The 32 issues we discovered from Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season:
1. Final week, we documented the peril of beginning 0-2, solely 11.3% of groups since 1990 (when the playoff area expanded from 10 to 12 entries) digging out of that form of gap to achieve the postseason. However 0-3? Much more dire by an order of magnitude. Since 1990, solely 4 of 157 squads (2.5%) to start 0-3 have made the playoffs – and none of them reached the Tremendous Bowl.
2. In that vein, the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and reigning AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals are relieved to be off the schneid, all of them profitable Sunday.
3. Ditto the Tennessee Titans, who successfully gained an elimination sport with the Las Vegas Raiders, who additionally started Sunday 0-2. Final season, Tennessee was the AFC’s No. 1 playoff seed, whereas Las Vegas earned a wild card.
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4. Courting again to their 2013 season at Fresno State, Raiders QB Derek Carr and WR Davante Adams have related on a TD go in 12 consecutive video games. Is perhaps the one factor that gives them solace given Vegas is now the league’s solely 0-3 outfit.
5. Conversely, groups that dash to 3-0 begins since 1990 have reached the postseason at a 74.4% clip, and 16 of them have gone on to win the Tremendous Bowl – definitely excellent news for the Philadelphia Eagles, Miami Dolphins … and perhaps the unbeaten New York Giants (2-0), who host the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night time.
6. Former Alabama teammates Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa would possibly simply have the Eagles and Dolphins, respectively, on a Tremendous Bowl collision course … although each quarterbacks entered the season beneath intense scrutiny.
7. Former Alabama teammates DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle are additionally rising as big causes for the success in Philly and Miami, respectively. Each 2021 first-round picks went over 100 receiving yards Sunday and are flourishing although their groups acquired No. 1 receivers within the offseason.
8. Value noting the Fins had been dominated on the stat sheet by the Buffalo Payments, the preseason Tremendous Bowl darlings struggling their first lack of the season 21-19 regardless of outgaining Miami 497-212 and working 51 extra offensive performs than the Dolphins.
9. Additionally price noting the Dolphins have inquiries to reply after Tagovailoa returned to motion regardless of struggling what gave the impression to be a first-half head damage that left him staggering on the sector and held up by teammates. The NFL Gamers Affiliation initiated a evaluate of the staff’s dealing with of Tagovailoa’s damage. Tagovailoa and coach Mike McDaniel characterised the damage as a lower-back problem, not one involving the QB’s head.
10. As for the already notorious “butt punt” from Miami veteran Thomas Morstead? It was the ugly strategy to attain the right conclusion. Morstead may’ve taken a security by extra typical – and fewer viral means – however the consequential free kick, which pushed Buffalo again to its personal 23-yard line to begin its closing (failed) drive, was a key turning level within the Dolphins’ upset.
11. One different notice on this sport: Have we seen so many gamers spent by the South Florida humidity because the San Diego Chargers beat the Dolphins 41-38 within the outdated Orange Bowl in that 1981 playoff basic?
12. Battle of the GOATs? (Public service announcement right here: There can solely be one GOAT, so let’s cease throwing across the time period.) That stated, the Inexperienced Bay Packers’ Aaron Rodgers bought the very best of Tom Brady – decidedly the NFL’s GOAT – within the first matchup of gamers every sporting at the very least three league MVP awards. The Pack’s 14-12 escape act hardly delivered Gunfight on the O.Ok. Corral drama between a pair of epic passers – however ought to anybody actually have anticipated aerial fireworks given the personnel points these golf equipment are navigating?
12a. Rodgers and Brady mixed for 526 yards and three TDs passing … although TB12’s incapacity to get a two-point conversion try off earlier than the play clock expired finally doomed Tampa Bay’s comeback bid within the closing seconds.
13. The New England Patriots had a season-high 447 yards of complete offense in Sunday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens, however QB Mac Jones hopped off the sector at sport’s finish with what gave the impression to be a really painful ankle damage. If New England has to go along with QB2 Brian Hoyer for any prolonged interval, Invoice Belichick and Co. are in deep trouble.
14. MVP frontrunner? Although Hurts has a declare, too, it is perhaps Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, who’s now accounted for 12 TDs in three video games after throwing for 4 and working for one in Sunday’s 37-26 defeat of the Pats.
14a. Jackson has additionally rushed for greater than 100 yards in successive weeks and has performed so a dozen instances in his profession, extending his personal league file amongst quarterbacks.
14b. Lastly, on Sunday he turned the primary participant in the course of the Tremendous Bowl period (since 1966) to hurry for at the very least 100 yards and throw for at the very least three TDs in back-to-back video games.
15. Lovie Smith Bowl? His outdated staff, the Chicago Bears, did not appear to overlook their former coach a lot in a 23-20 win over Smith’s Houston Texans. The Bears final reached the Tremendous Bowl with Smith on the helm in 2006.
16. Carson Wentz Bowl? His outdated staff, the Eagles, did not appear to overlook their former quarterback in any respect in a 24-8 shellacking of Wentz’s Washington Commanders. The Eagles final reached the Tremendous Bowl with Wentz beneath heart in 2017 … for a lot of the season anyway.
16a. Wentz was sacked a career-high 9 instances by his former mates.
17. Sean McVay’s possession of the Arizona Cardinals continues, the Los Angeles Rams coach enhancing his file towards the NFC West rivals to 11-1 following Sunday’s 20-12 triumph.
18. Rams star Aaron Donald collected his a hundredth profession sack, a shoestring takedown of Playing cards QB Kyler Murray. Donald has averaged 0.77 sacks per sport over the course of his nine-year profession.
18a. Donald hit the century mark in simply 130 video games, making him the quickest inside lineman in league historical past to achieve the benchmark.
18b. No different participant has extra sacks than Donald since 2014, the 12 months he was drafted thirteenth general.
19. Should you wanted a reminder that betting on NFL video games ought to solely be performed for leisure functions, hopefully you had been entertained because the Indianapolis Colts, 5½-point underdogs in their very own constructing and arguably enjoying the worst soccer within the league, someway bowed as much as beat the seemingly elite Kansas Metropolis Chiefs 20-17.
20. Ok.C. QB Patrick Mahomes threw his first interception of 2022 on his staff’s closing play to seal the win for Indy. Mahomes expressed his displeasure with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy relating to the Chiefs’ lack of urgency to get into field-goal place on the finish of the primary half, as a substitute prepared to let the clock run out whereas nursing a 14-10 lead.
21. Did not assist on the finish of the sport when Kansas Metropolis DT Chris Jones was flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on what would have been a drive-killing sack to the Colts. As an alternative, Indianapolis’ march concluded 5 minutes later with a game-winning TD go from QB Matt Ryan to rookie TE Jelani Woods – a rating that solely gave Mahomes 24 seconds to work with.
22. Line of the day: Chiefs RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire rushed seven instances for 0 yards and a TD. (He added 39 receiving yards in a bid to mollify you fantasy house owners.)
23. If solely the “Onerous Knocks” digicam crews had been round to doc Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell’s resolution to take his foot off the accelerator late in Sunday’s sport, choosing a (failed) 54-yard FG try with 74 seconds remaining and his staff up by three. The Lions, who had been 4-for-6 on fourth down within the sport, surrendered the game-winning TD on the Minnesota Vikings’ ensuing drive. “I ought to have gone for it,” Campbell stated afterward. “I simply felt like, ‘You recognize what? Let’s kick the sector purpose. We go up by six and power them to attain a landing for the win.'”
24. Early vote for Bears LB Roquan Smith, who “held in” amid a nasty contract dispute with Chicago’s entrance workplace this summer time, because the NFC Defensive Participant of the Week. Smith racked up 16 tackles towards the Texans, but it surely was his interception of QB Davis Mills with 65 seconds to go that paved the best way for the Bears’ game-winning area purpose.
25. Interim New York Jets QB Joe Flacco turned the ball over 4 instances Sunday (2 INTs, 2 fumbles). If the NYJ weren’t already inclined to floor Flacco in favor of Zach Wilson, who’s recovering from preseason knee surgical procedure, Sunday’s efficiency might sway the choice.
26. Panthers QB Baker Mayfield will get the nod over Saints counterpart Jameis Winston in a battle of former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks … who may each quickly discover themselves again within the NFL’s switch portal.
27. By means of Sunday’s video games, there have been 18 contests this season determined by a area purpose or much less – probably the most by means of the primary three weeks of a season in NFL historical past.
28. Props to LA Chargers QB Justin Herbert for suiting up with these tender ribs … however he in all probability ought to’ve taken the week off. The remainder of his staff did in a 38-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
29. Jacksonville QB Trevor Lawrence could also be arriving. Touted as a generational prospect when he was taken first general within the 2021 draft, Lawrence is enjoying his finest skilled soccer with 5 TD passes and no turnovers throughout his staff’s two-game win streak.
30. How did we not deal with the hirsute facet of the Jags-Bolts matchup? Props to the NFL’s social media warriors.
31. Days after the NFL introduced Apple Music as Pepsi’s substitute for sponsorship of the Tremendous Bowl halftime present, the league revealed the headline performer of Tremendous Bowl 57: Rihanna. Needs to be fairly a present – throughout the present – as she joins musical legends like Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Woman Gaga, Tom Petty, Bruno Mars, The Who and final 12 months’s collaboration between Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar as Tremendous Sunday leisure performers.
32. If the season ended at this time – it does not – the Jaguars (2-1) could be AFC South champions and a No. 2 playoff seed. Discuss City renewal.
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Observe USA TODAY Sports activities’ Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis.
