Series with virtually no changes from this years slate

Im not saying the three best teams in the NFL are in the AFC West. Im not. Dont anybody jump me for saying that. The Dallas Cowboys have earned the right to be called the leagues best team so far this season. The New England Patriots always belong in that discussion. Dont worry. Nobodys getting slighted here.What I am?saying is this: If you were to start a conversation with me by saying, Hey, Dan, I think the three best teams in the NFL might be in the AFC West, and heres why, I would keep listening. I might not end up agreeing, but Id hear you out.The 10-2 Oakland Raiders currently hold the top seed in the AFC playoff picture, but they wont even be in first place in the division if they lose Thursday night to the 9-3 Kansas City Chiefs. You might remember the 8-4, third-place Denver Broncos from such films as Crushing Cam Newtons Spirit in the Super Bowl (presented by Papa Johns). And the 5-7 San Diego Chargers are the best last-place team in the league.Every team in the AFC West has a positive point differential this season. They are a combined 25-9 against teams outside of their division and boast a total combined record of 32-16 -- a .667 winning percentage.Which means theres a chance this could end up being the best division of all time. Or at least since the league went to eight divisions in 2002.Since that time, no division has finished a season with a .667 winning percentage. The closest were the 2013 NFC West and the 2007 AFC South, each of which went 42-22 (.656). If this years AFC West teams dont lose any more games to nondivision opponents, they would end up with a combined record of 43-21 -- and a .672 winning percentage.Also since 2002, only two divisions have had all four teams finish with positive point differentials -- the 2008 NFC South and the 2007 NFC East. Those divisions both went a combined 40-24. The 2008 South had a combined point differential of plus-259, while the 2007 East was plus-212. The 2016 AFC West is currently at plus-157 with a quarter of its season left to play.(We must also acknowledge the 2016 NFC East, which is a combined 30-17-1 and has four teams with positive point differentials. But the best the East can do, if its teams only lose to each other the rest of the way, is 41 wins. Two of its teams have single-digit point differentials, and it would be hard to argue at this point that the second-place Giants are better than any of the top three teams in the AFC West, right?)Thursday night should be a blast, because it has two of the best teams in the league playing in prime time in a game that could help decide the champion of one of the most competitive divisions ever. So watch Raiders-Chiefs, but remember: Its not likely to be the last you see of the teams from the AFC West.Heres a look at some other stuff we learned (and maybe didnt learn) in Week 13:The New York Giants offense is brokenThis we did not see coming. There was no way to know how the new additions would play on defense (theyve all played great) or how Ben McAdoo would handle the responsibilities of head coaching for the first time at any level. But one thing on which we all agreed before the season was that the Giants offense would continue to hum as it had during McAdoos two seasons as its coordinator. It has not.The Giants rank 26th in yards per game and 23rd in points per game. Only six teams in the league have run fewer offensive plays. Only five have fewer first downs. Only the Jets, Panthers, Jaguars and Chargers have turned the ball over more.McAdoo said after Sundays loss in Pittsburgh that the offenses problem was consistency, which is a coachs news-conference buzzword but doesnt really address the problem of a team that has played 12 games with a healthy Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. and ranks near the bottom of the league in every offensive category. They cant run the ball, and the offensive line is a mess; but those things were true in 2014 and 2015 too, and those offenses worked better than this one. Put Whats wrong with the Giants offense on the list of things we didnt learn in Week 13. And if youre a Giants fan, hope it switches to the other list sometime real soon.We are underappreciating the Broncos secondaryI keep hearing, The Cowboys offensive line is the MVP of the league, which of course makes no sense, because the MVP is an individual award and the Cowboys offensive line is a collection of five people. But lets pretend for a second there was an award called Most Valuable Collection of Players Working Together at Shared and Similar Jobs. Sure, youd look at the Cowboys line. But how about the Broncos defensive backs?According to Pro Football Focus, Broncos cornerbacks Bradley Roby, Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib allowed a total of six catches for 57 yards and no touchdowns on 20 targets against Jacksonville on Sunday. They had two interceptions. Safeties T.J. Ward and Darian Stewart have played like stars all season, and the defense is carrying an offense that ranks 27th in yards per game. The Denver secondary deserves MVCPWTSSJ consideration.Ron Riveras dress code is no jokeThere arent many NFL players who think more about their clothes than Cam Newton does, so his explanation that the weeklong stay on the West Coast threw off his wardrobe planning seemed weird. But so did the idea of sitting Newton for a series (instead of fining him)?because of a dress code violation. Everything went right in Carolina last season, and everything seems to have gone wrong this season. How they bounce back from all of this in 2017 will tell us more about Rivera, Newton and the Panthers than their follow-up to last seasons magical run has.The Super Bowl still could be Patriots-Seahawks, but it wont be easyEarl Thomas broke his leg on Sunday night. Rob Gronkowski had back surgery last week. Each is irreplaceable. Without Thomas, the Seahawks will have to adjust the way they play defense, and without Gronk, the Patriots will have to adjust the way they play offense. These are two of the best coaching staffs in the league, and they are eminently capable of making said adjustments. But the Patriots offense didnt look real exciting against the Rams on Sunday, and Seattle is not the same team on the road as it was Sunday night at home against the Carolina Haberdashers. It will be a tough road ahead for each popular conference favorite. Tommy Pham Jersey . A big centre with all the tools to be an elite player, Johansen paced the Blue Jackets with a standout game Saturday night. He had a goal and two assists for a career-high three points as Columbus beat the New York Islanders 5-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. Brandon Lowe Rays Jersey . John Lucas, signed as a mentor for rookie Trey Burke, showed he can score if required, scoring 12 points of his 16 points in the second quarter as Utah built an 18-point lead. https://www.cheapraysonline.com/336i-willy-adames-jersey-rays.html . Both players have lower body injuries that will keep them out of the lineup until at least January 31, which is the first game they can be activated from IR. Wade Boggs Jersey . - NASCAR announced a 33-race schedule for the 2014 Nationwide Series with virtually no changes from this years slate. Eric Sogard Jersey . -- Team after team passed on Andre Ellington in the draft. American Brooks Koepka held off a final-round charge by Japans Yuta Ikeda to win the Dunlop Phoenix tournament on the Japan Golf Tour on Sunday.Koepka, 26, who played on the United States Ryder Cup team and has one victory on the PGA Tour, held off Ikeda after taking a 5-stroke lead into the final round. Ikeda birdied 10 of the first 15 holes to tie before Koepka birdied the final two holes to win by one stroke.Koepka shot a final-round 65 to Ikedas 61 to win his seventh professional event, including a European Tour title and four on Europes Challenge Tour.ddddddddddddJustin Thomas?of the U.S. tied for fourth; Americans Smylie Kaufman and Harold Varner III tied for 11th.Other winners of the Dunlop Phoenix event have been?Johnny Miller, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, Craig Stadler, Ernie Els and Tiger Woods.Koepka finished second recently at the Shriners Hospital for Children Open on the PGA Tour. He was ranked 21st in the world coming into this week. ' ' '