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Ten Things We Learned From NFL Week 10

Contenders faltered, pretenders kept pretending, and that was just the AFC North.

Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports

With Week 10 of the NFL season in the books, we realize there's still much we haven't exactly figured out. However, with that in mind, Cincy Jungle takes a look at 10 things we learned.

  1. Starting with the Cincinnati Bengals, we learned that this team is struggling with a sense of identity crisis. We don't who who they are, and they don't play like they do either. Is it the team that started 3-0, the team that lost to the Patriots and Colts, or the team that overcame adversity to come back against the Ravens? They need to figure that out, and fast.
  2. Mark Sanchez and the Philadelphia Eagles aren't going to let a few key injuries stop them from holding onto the tough NFC East. Chip Kelly held nothing back with the former Jets signal-caller, and Sanchez responded surprisingly well.
  3. The Steelers aren't who they said they were, and then they were, and then they weren't. After Big Ben threw 12 scores in two games, he came back down to Earth in a less-than-pretty way, looking like the polar opposite of the last two weeks in Pittsburgh's loss to the Jets.
  4. Speaking of the Jets, Michael Vick looked good. Never thought you'd hear that name again, did you? He used both his legs and arms to create explosive plays, leading New York to what could be the upset of the year, so far.
  5. Tony Romo is back, as the duo of the Dallas quarterback and Dez Bryant clicked on all cylinders against the hapless Jaguars on Sunday. That back injury sure didn't last.
  6. The NFC South is...bad. Really bad. Bad to the point that I'm not sure any of the four teams want to win the title. The Falcons beat a poor Bucs team, the Saints loss came in overtime, and the Panthers got squashed on MNF. The Saints look like the best team, but we'll wait until any one of the teams gets to .500 to say anything more.
  7. Tom Brady looks like the Tom Brady of old lately, continuing on his tear, and Peyton Manning had an excellent bounce-back game.
  8. The New York Giants can put up points (sometimes), but other than that, it's hard to score as many as your opponent when your defense looks like swiss cheese. They're going to need to explore some other avenues to shore up those lines.
  9. The Browns are for real. Despite everyones' doubts, they find themselves in first place of perhaps the toughest (and definitely the closest) division in football.
  10. The AFC North is the first division to have all four teams two games above .500 since the West in 1935. Wow.