NFL Week 7 delivered a little bit of everything, but the loudest statement came from Pittsburgh in Paris. Aaron Rodgers was steady and sharp when the Steelers needed him most, guiding a 16-10 win over the Saints and pushing Pittsburgh to 5-2.
Rodgers finished with 212 passing yards and a touchdown, and he kept stacking together the kind of difficult plays that win tight games. Jaylen Warren added 101 rushing yards, but this one belonged to Rodgers’ command under pressure.
Pittsburgh now heads home to face the Browns next Sunday, and Cleveland already beat the Steelers in Week 4. After that comes a brutal stretch with road games against the Bengals and Eagles.
If Rodgers keeps playing stateside the way he did abroad, Pittsburgh has every reason to think it can stay in the contender conversation.
The Bears also gave the league something to chew on Thursday night. Chicago’s offense looked fully unlocked with Caleb Williams back at the controls, and the results were big: 6.1 yards per play, 308 passing yards, and two touchdown throws from Williams in a 30-point win.
The Bears have now scored 59, 31 and 30 points in Williams’ starts, all victories. The lone loss in that span was the rain-soaked 9-3 mess against the Vikings in Week 2.
What makes Chicago even more dangerous is that the attack doesn’t rely on one piece. Rome Odunze caught four passes for 69 yards, Colston Loveland had seven receptions for 69 yards and a score, and Luther Burden III put up four catches for 130 yards and a touchdown.
D’Andre Swift already has seven rushing touchdowns, and the Bears’ ground game ranks second in the league at 154.3 yards per game. Add in a defense that sits top-12 in both yards and points allowed, and Chicago starts to look like a team with real staying power if the weather cooperates.
The Patriots, by contrast, are still trying to figure out how to make their offense more than the sum of its parts. At 4-3, they sit two games behind the Bills in the AFC East race, and the backfield has not delivered the lift they need.
TreVeyon Henderson and Rhamondre Stevenson should be a strong one-two punch on paper, but the production has lagged. Stevenson is averaging 3.7 yards per carry and hasn’t reached 70 rushing yards in a game this season.
Henderson, the 2025 second-round pick, is only now starting to get more work after an injury in Week 1, but his recent numbers are modest: 14 carries for 62 yards and no touchdowns since Weeks 2-4, when he had 38 rushing attempts.
New England should get help in the passing game with A.J. Brown returning from a high ankle sprain, and Drake Maye has been in form with 12 touchdowns and two interceptions over his last four games.
Even so, this is a team that will struggle to close ground in the division without a more complete offense. The Patriots’ next five weeks offer a chance to fix some things, with the Dolphins, Packers, Lions, Chargers and Bills on deck.
All but Green Bay rank 22nd or worse in points allowed.
For New Orleans, the problem is simpler and more urgent: the offense is not scoring enough. The Saints fell 16-10 to the Steelers in Paris, and for the second time in three games they were held to 13 points or fewer.
That includes a 23-13 loss to the unbeaten Vikings in Week 5. Tyler Shough was solid with 278 passing yards, but the run game never got going.
Against Minnesota, the Saints managed only 55 rushing yards on 3.2 yards per carry. In France, it got even uglier with just 18 yards on 17 carries.
That’s a harsh outcome for a team that brought in Travis Etienne Jr. this offseason expecting a more productive ground game. Instead, Etienne is out with a hamstring injury.
The Saints do have a small path forward in a division that might again be won with a losing record, and Etienne can return from injured reserve in Week 9 when New Orleans hosts the Browns. But the offense still has to find its rhythm under second-year coach Kellen Moore, and it hasn’t done that over the last three weeks.
There’s plenty still to sort out elsewhere, too. The Ravens host the Bengals in a divisional matchup between teams with two losses, and the stakes in the AFC North are obvious: the loser falls behind fast, while the winner gets a major boost in the race for first place and maybe even the AFC’s top seed.
In the late window, the Packers visit the Lions in another battle between two-loss teams in a division with no losing record. Green Bay is rolling after back-to-back wins over the Bears and Cowboys by a combined 34 points, while Detroit comes off its bye.
Sunday night brings Chiefs-Seahawks at Lumen Field in what the source neatly dubs the Kenneth Walker III Bowl. Kansas City is the lone unbeaten team in the AFC, and Seattle comes in at 3-3 after dropping three of its last four. Walker leads the NFL with 665 rushing yards on 6.3 yards per carry, and he’ll be facing a defense that ranks No. 1 in the league, allowing just 237.3 total yards per game.
In Other News...
Patriots Could Hand Drake Maye A Familiar Answer At Receiver
The Patriots are still searching for a steadier answer at receiver, and Josh Downs has surfaced as a possible fit as the group continues to be hit by injuries and uneven play. For New England, the appeal is obvious: Drake Maye already knows Downs well from their time together at North Carolina, which would make any move feel less like a gamble and more like a shortcut to chemistry.
Downs also lands in an interesting spot from Indianapolis side, with the Colts looking more and more like a team open to reshuffling parts of the roster. A deal would give the Patriots a familiar target for Maye, but it would also hinge on how willing the Colts are to part with a receiver who could be part of a broader reset. [Read more 🡒]
Patriots Have A Trade Deadline Decision That Could Shape Their Season
With a 4-3 record and a roster still dealing with injuries and uneven production, the Patriots are entering a stretch where the front office has to decide whether to stand pat or make a move before the November 10 trade deadline. The need is not hard to map out, either, with the team searching for help in more than one spot as it tries to keep pace in a crowded AFC race.
Running back, the interior offensive line and cornerback all stand out as areas where New England could look for outside help, and a few familiar names have surfaced in that conversation. Tony Pollard, Quenton Nelson, Kelee Ringo and Riq Woolen are among the possibilities being discussed, giving the Patriots a range of options depending on how aggressive they want to be and how much they are willing to pay to shore up the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Drake Maye Just Showed Patriots Fans What They Needed To See
Drake Maye gave Patriots fans a familiar young-quarterback moment against the Bears, one that could have tilted the afternoon for good. A red-zone interception handed Chicago a boost, but the broader takeaway from the game was how quickly Maye settled back in and kept competing, a trait teammates and analysts have continued to point to as one of the most important parts of his development.
For a New England offense still trying to build trust around its quarterback, the response mattered as much as the mistake. Mayes ability to shake off a costly error and keep playing with confidence offered a useful reminder of why the Patriots remain invested in him, even when the game throws him a bad break. [Read more 🡒]