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Who’s ready for Week 10? There’s a tremendous slate of NFL football this weekend — personally, as a Kansas City Chiefs fan, I’m glad they’re on a bye week.

The primetime slate is cooking this week, but there are some good matchups in the Sunday afternoon windows as well. Let’s take a look at some of the top games that we’ll be keeping a close eye on.

Atlanta Falcons (3-5) vs. Indianapolis Colts (7-2), 9:30 a.m. ET, Sunday: This one will be played in Germany in the early morning slate, and it feels like a better matchup than it looks on paper. The Falcons are below .500 with three-straight losses, yet it feels like they’re on the brink of being a solid team if they can just put it together — look no further than their win over the Buffalo Bills and one-point loss to the New England Patriots. The Colts are coming off a close loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers and will unfortunately miss DL DeForest Buckner for this game. Really, I’m just looking forward to seeing two of the best (or the best?) running backs in the game go at it in Falcons RB Bijan Robinson and Colts RB Jonathan Taylor.

New England Patriots (7-2) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-2), 1 p.m. ET, Sunday: I’ll let writer Evan Winter break this one down along with a score prediction: “I simply don’t know how effective the Bucs offense will be against a good Patriots defense. Even if Luke Goedeke returns, the interior offensive line has had some major issues lately and it faces a very stout duo in Milton Williams and Christian Barmore. Right now, there isn’t enough faith in this group to think it can have consistent success against the Patriots’ front.

“We also don’t know if Baker Mayfield is going to get back to his old ways or keep up the inconsistent play we’ve seen over the last two games. Emeka Egbuka has yet to show he can carry the passing attack as WR1 and Rachaad White and the ground game will have its work cut out going up against the NFL’s No. 1 run defense.

“Finally, there’s coaching. There’s no question Josh McDaniels is a better offensive coordinator than Josh Grizzard, right now, and I think that’ll be the edge, honestly. McDaniels will scheme up just enough plays for Drake Maye to where the Patriots come out with an ugly road win that extends their win streak to seven games and their record to 8-2 while the Bucs fall to 6-3. Patriots 19, Bucs 17.”

Los Angeles Rams (6-2) vs. San Francisco 49ers (6-3), 4:25 p.m. ET, Sunday: The last time these two played was Week 5 and it went to overtime. The Niners won 26-23. This has potential to be close, too, given that it’s a division game between two closely-matched squads. One thing getting in San Francisco’s way is injuries — a long injury report has been the story for the 49ers all season long. The Rams, meanwhile, have been rolling since that Week 5 loss, beating their opponents by a total of 86-20 in their last three games. Maybe this week the Rams get the best of their NFC west rival?

Pittsburgh Steelers (5-3) vs. Los Angeles Chargers (6-3), 8:20 p.m. ET, Sunday: After dropping two games in a row, Pittsburgh got back on track last week with that win over the Colts. It’s the pass rush that has helped put the Steelers back in a good swing, earning five sacks last week, with star edge rusher T.J. Watt accounting for one of those. That’ll surely come into play on Sunday Night Football since the Chargers will be without left tackle Joe Alt. The L.A. offensive line allowed six sacks last week against the Tennessee Titans, and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is the third-most sacked QB in the league at 28.

Philadelphia Eagles (6-2) vs. Green Bay Packers (5-2-1), 8:15 p.m. ET, Monday: This is the best game of the week, so it’s fitting that it’ll be on Monday Night Football. Green Bay is looking for a big win after unexpectedly falling to the Carolina Panthers last week, while Philly is fresh off a bye and a two-game winning streak. It seems like the Eagles are best set up for success leading into this game, but expect Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons to fight for a bounce-back game after generating zero sacks or QB hits last week.

TNF recap: Broncos win a close one

We’re still in a rut of not-so-great Thursday night games after starting the season with a run of several Thursday Night Bangers™. Last night’s contest between the Las Vegas Raiders and Denver Broncos was not an exciting one by any means, but at least it was a close game.

Vegas went up early thanks to an Ashton Jeanty touchdown run. It took a while for Denver to get on the board, but they finally tied it up with three minutes to go in the first half. In the third quarter, a blocked punt led to an easy field goal for the Broncos, and a fourth quarter injury to Raiders QB Geno Smith left him hobbled and unable to lead the offense to any more points. The Broncos took the win 10-7 and improved to 8-2.

Despite the loss, Raiders coach Pete Carroll was surprisingly in good spirits. “I’m so fired up about the way we played in general,” he told reporters after the game. “To fight against these guys all night long, and then to have a chance to tie it up, and what would have happened there? I don’t know, I think we would win. There’s a lot of in-between things to talk about.

“But the way that they competed is just what we’re hoping for, just what we’re looking for. Could we not clip a guy? Could we not hold a guy? Yeah. There are so many things we could get better at. But the fight is in this dog now. But I couldn’t wait to tell them how proud I was. We are going to do something.”

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