Summary

The Jets and Giants continue to embarrass New York, with a 2-8 combined record. It could be worse. The Lions and Jaguars haven’t won any games at all, in a general embarrassment to large cats everywhere. (Although the Bengals and Panthers are respectable at 3-2 apiece.)

Mahomes is looking like a mere mortal this year. The team has been plagued by turnovers, and are in last place in their division. To be fair, their schedule has been a real bear. Their three losses were to the Chargers, Ravens and Bills, who have a combined record of 12-3 and are all in first place in their divisions. Their next three games are against teams with losing records, so they could conceivably get up to 5-3 before they have another major challenge against the Pack.

Tom Brady passed for more than 400 yards with 5 TDs and is now leading the league in passing yardage. The old codger said he might play until he’s 50, and I’m starting to think he might actually do it. Given his unwillingness to retire and his elderly, brittle bones, his ability to make that goal will hinge on exactly when he dies on the job. Amazingly, he is not the oldest man ever to start an NFL game at quarterback. Steve DeBerg was 44 years and 279 days old when he started for the Atlanta Falcons on Oct. 25, 1998. Brady will not pass that age until May 10, 2022, so he can’t set the record until next year’s season opener.

To be fair, Brady is the oldest starting quarterback who was any good. Deberg was 9-for-20 that day, for 117 yards and no TDs in a 28-3 loss. And it’s not like he was saddled with a poor team. The Falcons were tremendous that year. The starting QB, Chris Chandler, was 13-1 and led the team to the Superb Owl. So it wasn’t the team that sucked, just DeBerg. (Deberg had retired five years earlier, but was re-activated as a back-up QB.)

Between them, the Brown and Chargers scored 41 points in the fourth quarter in a real shoot-out. The Browns managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by allowing 26 points in that quarter, which looked like something out of a Big 12 game.