NFL Week 3: No One Knows Anything; Here’s What We DO Know
Week 3 of the NFL season proved one thing: we pretty much know nothing.
We saw two undefeated teams with top-10 offenses, the Saints and the Texans, put up 12 and 7 points in losses. We saw a winless Broncos team with a rookie quarterback in Bo Nix, who had gone 13/42 on passes longer than 5 yards, march into the sweaty underbelly of Tampa Bay and beat an undefeated Bucs team 26-7 and look like the best quarterback of the rookie class thus far, until Jayden Daniels went out and played a PERFECT game in a Commanders win over a desperate Bengals team on Monday Night Football. That Panthers team that we all made fun of for being a disaster and then benching last year’s first-overall pick, Bryce Young? They marched into Vegas and obliterated a Raiders team that had just beaten Baltimore, with Andy Dalton putting up the third-best passer rating on the weekend because, of course, he did.
The football season is a living, breathing thing constantly evolving and changing. Especially now, in regards to our thoughts on the preseason, it’s only three games and has never meant less, with the fewest starter playtime ever. With the amount of mediocre football being played and the adjustments needed to get into regular season shape, this might as well be the preseason in that all of our predictions and thoughts mean nothing week-to-week. We make ridiculous statements like the two-highest safety needs to be banned when passing is down.
Last year, through the first month of the season, 5 teams that made the playoffs had a record of .500 or worse. We have a lot of time to figure things out as we decipher the 18-week marathon.
With such little to go off of and constantly being proven wrong, let’s list some of the things we’ve learned that we’re absolutely sure of.
You Are ALWAYS in Contention With a Game-Changing Coach
The Packers are 2-1 and undefeated in games started under Malik Willis, the man who was labeled as a one-dimensional non-threat off the Tennessee scrap pile as he has the best QBR in his two starts. The Packers didn’t panic when Jordan Love went down, and instead, Matt Lefleur worked to his strengths, where they’ve run the ball 111 times, and they are your rushing leaders. They pounded the rock down the throats of Colts and Titans and set Willis up for success in the process.
The 3-0 Vikings lost their rookie quarterback JJ McCarthy for the year before the season, but Kevin O’Connell on offense, and Brian Flores blitzed on defense in dominating fashion. They have a +55 point differential despite playing the glorified Niners and Texans, and the corpse of Sam Darnold has been revived after being outcasted in New York and Carolina. Just last year, when Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson went down, the O’Connell and Flores duo found a way to very nearly sneak into the postseason after scheming up and managing with a platter of Josh Dobbs, Jarren Hall, and Nick Mullens at quarterback. The track record is there, and the reason that there was a belief in Darnold’s highly-touted talent coming out of college to be revitalized possibly was because of how easy his life has been made under a supportive system. The Vikings’ defense sets him up for success, too, with a 20-0 record when they have a + or – turnover margin.
Other organizations where a monkey wrench is thrown into the equation, be it from a talent deficit or an unexpected injury, would falter (we’re seeing that on some teams that are underperforming literally right now!). The reality of what we have learned is that it’s a play-callers league.
Death, Taxes, and a Steelers Steel Curtain Defense
There’s a reason that Mike Tomlin has never had a record below .500 in his career. Even in the years where Ben Roethlisberger was handicapped and in a walking boot or currently, in the post-Ben years where he’s had everyone from Mason Rudolph, Duck Hodges, Kenny Pickett, and Mitchell Trubisky, he’s been able to have a steel curtain defense that can somehow win games in the ugliest, grimiest way possible as an operation.
We even thought this season was going to be too tall of a task for him after the quarterback competition was either going to be the distressed asset in Russell Wilson or the OTHER distressed asset in Justin Fields. There are only so many times you can win a game in this offensive league without scoring 25 points on offense (which the Steelers did for 6 of their wins last year, by the way). Tomlin’s streak could be on the line.
But the defense is still here, and so is the certainty that they can win a rock fight on any given day. The Steelers are one of the only five remaining undefeated teams left, and they haven’t even had to score more than 20. They’re only allowing 8.7 points per game and the least amount of yards, and aside from TJ Watt’s per-usual dominance (he looks like he actively frightens someone on every single play. It’s a marvel), it’s a collective effort with more new pieces for Tomlin.
There are boring teams in the NFL, and despite the Steelers’ almost unwatchable offense year after year, they’re unbelievably watchable in that you wonder how ugly of a game this defense can pull off to gut out a win.
Saquon Barkley is Already the Next Philly Athlete With a Cult-Following
In 2019, the Bryce Harper free agency sweepstakes ended with Harper taking less AAV to sign for a longer-term deal in Philadelphia to commit to winning with the Phillies. With an NL Pennant under his belt in the city already and establishing himself as a man who would die for the sports-obsessed town, the citizens of Philadelphia might as well have his number tattooed on their backs instead of buying his jersey.
Philadelphia sports fans are a hard crowd to please, to say the least. However, if you’ve earned your keep in a town that cares probably more than anyone else, they’ll ride for you forever. It’s more than about skill level if you love the city and its people and have earned it.
Saquon Barkley came in with a history with Pennsylvania already as a Nittany Lion, but for him to come in and carry the Eagles to victory right from the start as a new addition right after the awful vibes of the 2024 meltdown is a breath of fresh air that Philly will already do anything for Saquon. It’s only sweeter knowing that it comes with the moribund division rival Giants refusing to pay him and sticking it out with Daniel Jones instead.
He’s leading the league in rushing with 351 yards and four touchdowns, but more importantly, he may have saved the locker room from crumbling. Nick Sirianni is someone who is already living week-to-week on the hot seat, and in New Orleans, the Birds were down 3-0 in the fourth quarter before Barkley scored two touchdowns to swipe the game away and maybe save his new boss’s job. It’s been three weeks, but they’re certainly in the honeymoon phase and every Barkley touchdown is an added middle finger to the New Yorkahs.
Kickers Have Never Been Better
Ironically, in the season when Ravens’ kicker and likely future Hall of Famer Justin Tucker is finally looking mortal with a 5-8 stat line and 0-2 on his only attempts above 50 yards, which he normally would nail and then sing an operatic song on the sidelines, it now says more about you as a franchise if you can’t find someone with a golden boot who can hit a 50-yarder in standard conditions with relative ease.
Years ago, when we moved the extra point line from the 2-yard line to the 15 to give the kickers an entertaining challenge, suddenly there was a pandemic of missed PATs and internal questioning of whether or not you should just go for the 2-point when there was a plethora of misses. Now, 28 teams have not missed a PAT through the first three games.
We’ve had 55 attempts of over 50 yards, compared to only 40 all season in 2006. Brandon Aubrey of the Dallas Cowboys hit the second-longest in history at 65 yards, and there was a moment in week 1 when he was almost sent out to kick a 70-yarder, and the team and fans actually thought it wasn’t too outlandish of an idea! We’ve had more field goals and touchdowns, and having a golden-booted kicker instead of the inconsistent roulette has turned into a weapon.
The Titans are Probably QB Shopping
It started in good fun for the rest of us in the football-watching community not from Tennessee when Will Levis threw one of the most laughable game-losing pick 6s and immediately hit the “surrender cobra” pose that will live in infamy. There have been plenty of meltdowns by quarterbacks where the screen grab has even made him the butt of the joke before, and that appeared to be his moment in the home-opener loss.
Until there was another moment in a week 2 loss to the Jets, which featured another viral clip of him rolling the ball to a defender in the red zone that looks like your controller breaking in Madden. He threw another interception on the next drive. Then his coach asked, “What the f–k are you doing?” on the broadcast, so he would not argue against it.
Then there was a pick-6 in the Green Bay game in another loss to be one of the only three 0-3 teams in the league.
The point is, the Titans invested in assets to see if he was the guy after he fought hard in his rookie season under Mike Vrabel last year. The mistakes that he’s making in these losses aren’t just mistakes; they are comically cartoon-like mistakes that have proven that he’s probably not the answer in Nashville.
Titans fans can watch plenty of Shedeur Sanders, Quinn Ewers, or Carson Beck highlights to make themselves feel better at the laughable moments we’ve all witnessed thus far. For the rest of us, if he keeps starting, we all get those viral moments together!
PHOTO: Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Discover more from Wegryn Enterprises
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.