Monday Night Showdown – Seahawks vs. 49ers
Are you ready for some football? We sure hope so, because Week 10 has the kind of match-ups that make us love this game. We’ll start out of order on Monday Night in Santa Clara, where the undefeated 8-0 San Francisco 49ers host the division rival 7-2 Seattle Seahawks to rekindle a red 🔥 rivalry.
It’s MVP frontrunner and Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson vs. a 49ers defense that has recorded 30 sacks in nine games and a defense that has held opponents to 102 points. Not to mention, there’s the whole Richard Sherman used be a Seahawk thing.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Garoppolo is coming off his best game of the season, while he and WR Emmanuel Sanders have the kind of chemistry that gives 49ers’ fans butterflies.
That being said, the Seahawks are still the Seahawks and this will be a tough matchup for both teams. We think the home team will come out victorious, but it’s far from a 🔒.
*Full disclosure: The Friday 5 is written by @49ersfangirl.
Sunday Night Moves – Vikings vs. Cowboys
Dallas is going to be lit on Sunday Night, when Kirk Cousins and the 6-3 Minnesota Vikings come to town to face Dak Prescott and the 5-3 Cowboys.
After a somewhat shaky start, Cousins has an NFL-best passer rating of 127.1 over the last five games, while throwing for 1,482 yards and 10 touchdowns over the same period. Running back Dalvin Cook leads the league with 894 rushing yards and he’s made it into the end zone nine times. The Cowboys’ defense is allowing an average of 97.2 rushing yards and 220.9 passing yards a game.
Meanwhile Dak Prescott, and his quest for a multi, multi, multi, million dollar contract, is coming off a solid 22-of-35 for 257 yards and three touchdown performance in the Cowboys’ Monday Night win over the New York Giants. Dallas leads the NFL in yards per game with 436.8, and the Cowboys are averaging 28.4 points per game. Minnesota is allowing an average of 17.6 points a game.
Dallas needs this win to gain some ground on Philadelphia, and Minnesota needs it in order not to lose any more ground with the Packers. This is a tough pick, but we’re going Vikings, because we think they’re the better team top-to-bottom. And by we, we mean the author and Vikings Fangirl. Pretty sure Cowboys Fangirl disagrees.
Speaking of the Packers
After their surprising loss to the Los Angeles Chargers last week, the Green Bay Packers will be back at frigid Lambeau Field to take on the 5-3 Carolina Panthers.
With Panthers’ QB Cam Newton on Injured Reserve, rookie QB Kyle Allen is QB1 for realz now, but the real match-up to watch will be Panthers’ RB Christian McCaffrey versus the Packers’ defense. Green Bay has allowed running backs 1,036 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns this season. McCaffrey has score nine times in the last four games, so…
The Packers do have the benefit of having Aaron Rodgers under center, but Rodgers was sacked three times last week and Carolina leads the league in sacks with 34. That being said, he’s Aaron Rodgers, and he’s averaging just over 276 passing yards per game and he’s thrown 17 TD passes.
If Carolina is going to win, they are going to have to pressure Rodgers and create openings for McCaffrey to run rampant all over Lambeau. It’s hard to imagine the Packers losing two in a row, especially with this one being at home, but I’ve got a feeling about those Panthers. Any Given Sunday.
Raider Nation
For all of the Oakland Raiders’ missteps over the last couple years, drafting running back Josh Jacobs was not one of them. Jacobs has scored seven touchdowns this season, with the latest being an 18-yarder last night to lead the Raiders to a 26-24 victory over the division rival Los Angeles Chargers.
On a night when Chargers’ quarterback Philip Rivers threw three interceptions, the Raiders’ defense also sacked him five times. Oakland QB Derek Carr was sacked three times, but the Raiders won the turnover game, and the actual game, behind their rookies and a solid defensive performance.
The win puts Oakland at 5-4, so though the playoffs are a long shot, they’re not quite out of it yet. Who would’ve thought it in August?
Cat Tales
Last, but certainly not least, MetLife Stadium was meowing Monday Night, when late in the second quarter, a black cat casually sauntered onto the field, stopping the Dallas Cowboys domination of the New York Giants (at least for a couple minutes). Now, that cat’s a real fan.
The cat ran all over the field before finally heading down a tunnel. Apparently, cats are not unusual to MetLife, but the country sure fell in love with this one, as the internet has created some of the best memes and videos about the little guy (or gal). Though they have set humane traps to find the cat safely, officials say there has been no sign of #BlackCat yet.
One can only hope that he or she reappears at MetLife to watch the 2-7 New York Giants take on the 1-7 New York Jets. Who are we kidding? That cat doesn’t want to waste one second of its nine lives on that one.