Well, here we are. We made it. Somehow amidst a crippling pandemic in a nation led by morons and power-grabbers the National Football League is just 16 games shy of a completed regular season.

How appropriate that the Minnesota Vikings would be playing on Christmas Day. Not because Kirk Cousins is like Santa’s little helper with all the gifts he offers up (to his own receivers and to opposition defenders) but for a simpler, more innocent reason...

Yeah, that’ll do it. Thaaaaat’ll do it. I’d say that will do it. Yeah, that’ll do it.

Green Bay are another and that battle between them and New Orleans for the top seed is gonna be good – only one team gets a first round bye this time so the top seed is bug business

It’s Thanksgiving in the United (so to speak) States of America and the timeline is stacked with people ranking Thanksgiving food. I’m sure there are some other aspects to that particular holiday, gaudy USA patriotism being one of them, but mostly it seems to be about fighting with relatives and eating food?

DeAndre Hopkins is second in total receiving yardage this season, 45 yards behind Stefon Diggs in one fewer game with six fewer catches. 861 yards on 67 catches with the best catch percentage on targets of anyone in the top six.

A little bit late on the picks this week, apologies for that... though still not as late as Nevada polling results.

Todd Gurley with the accidental touchdown, trying to stop himself from falling into the end zone but the ball just edging over the plane as he hit the deck and defensive players started signalling for the score against them.

Right back at it with the Thursday night stuff and in true TNF fashion it’s a game that literally nobody outside the fans of the two teams will be looking forward to. The NFC East strikes again.

Four undefeated teams remain after five weeks. The Seahawks, the Packers, the Steelers... and the Tennessee Titans, who thoroughly dispatched of the previously undefeated Buffalo Bills in that delayed Tuesday night game.

We’re now at the end of the first quarter of the game that is this season. Four games out of 16 for the majority of the teams. A quarter of the way through... and the Falcons still don’t have a win.

Three weeks in and things are starting to make sense. Outlier performances are being levelled out, teams have had time to adjust to the lack of a proper preseason, what we’re seeing now is the truth.

If there was one overriding theme of week two... it was the injuries. Even as some pretty entertaining early games were unfolding the tally of injuries was starting to overshadow things. Some star players too, it was rough.

Tom Brady lost a game (oh no), Sir Purr became a household name, Carson Wentz did some weird stuff, Ron Rivera did some inspirational stuff, holding penalties were down, Russ was allowed to cook, Cam Newton watched The Mask… now we await what week two has to offer.

Welcome back friends. Welcome back Romans. Welcome back countrymen. The strangest NFL season in living memory is upon us.

Well now. It may have snuck up on us thanks to a global pandemic and the subsequent lack of a preseason, not to mention a million other distractions in the seventh layer of hell that is the year 2020... but the NFL season is about to start.

Well, here we are. Seventeen weeks deep into what’s been a crazy and unpredictable season. For all but twelve teams it ends right here, for those twelve playoff bound franchises it’s only just beginning.

Sing hallelujah and be merry dear reader because Thursday night footy is no more for the 2019 season – which is great news for players with niggling injuries not fancying a short turnaround and also for me because it gives me an extra day or so to write this bad boy which is never not a blessing. Busy times that we live in and all that.

Lamar Jackson is breaking records, Michael Thomas is breaking records, George Kittle is breaking tackles, Le’Veon Bell is breaking personal bests (but only at the bowling alley), the Dallas Cowboys are breaking hearts, Patrick Mahomes is breaking defences, and the old NFL picks might just be breaking even.

We’re now fully three quarters through the season and we’re at that stage where teams begin to fall into two distinct categories: playing for this year and playing for next year.