Who are the NFL‘s one-loss contenders and pretenders?
There are only six NFL teams who go into week seven with only one loss on their record. Some of these records could by fluky due to scheduling with weak teams on the slate. Others could be legitimate championship candidates with the fluke being that one loss.
The teams who haven’t had their bye week and therefore are sitting at 5-1 are the San Diego Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys. Those franchises who have had a bye already are the Arizona Cardinals and Denver Broncos at 4-1, along with the Cincinnati Bengals, who are 3-1-1 as they tied with the Carolina Panthers last week.
All these teams are probably going to make the playoffs, but the question is: who are the pretenders and who are the contenders? Who in reality has what it takes to make it to the Superbowl and come out victorious!
Let’s take a look.
San Diego Chargers
What can you say? Phillip Rivers is playing great football. He is third in the league in pass yards with 1,756 and leads the league in completion percentage at 69.3 percent. If he’s playing that well, the team will succeed.
After losing to the Cardinals in week one, San Diego has won five in a row, starting with the Seattle Seahawks. The rest of the opponents were pretty uninspiring. Their schedule ahead is much tougher. They still have to play Baltimore, San Francisco, Kansas City and Denver (twice). They could easily lose all those games and even a couple of those matchups against more mediocre teams.
Assessment: Pretender
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles are 5-1. Despite a generally underperforming running back LeSean McCoy and an inconsistent and banged up Darren Sproles, Philadelphia has won. Quarterback Nick Foles has been mediocre. His completion percentage is only 59.5 percent, but due to the Eagles “high octane” offense, Foles is tenth overall in yards per game, with an average of 271 yards through the air per game.
The Eagles have only played two quality opponents so far. They lost to San Francisco, narrowly snuck past Indianapolis and have been forced to come back from deficits in the second halves to win some of their games. They did stomp the Giants 27-0, but we have yet to see if New York is a good or bad team in the long run.
Ahead, the Eagles still need to face the Cardinals, Seahawks, Panthers, Packers as well as the Cowboys twice. Their luck will probably run out, as they’ll miss the playoffs by a game or two.
Assessment: Pretender
Arizona Cardinals
Boy have they had it rough with injuries. Their defense continues to miss key players, and they’ve had to struggle through with second- and third-string quarterbacks and their main running back Andre Ellington has been banged up. Yet…they’re 4-1.
They have played a moderately difficult schedule as they’ve beaten San Diego, San Francisco, New York and Washington. The only loss came to the Denver Broncos on a day the Cards were on their third quarterback, and when Peyton Manning threw for four touchdowns and a career-high 479 yards passing.
The Cards have Palmer back and have a manageable schedule going forward.
Assessment: Contenders
Denver Broncos
What can you say? The Broncos are dominating teams right now except that overtime loss to the reigning Superbowl champs. Manning is playing at an amazing level, throwing for an average of 306 yards per game, completing 66.5 percent of his passes with a ridiculous 15-3 touchdown to interception ratio. The only unfortunate part is their running game has not been productive. Although, now that Montee Ball went down with an injury, Ronnie Hillman has been getting going.
The Broncos have faced some good teams and still have to face the Patriots and the Bengals, but the rest of their schedule isn’t too tough. Their playoff-bound.
Assessment: Contenders
Cincinnati: Bengals
Despite star wide receiver A.J. Green’s nagging toe injury, the Bengals have been rolling. Their Defense has been generally elite (except these last couple weeks) and their run game has been dominant. They were a part of what will probably be this year’s lone tie, as they and the Panthers couldn’t decide who would win even with an overtime period last week.
Apart from this week’s matchup with the Colts and a late-season meeting with the Broncos, the Bengals schedule looks pretty easy.
Assessment: Contenders
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