The NFL is already moving towards Week 4, but before that happens, it’s time to review Week 3.
This week, two more LAOLA1-User took the time to review the last NFL game day for you. This time, TheLuky and Fredix in use.
Foreword by Fredix:
Short introduction as a “newbie” among the authors of the User Endzone: I have been reading the ever-changing formats around American Football on LAOLA1 I also comment now and again and have responded “a little late” to MatB’s invitation to ask if I would like to join in. If you couldn’t tell from the comments, I am a fan of the Green Bay Packers, but I also like the New York Giants and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The 30 biggest monster contracts in the NFL
Pittsburgh Steelers
(20:10 win against the Los Angeles Chargers) – by Fredix
Basically, any team that started the season 3-0 could be here, for example the Vikings, who also won a duel of previously unbeaten teams. But our choice falls to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are not only surprisingly but comfortably leading their division.
While the recipe for success in the first two weeks was defense, running, and not letting Justin Fields make any mistakes, this week it changed to defense, running, and letting Justin Fields throw the ball. Defense is still what defines the Steelers, and they ran for more than 100 yards for the third game in a row, but this time they had significantly more passing yards than rushing yards, and Justin Fields had almost as many passing yards as in the first two games combined.
He is benefiting from his team change in the offseason, and this could also be the case for the Vikings, and is taking advantage of the opportunity presented to him by the injury of another QB on his team. If the defense continues to play so well – only 26 points in 3 games and never allowing more than 10 points – and thus presents their offense with manageable tasks, nothing will stand in the way of next season with a winning record under head coach Mike Tomlin.
Cleveland Browns
(15:21 loss against the New York Giants) by TheLuky
For me, the Cleveland Browns are not only the losers of the week because they lost to the Giants and made Daniel Jones look like a quarterback, no, for me they are much more THE loser of the last few years.
A franchise that, let’s put it positively, is not exactly crowned with success, on the rise – they have one of the best defenses, a talented offense around a strong O-line, one of the best running backs in the league and a lot of cap space, so all they are missing is a good quarterback who will ideally serve this Super Bowl window to bring home the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
What do you do in a case like this if you don’t want to win? That’s right, you pay a scandalous professional who – and this is the biggest mistake the Browns made for me – hadn’t played at all in the previous years and nobody knew if and how he would come back. To then pump him full of money and thus ruin the future of the entire franchise is, in my opinion, grossly negligent.
Jauan Jennings
(11 Receptions, 175 Receiving Yards, 3 TDs) by TheLuky
What an achievement from a player who, up until this match, had only managed 963 yards and 7 TDs in 3 seasons in his entire career. Jauan Jennings was clearly Player of the Game with his 11 receptions for 175 yards and 3 touchdowns and, incidentally, only the second player in Niners history to achieve this alongside Jerry Rice.
Since the 49ers are struggling with the loss of their star players like Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, it is the players from the second row who have to shine and this time it was clearly Jennings – you always had the feeling that when things got tough, the ball was simply thrown in his direction. This was clearly evident in his monster catch against the Rams.
The only downside to his game was that Kyle Shanahan’s men ended up losing in a thrilling match, thus completing the false start.
Mike McDaniel
by Fredix
It would be easy to pick another QB with the “underperformance” award – Caleb Williams and Anthony Richardson have made impressive bids for it in the same game, or Will Levis for the third week in a row – but in this case, someone other than the QB is to be the “honored”: Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.
He certainly isn’t entirely to blame for the Dolphins not having better protection in the offseason given Tua Tagovailoa’s injury history, and the fact that his backup QB is also out injured is just bad luck. So why is he the “loser”? Because without Tua, the offense seemed unable to get the ball anywhere near the end zone, aside from one drive, and the game plan is the head coach’s responsibility.
The Dolphins have what are supposedly easy tasks ahead of them in the coming weeks, but if they don’t manage to win a few games, Tua won’t even have to think about a comeback down the road because the playoffs are long out of reach. It would be another missed opportunity for the Dolphins, whose Super Bowl window won’t stay open forever either.
Laiat Lat
(1 Tackle, 1 Sack, 1 Forced Fumble, 1 TFL) by Fredix
The game was certainly not a game worth watching, especially before the break, and Bears QB Caleb Williams scored the first passing TD by a rookie this season after the break, fittingly caught by fellow rookie Rome Odunze. But another rookie also scored for the first time in this game and thus had a significant influence on it.
With the score at 14:9 and about 7 minutes left to play, the Bears were able to force a punt and found themselves with the ball on their own 18-yard line. On the next play, Colts pass rusher Laiatu Latu made the first sack of his career and then a “strip sack”, which was also a “forced fumble”. The Colts were able to win the ball and took advantage of their now excellent field position to take time off the clock with 4 running plays and score the touchdown for the decisive 21:9.
266
By TheLuky
CJ Stroud completed just as many passes before the defender intercepted one of the throws. It was generally not the young quarterback’s game, as he started the game with an interception and followed it up with a second one in the fourth quarter.
Nevertheless, you have to take your hat off to the 22-year-old, his career stats so far are simply outstanding:
- 18 Games
- 386 Completions
- 4.817 Passing Yards
- 27 Touchdowns
- 7 Interceptions
- 191 Rushing Yards
- 3 Rushing Touchdowns
- 99.6 Career Passer Rating
The Texans have their man for the future and if he can continue to perform like this, he has a great career ahead of him.
Fredix:
I have already touched on the Vikings and would like to take up the topic again here: Sam Darnold is currently exceeding all expectations that one might have had before the season. In particular, the start of the season up to the early bye week on matchday 6, due to the London game the weekend before, was considered particularly challenging before the season: Giants, 49ers, Texans, Packers and Jets in London.
Some have speculated that, especially if they don’t win many of the first five games, JJ McCarthy could be named starting QB after the bye week. Of course, this won’t happen because of McCarthy’s injury, but the Vikings are also saving themselves any unnecessary discussion about it at the moment: With Sam Darnold, they have created a good starting position early on in the fight for the playoffs. You don’t give that up by putting the QB on the bench. Not even in favor of a 1st round pick who is supposed to be the future of the franchise in this position. So Sam Darnold can continue to work in peace on “restarting” his career as an NFL QB.
Bold Prediction: But not next week, when the Vikings suffer their first loss of the season against the Green Bay Packers and Sam Darnold throws more INTs than TDs and gets sacked twice as often.
TheLuky:
Since I have already written about CJ Stroud, one of the young guns, I think the quarterback position is generally very interesting this year. Jayden Daniels is also delivering as a rookie and plunged Joe Burrow and his Bengals into crisis, but anyone who thinks that only the talents of the future are showing off is wrong, because on this game day in particular many of the veteran QBs showed that they still have a lot of potential. Andy Dalton, for example, took over the reins in Carolina and excelled with 319 yards and 3 TDs, leading his team to a surprise victory.
Aaron Rodgers dismantled the Patriots in the Thursday Night Game as if he had never been away. Sam Darnold, Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield show that they only need the right team and head coach to be successful. And the Dolphins and Browns have shown that it just doesn’t work without a quarterback.
With this in mind, a question to everyone:
Which quarterback has surprised you the most so far?
Which quarterback has disappointed you the most so far?
NFL: The Power Ranking before Week 3
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