Well, this is it my friend. We’ve stomped and spun our way to the last round of the regular season, with sixteen more games to decide once and for all which twelve teams get to continue into the real stuff. Sixteen games of which a handful have some incredibly massive repercussions to them while the rest are basically just for pride and giggles.

Great news! We’re done with Thursday night games! And because the college football season is over (didn’t even know it’d started), that means these Sunday arvo games are now a regular thing. Gives me more time to write the ol’ predictions, so no worries on this end.

We’re almost there, folks. Three more weeks of the National Football League for 2018 and then we’re into the playoffs. Before we get there however we’ve got some very important details to finalise, like playoff seedings and sacked coaches, and these things take time to materialise.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what a 99-yard rushing touchdown looks like. The longest possible play from scrimmage. Derrick Henry, you cheeky geezer.

The sense cannot be made. This has been a solid Cowboys defence all season but they hadn’t done anything like this before. Nobody had, the Saints had only twice been kept under 30 points in 2018 and never under 20… let alone with just ten.

That’s the future of the NFL and I’m not completely comfortable with it… every middling team out there is going to start trying to emulate these two offences and it’s going to be very messy… sorta like basketball teams thinking they have to play like the Golden State Warriors even though they don’t have any all stars, let alone four of them.

It’s very easy to overlook the continued excellence of the game’s best players. Swept up in the storylines of Patrick Mahomes, Jared Goff, Drew Brees… all that lot. And each of them has been incredible, no doubt.

Okey doke, so here we are nine weeks into the season and I do believe that there are three leading MVP candidates: Drew Brees is the sentimental pick as probably the greatest quarterback in history never to have won it before, his would be a career reward as much as anything – although his incredible performances in 2018 mean he’d clearly deserve it…

I’m sorry Hue Jackson, I am for real / Never meant to laugh as your team tied / Or every game you went to overtime…

Deshaun Watson did not travel with the team to Jacksonville last week. Oh he was there, he played and threw 12/24 or 139 yards with a touchdown (the Texans living off the run game), but he didn’t travel with the team.

If you think they should’ve drafted Sam Darnold then that means not drafting Saquon Barkley and then you’d have Darnold struggling in an offence that, for the millionth time in a row, didn’t have a decent running back. They needed Barkley more.

What if I were to tell you that DeAndre Hopkins is the best wide receiver in the NFL? Would you argue the point? Would you suffocate me with your Odell Beckham/Julio Jones/Antonio Brown/Michael Thomas/Adam Thielen/AJ Green jersey?

You’re not allowed to write off the Patriots this early in the season. Every year they have these hiccups but they always figure it out by the time it matters. I know this. I knew this last week too. But I just, honestly, not a word of a lie, could not help myself.

How does one stop Patrick Mahomes? That is the question which teams will be asking themselves for the next decade and a half because it was another week, another masterclass from Pat. 314 yards at 62.2% completion with three more TDs and no interceptions. His worst QB rating of the season and it was 115.5 which is almost as good as the best season mark in history.

The long wait for the next Browns victory continues after some missed field goals, poor game management and Drew Brees postponed the most eagerly awaited victory dance in NFL history last week.

First throw of Sam Darnold’s career. There’s a stadium full of Jets fans all ready to believe the hype, this is their guy. They’ve invested in him. Youngest starting rookie quarterback in history and there had to be a good reason for that.

As always, we begin with the defending champs and the Philly Eagles, much as I normally hate them, have made for a pretty compelling set of defending champs. For one thing they beat the Patriots which was amazing.

Did you notice the sun shining in through the window this morning? Can you hear the jingling sound of loose change in the pockets of those who already have more than enough money? The NFL season must be here!

Aaron Rodgers is the most valuable player to any team in the NFL but what value will Kirk Cousins add to the Vikings? Or how about the Eagles, what’s up with them as they seek to defend their title? And don’t, by any means, sleep on the Saints.

From Le’Veon Bell putting the Steelers on the clock to Sam Darnold putting the city of New York into their collective happy place. Will the Cleveland Browns actually win a game this year?