The 2025 NFL Season — Week 7 Review

Week 7 of the 2025 NFL season saw some really good games, including a comeback so improbable it took 1,603 attempts to achieve.

Game of the Week

In my look ahead to Week 7 at the end of my Week 6 review, I said I would give the edge to the Denver Broncos in their game versus the New York Giants given the game was being played at Mile High Stadium.

And edge it they did, winning 33–32 thanks to a Will Lutz field goal to end the game having not scored for the first three quarters of the game, entering the fourth quarter down 19–0. In addition to being the first team in 1,603 attempts to win the game having been 18 points down in the final six minutes of the game, the Broncos also broke a bunch of other NFL records too.

It was a fantastic comeback by the Broncos, and speaks to the mental resilience and self-belief this group in Denver clearly have, not to mention stamina given they were playing in London last Sunday, and then scored 33 points in the fourth quarter of their first home game since 30 September.

For me, it also didn’t hurt that such an improbable comeback was narrated by the wonderful Kevin Harlan too.

Other Action

Speaking of rarities, Thursday Night Football’s game to open Week 7 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals featured that rarest of things in the NFL nowadays; a game where both of the starting quarterbacks — Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco — are older than me. No wonder the game was dubbed ‘The Icy Hot Bowl’. The game itself was a good, back-and-forth affair decided by an Evan McPherson field goal with ten seconds left on the clock. I don’t know why the Cleveland Browns’ offence looked so insipid with Flacco under centre, but Flacco is historically a solid, if unspectacular, quarterback. If he and those around him can build upon Thursday night’s victory over a divisional opponent while Joe Borrow recovers from his turf toe injury, the Bengals might have a chance of making the playoffs, at which point a fully-healthy-again Burrow could take over.

The Los Angeles Rams convincingly beat the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium to open Sunday’s slate of games. The fact that they did this without the injured Puka Nacua made the victory even more impressive, and demonstrated the depth of the Rams’ receiving corps as Matthew Stafford threw to ten different receivers in a victory where he also tied his career-best by throwing for five passing touchdowns. I said at the start of the season that the Rams have an incredible offence. Given the Rams also continue to have a good defence, if people didn’t know the Rams are a Super Bowl contender before this game, they do now.

Speaking of Super Bowl contenders, the Kansas City Chiefs continue to make sure that they are still in the hunt for another Super Bowl after a bad start to the season. Following their 31–0 shutout of the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, the Chiefs are now 4–3. I said last week that the Chiefs’ offence — which looked markedly better following the return of Xavier Worthy from injury — would improve even further with the return from suspension of Rashee Rice following his conviction for street racing on a freeway that resulted in a multi-vehicle chain-reaction collision that left numerous people with serious injuries in summer 2024.

In his first game back, Rice had seven receptions for 42 yards and two touchdowns. While it can rightly be debated if Rice should be serving a longer suspension, he and the Chiefs put the league on notice — the Chiefs managed to get to the Super Bowl last season in spite of having an offence that was not firing on all cylinders. Since the return of Worthy, they have looked far better. Rice’s return further diversifies a receiving corps that also includes Tyquan Thronton — who has looked good for the Chiefs this season — and so, the rest of the NFL will need to start scheming for what is now an increasingly-potent offence again.

In terms of potent offences, the Dallas Cowboys continue to play excellent football on that side of the ball, and George Pickens has looked particularly impressive since coming over from the Steelers, including during Sunday’s game, which the Cowboys won 44–22 over the Washington Commanders. The fact that the Cowboys defence conceded 22 points against a Commanders team that was missing its top two receivers in Terry McLaurin and Deebo Samuel, and which then lost its quarterback Jayden Daniels to a hamstring injury during Sunday’s game should be cause for concern though. It strikes me that the Cowboys are taking the Kevin Keegan approach to the Amercian version of football without appreciating that Keegan’s Newcastle United teams of the 1990s never actually won the English Premier League.

Speaking of a lack of defensive solidity, the Arizona Cardinals’ loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday means they are now 2–5. It should be highlighted that they have lost those five games by a combined total of only 13 points though. As was noted during the game broadcast on Sunday, the Cardinals have the worst fourth quarter point differential in the NFL. Whether this is a lack of mental resilience, a lack of concentration, a lack of stamina, sloppy coaching or the knowledge that they had given away leads in their previous four outings to lose the games meaning the Cardinals didn’t believe in their ability to see out what was admittedly a close game versus the Packers throughout, the Cardinals — a team I thought might even be able to win the NFC West division this season — need to fix things fast if they are to save their season.

The Cardinals’ defensive woes are in contrast to the teams we saw on Monday Night Football. Whether it was the Houston Texans’ defence intercepting a trick play pass from Cooper Kupp, blocking a Jason Myers field goal attempt or causing Sam Darnold to fumble the ball in the endzone for a touchdown, the Texans’ defence was still impressive and made impactful plays in the team’s 27–19 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. To a lesser extent, the same was also true of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defence — in spite of losing 24–9 to the Detroit Lions, the defence still managed to sack Jared Goff four times and intercept him once. The Bucs are currently 5–2 following last night’s game, and their defence will stand them in good stead as they try to win the NFC South division and make the playoffs again.

Finally, a quick note on the best and worst teams in the NFL currently, both of whom occupy the AFC South;

The Indianapolis Colts currently hold a 6–1 record following their win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. I have yet to mention the Colts in anything but passing in my weekly review articles, and that’s been an oversight on my part, as they have looked very good on offence, and Daniel Jones in particular has thumbed his nose at those who wrote him off following his release from the Giants. The Colts are conceding a lot of points though, so they’re going to need to improve on defence if they want to build on their impressive start to the season.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Titans continue to play bad football, even after relieving Brian Callahan of his head coaching duties last Monday. I watched the Titans’ game on Sunday as they were playing my New England Patriots, and was mystified by some of the decisions made by interim head coach Mike McCoy — with the ball in the Titans’ hands and all three timeouts remaining as the second quarter clock ticked down, McCoy failed to use any of his timeouts and instead allowed the clock to tick down to end the half. Even I as a Patriots fan thought the Titans should have strategically stopped the clock to give themselves the best chance of either getting into the endzone or, at the very least, kicking a field goal. I had to agree with Andrew Catalon, Charles Davis and Jason McCourty in the commentary booth for CBS Sports that it was a terrible play-calling decision by McCoy. The Titans are never going to have a chance of improving if even the most basic of tactical decisions aren’t being made by the guy in charge, interim or otherwise, on the sideline.

Final Thoughts

This season’s Super Bowl contenders are starting to come into focus, and it is refreshing that it’s the Colts who currently occupy the #1 seed in the AFC.

Whether this will hold though given the resurgent Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills come off their bye in Week 8 looking to bounce back from two consecutive defeats remains to be seen.

As mentioned, the Colts need to improve defensively if they are stand any chance in the playoffs. Given the NFL trade deadline is on 4 November, we may see some activity from them and other teams looking to solidify their playoff chances then.

In addition to the Bills coming off their bye to face the Carolina Panthers, Week 8 also sees the Chargers facing the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday Night Football, a good NFC East divisional rivalry game between the Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles and Aaron Rodgers’ Steelers hosting his former team, the Packers.

Come back next week to see how they and Week 8’s other games played out!

Brett Walker is a sports writer who hosts The BCS Podcast, and can be found on Twitter @BrettChatsSport. He is also on Bluesky.