Week 7 in the National Football League is here as a jam-packed week of football gets set for kick-off on Thursday night.
TSN will carry seven games on the network this week, including an international clash in London on Sunday morning, while NFL RedZone highlights all of the action from Sunday’s 11 games.
Here is a game-by-game look at all of the action this week and where you can find them on the network.
New England Patriots vs. Chicago Bears - Thursday Night Football
Week 7 gets underway on Thursday night with a showdown between two dangerous offences in the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots.
The Bears got quarterback Caleb Williams back last week after the third-year pivot missed three games with a torn hamstring sustained in Week 2.
Williams completed his first 12 pass attempts of the game en route to a 30-for-36 day with 305 yards passing and a touchdown. D’Andre Swift rushed for a pair touchdowns on the ground as the Bears’ offence looked revitalized in a 31-23 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
“You’re itching on the sideline during the season,” Williams said after the game. “I’ve had a hamstring injury before, but it was at the end of the year. I had three weeks to be able to get back and play. And so being able sit back and recover, recover, recover ... and when I get back just to show who I am and who we are.”
Williams and the Bears offence struggled in a downpour against the vaunted Minnesota Vikings defence in Week 2 before Williams departed with that hamstring injury in the fourth quarter, but in the two games he has played start to finish, the team has averaged 45 points per game.
The Patriots are coming off a 26-19 victory over the New York Jets in Week 6 for their third consecutive victory. Quarterback Drake Maye committed seven turnovers over the first three games of the season, but has played much better over the past three - the offence has averaged 33.3 points per game over three consecutive wins, and Maye has 11 touchdowns against just two turnovers.
Still, the team will look to play even better against the Bears.
“It was sloppy. It wasn’t clean,” said Maye after the win on Sunday. “It wasn’t football that we felt like (was) complementary.”
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. New Orleans Saints – International Series on TSN Premium
Sunday’s action kicks off early with another International Series game, this one pitting the Pittsburgh Steelers against the New Orleans Saints in the NFL’s first-ever game in France.
The Steelers nearly avoided disaster against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 6, erasing a 13-0 fourth-quarter deficit with a late Aaron Rodgers touchdown to force overtime before Rodgers found the game’s winning score in the extra period.
“These are the most important moments for us as a team to grow. This is a trajectory win,” Rodgers said after the game. The Steelers enter Week 7 tied atop the AFC North standings and will look to maintain that positive trajectory.
The Saints’ rollercoaster season continued in Week 6 with a 34-27 victory over the New York Giants that saw them nearly squander a 34-10 lead with fewer than 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
The win improved them to 2-4, with a win over the Baltimore Ravens and an overtime loss to the Detroit Lions providing hope for a young team and head coach that still has some things to figure out.
Like the Steelers, the Saints are hoping to turn a tough win in Week 6 into a lesson for Week 7.
“We won this game because of our week of preparation and our mindset, period,” Saints guard and team captain David Edwards said after the game. ”How do we carry that moving forward ... How do we build on that? That’s our f---ing objective this week coming up. You got me?”
New York Giants vs. Houston Texans
The New York Giants will look to build on their lead in the NFC East as they battle the up-and-coming Houston Texans in the early afternoon slot on Sunday.
The Giants looked sluggish early in their loss to the Saints in Week 6, but a change at quarterback midway through the fourth quarter energized the offence.
J.J. McCarthy - the 10th-overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings two years ago, who was traded to the Giants earlier this season - threw for 243 passing yards in less than a quarter with a touchdown and an interception after replacing Jameis Winston.
“I myself, personally, just left a lot of plays out there that I could have executed better on,” Winston said after the game. “[McCarthy] was able to rally us up, and he did a great job. I was proud of him. Proud of what he did.”
The Giants will now have a decision to make at QB ahead of this clash against the Texans.
Houston has rattled off back-to-back wins over divisional opponents after a rough 0-4 start to the season. The offence has averaged 31.3 points per game over their past three outings and their play has head coach DeMeco Ryans excited about the future.
“You’re going to have difficult moments, but that one moment doesn’t define you,” he said of their early struggles. “It’s all about how you respond to it and I love the response that our team has given us ... I love where our team is right now.”
Cleveland Browns vs. Tennessee Titans on TSN Premium
The surprising AFC North leaders, the Cleveland Browns, take on the Tennessee Titans in the other game available to watch in the early afternoon slot.
The Browns are coming off a 13-10 victory over the division-rival Baltimore Ravens that improved them to 4-2 on the season.
Cleveland has entered all six games of their season as an underdog on FanDuel, but have picked up big upset victories over the Steelers, Ravens and Carolina Panthers - three teams in playoff positions.
The Titans picked up their first victory of the season in a 26-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 6.
Tennessee’s offence will look to get rolling after scoring 20 points or fewer in five of their first six games.
NFL RedZone on TSN Premium
Follow along with every touchdown, turnover, and big play across both slates in Week 6 with seven hours of coverage on NFL RedZone.
Los Angeles Rams vs. Las Vegas Raiders
The Los Angeles Rams desperately need to get back on track as they travel to Las Vegas to take on the Raiders in the late afternoon slot.
After acquiring the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Myles Garrett, in a deal with the Browns in the offseason, and re-adding three-time DPOY Aaron Donald - who came out of retirement to join the Rams - many had Los Angeles circled as a surefire Super Bowl favourite.
Garrett has played in just one game due to injury, Donald has played limited minutes, and last season’s offensive machine, led by MVP Matthew Stafford, has struggled to replicate that success this year.
The Rams enter this matchup at 2-4 and coming off a brutal 18-16 upset loss at home to the lowly Arizona Cardinals. A strong showing against the Raiders will help alleviate early concerns.
On the other hand, the Raiders have dropped three straight after an encouraging start to the campaign, including a 33-30 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 6, to sit at 3-3.
The team pointed at failures in the redzone for why they couldn’t pull off the upset over Buffalo. “That’s unacceptable,” coach Klint Kubiak said of their two-for-seven mark in the redzone. “And that starts with me.”
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Seattle Seahawks – Sunday Night Football
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs take their unbeaten record into prime-time action in a matchup against the defending champions, the Seattle Seahawks.
The Chiefs dominated the lowly Los Angeles Chargers 22-6 in Week 6 to improve to 5-0 on the young season.
Unlike most seasons in the Andy Reid-Mahomes dynasty, it’s been the running game, not the passing game, that has been unstoppable for Kansas City.
Running back Kenneth Walker will get his first chance to take on his old team in this battle against the Seahawks. Walker was named Super Bowl MVP in February when his 161 yards from scrimmage helped the Seahawks bury the Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX.
Walker leads the NFL in rushing yardage so far this season, even with the Chiefs on a bye week in Week 5, with 665 yards and six touchdowns. He also has 95 yards receiving and two touchdowns through the air in what has been an awe-inspiring performance early in the year.
The Seahawks enter this showdown at 3-3, and in dire need of a bounce-back effort after dropping their past two games against the San Francisco 49ers (32-29) and Denver Broncos (17-14).
“No way to sugarcoat it,” Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold said of the team’s loss to Denver. “That one sucked. Can’t turn the ball over. That’s obviously at the forefront of my mind, but there’s just a lot that we can do better.”
Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles – Monday Night Football
Week 7 in the NFL comes to a close with Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys looking to snap a two-game skid as they take on the despondent Philadelphia Eagles.
The Cowboys return to prime-time for the fifth time on the young season, and their first action on Monday Night Football. Dallas struggled with turnovers in a 23-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night in Week 6, and will look for a return to form against the Eagles.
“We have a great process. We practice the right way. We’re just not executing what we need to win games,” quarterback Prescott said after Sunday’s loss. “The defence, to me, played a good enough game for us to go out there and win this. And we just didn’t hold our own on offense and that’s what ultimately sucks about it. But that’s the NFL and we’ve got to figure out a way to get better and to get out of this rut or hole or whatever it is that we’ve been in these last two games.”
The Eagles will seek to avoid their season going completely off the rails in this game. Philadelphia has dropped four games in a row for the first time in six seasons, and is dealing with a bevy of injuries.
It was announced earlier this week that quarterback Jalen Hurts will miss the entire season after it was discovered he has blood clots in his lungs, leaving Tanner McKee to try to get things right.
“I am so much better, and I’m looking forward to learning everything and becoming the player that I know I am, the player that I can prove that I am,” McKee said after the team lost 25-14 to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.