Week 3 of the NFL season is nearly in
the books, and this weekend was quite frankly one of the wildest
weekends we've seen so far, and may see all season.
The weekend was full of upsets,
disappointing performances and left fans in every part of the country
scratching their heads. Today we will take a look at the winners,
losers and the teams that may need to start hitting the panic button.
GBvsCIN - My game of the week did not
disappoint as the Bengals jumped on the Pack early, but Aaron Rodgers
and company came back for a nice 3rd quarter lead, but credit the
Bengals for hanging tough and forcing turnovers to get themselves
into position to win. We'll touch on the Pack later in this.
STLvsDAL - I really thought St. Louis
would play a better game than this. Granted Dez Bryant did get away
with a pass interference on a TD reception, that wouldn't have made
much of a difference in this one. Dallas dominated St. Louis in all
aspects and the Cowboys appear to be the class of an incredibly weak
NFC East. I still like St. Louis going forward, but I think they have
a lot to improve on if they want to take it to another level.
CLEvsMIN - Wow! Just wow! What a
disappointing performance by Minnesota. I credit Cleveland a little
bit in this, but I can't be but really disappointed in what is
supposed to be a strong defense in Minneapolis. The strength of the
team let them down, the weakest part of their team (the QB) was maybe
the lone bright spot in this game. Minnesota wasn't going to be a
playoff contender this year, but you can't be thrilled with what you
saw if you're a Vikings fan.
ARIvsNO - Like St. Louis, I thought
Arizona needed to play well in this game, and they flat out didn't.
Drew Brees and the Saints are back to their 2011 form and with an
Atlanta loss, look to expand on the gap they've created in the NFC
South in the early season. I'm a little disappointed in Arizona.
They're fortunate they draw a struggling Bucanneers team next week.
But will have to play much better if they don't want to fall victim
to a bad loss there.
NYGvsCAR - If you're talking about a
high powered Giants offense getting shut out by a beat up and frankly
average Carolina defense, you would think Eli wasn't playing, and
maybe one of Cruz or Nicks was knocked out of the game. But the
Giants played at almost full strength and and were not effective one
bit in any aspect of the game. More on the Giants problems in a bit.
HOUvsBAL - Houston had an opportunity
here to make a statement to the league that they are legit and
deserve some respect. But they played like a typical Houston team in
a big game, and let themselves down and played like an intimidated
underdog. Baltimore and Houston are just fine moving forward, but if
I'm a Houston fan, I've got to hope they get a shot at redemption.
INDvsSF - This may have been the
biggest head scratcher for the entire day. How could a team like San
Francisco, who played so poorly last week in primetime, come out and
lay an egg on national TV? Well somehow they managed to. A lot of
people want to credit the Indy defense in this one. And yes, they
played well, but I watched a lot of this game, and Colin Kaepernick had a
case of "the yips". He was getting spooked by defenders
that weren't anywhere near him. He was making bad decisions all day.
The Niners defense actually wasn't as bad as 27 points makes them
look. Other than a few big Ahmad Bradshaw runs, they really shut down
the run game. Andrew Luck only threw for 164 yards, but the
inefficiencies of the offense were what made this game get out of
hand.
ATLvsMIA - I sure thought Atlanta would
play a little better here than they did. But give Miami a ton of
credit, they showed up big in a big game. In my mind, the Dolphins
can beat just about any NFC team, but they need to beat just one AFC
team for everyone to take them seriously, and that would be the New
England Patriots. The Fish get two cracks at them, so we'll see what
happens. I'm taking the Dolphins seriously now.
CHIvsPIT - The Bears are the real deal.
No more gimmicks, no more "Yea they won but...". Marc
Trestman is opening up the playbook and using the skills of his team
to their advantage. A new look offensive line, with two rookies on
one side of the ball is playing GREAT football. Solid win, despite
the Steelers being fairly weak, a solid road victory. The Bears are
legit. Pittsburgh is in trouble.
BUFvsNYJ - What a sloppy game. *As
more penalty flags fly* Geno Smith and EJ Manuel were very solid.
Smith was never sacked and the Jets defense was ferocious all day. I
think you feel better being a Jets fan right now, but I still believe
in the Bills. They need to find a couple road victories this year.
The big winners from Sunday:
Miami Dolphins - What a great day to be
a Dolphins fan. Yes Atlanta is not a great road team, but they're
still a good team, on a very nice day. The Dolphins really are
turning heads and like I said earlier, they can beat just about
anyone. Their next two games @New Orleans and home for Baltimore will
tell us a lot about this team. If they can split those, sitting at
5-1 headed to the buy gives them a lot of confidence at making a run
for the division, if not at least the Wild Card. But again, the next
two games are very big games for them.
Cincinnati Bengals - After a tough loss
to the Bears, a game they had in their back pockets, the Bengals
needed a good win, and this was it. After a fast start, you knew
Green Bay wouldn't go away, and they didn't. The Bengals showed
poise, resolve and fight and managed to pull this one out. Going 2-1
after a prettyrough stretch of games, the Bengals are poised to make
a run at the division.
Chicago Bears - I knew the Bears would
win in Pittsburgh. I was really surprised at how many people took
Pittsburgh. The Bears right now are the complete package. They're
offense is doing something it was never able to do under Lovie Smith
-- protect the QB. They're throwing the ball all over the field and
with efficiency. Jay Cutler is as confident as he's been in his
entire NFL career. And the defense is doing what is always does,
forcing turnovers and scoring. The Bears are a force to be reckoned
with right now, and they are here to stay.
Indianapolis Colts - Maybe the biggest
winner this week. Going west to San Francisco after the Niners were
embarrassed in Seattle just a week earlier, everybody and their
brother thought the Niners would lash the Colts to smithereens. But
the Colts came out and smashed the Niners in the mouth. Solid
victory. A good week considering they got a big win and got a first
round RB. I still think it's rebuild mode right now for the Colts,
but it may be turning around faster if they keep turning in
performances like these.
Biggest losers:
New York Giants - How is this not the
biggest loser of the week. The f#$%in Carolina Panthers beat the $hit
out of them. They ran, threw, and rolled all over the Giants Sunday.
Just an absolute disgrace by the New York Giants. And for players to
even have words to describe their disappointment shows how much they
just don't give a damn. For anyone to be able to do anything but
speak with their heads down like a disobedient child who knows he's
got the worst ass beating coming is utterly remarkable. Not one
player on the field showed fight. Not one player on the field showed
they cared about the game of football. The Giants are in trouble. I
thought they'd go 1-1 against Dallas and Denver. I thought a 2-1
start wouldn't be the worst thing. They'd be right there in the NFC
picture, but wow. 0-3 and getting beat in every aspect of the game
the first three weeks, they legitimately could be 0-8 going into
their bye because every team they face coming up can A) move the
football but B) is playing with a lot of confidence, unlike the
Giants. I just can't say anymore without getting completely pissed
off. Disgraceful is what is.
San Francisco 49ers - Colin Kaepernick
is seeing ghosts in the backfield and the Niners offense looks
absolutely lost. Jim Haurbaugh has a lot of work to turn this team
around. I liked the Niners headed to this season for more reasons
than Colin Kaepernick, but I think people were drinking the Kaep
Kool-Aid a little too early. Remember, this guy got his first
starting role halfway through last season. Defensive Coordinators had
a whole summer to prepare for him and his option. He's a good QB, but
this league does catch up with you, now it's him and Haurbaugh's turn
to make the adjustment.
Green Bay Packers - They aren't big
losers by much, but here's what has to concern you. Mike McCarthy's
team spent the second quarter catching up in a valiant effort, only
to see the offense and Aaron Rodger piss it away with poor decision
making. Aaron Rodgers isn't prone to turning the football over, so
getting worried about that isn't worth it. But the defensive effort
early was not good. With the Bears sitting pretty at 3-0, there is
cause for concern this division isn't going to be as easy win.
Atlanta Falcons - Like I said before,
the Falcons aren't a great road team, but this was a winnable game
for them and Matt Ryan couldn't finish the job on the road. (That's
beginning to become too big of a trend for him) The Falcons fall to
1-2 and with the way New Orleans is playing, the Falcons have to be
concerned, considering the way they play in the post-season away from
home. This is still a great football team, and there's too much
season left to rule them out of contention of the NFC South, but not
a good way to go down in Miami Sunday.
That's it for this week. I'm sorry a
ranted too much about the Giants and Niners. I had a lot of thoughts
on them, they were just bad. Look for more baseball discussion as the
week goes on and maybe some college sports talk as well.
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