Halfway through the NFL season, there are no dominant teams

At the NFL season's halfway mark, there appears to be a paucity of pigskin dominance across a league where teams toggle between looking superb and sliding, varying on the week.

One of the seemingly few bankable results early in this NFL season was the Detroit Lions scoring at least 30 points. They did it in four straight wins to start 4-1 and place themselves in the conversation of Super Bowl contenders.

Yet the Lions have failed to exceed that total in each of their last three games, including Sunday's 27-24 loss to Minnesota.

The NFL's best offense propelled the Indianapolis Colts to a 7-1 start. Then, on Sunday, they turned the ball over six times — more than their total from the previous eight games combined — in a stunning loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And the Green Bay Packers, who had re-asserted themselves as Super Bowl contenders during a 5-1-1 start? Naturally, they suffered their season's first home loss on Sunday to a middling Carolina Panthers team.

What connects those three results is the notion that at the season's halfway mark, there appears to be a paucity of pigskin dominance across a league where teams toggle between looking superb and sliding, varying on the week.