–The Kansas City Chiefs got their offense rolling again and their best player, Travis Kelce, was the center of attention on and off the field. The Chiefs crushed the Chicago Bears, which was good news for all the fans who had them in the survivor pool. But the easy victory was overshadowed by the fact Kelce’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, was at the game with his mom. Swift seemed to get more attention than the game in the post game chatter. Coach Andy Reed said he set them up. And even Bill Belichick gave an answer when he was asked about the couple and Kelce’s touchdown catch. He said Kelce has made a lot of big catches but that was the biggest. Swift’s appearance even overshadowed Patrick Mahomes suffering an ankle injury late in first half although he returned in the second half. Imagine the scene if Swift is at the Super Bowl rooting for Kelce if the Chiefs make it.
–It was a bad day for fans who had the Cowboys and Jaguars, who were both favored over winless teams, in the survivor pools. The Cowboys lost to the Cardinals and the Jaguars to the Texans. Josh Dobbs, who joined the Cardinals in late August after the Cardinals made a trade with Cleveland, posted his first victory as a quarterback. Meanwhile, Houston rookie C.J. Stroud in his third game, outplayed third year quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who was the top pick in 2021 draft. This is a pivotal year for Lawrence, who has yet to pick up where he left off last year.
–Sean Payton, in his first year as the Denver coach, may regret knocking last year’s coach, Nathaniel Hackett. Not only is his team 0-3 but the Broncos were routed by Miami, 70-20. The Dolphins were the fourth team to score 70 or more points in the history of the NFL. They could have tied Chicago’s record of 73-0 in maybe the most famous score ever when they routed Washington 73-0 in the 1940 title game. But coach Mike McDaniel decided to take a knee. The last team to get to 70 didn’t take a knee. In 1966, Washington was leading the New York Giants, 69-41, late in the game with Sam Huff yelled field goal and Charlie Gogolak kicked a 29-yarder to make it 72-41. Huff was irate that Giants coach Allie Sherman had traded him to Washington and wanted to score as many as possible. The trade actually worked out well for Huff because he became a long time announcer for the team. But years later, he still relished getting that extra field goal.
Coaches Brandon Staley of the Chargers and Josh McDaniels of the Raiders made very puzzling decisions Sunday. With the Chargers Leading by four points, Staley went for it on 4th and 1 from his on 24 late in the game. The Chargers didn’t make it but he escaped with the victory when the Chargers intercepted a deflected pass in the end zone. McDaniels had the Raiders kick a field goal with 2:22 left to cut the Raiders against the Steelers to five instead of going for it and trying to tie the game with a touchdown and two point conversion. The field goal cut the deficit to five but the Raiders never got the ball back.
–There are only four winless 0-3 teams after three weeks. Barring a tie there will only be two next week since the four winless teams play each other. The best of the four (Minnesota) is a 3.5 point choice over the Panthers while the Broncos, who gave up 70 points to Miami, are three point choice over the Bears. Shows how bad the oddsmakers think the Beas are. Meanwhile, there are only three unbeaten teams in the league – Miami, San Francisco and Philadelphia. Is it too early to predict the conference title games will match Miami vs. Kansas City and Philadelphia vs. the 49ers?