What to Watch for in Week 9
At 4pm, we will have theoretically reached the midway point of the 2018 NFL regular season. With that, here are three items to keep your eye on this weekend.
1. Can the Saints put themselves in position for home field throughout the postseason? With a win on Sunday afternoon against the undefeated Rams, Drew Brees and company would put themselves in the driver seat for the number one seed in the NFC. As much as they hate to admit it, the Saints are an entirely different team on the road than they are in the Superdome. It is quite possible that the outcome of the Rams-Saints game decides the NFC representative in the Super Bowl.
2. Will the Steelers create some separation in the AFC North? Pittsburgh makes the trek to Baltimore for a tilt with their divisional foe, the Baltimore Ravens. If the Steelers can come out victorious, they will have a two and a half-game lead over the Ravens and will also be ahead of the surprising Bengals. Given Big Ben’s utter dominance over Cincinnati, if he and Mike Tomlin can devise a game plan to stunt the Ravens, the Steelers will put themselves in prime positon for the division title as they await the return of one of football’s most electric playmakers, Le’Veon Bell.
3. A matchup of the two best quarterbacks in football. Sunday night, in primetime, it’s a matchup of 12s. Aaron Rodgers, and the Green Bay Packers, visit Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. This game is more of a must win for the Packers, given Green Bay’s daunting schedule and gut-wrenching loss last week in Los Angeles, but if the Patriots want a first-round bye in the playoffs this is a game that Belichick and company cannot afford to lose. Brady and Rodgers have only so many head to head matchups remaining so make sure to marinate in this one.
