We emphasize the primary development: Week 7 featured the first NFL game played in France, a lively matchup between the Steelers and the Saints. We recount several historic moments, including major upsets, significant comeback wins, and new rushing records. I describe the Ravens’ collapse after a large halftime lead and the Bengals’ 35‑point second half. We note key milestones such as Aaron Rodgers passing Peyton Manning in career touchdown passes and Cleveland’s strong start with Deshaun Watson leading late game drives. I report the Jets’ alarming late‑half point differential, the Chiefs’ unusually low output in Seattle, and Minnesota remaining the only undefeated team. We also review our Scorigami findings from Week 7 and invite listeners to our Week 8 prediction show.
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We open with a measured appraisal of Week Seven and the durable significance of recent events. I recount the inaugural NFL contest staged in France and the robust play that accompanied that historic site. I describe the Steelers and Saints meeting as both athletic and consequential. I relate the Ravens’ collapse against the Bengals and emphasize its rarity by noting historical parallels that reach back to 1950 and earlier. I observe Aaron Rodgers’ career milestone and situate it within the greater context of international play and franchise record keeping. I summarize the Browns’ promising start under DeShone Kizer and DeSean Watson’s late drives that have altered outcomes. I comment on the Jets’ alarming point differential in the closing minutes of halves and frame that datum as evidence of systemic coaching and clock-management weakness. I note the Giants’ positive trajectory, Patrick Mahomes’ uncharacteristically limited output in Seattle, and the Vikings’ undefeated status and emergent resilience. I close by inviting the audience to consult our forthcoming week eight predictions and to engage with our wider historical coverage at pigskindispatch.com.
Transcript
Welcome to the podcast, everybody.
Speaker A:I'm Darren Hayes, your host.
Speaker A:And boy, we had some great history that was made in Week 7 of the NFL season.
Speaker A:First of all, the first game ever in France, an NFL game played there.
Speaker A:And the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New Orleans Saints did not have the fans disappointed.
Speaker A:They had a great game going on over there.
Speaker A:We had some great rushing records, we had some historic upsets, we had some great comebacks and more.
Speaker A:And we're going to talk about it with our friend Ed Cleese here in just a moment.
Speaker A:How much you want to make a bet I can throw a football over the Eiffel Tower?
Speaker A:Yeah, if coach would have put me.
Speaker B:In during that Paris game.
Speaker A:Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.
Speaker B:Hey, Darren, how are you?
Speaker A:Ed?
Speaker A:I'm doing great.
Speaker A:It's a great time to be an NFL fan.
Speaker A:And we had some really exciting games and some.
Speaker A:A lot of fun going on in the NFL this week.
Speaker A:So what do you think here?
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Well, we'll start with a fan base that probably didn't think it was very fun.
Speaker B:In your division, that would be your favorite team, the Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker B:So you probably weren't shedding too many tears about this.
Speaker B:You know, the, the, the.
Speaker B:One of the criticisms of the John Harbaugh teams in recent years was their second half collapses, their late game collapses.
Speaker B:s became the first team since:Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Since:Speaker B:It's happened three times in history.
Speaker B:One was obviously Sunday.
Speaker B:And:Speaker B:And also in:Speaker B:So not the first time to blow a 13 point lead at half, of course, but to then have it turn all the way into a 20 plus point loss, well, that is.
Speaker A:That's more amazing than what I had on this game.
Speaker A:I'm sitting there, you know, look, we looked up, you know, the Bengals were shut out in that first half and they scored 35 in the second half.
Speaker A:That hasn't happened since:Speaker A:They scored 39 against the Colts.
Speaker B:I remember that Colts game.
Speaker A:That was.
Speaker B:Yeah, that was that.
Speaker B:I remember that.
Speaker B:It was a Saturday afternoon, I believe.
Speaker B:I remember that game.
Speaker A:Yeah, it could have been.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:We can stay in your division and we can talk about your team.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Suddenly hot now I.
Speaker B:Two questions for you.
Speaker B:Technically speaking, and if you go to Pro Football Reference, it says that that is the Steel Steelers at the Saints.
Speaker B:But I don't really consider that a game on the road, do you?
Speaker A:So far, I think The Steelers have 17 home games scheduled this.
Speaker A:This year, so.
Speaker B:Gotcha.
Speaker A:Steeler Nation's everywhere.
Speaker B:Yes, it really is.
Speaker B:So I.
Speaker B:So we're gonna pretend that that was a neutral site game, which is of course what it really is.
Speaker B:And so the.
Speaker B:The Steelers technically broke their losing streak in New Orleans.
Speaker B:ally won in New Orleans since:Speaker B:So that's going back quite a ways.
Speaker B:And here's a little trivia question for you.
Speaker A:So, so much for being called the Big Easy.
Speaker A:Geez.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:Now, they haven't played a whole lot down there, to be honest, during like that eight year rolling schedule.
Speaker B:So it's not a lot, but they haven't won in, you know, over 35 years down there.
Speaker B:So in that game in:Speaker B:Here's a trivia question for us, if you can piece it together.
Speaker B:All right, One person scored for the Steelers in that game.
Speaker B:Only one.
Speaker B:And only one person scored for the Saints in that game.
Speaker B:Only one.
Speaker B:They had the same last name.
Speaker B:Let's see if you can piece this together.
Speaker A:The Steelers won the Game,:Speaker A:Well, maybe it would be the Barr brothers.
Speaker B:No, close.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker B:Well, they aren't brothers.
Speaker B:Morton Anderson kicked two field goals for the Saints and Gary Anderson kicked three field goals for the Steelers.
Speaker B:The final was nine to six.
Speaker A:Ah, okay.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I should have known that one.
Speaker B:There, there's that one.
Speaker B:If you would like to stay in the division, I've got a Browns note for you.
Speaker B:So the, the Browns.
Speaker A:Well, before we jump off that Steelers game, let's talk a little bit because there was some history made in that game.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So first of all, you know, they made it extremely obvious that Aaron Rodgers surpassed Peyton Manning for touchdown passes and for a career.
Speaker A:So that's.
Speaker A:That's pretty big milestone when you go through that.
Speaker A:So I think he's like number three or something now in the NFL history.
Speaker A:The other thing is maybe people don't know Aaron Rodgers was the first starting quarterback to win in two foreign countries that had never had football before.
Speaker A:Okay, so yeah, it's Ireland and France.
Speaker B:Now, two of them international.
Speaker B:International.
Speaker B:Aaron, who really, clearly didn't really want to be there, so.
Speaker A:Well, he was, he was a little bit miffed because they didn't go earlier like New Orleans did.
Speaker A:They flew In Friday.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Didn't get enough time to sightsee or something I guess.
Speaker B:Certainly not shy about sharing his opinions on just about anything.
Speaker A:True.
Speaker B:And so the opinions about desean Watson might be changing because the Cleveland Browns now are off to their.
Speaker B:They have tied their best start since they've moved back to or I moved back, however you want to say it.
Speaker B:e the franchise was reborn in:Speaker B:This is their tied for their best seven game start at 5 and 2.
Speaker B:Last time they did it was in:Speaker B:So their fans weren't really able to enjoy it all that much that year.
Speaker B:And they did make the playoffs that year as you well know.
Speaker B:They made the playoffs that year because they knocked the Steelers out of the playoffs.
Speaker B:So yeah, good start for the Browns.
Speaker A:Yeah, they're playing well.
Speaker A:DeSean Watson seems to have that little bit magic at the end was he have like four or five comebacks drives on him so that they're doing good.
Speaker A:Good for the Browns fans.
Speaker B:I believe every single one of their wins.
Speaker B:He has had a game winning drive towards the end.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:So moving on to the Big Apple.
Speaker B:You know this is not something that I dug up because this is.
Speaker B:This has been a viral statistic that has gone around this week.
Speaker B:So I'm not really uncovering much here but I do think we need to talk about it because it's, it's really mind boggling.
Speaker B:Aaron Glenn now has only been the coach for the jets for one season and I guess that's what, six games or seven games?
Speaker B:I'm sorry.
Speaker B:They have been outscored in the final two minutes of the first half in his very short tenure, 107 to 6.
Speaker B:That is amazing.
Speaker B:That is like.
Speaker B:I don't, I looked at, I don't even know how, how do you give up that many points in the last two minutes of the first half, first of all.
Speaker B:And then how do you only manage six?
Speaker B:That is game altering probably almost every time when you're, you know, you're, when you're giving up those points like that there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So minus 99 point differential in the last two minutes of the first half.
Speaker B:In the very brief time that Aaron Glenn has been coached and if he keeps that up we.
Speaker B:He will be their former coach.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Especially you know, you even.
Speaker A:Do you think offensively, you know, only scoring six points.
Speaker A:They have had some of the highest draft picks of any NFL team for ages and you would think they would, you know, have something established there on offense so you know somebody that they could count on to at least score a touchdown or two, you know, in the last 20 some games.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And they've had some good offensive performances this year too, actually.
Speaker B:So it's a little.
Speaker B:But it's a little crazy.
Speaker B:So that points to your game management, clock management just being able to close out halves, games, quarters.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's bad.
Speaker A:So basically coaching.
Speaker B:Coaching.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:All right, in summary.
Speaker B:In summary.
Speaker B:Well, we can, we can stay in New York and talk about coaching if you want.
Speaker B:Because the New York Giants are now off to their best start in a decade.
Speaker B:s, this started this well was:Speaker B:in:Speaker B:So this is actually a slightly better start than that at 4, 2 and 1.
Speaker B:The Giants, they haven't, you know, they've, they've.
Speaker B:Their four wins are against teams with losing records and significant losing records, but you can only play who's on your schedule.
Speaker B:And last week, regardless of the, the fact that the Texans have a poor record, that was still a pretty impressive win.
Speaker B:And I'm sure Giants fans are going to enjoy their, their upcoming bye week.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm sure they will.
Speaker A:And somebody else that may enjoy that is Malik Neighbors.
Speaker A:You know, he had 111 yards in that game.
Speaker A:That makes it his fourth straight game with 100 yards receiving.
Speaker A:Odell Beckham did it back in:Speaker A:So it's been a while since Giants fans have enjoyed some offensive receiving threats.
Speaker B:You know, he's a special player.
Speaker B:He's a special player.
Speaker A:Definitely is.
Speaker B:Well, talking about a special player that was not very special in this last game is the 20 to 3 loss by the Chiefs in Seattle on Sunday night.
Speaker B:That marks the.
Speaker B:That ties for the lowest output of Mahomes's career in terms of points on the board.
Speaker B:He matched that in:Speaker B:The Chiefs got down 27 to nothing, I think at the half.
Speaker B:And the final was 273 in a season where they're.
Speaker B:Otherwise their offense was kind of lighting it up, but they had one bad day.
Speaker B:But this is one of Patrick Mahomes worst games of his career, statistically.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean the.
Speaker A:For the Kansas City Chiefs with the explosive offense that we witnessed the first five games, six games, you know, running through everybody, passing through everybody, didn't even make a trip to the red zone.
Speaker A:That tells you how good Seattle played defense on Sunday night.
Speaker A:That's just an amazing stat to shut that offense down.
Speaker A:The way that they did.
Speaker A:Kudos to Seattle.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Right now Seattle is sort of winning in spite of their offense.
Speaker A:Yeah, very true, very true.
Speaker B:Not the only team in the league that's doing that by the way.
Speaker B:Minnesota.
Speaker A:Yeah, let's talk a little bit about Minnesota.
Speaker A:Boy.
Speaker A:So now they are the only undefeated team left in the NFL.
Speaker A:Who, who would have thought that, you know, way back when before the season started.
Speaker B:No, no, I think they were a bit of a sneaky people respect Brian Flores and you know, you know they did win their last five games of the year last year.
Speaker B:So this is an 11 game winning streak now for the Vikings with four different quarterbacks.
Speaker B:I think now that.
Speaker B:Which is.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which is pretty.
Speaker B:Which is pretty wild.
Speaker B:So no, I don't think anybody.
Speaker B:I think people, some people thought, myself included, they could be like, maybe like a sneaky back end wild card kind of team.
Speaker B:But Yeah, I mean they're 6, 0 and it's funny, I don't think anybody believes in them yet, including maybe some of their own fans.
Speaker B:So they're.
Speaker B:They're being doubted maybe a little bit like the Colts last year.
Speaker B:So we'll see if they suffer a similar fate.
Speaker A:Yeah, we'll see if Cinderella can keep that slipper on to go through.
Speaker A:They've got a pretty tough schedule of in division opponents coming up here the next few weeks.
Speaker A:So the challenge is on.
Speaker A:Let's, let's see how they go.
Speaker A:Come through that.
Speaker B:Yes, sir.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So some great history here and we really enjoy you coming on here and sharing this history with us.
Speaker A:Seems like every week we've had some really good history on it.
Speaker A:And one feature that we love talking about with you that you came up with, we'd love to hear about the Scoragami index from week seven.
Speaker B:The Scoragami index.
Speaker B:So as we know, let's.
Speaker B:First we'll start with our little trivia.
Speaker B:Darren, what is your selection?
Speaker B:As.
Speaker B:What do you think was our.
Speaker B:We did not have a score gummy last week, but we had one that was somewhat close.
Speaker B:So what final score from last week do you think was the most rare?
Speaker A:I think I got this one.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I think the Tampa Bay Carolina game, 43 to 13.
Speaker A:That seems it's got to be pretty rare.
Speaker B:Winner.
Speaker B:Winner.
Speaker B:You got that one.
Speaker B:This might be.
Speaker B:Is this the first time you've gotten one?
Speaker B:Good job.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I'm one out of eight.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Or good job.
Speaker B:Well, you nailed it.
Speaker B:You nailed it.
Speaker B:And really the only one, the only other one that was kind of semi close was the Falcons beating the 49ers 29 to 20.
Speaker B:That's only happened 13 times.
Speaker B:But it only happened five times, the 43 to 13 final with the Bucks over the.
Speaker A:Panthers.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But interesting note on that.
Speaker B:times it ever happened was in:Speaker B:It was the Dallas Texans at the Detroit Lions.
Speaker B:The Lions won the game 43 to 13.
Speaker B:Do you know what's significant about what I just said there though, Darren?
Speaker A:The Dallas Texans who became.
Speaker A:Well, let's see.
Speaker A:That Dallas Texans would have been the team that got disbanded and eventually became the original Baltimore Colts.
Speaker B:Well, yes, I don't think.
Speaker B:I don't even in the record books, the Dallas Texans, this Dallas Texans only existed for one season.
Speaker B:They were the.
Speaker B:They.
Speaker B:They were.
Speaker B:They played one single season in the NFL after the New York Yanks folded.
Speaker B:And though they started the Dallas Texans, it must not have gone very well in Dallas for very long, Darren.
Speaker B:No, because by the middle of the late part of that season, they were playing in other cities.
Speaker B:As a matter of fact, their only win in their franchise history, as it would turn out, came against the Bears.
Speaker B:They beat them in the Rubber bowl in Akron, Ohio.
Speaker B:ans beat the Chicago Bears in:Speaker A:Well, but think about that for a second.
Speaker A:So:Speaker A:The NFL was east of the Mississippi, north of the Mason Dixon line, except for the Redskins, really.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So that.
Speaker A:So the Dallas Texans were pretty remote to all the rest of the teams.
Speaker A:I think that was played a part into it and they were sort of, you know, thrown out there to the wolves.
Speaker A:Like you said, it was disbanded New York Yanks team and it hovered.
Speaker A:That's connected to the Baltimore Colts, but it's not the Baltimore Colts that became the Indianapolis Colts.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:We did a special on that with Larry Schmidt a few years ago and it's.
Speaker A:It's kind of a wild history how that Colts history all came about.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:I think in the early 50s, the world, probably the US probably just wasn't quite ready for that NFL expansion.
Speaker B:And then when we get into the 60s, when we have the NFL and the AFL going is when I think the light bulb kind of turned on.
Speaker B:So those poor Dallas Texans were just a little ahead of their time, before their time.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker B:So we did have, Darren, the most common score of all time happen again this last past week.
Speaker B:So the most common score is 20 to 17.
Speaker B:Of course, that has now happened 304 times in NFL history.
Speaker B:It has happened twice so far this year.
Speaker B:Both times involving the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker B:t the jets earlier this year,:Speaker B:Overall.
Speaker B:Darren, we had a very common week of scores because our score gummy index was 80.14, which puts it easily as our most common week of the season so far.
Speaker A:Yeah, boy, that's a, that's a really high score compared to what we were having early on.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:Yeah, Amazing, amazing job.
Speaker A:Once again, that's got a.
Speaker A:Be a difficult thing to do to get all those scores in there.
Speaker B:Oh, yes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, you know, it's a, it's one of the many rabbit holes, Darren.
Speaker A:I'm sure you have to take your shoes off on that one.
Speaker B:Yes, I do.
Speaker A:All right, Ed.
Speaker A:Well, I think that wraps up our history for the week seven for the NFL.
Speaker A:We thank you for joining us, folks.
Speaker A:We have a special podcast tomorrow where we make our predictions for week eight coming up, so you can find that on your at your favorite podcast provider or on pigskindispatch.com and Ed Cleese will once again be our guest.
Speaker A:Ed, we will, we will talk to you tomorrow and we'll talk to you next week about the history of week eight.
Speaker B:We'll see you tomorrow, Darren.
Speaker A:That's all the football history we have today, folks.
Speaker A:Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.
Speaker A:We invite you to check out our website, pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football with our many articles on the good people of the game as well as our own football comic strip, cleat marks comics.
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Speaker A:Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Monroe, as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.
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