The NFL's seventh week featured a mix of great plays, intense games and potentially the most controversial moment of the season thus far. 

The week began with Thursday Night Football where the Cincinnati Bengals faced their division rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. After losing their typical starting quarterback Joe Burrow to a turf toe injury in Week 2, the Bengals have been scrambling for a replacement, and they recently acquired 40-year-old Joe Flacco from the Cleveland Browns to fill the vacancy. After a slow opening to the game, the Bengals threw the momentum into their favor with a 17-point second quarter that included picking off Aaron Rodgers on back-to-back drives. The Steelers were able to get the lead entering the final minutes of the game after Rodgers found tight end Pat Freiermuth for a 68-yard touchdown, giving the Bengals two minutes and 31 seconds to respond. After a big play from Tee Higgins that put the Bengals within range for kicker Evan McPherson, they made their fourth field goal of the game to end the game 33-31 in their favor. 

The Denver Broncos and the New York Giants played the most unpredictable game of the week on Sunday afternoon. The Bronco's were held completely scoreless by the Giants for most of the game, ending the third quarter down by 19. Broncos quarterback Bo Nix finally got it going in the fourth quarter with a two-yard toss to running back Troy Franklin, plus the two point conversion. The Giants responded with a drive that scored a touchdown, plus burning some clock, giving the Broncos just 10 minutes of game time to find the 18 points they needed to tie the game. The Broncos took five more minutes to score another touchdown, bringing the game within 10. After a Giants interception and punt on consecutive drives, each of which resulted in Broncos touchdowns, the score moved into Denver’s favor at 30-26. The Giant’s Jaxson Dart led a hectic drive that ended in a dive into the end zone to take the lead and give the Broncos just one minute to respond. Nix and the Broncos rallied into field goal range, and kicker Wil Lutz closed the game with a field goal to win the Broncos a game they once trailed by 19 points. 

Once a team of Super Bowl hopefuls, the Miami Dolphins have found themselves at a record of 1-6 and with many unanswered questions about the rest of their season. The Dolphins were pummeled by the Cleveland Browns this past Sunday in a game where quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw four interceptions in just one half of football and only barely reached 100 passing yards. Questions naturally arise about Tagovailoa and head coach Mike McDaniel’s futures with the team after a start like this, and with star receiver Tyreek Hill out indefinitely with a leg injury, the rest of the Dolphins’ season could involve a lot of change within the franchise. The Dolphins have a chance to take a step forward during Thursday Night Football this week against the one-win Baltimore Ravens. 

The most controversial moment of the week happened as a result of a Sunday Night Football game two weeks ago between the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions. During the game, Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster hit Lions safety Brian Branch with what Branch felt was an illegal block in the back. After the game, Branch hit Smith-Schuster through his facemask, causing more players to get involved. Branch then ignored a handshake from the Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes before leaving the field. The safety later expressed that he regretted his actions in an interview. He applied for his suspension to be voided, but his request was denied. This week, NFL Films, a media company directly affiliated with the NFL, released a video online that almost exclusively showed the mistakes and bad plays Branch had made in the game. Branch’s teammates quickly came to his defense — most notably, lineman Dan Skipper and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. NFL Films profits from the content they produce, and releasing video of a player’s lowlights after suspending him for a game was unpopular among many fans — enough for the company to delete posts containing the video and release a written statement. Branch has since served his suspension, missing the Lions’ game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday. 

In the midst of all this chaos, the team with the best record in the NFL belongs to the Indianapolis Colts. There was very little reason to believe that the Colts would be in this position considering they have started the generally disappointing Daniel Jones at quarterback, but will still hold the position at the start of Week 8. It’s almost poetic that a team as seemingly random as the Colts would have the best record in the NFL in a season this absurd, but only time will tell which team will succeed through the next 11 weeks