Sports

1. Rams (last week No. 1; 8-2): Round one of the two-part Seahawks showdown went to the home team. Barely.

2. Colts (No. 2; 8-2): A major test looms with a visit to the increasingly desperate Chiefs.

3. Broncos (No. 3; 9-2): There's a new sheriff in town.

4. Eagles (No. 5; 8-2): That defense is becoming elite.

5. Patriots (No. 7; 9-2): They should be 11-2 at the bye.

6. Seahawks (No. 6; 7-3): Even with an off day from Sam Darnold, they still had a chance.

7. Bears (No. 10; 7-3): They're this year's unofficial find-a-way franchise. And they might stumblebum into a division title.

8. Bills (No. 12; 7-3): Can they move the ball and score points against Houston's defense?

9. Lions (No. 4; 6-4): The consequences of Ben Johnson's departure are starting to surface.

10. Packers (No. 11; 6-3-1): They should consider a Malik Willis package.

11. Jaguars (No. 17; 6-4): Will their latest signature win have staying power?

12. Steelers (No. 15; 6-4): Can they string a pair of solid games together?

13. Buccaneers (No. 9; 6-4): A fifth straight NFC South crown is no longer a gimme.

14. 49ers (No. 18; 7-4): They'd love nothing more than to have another shot at the Rams in the playoffs.

15. Ravens (No. 14; 5-5): They're winning, even when they should lose.

16. Chargers (No. 8; 7-4): It's not going to be easy to come back from Sunday's Duval demolition.

17. Texans (No. 16; 5-5): Do they belong? Beat the Bills, and the answer is yes.

18. Chiefs (No. 13; 5-5): Forget about the AFC West. That Week 6 Monday night loss to the Jaguars could be the thing that keeps them out of the playoffs entirely.

19. Panthers (No. 19; 6-5): Are they ready for prime time? Ready or not, we'll see them there next Monday night.

20. Cowboys (No. 23; 4-5-1): The next three games — Eagles, Chiefs, at Lions — will show us everything we need to know about this team.

21. Vikings (No. 20; 4-6): "Nine" needs to show up sooner than after nine minutes have elapsed in the fourth quarter.

22. Dolphins (No. 25; 4-7): Where was this version of the team before the G.M. was fired?

23. Falcons (No. 21; 3-7): Arthur Blank's finger may be inching toward the red button.

24. Cardinals (No. 22; 3-7): Will Jonathan Gannon make it to Week 18?

25. Bengals (No. 24; 3-7): Joe Burrow probably should wait until next year.

26. Jets (No. 26; 2-8): They should find a way to use both Tyrod Taylor and Justin Fields at the same time.

27. Giants (No. 27; 2-9): Sunday was a microcosm of the full Jameis Winston experience.

28. Browns (No. 28; 2-8): If they'd kept Joe Flacco as the backup, they would have beaten the Ravens.

29. Commanders (No. 29; 3-8): Could Dan Quinn be coaching his way onto the hot seat?

30. Saints (No. 30; 2-8): They can deliver a death blow to their hated rivals from Atlanta.

31. Raiders (No. 31; 2-8): Based on his playcalling, maybe Chip Kelly is trying to get fired.

32. Titans (No. 32; 1-9): It's safe to say Mike McCoy won't be sticking around beyond the balance of the season.

When the Buccaneers got the ball at their own 20-yard line with 38 seconds remaining, trailing the Bills 44-32, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles sent backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater onto the field to kneel down, ending the game.

As improbable as a comeback win would have been with less than a minute left in a two-possession game, it was an interesting decision for Bowles not to at least try to win — and interesting especially because Bowles has found himself on both sides of criticism about whether or not to keep playing late in what looks like a losing cause.

The most prominent criticism of Bowles came after the Bucs' playoff loss in Detroit two years ago, when the Lions faced a fourth down and the Bucs simply walked off the field and accepted a 31-23 loss to the Lions, rather than calling timeout and forcing the Lions to run a fourth-down play. The Lions probably would have kicked a field goal to effectively seal the game, and even if the Lions had missed the field goal the Buccaneers would've had a tough time scoring a touchdown, making a two-point conversion and winning in overtime, but Bowles was still criticized for not even giving his team that chance.

On the other hand, last season Bowles was also criticized when starting wide receiver Chris Godwin was injured catching a pass against the Ravens, with a minute left and the Buccaneers trailing by 10. Bowles may have been considering the injury risk when he decided not to try to score on Sunday against the Bills.

Most head coaches do things differently. To use other examples from Sunday, the Bengals were still throwing passes with their first-string offense in the final seconds of Sunday's 34-12 loss to the Steelers. The Cardinals were still throwing passes with their first-string offense while trailing the 49ers 41-22 late in the fourth quarter.

There's not always a clear-cut correct choice when trying to mount an improbable comeback, at the risk of an injury to a key player. But Bowles has found himself in that position repeatedly, and made choices that drew scrutiny.

On Sunday night, the Lions opted to attempt five fourth-down conversions. They failed on all of them and, in so doing, failed to keep the heat on a struggling Eagles offense.

The Eagles had only one fourth-down try. It happened late in the game, on fourth and one from Philly's 29. The failure allowed the Lions to turn a 16-6 deficit into a one-score game, at 16-9. And it required the Eagles to play keep-away from Detroit, an effort that was fueled by an "absolutely terrible" pass interference penalty on Detroit.

It was the second straight game in which Eagles coach Nick Sirianni made a controversial decision on fourth down. Against the Packers, he opted to go for it from the Green Bay 35 on fourth and six with a three-point lead. The failed deep shot to receiver A.J. Brown gave Green Bay a chance to try to force overtime. (The Packers missed a 64-yard field goal at the buzzer.)

On Monday, Sirianni was asked during a press conference about his process for making fourth-down decisions late in a game that his team is leading.

"I've talked to you guys about this," Sirianni said, possibly implying he didn't really want to revisit it. (He did anyway.) "Again, there's a lot of different factors that go into it. It always starts with the players and the play that you're calling first. Do you have faith in the players that you have? The analytics can say what it wants, but if you don't have faith in the players to go execute it, that doesn't give you a lot of confidence. So then, what play do you have, the players that you have and then you do it. Analytics is a piece of the puzzle. All these different things are a piece of the puzzle. Your past successes, the league studies that you do, all these things play into that. I love our process."

There's a difference between the process and the results. In both situations, the process didn't prevail.

"Just because you have a great process doesn't automatically mean that you're going to convert every fourth down," Sirianni said. "I completely understand that. But we've got a great process with our coaches, great process figuring out how we go about attacking there, and when we go for it, I have to make those tough calls and be able to have that conviction. When you don't convert on fourth down, it is always going to be on you as the head coach. You ultimately made that decision, and you're not going to get a lot of praise when you get it on fourth down like, 'Coach, great job on that decision.' That just doesn't go that way and that's okay.

"You have to have major conviction within yourself, understanding that there's going to be major criticisms when you don't get it, and there's not a lot of points that are given to you when you do get it. You have to have a major process that you go through to put yourself in a position where you can have major conviction when you make those decisions and fully accept all the criticism that happens when you."

He also acknowledged that the performance of the defense on Sunday night was a factor.

"[I]t can help you decide on when to kick field goals, help you decide on when to punt, different things like that, knowing when the defense is rolling like that," Sirianni said. "But, again, that's what I'm saying. There are all these different pieces of the puzzle to help you make decisions and you've got to have the discernment and wisdom as you're going through the game to understand how the game's being played."

He's right about everything he said. But there's one key factor that needs to be added.

Before the advent of the analytics age, coaches who did the conventional thing didn't get criticized when the conventional thing didn't work. Coaches who did the unconventional thing faced a public backlash if/when it didn't work.

In 1995, for example, former Cowboys coach Barry Switzer went for it in the same spot against the Eagles with 2:00 minutes left in a 17-17 game. The Cowboys didn't convert, and the Eagles won the game with a field goal.

Said Eagles coach Ray Rhodes after the game, "I don’t think my gonads are that big."

Nowadays, the gonads/onions don't require XL boxer briefs. Analytics has made the unconventional conventional, with more and more models saying "go" when conventional wisdom of past decades would say, "Are you freakin' nuts?"

When Switzer did it (he explained that the Cowboys would have been punting into the wind, and that he believed his offense could "make a foot"), the external criticism was loud. And that external criticism can have very real internal consequences.

In 2025, ignoring the advice of the math experts who have ownership's ear can lead to the same result.

Pre-analytics, coaches had a safe harbor in following the generally conventional path. Today, the safe thing to do is what the in-house analytics experts tell them to do. Disregard the numbers people, and the coach has to worry about the things they'll say to the owner about the coach's overall competence.

And so the external criticism is far less relevant for modern coaches than it used to be, especially since fans and media are far less inclined to heap criticism on a coach who goes for it on fourth down. ESPN analytics says 'GO' has gotten most to accept a rolling of the dice in circumstances that, not long ago, would have prompted cries for the coach's ouster.

The more relevant consideration for coaches isn't the shouts from outside, but the whispers from within.

The message? Accept the input from the analytics department, and you're safe. Ignore that advice at your own career peril.

For every coach who sifts through the various factors while trying to make a good decision in the moment, that dynamic cannot be overlooked.