Culture
NFL Week 10 top storylines: Russell Wilson vs. Commanders, Broncos-Chiefs, can Lions stay hot?
Believe it or not, Week 10 of the NFL regular season already is upon us, and a sense of urgency has set in across the league with just nine weeks remaining before the playoffs.
The second head coach of the season received his walking papers last week. The Saints fired Dennis Allen on Monday and replaced him with interim Darren Rizzi as they grasp for solutions on how to end their league-worst seven-game losing streak. The trade deadline followed Tuesday, concluding with 25 teams engaging in 18 trades in hopes of fortifying their rosters for the homestretch.
Division races are beginning to take shape or tighten. A crucial AFC North showdown took place Thursday night, when Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens outdueled Joe Burrow’s Bengals 35-34 despite a historic night by Cincinnati wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase.
The action continues Sunday morning, when the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers face off in Munich, Germany. It continues with seven games at 1 p.m. ET, three more in the 4 p.m. ET window and a Sunday night matchup between the Detroit Lions and Houston Texans. Week 10 concludes Monday night with the Miami Dolphins visiting the Los Angeles Rams.
Here’s a look at five compelling storylines around the NFL this week. (Find the full schedule here.)
1. Familiar faces in new places after trade deadline
Eight players changed addresses Tuesday, the final day for teams to make trades. That brought the total player moves this season to 19. In recent weeks, we saw Davante Adams, Amari Cooper and DeAndre Hopkins make their debuts with their new teams. Now we’re about to see another cluster of players try to bolster their new teams’ chances of contending for division titles, playoff berths and Super Bowl runs.
In-season trades rarely dramatically change team fortunes, but there are some exceptions. Hopkins looks like a difference-maker in Kansas City, where he recorded two touchdown catches to help lift his new team over Tampa Bay last Monday. Who will make an instant impact this week? Cornerback Marshon Lattimore (hamstring) is out for the Washington Commanders and Lions pass rusher Za’Darius Smith may not play Sunday, but keep an eye on two new Steelers acquisitions, edge rusher Preston Smith and wide receiver Mike Williams.
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2. Steelers-Commanders: Meeting of unlikely division leaders
The Steelers and Commanders both reset at quarterback this offseason. The Steelers acquired veteran Russell Wilson hoping the nine-time Pro Bowl selection could help them win their first playoff game since the 2016 season. The Commanders, meanwhile, drafted Jayden Daniels second overall, praying he could rescue them from years of dysfunction and ineptitude.
Wilson’s Steelers tenure got off to a slow start thanks to a calf strain that sidelined him for five weeks while Justin Fields helped Pittsburgh to a 3-2 start. But now in the starting role, Wilson has looked like the difference-maker Mike Tomlin envisioned this offseason, going 2-0 and directing the offense to two of its best outings of the year.
Daniels, meanwhile, has shined as a passer and rusher for one of the most prolific offenses in the league and as a result is the favorite to win Rookie of the Year honors. Midway through the season, not only are these teams winning thanks largely to the sparks their new quarterbacks have provided, but they’re both leading their respective divisions. Pittsburgh (6-2) is first in the AFC North and Washington (7-2) leads the NFC East.
Both teams enter Sunday’s contest in Landover, Md., riding three-game win streaks but needing victories to hold off divisional foes (Baltimore for Pittsburgh, Philadelphia for Washington). The game is a reunion for Steelers coach Mike Tomlin and the Commanders’ Dan Quinn. In 1994, Tomlin played defensive back for William & Mary while Quinn served as the Tribe’s defensive line coach. The following season, they both landed jobs on Virginia Military Institute’s coaching staff. Now they’ll try to lead their teams to victory and maintain the momentum built during the first half of the season. (Steelers at Commanders, 1 p.m. ET Sunday.)
3. Broncos’ next tough test: Visiting the Chiefs
Sean Payton’s Broncos embarked on a surprising 5-3 start to the season despite playing a rookie quarterback and going through growing pains in other areas. Last week, however, they ran into a buzzsaw in Baltimore and got thumped 41-10. They are in a tight race with the Chargers (5-3) for second in the AFC West and remain hopeful they can end an eight-year playoff drought.
Their next task won’t be easy: Sunday, Denver travels to Kansas City to take on the 8-0 Chiefs, who are the NFL’s only undefeated team. Patrick Mahomes boasts a 12-1 record against the Broncos. His only loss to them came in Week 8 last season, when he threw two interceptions and no touchdowns and also lost a fumble in a 24-9 defeat in Denver.
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Can the Broncos make it two in a row? Cornerback Pat Surtain II said this week, “It’s a good opportunity for us to showcase what we’ve got,” and if anyone’s up to the challenge of stopping Mahomes, it’s Surtain, who is regarded as the top cornerback in the NFL.
Denver’s greatest concern, however, might be its own offense versus Kansas City’s defense. Rookie quarterback Bo Nix has delivered bright spots this season, but this week he must face the unit led by mastermind Steve Spagnuolo. Spags makes life difficult for most quarterbacks, but his defenses tend to feast on rookie quarterbacks in particular. Since 2019, Spagnuolo owns an 11-1 record against rookie quarterbacks, and his Chiefs have gone 5-0 at home against Denver during the same span. Spagnuolo will send all kinds of pressures, disguise coverages and plant seeds of doubt in Nix’s mind. How will Payton equip his rookie to deal with the challenge? (Broncos at Chiefs, 1 p.m. ET Sunday.)
Rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. has helped turn the Cardinals’ tide. (Matt Kartozian / Imagn Images)
4. Arizona Cardinals’ rise
Is it time to start viewing the Cardinals in a different light? Considered non-factors in the NFC West after a 1-3 start to the season, the Cardinals have since won four of their last five, including three straight, to improve to 5-4. Arizona is now atop the division standings as it hosts the New York Jets on Sunday.
An authoritative 41-10 victory over the Rams in Week 2 was the only early-season highlight for Arizona. But after a 42-14 loss to the Commanders, Jonathan Gannon’s team rebounded with a 24-23 win at San Francisco in Week 5. They lost to the Packers in Week 6, but back-to-back comeback victories over the Chargers and Dolphins preceded a convincing win over the Bears last week, and now the Cardinals find themselves as the only NFC West team with a winning record.
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There’s a lot to like about this team. Quarterback Kyler Murray is doing a good job of taking care of the football while distributing it to a diverse cast of weapons that include tight end Trey McBride and wide receivers Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson. Harrison, a rookie, has shown flashes of dominance (his six-catch, 111-yard performance in Week 8 carried Arizona to victory over Miami). Running back James Conner ranks sixth in the NFL in rushing. Defensively, the Cardinals have displayed improvement and hope to receive a boost with their trade for Baron Browning.
While Arizona appears to be trending in the right direction, the Jets have endured a challenging season and lost five straight before last week’s win over Houston. Aaron Rodgers, Garrett Wilson and Adams lead the Jets offensively, but the unit has yet to live up to expectations. New York’s defense has surrendered 330-plus yards in three of its last four games under interim head coach/defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who replaced the fired Robert Saleh. The Jets’ biggest weakness is stopping the run, so a heavy dose of Conner and fellow backs Trey Benson and Emari Demercado with Murray sprinkled in could help pave the Cardinals’ way to success. (Jets at Cardinals, 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday.)
5. Detroit Lions: Ripe for an upset?
On one hand, the Lions — with a 7-1 record and riding a six-game win streak — are one of the hottest teams in the league. Much of the time, they look like the best team in the entire NFL. But could Dan Campbell’s imposing group be upset Sunday night at Houston?
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Jared Goff is leading the NFL with a completion percentage of 74.9 and in recent weeks has completed 100, 72, 88, 80 and 81.8 percent of his throws for 11 touchdowns and no interceptions. The Lions can win pretty. They can win ugly. Detroit’s defense is among the best in the red zone, allowing touchdowns only 43.48 percent of the time (fourth best) and only 37.5 percent in the last three games combined.
The Texans are coming off a bye, however, and although Las Vegas has them as 3 1/2-point home underdogs, DeMeco Ryans’ boys are 3-0 when boasting a rest advantage from a bye or mini-bye. Offensive production has dipped recently for the Lions (225 yards against Tennessee in Week 8 and 261 against Green Bay in Week 9). Meanwhile, Detroit’s defense has allowed at least 130 rushing yards in four of its last five contests. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud will command plenty of attention, and not having his top two receivers will hamper his efforts. Running back Joe Mixon has five 100-yard performances in six outings this season, however, and could exploit Detroit’s weakness in this department and position his team for a strong outing. (Lions at Texans, 8:20 p.m. ET Sunday.)
(Top photo: Joe Sargent / Getty Images)
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“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.
On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.
Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”
With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”
How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.
By ‘A Lady’
Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)
Where the Magic Happened
Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.
An Iconic Accessory
Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.
Austen Onscreen
Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.
Jane Goes X-Rated
The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.
A Lady Unmasked
Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”
Wearable Tributes
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.
The Austen Literary Universe
On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)
A Botanical Homage
Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.
Aunt Jane
Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.
Cultural Currency
In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.
In the Trenches
During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”
Baby Janes
You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.
The Austen Industrial Complex
Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.
Around the Globe
Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.
Playable Persuasions
In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.
#SoJaneAusten
The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.
Bonnets Fit for a Bennett
For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.
Most Ardently, Jane
Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”
Stage and Sensibility
Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.
Austen 101
Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”
W.W.J.D.
When facing problems — of etiquette, romance, domestic or professional turmoil — sometimes the only thing to do is ask: What would Jane do?
A famous poet once observed that it is difficult to get the news from poems. The weather is a different story. April showers, summer sunshine and — maybe especially — the chill of winter provide an endless supply of moods and metaphors. Poets like to practice a double meteorology, looking out at the water and up at the sky for evidence of interior conditions of feeling.
The inner and outer forecasts don’t always match up. This short poem by Louise Glück starts out cold and stays that way for most of its 11 lines.
And then it bursts into flame.
“Early December in Croton-on-Hudson” comes from Glück’s debut collection, “Firstborn,” which was published in 1968. She wrote the poems in it between the ages of 18 and 23, but they bear many of the hallmarks of her mature style, including an approach to personal matters — sex, love, illness, family life — that is at once uncompromising and elusive. She doesn’t flinch. She also doesn’t explain.
Here, for example, Glück assembles fragments of experience that imply — but also obscure — a larger narrative. It’s almost as if a short story, or even a novel, had been smashed like a glass Christmas ornament, leaving the reader to infer the sphere from the shards.
We know there was a couple with a flat tire, and that a year later at least one of them still has feelings for the other. It’s hard not to wonder if they’re still together, or where they were going with those Christmas presents.
To some extent, those questions can be addressed with the help of biographical clues. The version of “Early December in Croton-on-Hudson” that appeared in The Atlantic in 1967 was dedicated to Charles Hertz, a Columbia University graduate student who was Glück’s first husband. They divorced a few years later. Glück, who died in 2023, was never shy about putting her life into her work.
But the poem we are reading now is not just the record of a passion that has long since cooled. More than 50 years after “Firstborn,” on the occasion of receiving the Nobel Prize for literature, Glück celebrated the “intimate, seductive, often furtive or clandestine” relations between poets and their readers. Recalling her childhood discovery of William Blake and Emily Dickinson, she declared her lifelong ardor for “poems to which the listener or reader makes an essential contribution, as recipient of a confidence or an outcry, sometimes as co-conspirator.”
That’s the kind of poem she wrote.
“Confidence” can have two meanings, both of which apply to “Early December in Croton-on-Hudson.” Reading it, you are privy to a secret, something meant for your ears only. You are also in the presence of an assertive, self-possessed voice.
Where there is power, there’s also risk. To give voice to desire — to whisper or cry “I want you” — is to issue a challenge and admit vulnerability. It’s a declaration of conquest and a promise of surrender.
What happens next? That’s up to you.
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