NFL 2025 through Week 7

20 October, 2025. 1,793 words.

If it’s good enough for George R. R. Martin’s blog, it’s good enough for me.

For the purposes of my blogging, I’ll just be focusing on the NFC East conference, because it’s where my legacy home team the Washington Commanders play. Since the Commanders actually played well last season and unbelievably made it to the NFC Championship game, a feat nobody could have imagined in the last 30 years of misery, I suddenly find the NFL fun to watch again.

I had intended to do one short post a week, but, you know, posting blog posts is such a drag and I kept forgetting, so I combined everything I wrote into this one post.

Week 2

Unfortunately, Week 2 in the NFL 2025 season went about as bad as it could possibly go from my perspective. Here’s all the NFC East happenings.

My legacy home team the Washington Commanders lost convincingly to the Green Bay Packers in a road game on Thursday night, a jaunt broadcast on Amazon Prime with a crew of young, hip presenters. That dropped Washington to 1-1 on the season so far. The Commanders didn’t look all that great to my eye. Their defense seemed a bit porous, which is funny because they supposedly worked on their defense in the off-season.

Then the New York Giants played at the Dallas Cowboys in an early game on Sunday afternoon, which turned into a shootout. Sadly, the Cowboys won. The Giants dropped to 0-2 and the Cowboys reached a mighty 1-1.

There are two NFL teams that I reflexively root against except in extremely rare circumstances, and one of them is the Dallas Cowboys, so I was not best pleased with the Cowboy’s literal last-second heroics in overtime.

The other team that I always root against is, naturally, the Philadelphia Eagles. Fly, Eagles, Fly, indeed. Straight into the sun, for all I care. The Eagles are particularly galling when they have an objectively great Superbowl-defending team.

Anyway, to round out the NFC East, the much-touted “Superbowl rematch” late game of week 2 was the Philadelphia Eagles at the Kansas City Chiefs. And I, for one, now have an excellent reason to hate Taylor Swift’s fiance, after watching a certain Chiefs touchdown bounce off his hands into the arms of an Eagles defender. It wasn’t a blowout like the Superbowl, but Philadelphia won fairly handily, which did not silence the Chiefs critics crying that the dynasty is dead. Philadelphia is now 2-0 while the Chiefs dropped to an anemic 0-2 on the season so far. And the television announcers were very vocal all weekend about how many times a team that started 0-2 made it to the Superbowl. 3 times since 1990, out of 279, according to ChatGPT.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that my favored team lost while my two most despised teams won during week 2, it turns out that Jayden Daniels, the Washington Commanders phenom quarterback, sprained his knee. I hear tell he’s going to try to play anyway, which, of course, reminds me of the mythically-hyped RG3 (Robert Grifin III), who tried to play hurt, only to hurt his team tremendously and end up with a short, forgettable career. My advice would be for Daniels to sit it out for at least a game. They’ve got Josh Johnson as backup quarterback, a name I recognize but don’t really know anything about. [It was actually Marcus Mariota. I got Johnson from Wikipedia, where he’s listed second even though he isn’t.]

Week 3

The Washington Commanders easily handled the Las Vegas Raiders in an early game, improving their record to 2-1. I was happy to see the Commanders started backup quarterback Marcus Mariota instead of trying to let Jayden Daniels play with a gimpy knee. He did well except that one time he fumbled the ball. The defense looked pretty good, too.

At the same time, the Philadelphia Eagles won their early game against the Los Angeles Rams at the literal last second with a blocked field goal attempt, staying on top in the division at 3-0. What a disappointment. I spent that whole time chortling about how the Eagles had been losing for the entirety of the game time and then, bam, they won in the end. Ugh.

In the late game, I was pleased to see the Dallas Cowboys shellacked by the Chicago Bears and drop to 1-2.

Rounding out the NFC East on Sunday night, the Kansas City Chiefs finally got a win against the New York Giants, who dropped to 0-3 on the season so far.

So, after three weeks, the Commanders maintain second place in the division, a game behind the Eagles.

Week 3 Philadelphia Eagles 3-0 Washington Commanders 2-1 Dallas Cowboys 1-2 New York Giants 0-3

Week 4

Things went almost as bad as it was possible to go in the NFC East.

The Washington Commanders lost to the resurging Atlanta Falcons, dropping to 2-2.

Simultaneously in the early game slot, the Philadelphia Eagles won yet again, going to 4-0 on the season so far.

The New York Football Giants won, though it’s not that meaningful in the division, because it was their first win of the season at 1-3.

And while the Dallas Cowboys didn’t win against the Green Bay Packers, they didn’t lose either, ending the game in a 40-40 tie after overtime. The Cowboys move to 1-2-1.

So Washington remains in second place in the division, but they fell two games behind the Eagles.

Week 4 Philadelphia Eagles 4-0 Washington Commanders 2-2 Dallas Cowboys 1-2-1 New York Giants 1-3

Week 5

NFL Week 5 went pretty well for the NFC East, from the perspective of a Commanders fan, that is.

In an early game, the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Denver Broncos, dropping to 4-1 on the season. Yay! It’s always cause for celebration when the Eagles lose! Nothing is more satisfying than seeing the teams with the most obnoxious die-hard fans lose. Now they’re panicking up there in Philadelphia after losing, you know, a single game. Delightful.

In another early game, the Dallas Cowboys beat up on the hapless New York Jets, improving to 2-2-1 on the season. Obviously, we all love to see the Dallas Cowboys humiliated as well, but it’s simply beyond the scope of reality to lose to the Jets.

And finally, the New York Giants lost to the New Orleans Saints, dropping to 1-4 on the season. I’m ambivalent about the Giants but I’m happy to see them stay down there at the bottom of the chart.

Then, in a late game, the Washington Commanders defeated the L.A. Chargers to improve to 3-2 on the season, moving them up to just one game behind the Eagles in the NFC East (with two games against the Eagles much later in the season). It looked dicey for the first quarter-and-a-half. They looked like the Washington I remember from the last 30 years, giving up play after play and failing to get first downs. But after a fumble recovery, they turned on the gas and became a decent team for the rest of the game.

The Commanders seem to have a lot of tough games this season. Chiefs, Seahawks, Lions, Broncos, Vikings? Then a string of NFC East games. Yikes.

Week 5 Philadelphia Eagles 4-1 Washington Commanders 3-2 Dallas Cowboys 2-2-1 New York Giants 1-4

Week 6

NFL Week 6 started early for the NFC East, with the Philadelphia Eagles traveling to the New York Giants for Thursday Night Football. It was a glorious game. The Eagles laid a massive egg and lost in humiliating fashion, throwing gasoline on the firestorm of meltdown controversy in Philadelphia and delighting the rest of us. Oh, and I guess Giants fans are probably happy with their new rookie quarterback, but that’s secondary to the main goal of giving the Commanders a chance to tie for first place in the division. Anyway, the Eagles fall to 4-2 while the Giants claw their way up to 2-4.

The Dallas Cowboys played at the Carolina Panthers in an early game on Sunday, and delighted Commanders fans by losing, falling to 2-3-1.

The Washington Commanders didn’t play until Monday night, hosting the Chicago Bears. The last time they played, last year, Jayden Daniels threw a last-second hail mary to win a game that I had turned off. This time, I fell asleep in the third quarter. It’s just as well because the Commanders committed three crucial turnovers and lost by one point, blowing their chance to tie for first place in the division. The Commanders defense looked like a porous mess.

So in the end, week 6 was largely a wash and only the Giants improved their relative standing.

Week 6 Philadelphia Eagles 4-2 Washington Commanders 3-3 Dallas Cowboys 2-3-1 New York Giants 2-4

Week 7

NFL Week 7 sucked. Up one side and down the other.

The Philadelphia Eagles sucked by winning another game at the Minnesota Vikings to go to 5-2 in the division. Annoyingly, they won while still looking very beatable.

The Washington Commanders sucked by losing to the Dallas Cowboys in an embarrassing blowout, dropping below .500 for the first time, and falling to third place in the division behind the Cowboys. Not only that, Jayden Daniels got hurt again. Once again I’m reminded of RG3 who started great, then got hurt, then disappeared into irrelevance.

The only team that didn’t suck was the New York Giants, who lost at the last minute in Mile High Stadium to the Denver Broncos, dropping to 2-5.

So yeah, the NFC East is looking kind of pathetic this year, and I’m reminded of those 30 years out in the wilderness with a Washington team that is lucky to get to 8-8 and sneak into the backdoor to a wildcard game every five years or so.

This year, I think it’s time to admit that last year was a fluke and the Commanders aren’t very likely to make the playoffs. It’s over, folks. No new budding dynasty to be seen here. We’ve been duped yet again.

Barring an Eagles implosion, Philadelphia is going to be the only playoff team from the NFC East this year. There’s no way any of these other three teams are going to make a wildcard spot with the endless parade of NFC teams from other divisions doing so well.

Next week, the Commanders start a string of tough games, taking on the Kansas City Chiefs, who absolutely obliterated the Las Vegas Raiders this week. It’s looking grim. The only thing left to hope for is to root for the Eagles to lose in the playoffs.

Week 7 Philadelphia Eagles 5-2 Dallas Cowboys 3-3-1 Washington Commanders 3-4 New York Giants 2-5