Three weeks into the season, and there are only three undefeated teams left: Philadelphia, Arizona, and Cincinnati. Arizona is the big surprise of the group, despite winning 10 games last year and barely missing out on the playoffs. No one is expecting any of these teams to go undefeated for the season, but as long as they keep winning they have little to complain about. Other teams in the league don't have such a luxury though, such as....
1. Boy, oh, boy, are the Bucs a bad team. I must eat some crow on this one. I had picked the Bucs to not only be an upstart team this year, but win the NFC South outright. I had expected Josh McCown to at least play at an average level at quarterback, but he has been anything but average. The Bucs are one of three winless teams left in the NFL right now, and it's hard to tell where they fall in line relative to the Jaguars and Raiders. If this weekend's games are the litmus test, the Jaguars and Bucs are neck and neck for how inept each of them looked.
2. The Bengals, on the other hand, are really, really good. Give credit where it's due. The Bengals have looked excellent through the first three weeks of the season. Andy Dalton hadn't thrown an interception - in fact, the Bengals didn't turn the ball over at all - until late in the first half against the Titans. The pick shouldn't even really count since the ball was deflected into the hands of Tennessee's George Wilson. The Bengals are the lone undefeated team in the AFC right now, and they have an early bye next week. Their first truly tough game of the season comes in Week 5 when they travel to New England. If Dalton leads Cincinnati to a win on the road against one of the top two teams in the conference, the Bengals could show a sign they're not going to be one and done in the playoffs again.
3. How good are the Eagles, really? The Eagles put themselves in the record books by winning their first three games of the season despite being down by double digits in every game so far. That obviously says they don't lose composure when they face at least a two-score deficit, which can only mean Chip Kelly knows how to keep his team focused. However, they still gave up over 500 yards of total offense to the Redskins. Their defense is ranked 26th in the league at the moment, giving up almost 400 yards of offense per game and 26 points per game. Their next game is in San Francisco (another enigma of a team), but their tougher games against the likes of Arizona, Carolina, and Seattle all come much later in the season.
4. The Goat of the Week Award goes to Stephen Tulloch. The Lions beat up the Packers on Sunday, but Tulloch gets the Goat this week because with just under 8 minutes to go in the first quarter, Ziggy Ansah sacked Aaron Rodgers. Tulloch was so ecstatic over the play that he did Rodgers's Discount Double Check move to celebrate a play that wasn't even made by him, and in the process he hurt his knee, knocking him out of the rest of the game. The Lions have confirmed Tulloch tore his ACL during his celebration, so hopefully players will use Tulloch as an example to not get overly excited over a play as relatively routine as sacking the opposing quarterback, especially midway through the first quarter of a game.
Oh yeah, and celebrate a play they made themselves, instead of celebrating a play a teammate just made.
5. The big rookie quarterbacks are finally going to get their moment. Due to injuries to Chad Henne and Matt Cassel, Blake Bortles and Teddy Bridgewater made their season debuts this weekend. Neither were originally planned to play so soon - particularly in the case of Bortles - but necessity is the mother of all rookie quarterback play. They both managed to play fairly well yesterday, given the sudden need for them to jump in each of their respective games. Johnny Manziel is still in very limited use in Cleveland at the moment (save for a trick play that was called back due to penalty Sunday), leaving him be the one first-round quarterback who hasn't gotten the call to take the reigns yet. Bortles's first start will be in San Diego next week, while Bridgewater will stay at home against Atlanta, so both rookies will face some tough challenges in getting their first wins.
6. Baltimore won a Pyrrhic victory Sunday. Going 2-1 in three divisional games to start the season has to feel good for the Ravens, especially given all the off-the-field drama involving the Ray Rice case. Their running game has vastly improved from last season in particular, with three good backs carrying the load. They won on the road in a tough match up against an improved Cleveland team, but tight end Dennis Pitta hit the ground untouched after catching a pass from Joe Flacco. Last year he fractured his right hip, and he re-injured that same hip Sunday. He's since gone under the knife to repair the dislocation and fracture, and is now out for the season. Considering this makes two hip injuries in the span of a little over a year, the question of whether his football career may be over has to be asked. His absence will once again be felt on the field, but the improvements and changes made to the Ravens' offense this year may mask his loss.
7. Seattle and Denver put on a classic game. There was little surprise that Sunday's Super Bowl rematch proved to be much more competitive than their previous contest. Seattle appears to have Peyton Manning's number though; if these two teams wind up facing off again in Super Bowl 49, one has to wonder which Denver team will show up to that game. If it's the same team who played in Seattle on Sunday, then the game should be worth watching. If not, then we'd have two Super Bowls reminiscent of the Cowboys/Bills games from over 20 years ago.
8. Are the 49ers in trouble? It's normally quite premature to ask such a question, and it's also worth noting around this time last year a very similar question came up. This time, however, the circumstances are different. The 49ers are without Aldon Smith and Navorro Bowman, Ray McDonald is awaiting his domestic violence case to proceed, and there's significant tension between Jim Harbaugh and GM Trent Baalke. This combined turmoil could lead to the kind of downward spiral that sinks a team's season, especially since the Cardinals are playing better than most people's expectations.
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