland Browns (5-4) at New England Patriots (5-4) – 1 p.m.

The Browns play against the Patriots in the NFL season.

Timothy Bouwer-ISI Photos/Getty Images

For both of these teams, the difference between a win and a loss is massive. There are times in a year where you can sense that a game can define how the rest of a season will go for a team in the NFL.

Whichever of these two wins the game on Sunday, their fans will feel like they are back in the groove and will be in a position to win the division. The loser of this game will drop to .500 and will have only seven games left to make something of this season.

For the Browns, last week was the dream scenario, after disposing Odell Beckham Jr., they dominated the Bengals in a major divisional game. Specifically, they showed their blueprint to victory with a heavy amount of running, timely play action, and a front four that wreaked havoc all day for the Bengals’ offensive line.

The Browns have shown this consistently all season, being number two in rushing and holding opponents to under 20 points in three straight games. Lastly, their ability to dominate time of possession is something that goes unnoticed by many, but has been key to limiting their opponents’ offenses, as much as helping their own offense.

Who would have thought that the Patriots, who sat at 1-3 after “The Return” by Tom Brady, are now ½ game behind the preseason AFC favorite Buffalo Bills? You ask Patriots fans, and they think they are a win away from having feelings of this being a Super Bowl team, although many of us might disagree.

Bill Belichick’s team is comparable to being a lesser version of the Browns, as they too have had a focus on running the ball and setting up play-action situations for their rookie quarterback. These Patriots will find a way to win plenty of strange, ugly games with their rookie quarterback this season, but I believe the Browns are better built for it, even without Nick Chubb.

3. Kansas City Chiefs (5-4) at Los Angeles Raiders (5-3) - 8:20 p.m.

The Chiefs and Packers play against each other in the NFL.

 Cody Benjamin/USA TODAY Sports

In Week 2, I talked about if the AFC West is going to be the best division in the NFL this year. I think we can say that it is approaching a level where it is definitely top two and is the most competitive division, as all four teams are separated by only one game.

For the Chiefs, much of the NFL crowd now feels that after only scoring 13 points against the Packers last week, the wait for the Chiefs to finally erupt and score 35+ points has been extinguished. They are a team this year that is not elite, as Patrick Mahomes continues to play average with 10 interceptions on the season.

One thing that I still have optimism for is that they have played only one divisional game. In the last three years, Mahomes is 15-3 against his divisional opponents, looking almost unstoppable against any of the three. For Kansas City to get to the playoffs, they will need a win on Sunday night badly, as every opponent of theirs on their upcoming schedule has a record of over .500 this year.

People have always talked about how the 2008 Florida Gators football team needs a 30 for 30 with the number of characters that were on that team. Looking at it now, I think the same might need to be said about the 2021 Las Vegas Raiders with how much has occurred, both on and off the field.

It is why if Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury did not exist, Raiders coach Rich Bisaccia would be my head coach of the year. He has kept the Raiders from crashing and burning, as they are still top-six in yards-per-game, total passing yards, and passing yards-per-game.

There are so many reasons to believe Kansas City's offensive slide will end at some point, but guessing whether that's this week, this month or this season is impossible. So far this year, the Raiders have the better pass rush and the better quarterback, who is playing at a higher level. It is why I got them to win on Sunday Night Football.

Chris Kiely can be reached at christopher.kiely@student.shu.edu.

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