Was the presidential election that dominated cable and network news the reason why, or did concerns over concussions and player safety have viewers turning away. Maybe fans finally got tired of the league handing down four-game suspensions for allegedly deflating footballs and just a one-game ban for a kicker who beat up his wife.

Maybe, just maybe, the ratings decline was because there are so many average and below average (awful) teams consistently playing each other. Have you watched a “Thursday Night Football” game lately?

Where’s the logic in thinking the Cleveland Browns, who don’t have a win this season on a full week of rest, will somehow play better with half the recovery time? Baltimore ended up beating the Browns, 28-7, though I thankfully wasn’t tuned in.

This Sunday, though, a few heavyweight matchups helped ratings take off for the first time since Week 2 back in September. The Steelers-Cowboys primetime game on Fox was the highest-rated game of the season, while 11 percent more people tuned into the Patriots-Seahawks Sunday night game than the week prior, according to the AP.

That’s the glass-half-full look at things. A quick look at the standings has three 5-4 teams (Baltimore, Detroit and Minnesota, who are NFC North co-leaders) in first place of their respective divisions, while teams like Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Cincinnati and Carolina have gone from preseason Super Bowl contender lists to under .500. If you would have told me in August that through 10 weeks, my Chicago Bears (2-7) would be just one game behind Carolina (3-6), which is coming off a 15-1 year and a Super Bowl appearance, I’d be happy as a clam.

So how can the NFL combat their problem and make football great again? I have a few suggestions, starting abolishing penalties for touchdown celebrations.

You’re telling me that Antonio Brown twerking in the end zone is disruptive to the flow of the game and unsportsmanlike, but then take a Budweiser commercial break after timeouts, kickoffs and other stoppages?

While we’re at it, let’s get rid of the Fashion Police rule that cleats and socks have to match the team’s primary colors. The NFL is a team-driven league – unlike the NBA, which relies on stars – but one must think the loss of a marketable all-star player like Peyton Manning hasn’t hurt ratings just a little.

Lastly – at this point, I feel like I’m sitting on a porch telling the neighbor kids to get off my lawn – let’s get rid of fines for criticizing referees. Take the Bills-Seahawks Monday night game from last week for example.

The referees made some highly questionable calls, and soon after the NFL’s vice president for officiating admitted that the crew made mistakes. If a Bills player had responded to a reporter’s question after the game truthfully saying the officials were wrong, you can bet your last dollar that player would be fined.

But then again, we’re dealing with the NFL, which at this point seems like they’re striving to be as transparent as FIFA.

COVERING OUR TRACKS

Last week I wrote about Zach Smith and Ryan Seelye being members of the Pitt Panthers basketball team. In the process, I omitted a Division I player — Bucknell’s Nate Sestina, a 2015 Cameron County graduate.

My apologies. It’s awfully tough to overlook someone who’s 6-foot-8, but I did.

While Smith and Seelye didn’t see action in Pitt’s closer-than-expected 93-90 double-overtime win over Eastern Michigan in the season opener Friday, Sestina scored 10 points and had four rebounds in the Bison’s win over Manhattan on Friday. He came back with 12 points and four boards in a loss to Wake Forest on Sunday.

WE ARE …

Probably not this good.

But hey, Penn State beat Ohio State when it was No. 2 in the country, had a favorable end-of-season schedule and then a bunch of teams ahead of them in the polls lose. The Nittany Lions are No. 9 in the AP poll and have a very, very realistic shot at the Big 10 title game.