They’re being let off the hook from what I can tell
Probably because its somewhat predictable. It's like a pro sports bettors paradise. Anytime you get a big, emotional win over a tough opponent, the next week, teams typically play like shit. Maybe the expectation isn't that they'd lose, but I was in very early on hammering betting the Jets at like a +10 point spread or whatever it was.
It's the NFL. It's the ultimate week to week league. Teams are never as good as the best you saw them (like we're not as good as what you saw us to do the Chargers), but they're also never as bad as what the worst you saw them at (like us against the Bengals, or maybe the Raiders). It's a season of peaks and valleys. Nobody blows out everybody all the time, and nobody gets blown out all the time.
There was no earthly reason for the Packers to beat the Cardinals on Thursday. But they did.
There was no earthly reason for Trevor Siemian and Jameis Winston to outplay Tom Brady on Sunday. But they did.
There was no earthly reason for the Vikings to lose at home to a QB who had never thrown an NFL pass off a bye week. But they did.
There's no reason for the Lions, who have been very competitive in losses to the Rams, Ravens and Packers, to lose by 38 at home to the Eagles, who scored 44 points, double the most they've scored in any week since week 1. But they did.
And these examples are just from one week. I can give you multiple from any week of any season.
Most analysts don't care about whether the Bengals lose to the Jets because good teams lose to bad teams every week, and it's just for the course during a season. It's an exception to the rule, not the rule. It's not like anybody should write off the Bengals because of one bad loss, just like nobody really cared that much that the Ravens lost to the Bengals either. It's a divisional game. I'm sure the Ravens will lose one or two more divisional games before the end of the year. That's expected.
Any time any NFL "fan" tells you that they're certain something is going to happen because "well look what X team did to Y team, that means Z team has no shot", look them in the eye, call them a moron, and then bet a large sum of money against what they think. You'll thank me later.
