"I hate my team."
If you're a fantasy football owner, you've surely had that thought -- and likely articulated it -- at some point. Who knows? Maybe it was late on a Week 7 Sunday night while watching Russell Wilson play five whole quarters without a touchdown, after Jordy Nelson and Allen Robinson combined for three catches. Just picking a random example there, of course. If anyone had actually had such a ludicrous case of bad fantasy luck befall him, he'd potentially be too distraught to write his weekly "What We Learned" column.
Anyway, it occurred to me Sunday that fantasy football owners aren't the only ones who go through this. Real NFL owners, general managers, coaches, quarterbacks ... some of them apparently go through some form of it too, when the week doesn't go their way.
So it was on Sunday that Los Angeles Rams coach Jeff Fisher cracked, "I'll make changes at receiver before I make a change at quarterback." It was on Sunday that Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick groused that his coaches and front office no longer believed in him. It was on Sunday that Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer followed his FIRST LOSS OF THE SEASON by calling his offensive line "soft" and saying it looked "like a sieve." And this was all hours before Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians got to the podium.
Yes, it was still two months before Festivus, but Sunday was a regular airing of the grievances around the NFL. And as I sat in that cramped interview room at Lincoln Financial Field, listening to Zimmer absolutely go off on his 5-1 Vikings, I learned they're not that much different from you and me, these guys. No, I don't think Zimmer hates his team. But in that moment? I don't know. Let's just say I think a lot of us have felt like he sounded.
On to what else Week 7 in the NFL taught us.
Adam Gase should bottle and market whatever tough love he gave Jay Ajayi
Remember back at the start of the season, when the Miami Dolphins' second-year running back couldn't even get a uniform because his rookie head coach didn't like the way he was carrying himself in the locker room? Well, Gase's hard coaching seems to have located the "on" button on Ajayi, who followed up Week 6's 204-yard rushing performance against Pittsburgh with a 214-yard rushing performance against Buffalo. Ajayi is averaging 7.9 yards per carry the past two weeks. He had 117 yards in the Dolphins' first five games, and after their seventh game he is the sixth-leading rusher in the NFL. Obviously, the numbers here are not sustainable. But if Ajayi is going to be an effective starting running back after the way the season began for him, count him as an early coaching win for young Gase.
The Raiders are WAY ahead of the Jaguars in the preseason sleeper standings
The Oakland Raiders flew 2,400 miles to play an early Sunday game in Jacksonville and wiped the floor with the OTHER team everyone pegged to take a big leap in the AFC this season. All is not perfect with Oakland, the only team in the league that has allowed 3,000 yards already. But the Raiders wouldn't trade problems with the Jaguars. Blake Bortles is 28th in completion percentage, 27th in yards per attempt, 28th in passer rating, 27th in Total QBR and has the third-most interceptions. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who went 33 picks later than Bortles did in the 2014 draft, is looking just a touch more advanced at this stage, and the Jaguars' high hopes are stuck in neutral with their quarterback.
The Rams might be doing Jared Goff a favor
I don't go as far as Fisher did in absolving Case Keenum for Sunday's loss to the New York Giants in London, but I do get his point. The Rams' offense right now has a lot of problems, including a lack of reliable pass-catchers, a shaky offensive line and the fact that defenses are loading up against second-year back Todd Gurley. This isn't exactly a unit that's humming on all cylinders and ready to help maximize the performance of a rookie quarterback. The Rams have said repeatedly that they will play the No. 1 pick Goff when he's ready. They haven't said they're waiting to be able to put him in a better position to succeed than he'd be in right now. But I'll bet they'd tell you that if they were being totally honest with you.
The Chiefs should be AFC West favorites
And no, this notion does not "disrespect" the Denver Broncos, who are Super Bowl champions and have won this division five years in a row. The Chiefs have won 15 of their past 18 games. They're winning in all different kinds of ways -- grind it out with the running game one week, hit them with the big passing plays the next. The defense scores a touchdown nearly every game. This is a team that won 11 in a row before losing to the Patriots in the playoffs last season. This is a coach who won six division titles when he was in Philadelphia. Jamaal Charles isn't all the way back yet. Justin Houston has yet to play this season. The Chiefs are real good right now and could get better.
The Bengals have a chance to right their ship
Cincinnati doesn't want to be 3-4, of course, but four of their first six games were at Pittsburgh, home to the Broncos, at Dallas and at New England. So the Bengals took care of business against the Browns (who they see again!) on Sunday, and looking ahead it's fair to say they should be favored in at least five of their next six games, if not all six. Cincinnati has gone to the playoffs every year since drafting Andy Dalton and A.J. Green, and this year's rough start didn't automatically mean the end of that streak.
People are too mean to kickers
No doubt, Chandler Catanzaro and Steven Hauschka should have made their potential game-winning chip shots Sunday night in Arizona. But if you'd told either the Cardinals or the Seahawks right before the game that they'd need only seven points to win, they'd have signed up. You don't score a touchdown, you don't have the right to get upset at your special teams when you don't win.
Next year's No. 1 pick is probably going to be a quarterback
The 0-7 Browns already have used six quarterbacks this season. The 1-6 Bears have used three. The 1-6 49ers have used only two, but it's well documented that they don't love either one. No idea which team ends up with the pick (Sunday's Browns-Jets game is potentially HUGE for this!), but if it's one of these, get ready for a lot of misspelled DeShone Kizer/Deshaun Watson debates on the shores of Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and the San Francisco Bay.