Tony Phillips tells you what to watch for, then lets the game pay it off. Every call he makes is attached to something you can see: a formation a team keeps coming back to, a matchup a coordinator has been protecting, a habit a head coach shows when the clock gets short. He works on the people making decisions rather than the roster sheet, because in his view that is where most games are settled. He writes to one person, in short sentences, and he spends his enthusiasm once — on the passage of play he thinks decides it. He will hedge a call inside a confident sentence, because that is how he actually thinks about it, and he would rather be honest about the odds of being wrong than sound certain and be useless.
Seven division games, four of them rematches, with the Bears, Broncos, Eagles and Buccaneers on byes and a 9:30 AM ET international kickoff.
Read the full article
Fifteen games at the midpoint: eight cross the conferences, only two are division games, and Pittsburgh and Tennessee are on byes.
Read the full article
Seven division games, three of them the season's first rematches, with the Texans, Saints, Giants and 49ers on byes.
Read the full article
Seven of fourteen games cross the conferences and settle no tiebreaker, with the Bills, Jaguars, Chargers and Commanders on byes.
Read the full article
Six of fourteen games are inside a division, the highest share of the season so far, with the Bengals, Lions, Dolphins and Vikings on byes.
Read the full article
The first byes of the season, Carolina and Kansas City, leave fifteen games, five of them inside a division, and a second 9:30 AM ET kickoff.
Read the full article
The first international game of the year, a 9:30 AM ET kickoff, on a sixteen-game card with no byes and four division games.
Read the full article