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The Monday Morning Mashup, Week 7: A New Leader in the North, Green Bay’s Defense Clicks, and the Chiefs beat the 49ers, Again

Here is what you need to know from Week 7 of the NFL season.
by Shawn Syed|October 21, 2024

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Welcome to The Monday Morning Mashup! In this column, I will share all of the things from NFL Sunday that I think are worth your time. It may be good things, it may be bad things, it may be plays or play calls or players, but it will all be rooted in my love for this beautiful, ugly, fascinating, frustrating game we call football.

Jump to:

First Things First: The Detroit Lions took the lead in the NFC North with a win over the Minnesota Vikings.

If you only remember one thing from this Sunday, this is what it should be.

The first five drives of the Lions 31-29 win over the Vikings included zero Detroit first downs, 10 Vikings points, and one less than stellar fake punt. The Vikings were set to once again play an entire game from ahead as the Lions got the ball back at the end of the first quarter. Detroit proceeded to score four straight touchdowns as Ben Johnson and Jared Goff dealt with Brian Flores’s pressure packages in multiple ways.

Goff’s first passing touchdown (top left play above) was a creative way to deal with an overload pressure look. The defense can always make it seem like they will have one more player than the offense can block by alignment because the quarterback is taking the snap. With a max pressure look presented, the Lions motioned a receiver to the edge of the formation and slid the offensive line to the opposite side. This gave the Lions enough width to deal with the widest rusher to both sides while also having seven blockers for seven potential rushers. That motion does not often end up in a receiver being added to the core of the pass protection, and it was a smart way to deal with the blitz.

Ben Johnson kept extra players in protection to help deal with blitzes, and Jared Goff excelled against pressure, down the field, and over the middle of the field as he attacked the weak points in Minnesota’s coverage. Goff struggled against pressure at times last season but has thrived in those situations this season. Over the last two weeks, Goff is 16/18 for 342 yards and 4 touchdowns when pressured. He was pressured on more than half of his dropbacks against Minnesota and was a cool 10/11 for 164 yards and two touchdowns. Goff’s performance under pressure can be the final piece for Ben Johnson’s masterwork.

Even with a great offensive performance, the Lions win came down to the wire as we finally saw the Vikings play from behind. After Minnesota’s 10-0 lead was erased, they scored points on three of their next four drives, excluding a run to end the first half. Minnesota looked to Justin Jefferson as Kevin O’Connell formation creativity helped give him space.

With Aidan Hutchinson injured, Aaron Glenn called blitzes at the highest rate he has all season. Minnesota was able to deal with the blitz until later in the game and Detroit’s edge rusher performance may be cause for Brad Holmes to make some more phone calls around the league this week. Detroit is a legitimate Super Bowl contender that is in need of edge rusher production and will be playing close games late in the year. Lucky for them, they have another defensive superstar in Brian Branch.

The Matter Meter

How much does what we saw on Sunday actually matter?

It Definitely Matters: The Green Bay Packers beat the Houston Texans, and Jeff Hafley’s defense is hitting its stride.

The Jordan Love–C.J. Stroud faceoff was interrupted by some impressive defensive play as Stroud ended the day with 86 passing yards and four sacks while Love was sacked three times and intercepted twice. Jeff Hafley has had the Packers defense improving over the last few weeks and that continued on Sunday. Green Bay generated pressure at their highest rate of the season and blitzed to create free runners against Houston. Rashan Gary generated seven pressures as he bounced back from a slow start to the season. If the pass rush is able to perform well, this can become a high-end defense with an offense that can produce explosive plays against any team.

After thriving when hanging onto the ball last week, Jordan Love was better on quick throws against Houston. He was 19/22 for 149 yards and two touchdowns on quick throws (under 2.5 seconds). Love did have two interceptions and finished the day with a 49th percentile EPA/play, but he also made this awesome throw that was just a few inches away from being intercepted:

It Matters: The Chiefs defense shut down the injured 49ers with man coverage.

The San Francisco 49ers are facing a list of injuries that is getting woefully long. The 49ers incredible skill position unit of last year looks different this year as Christian McCaffrey continues to miss time, Brandon Aiyuk was hurt with what Kyle Shanahan fears is a season-ending injury, and Deebo Samuel only played a portion of Sunday’s loss against the Chiefs. Teams have played more man coverage against the 49ers this season, that should continue despite Brock Purdy‘s success throwing into tight windows and extending the play. Purdy’s high time to throw and average depth of target are informed by how defenses are playing a 49ers offense that sees less and less yards after the catch. On Sunday, Kansas City had three interceptions and a sack when running man coverage.

The Chiefs offense was also efficient as they had an 84th percentile EPA/rush and a 50% rushing success rate. The offense still lacks some explosiveness, but Patrick Mahomes was able to create some fireworks on this 4th down run:

It Didn’t Matter: The Jets added Davante Adams and lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The New York Jets have been on multiple roller coasters with twists, turns, and loops this season. After starting 2-1, the Jets lost two straight before a Monday night game against the Buffalo Bills. Their close loss in that game snowballed into Robert Saleh’s firing and made way for a Davante Adams trade. On Sunday night against Pittsburgh, the Jets were dismantled 37-15 in Russell Wilson’s first start of the season. At this point, the ride may be nearing its end.

The vision for this Jets team was an elite defense with complimentary play from Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the offense. Injuries have hit both sides of the ball as teams have been able to run on New York in recent weeks. Najee Harris forced seven missed tackles on Sunday night as the Steelers had a 79th percentile EPA/rush performance despite only having a 37% rushing success rate. Russell Wilson had a rough start to his debut but ended up with an 83rd percentile EPA/play game as he was 8/9 for 150 yards off under center play action and also completed some tight window throws to George Pickens. If Russell Wilson ends up being a positive shift away from Justin Fields, it will because of the play action pass.

It is hard to think of where the Jets go from here. They signed Haason Reddick earlier on Sunday, but his addition cannot heal the injuries of New York’s secondary. The Jets head to New England for a Week 8 division game and still have manageable games on the schedule. They will need to get things going in a hurry as they look to climb out of their 2-5 start.

And the Nominees Are…

Here are the ballots for some very real, very important awards. Cast your vote and let your voice be heard.

Best performance by a quarterback that has played for four or more teams in his career
1. Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks

Geno Smith is holding the Seattle Seahawks offense together. Smith is once again under pressure at a high rate and is once again performing well. He faced pressure on half of his dropbacks against the Falcons but was still 7/13 for 123 yards and 2 touchdowns with the rush bearing down. Seattle’s defense also settled in as Kirk Cousins was held to a 16th percentile EPA/play. The Seahawks scored on a Derick Hall fumble return as well as they look to ride their momentum into a big Week 8 game against the Buffalo Bills.

2. Marcus Mariota, Washington Commanders

With Jayden Daniels injured early in the game, Marcus Mariota took the field for the impressive Commanders offense. He produced a 90th percentile EPA/play, 88th percentile total EPA, and a 95th percentile completion percentage over expected. Mariota did that while pushing the ball down the field and extending the play. He was 6/6 for 88 yards and a touchdown when extending plays over four seconds.

3. Sam Darnold, Minnesota Vikings

We finally got to see a game where the Minnesota Vikings were playing from behind. On the first drive after the Lions scored 14 unanswered points, Sam Darnold threw an interception to Brian Branch cutting off a crossing route from the other side of the field. The interception helped Darnold fall to a 39th percentile EPA/play performance, but he was able to make some positive throws, including this touchdown to Justin Jefferson:

Darnold dealt with Detroit’s blitz for much of the game as he was 12/15 for 143 yards with a touchdown and an interception in those situations. The fourth quarter changed things as Darnold was sacked three times on six blitzes as Detroit started to highlight some of Minnesota’s flaws on offense and defense. The Vikings are still 5-1, have beaten good teams, and won’t play the Packers or Lions again until Week 17 and Week 18. Still, Darnold will need to keep improving to help the Vikings reach their ceiling.

Best open field running
1. Jahmyr Gibbs, Detroit Lions

With the Vikings up 10-0 early in the second quarter, Ben Johnson found no reason to abandon the run game. He was rewarded on this beautiful Jahmyr Gibbs outside zone run with an ankle breaking juke. Gibbs was explosive in the run game and the pass game and looked like he was moving at 1.5x speed in this game.

2. Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia Eagles

Saquon Barkley returned to MetLife stadium on Sunday and almost left with a new career high in rushing yards. Barkley created explosive plays behind an Eagles offensive line without Jordan Mailata and ran well on under center plays.

Even with Barkley’s explosive running, the Eagles offense still has issues. The passing game is isolation heavy and relies on its stars to make high difficulty plays. A.J. Brown did just that on a 4th and 3 late in the 2nd quarter for a dominant 41-yard touchdown. Philadelphia was able to sit their starters for much of the fourth quarter even while they extended their scoreless first quarter streak. The Eagles head to Cincinnati to play the Bengals next week in a battle of teams who are trying to meet their lofty preseason expectations.

3. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs

Along with the strong run mentioned above, Patrick Mahomes had another improbable run as the Chiefs found a way to win again. Late in the third quarter, Mahomes dropped back as Fred Warner stayed tight to the running back while preparing for a scramble. Mahomes somehow escaped Warner and then put on his invisibility cloak with a little stutter that turned into a big play. There is a chance this one deserves an asterisk, though, as defenses will try to pull up before hitting a quarterback that is headed out of bounds to avoid a penalty.

Best shenanigans that happened on a play that started as a punt
1. A touchdown

While retreating inside his own five-yard line, Parker Washington fielded a punt with space to work. Washington was able to hit the seam, make the punter miss, and even had a tasteful celebration as he fell into the end zone.

2. A fumble

A football is an odd shape that creates odd bounces that lead to odd results. In the Texans loss to the Packers, a punt that fell short of the returner ended up just grazing a Packer, which lead to Houston recovering the ball. The 55-yard punt ended up being one of Houston’s most productive plays on the day.

3. A stuffed fake

The top team (by record) in the NFC and AFC both had unsuccessful fake punts on their first drives of their respective wins on Sunday. The Lions gave the Vikings a funky look that ended up in a failed speed option that was more fun than good.

4. Another stuffed fake

The Chiefs also were stuffed on a fake punt, but their unsuccessful try happened on 4th and 1. I am rooting for even more fake punt attempts and special teams oddities as chaos ensues down the stretch of the NFL season.

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