Month: September 2024

—The weekend started started with the Cowboys beating the Giants Thursday night to even their record at 2-2. The ,Giants are now desperate at 1-3.

—There will be three more prime time games starting with the Bills at the Ravens Sunday night. the Bills are going for a 4-0 start when the ravens need a win to avoid falling to 1-3.

—There will be a doubleheader Monday night for the second straight week. Tennessee is trying to avoid an 0-4 start at Miami which hopes to get to 2-2 with Tyler Huntley at quarterback.

—The second game Monday night pits Seattle going for a 4-o start  at Detroit which aims for a 3-1 start.

—The doubleheader Sunday feature late game is Kansas City going for a 4-0 start at the chargers. Patrick mahomes should have an edge because ailing Justin Herbert only lasted a half last week.

Five teams – the Chiefs, Bills, Vikings, Steelers and Seahawks – are 3-0 after the first three weeks of the season. Only three teams, Titans, Bengals and Jaguars, are off to 0-3 starts. That means 24 teams are 2-1 and 1-2. Counting the five 3-0 teams, 29 teams are still very much alive in the playoff race. Since onlyone  0-3 team since 2000 has made the playoffs, the odds are against them.

–The Green Bay Packers are an example of how the league is featuring more running this year as The ackers have run for 612 yards and are only the fifth team since 1990 to rush for over 600 yards in the first three games. On top of that, Malik Willis stepped in when Jordan Love was injured and became the fifth quarterback to have a 120 rating or above in his first two games with a new team. With the Packers and Lions at 2-1 and the Vikings at 3-0, the NFC North could have three teams in the playoffs.

–Carolina benching Bryce Young for Andy Dalton was a one game success as Dalton led the Panthers to the win over the Raiders.. But the Panthers declined trade offers for Young so they may not be ready to give up on him. The bigger question is how owner David Tepper is going to run the organization going forward. He has tended to be too impulsive in making decisions.

–Damar Hamlin did not get the comeback of the year award last year after he came back from virtually dying on the field in 2022. But he now is starting at safety and intercepted the first pass of his career when the Bills routed the Jaguars. Granted, Trevor Lawrence overthrew the pass but it was still a feel good moment for the season.

–The New York Giants let Saquan Barkley leave in free agency and the Eagles snapped him up. Barkley has made a difference to the Eagles as he rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns in a victory over the Saints. In his first three games with the Eagles, he has an NFL best 351 yards rushing. And he has scored five touchdowns with a pair of two point conversions for 34 points.  And he has caught 10 passes, one for a touchdown. Barkley may play a big role to help the Eagles win their division.

—Bryce Young became the first quarterback to be benched without an injury being involved as the Panthers are sitting him down for veteran Andy Dalton. But the benching probably says more about how dysfunctional the Panthers are than about his play. The problem starts at the top with owner David Tepper. Dalton probably won’t make much of a difference as long as Tepper is running the show.

–The Dolphins placed Tua Tagovailoa on the four week injured reserve list as part of the concussion protocol. He is eligible to return in Week 8 and it looks like will play if he is cleared by then because he has shown no interest in retiring. Skylar Thompson will start while Tua is sidelined.

–Justin Fields is keeping Rusell Wilson on the bench with a 2-0 start in Pittsburgh but the defense has had more of an impact than Fields so far.

–Malik Willis stepped in for injured Jordan Love as helped the Packers beat the Colts. It is uncertain how long Love will be sidelined.

–The three rookie starters, Caleb Williams. Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix, are 1-5 as starters with Daniels getting the only victory Sunday when the Commanders got seven field goals to beat the Giants.

–Patrick Mahomes, Fields, Justin Herbert, C.J, Stroud, Geno Smith, Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen are all off to 2-0 starts. Darnold faces Stroud and Herbert, if he recovers from an ankle injury, will face Fields in the two possible matchups of quarterbacks off to a 2-0 start. The 0-2 quarterbacks are Lamar Jackson, Burrow, Nix, Williams, Will Levis, Anthony Richardson, Trevor Lawrence, Daniel Jones, Matthew Stafford, and Young. In the only battle of 0-2 quarterbacks, Williams faces Richardson.

The weekend started with the Jets easy 24-3 win Thursday night win over the Patriots, who were overmatched. Aaron Rodgers threw for 281 yards and two touchdowns to boost their record to 2-1. The game was so lopsided that the Pats gave rookie Drake May his first action late in the game as he completed 4 of 8 passes for 22 yards and was sacked twice. But coach Jerod Mayo said he is sticking with Jacoby Brissett as the starter for obvious reason. The Patriots offensive line can’t protect the quarterback and the Patriots don’t want Maye to take a beating.

There are three other prime time games this weekend. The Chiefs go to Atlanta Sunday night and the Jaguars are at the Bills and the Commanders at the Bengals in a Monday nightdoubleheader. The Chiefs, Bills and Bengals are lilkely to win. The Chiefs and Bills are aiming for 3-0 starts while the Bengals are going for their first win after starting off 0-2.

–CBS has the single game, three at 1 p.m. with the Chargers at the Steelers and the Texans at Minnesota getting the most coverage. Chicago at Indianapolis is the third early game. Miami at Seattle and Carolina at las Vegas are the two late CBS games. Skylar Thompson will start for the Dolphins while Andy Dalton starts for Carolina.

–Fox has four early games with the Eagles at the Saints, Giants at Cleveland, Green Bay at Tennessee and Denver at TampaBay. Fox also has three late games with Batltimore at Dallas getting the most exposure. The 49ers are at the Rams and the Lions are at Arizona in the other two late games.

–It is not surprising the Kansas City Chiefs are off to a 2-0 start as they begin their bid for a threepeat. What is surprising is the way they are doing it. Their first two victories came down to the last play. They beat the Ravens when a Raven touchdown was wiped out by a toe on the line and beat the Bengals with a field goal after a controversial pass interference penalty on 4th and 16 set it up. They are playing just good enough to win. But they face challenges as Hollywood Brown is out for regular season and their 

best running back Isiah Pacheco is out for six to eight weeks with a broken fibula.

Six AFC team AFC teams and  three NFC teams are off to a 2-0 start. Meanwhile, three NFC teams and six AFC teams are 0-2. But some of the 2-0 and 0-2 teams are surprising. For example the Bengals, Ravens  and Rams  are among the 0-2 teams while the Chargers with new coach Jim Harbuagh , Saints Steelers and Bucs among the 2-0 teams. It’s too early to figure out how things will shakeout but the Chiefs, Bills and Texans may fight it out in the AFC for a Super Bowl berth.  With the 49ersCowboys, Eagles and Lions at 1-1, the NFC is wide open.

–One team that is very predictable is the Panthers. They have a new coach but quarterback Bryce Young hasn’t appeared to improve and they are off to an 0-2 start after having the worst record last year at 2-15.The Panthers have decided to bench Young for veteran Andy Dalton.

The Packers lost Jordan Love for several weeks in the opener, but won their home opener as Malik Willis quarterbacked them to a victory over the Colts. The Packers have now won 12 home openers in a row. the longest current streak. They’ve also won 800 games in their history, the most in the league. And are the only team to three peat. They did it twice.

–The Steelers have given up just 16 points in two games, the fewest in two games since 2007. If they keep playing defense like that, it may not matter if Justin Fields keep the quarterback job.