Steve Brownlee

Although it might seem pretty straightforward how awful it is when a team like the Philadelphia Eagles or New York Giants blows a big lead and loses at the very end of their games — like both did Sunday — it also says something about the teams pulling off the comebacks.

In those games it was the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions getting the great comeback wins.

How badly, though, were the eventual winners playing in order to get themselves in such big holes?

Now looking at the standings, even before last weekend, 31 of the 32 NFL teams had at least two wins AND at least two losses, the only exception being the now 1-10 Tennessee Titans.

So nobody is looking completely awful, even the Giants who fired their defensive coordinator within the past couple of days after having blown five 10-point leads this season.

And correspondingly, nobody is looking great all the time.

You have to be good enough to race to those leads, otherwise you get smothered 80-6 like some NCAA Division II team that plays Alabama early just about every college season.

Now it’s just trying to put your finger — my finger in the case of this column — on when teams will show up and went they sort-of check out.

Just something to help you — but mostly me! — trying to make sense of this mess we call the NFL this season.

Now onto this week’s schedule, the first time all 32 teams have played since Week 4, which was in late September:

Thursday, 1 p.m.

Green Bay at Detroit — I’m trying to spot a trend here. The Lions and quarterback Jared Goff struggled against a great pass rush like the Packers have back in Week 1 and the Eagles about 10 days ago. With all the upsets I haven’t seen coming, I’m trying to get ahead of the curve now. So even though I have a hard time seeing this one, either, I’ll still go with the Packers, 23-19.

Thursday, 4:30 p.m.

Kansas City at Dallas — Aah, another tough one, but with both teams hovering around .500, I see both also have quite impressive winning records at home. That means with their overall mediocre records, they have to have pretty bad road records. So give me the Cowboys, 29-22.

Thursday, 8:20 p.m.

Cincinnati at Baltimore — I’m underwhelmed by the Ravens’ five-game winning streak that’s got them back into a first-place tie in the AFC North. But I’m even more underwhelmed by the Bengals’ defense, even if it’s offset by getting back QB Joe Burrow, which is only an iffy proposition. Ravens, 33-29.

Friday, 3 p.m.

Chicago at Philadelphia — So in this game’s scenario with the traditional American family as dad likes football and mom doesn’t, dad says to mom, “Just hit all the Black Friday sales until about 6 p.m., then we’ll have dinner.”

Then midafternoon on Friday, when dad turns the TV on only to discover that he has to have a Prime Video subscription to see this game, he mumbles and decides to join mom at the mall.

A happy ending for all? Ah, sure. But something tells me it won’t be so happy for the Bears. Eagles, 26-20.

Sunday, 1 p.m.

Arizona at Tampa Bay — The Buccaneers are quite a beat-up team, but the Cardinals have been playing like that all year. However, with gritty QB Baker Mayfield questionable, meaning maybe not at full strength even if he plays, I’ll speculate on the Cardinals, 31-26.

Atlanta at New York Jets — In the case of some veteran backup QBs, the Falcons might get better with Kirk Cousins taking over for Michael Penix, except I think the Jets got more of a good bounce by bringing in Tyrod Taylor for Justin Fields a week or so ago. Jets, 24-16.

Houston at Indianapolis — The Colts might’ve shown they’re paper tigers, or in their case, paper horses, after blowing their big lead to KC on Sunday. However, I think this is another case of a team being much better at home than on the road, so I’ll take the Colts, 20-17.

Jacksonville at Tennessee — Since the Titans kept me from saying all 32 NFL teams have at least two wins and two losses, in order to keep their front-running status for the No. 1 draft pick next spring, let me take the Jaguars, 29-19.

Los Angeles Rams at Carolina — Watching the pundits on ESPN and Fox this week, I was waiting to see someone say the Rams AREN’T the best team in the NFL and why that would be so. No one did, though. Rams, 33-24.

New Orleans at Miami — Egad, Miami has twice as many wins as the Saints, plus they’re coming off their bye. Since I don’t actually remember anything about how these teams are on the field, I’ll take the Dolphins, 27-23.

San Francisco at Cleveland — I thought it was quite telling that the Browns had 10 QB sacks on Sunday — three by Myles Garrett for what I believe is 13 in his last four games — but beat the really-bad Las Vegas Raiders only 24-10. That kind of tells me how bad the rest of their team, especially the offense, really is. Despite the short week, give me the 49ers, 21-16.

Sunday, 4 p.m.

Minnesota at Seattle — If Sam Darnold were to ever struggle, and he has against some decent defenses lately, he should against the Vikings, who he starred for just one short season ago.

However, Minnesota QB J.J. McCarthy has also been struggling against everyone but the Lions since he came back from injury, and Carson Wentz is out for the season with his own injury. McCarthy might not even play due to a concussion, so his replacement is a guy I’ve never heard of — Max Brosmer, an All-American at the University of New Hampshire — so Darnold certainly looks good in comparison. Seahawks, 34-28.

Buffalo at Pittsburgh — Two downward-diving teams, but the Steelers at least save their struggles for decent opponents. Steelers, 24-19.

Las Vegas at Los Angeles Chargers — Again, the Chargers at least save their struggles for decent opposition, whereas the Raiders get sacked 10 times in one game. Chargers, 20-12.

Sunday, 8:20 p.m.

Denver at Washington — A freefall for the Commanders without QB Jayden Daniels, who might be back for this game. But will he be fully effective, especially against the ferocious Denver defense? Broncos, 23-13.

Monday, 8:15 p.m.

New York Giants at New England — Since the Jets are trying to pry off their reputation as the doormat of the AFC East, the Giants might stand in as a good surrogate whipping boy for this newly-dominant New England team. Patriots, 37-23.

Last week — 11-2, 85%. Season — 103-73, 59%.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.