This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners. Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time.
Bengals fans, you might want to turn away this morning. I won’t mind if you close this window.
Joe Burrow and the Bengals came into this season as a popular Super Bowl pick. Today, they’re 0-3 and at the bottom of the AFC North after losing to the Commanders and their college offense.
Those Super Bowl picks? Trash ’em. It’s probably not going to happen this year. Not only are the Bengals no longer a solid Super Bowl contender, but Cincinnati might not even sniff the playoffs this season.
Since 1990, 162 teams have started their season 0-3. Only four of those teams have made the playoffs, according to Underdog Sports’ James Palmer.
Now, with that, there’s a bit of additional context that our NFL expert Christian D’Andrea says needs to be included in this conversation.
He pointed out that there’s a bigger playoff field with the addition of an extra Wild Card team. There’s also an extra 17th game that most of those teams didn’t have. Both the Rams and Packers started the season 3-6 after nine games last year and still made the playoffs.
“It’s bad, but it’s not as bad as history suggests,” D’Andrea says.
That’s a fair and astute point that should be considered as Cincy moves forward this season. There’s no guarantee the Bengals will turn things around, but the team has a better chance to do it than their 0-3 predecessors.
With that said it does feel like Cincinnati might already be too deep in the whole here.
The AFC North is tough. The Steelers are 3-0 with an elite defensive front and a steady hand from Justin Fields so far. The Ravens are 1-2 but should probably be 2-1. The Ravens are a bit better than their record suggests. Plus, Baltimore has Lamar Jackson, so I’m more inclined to trust that team than not. Cleveland is, well, uh, Cleveland. The Browns are not very good, but they’re still 1-2. When Deshaun Watson is finally benched, the team might be decent.
READ MORE: Watson was one of the NFL’s worst QBs in Week 3
Even with an elite quarterback like Joe Burrow, that’s a lot for a team to overcome. It’s not impossible, but it does seem improbable at this point.
It all starts with getting one win, though. And the Bengals have a perfect opportunity to do that against the Panthers next week.
It’s go-time, Cincinnati.
Josh Allen looks like the MVP
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Monday Night Football coin, Josh Allen and the Bills had their way with the Jaguars in a 47-10 thrashing.
It’s way too early to talk about MVP at this point, but I’m going to do it anyway. Josh Allen looks like the NFL’s MVP right now.
He completed 23 of 30 passes for 263 yards and four touchdowns against the Jaguars. He also led the Bills in rushing yards with 44 on six attempts. It was simply an incredible performance from an incredible player. For those counting, that’s nine total touchdowns for Allen on the season without a single interception. That’s beyond impressive.
We’re still in small sample-size territory here after three games, obviously, but it’s hard not to think about MVP for Allen right now with how instrumental he’s been to the Bills’ incredible start. He’s been the best QB in the NFL so far and it’s not that close.
There’s still a lot more season to play so we’ll see where things go. But, Bills fans, you should be over the moon.
The Mountain West is being dismantled
My, my. How quickly things can change.
Just under a year ago now, the Mountain West and Pac-12 (or Pac-2?) agreed to a scheduling deal that would allow Washington State and Oregon State to schedule Mountain West teams for the 2024 season in order to keep the conference afloat.
Now, here we are months later, and the Pac-12 has broken the Mountain West apart.
Utah State has reportedly agreed to become the 7th member of the Pac-12, according to the latest from ESPN. The school will join Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Colorado State in making the jump.
This move leaves the Mountain West with just seven teams, meaning it’ll need to add another team to maintain its standing as an official NCAA conference.
That’s just for now. Things could get worse for the MWC pretty quickly here. UNLV is reconsidering its position in the conference after Utah State reportedly bailed out. This is all happening after the conference attempted to orchestrate a new deal to get its members to stay. Now, that deal is no longer viable and the conference is falling apart.
This is how conference realignment works, folks. One conference’s problems become another’s. The Pac-12 was on the brink of destruction but was saved twice by the Mountain West — once by the agreement and then by coaxing its members away.
Now, the Mountain West is in the position the Pac-12 once held as a conference on the brink.
This will be a lesson learned for other conferences moving forward into the future. If a conference is about to disappear, just let it. Otherwise, you may be next.
Quick hits: NFL Power Rankings … CFB Winners and Losers … and more
— Here’s Robert Zeglinski and Christian D’Andrea with their weekly NFL power rankings.
— Tyler Nettuno is also back with his weekly winners and losers column for college football. Michigan, folks! They’re doing it!
— Here’s Charles Curtis on criticism of Travis Kelce’s offseason missing the point on where he is in his career.
— Here’s Christian with what the Colts can do to right the ship with Anthony Richardson.
— Charles has the wild card standings for the AL and NL here. It’s almost October, folks.
— Here’s Cory Woodroof on the Pop-Tarts bowl mascot being an awesome Halloween costume.
That’s a wrap, folks! Have a fantastic day. We’ll do this again tomorrow. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️