Month: September 2025

—The  International games start this Sunday with Minnesota facing Pittsburgh at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on the NFL Network from Dublin. The Steelers like to play in Dublin because the Rooney family has its roots there. Both teams are 2-1, and Carson Wentz will start in place of  J.J. McCarthy, who has a high ankle sprain. Aaron Rodgers remains the Steelers starter.

–The premier game of the  weekend is the CBS doubleheader game with Baltimore at Kansas City. Both are at 1-2 and desperate for a win. Baltimore has to protect Lamar  Jackson, who was sacked seven times Monday night  by the  Lions.

–The four night games are Seattle at Atlanta Thursday night, Green Bay at Dallas on Sunday night, and a Monday doubleheader of Jets at Miami and Cincinnati at Denver. The Packers and Cowboys have a lot of history and tradition with each other, and they will show Ice Bowl clips, but Green Bay should win easily and none of the games are all that compelling.

–One of the best games pits two 3-0 teams with the Eagles at Tampa Bay, but it is one of three FOX 1 p.m. games so it won’t get national coverage. The big challenge for the Eagles will  be dealing with steamy heat, so they will arrive early, but the key  for them is to hydrate all week long.

–Indianapolis, a surprising 3-0 team, gets its biggest test yet yet when they go to Los Angeles to meet the 2-1 Rams, who lost to the Eagles on a blocked field goal on the final play after the Rams couldn’t hold a 26-7 lead.

–Sunday was the kind of “Any Given Sunday” that helped the NFL become what it is today: Five games were decided on the final play.

The most dramatic was Philadelphia coming back from a 26-7 deficit to take a 27-26 lead only to have the Rams line up to try a game-winning field goal but the  Eagles blocked it and scored to seal the win and are one of six 3-0  teams. Often called a boring team  because of their run-oriented offense. they showed they can come from behind with Jalen Hurts at quarterback.

–Tampa  Bay and San Francisco also boosted their records to 3-0 with last-play victories over the Jets and Cardinals, but the 49ers lost Nick  Bosa for the season and backup quarterback Mac Jones is day to day with a knee injury so Brock Purdy may return against the Jaguars.

–Green Bay suffered its first loss on the final play against the Browns after the Browns overcame a 10-0 deficit and blocked a Packers field-goal attempt to set up their own game-winning field goal.

–Two surprising teams, the Colts and Jaguars, seem set for a battle for the AFC South title after the Colts beat the Titans and Jaguars beat the Texans. The Colts and Jaguars are 3-0 and 2-1, while the Texans and Titans are 0-3. 

–The Ravens fell to 1-2 after a Monday night loss to the Lions, who have won two in a row after an opening-game loss to Green Bay. Lamar Jackson was sacked seven times, and the Ravens may not be as good as they were thought to be this year.

When Liam Coen was named the head coach of the Jaguars, he had three main priorities to improve the offense,

They were establishing a good running game, improving the line to help the running game and protect the quarterback.

Two  games is a small sample size, but Coen appears to have accomplished two of the goals. They lead the league in rushing and, according to analyst Warren Sharp, they are seventh in the league in protecting quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

But the passing game is a work in progress. Lawrence makes  too many errant throws and the receivers either drop too many passes or don’t run routes well. Sharp said a third of his incompletions are due to receiver error.

According to Sharp, the receivers drop 11 percent of his passes, which is most in the league, and 21 percent of the drops are in the red zone. The result is that Lawrence is completing slightly less than 59 percent of his passes overall.

And it is not like Coen is asking for big throws. He likes the short passing game, and 32 percent of the throws are behind or at the line of scrimmage.

Also, while Travis Hunter has proved he can play two positions, former receiver Steve  Smith Sr. says Hunter must learn to run better routes. And Brian Thomas Jr. has yet to show the form he did as a rookie and sometimes acts as if he is wary to get hit.

With a critical division game coming  up Sunday against Houston, it’s time for the Jaguars to get their passing game rolling. A victory would put the Jaguars at 2-1 and the Texans at 0-3. The Colts will be 3-0 if they beat the Titans.

But the  Jaguars have to upgrade their passing game to beat the Texans.

The feature game of the week is Detroit at Baltimore on Monday night. Both teams are 1-1 with Detroit losing their opener to Green Bay and Baltimore losing its opener to the Bills.  The Ravens have won the last five meetings with the Lions last victory in 2005. The Ravens are favored by 2.5 points. Last year, they both won their division titles with Lions at 15-2 and the Ravens at 11-5. Both lost in playoffs, Detroit to Washington and the Ravens to the Bills. The loser drops to 1-2 so it is critical for both teams.

–The other two prime time games don’t figure to be good attractions with the 2-0 Billls likely to rout 0-2 Miami Thursday night, and the Chiefs figure to get their first win against the 0-2 Giants.

–Fox has two 4:25 p.m. games with the Cardinals a one-point choice over the 49ers, who will have  Mac  Jones making his second start over injured Brock Purdy. Both are 2-0. The 1-1 Cowboys are a slight favorite over the winless Bears.

–The defending champion Eagles host the Rams with the winner going to 3-0. Jalen Hurts has yet to throw a touchdown pass in the victories over Dallas and Kansas City, but they still win. It will be interesting to see if they can do the “tush push: without jumping offsides.

–The surprising Colts with Daniel Jones at quarterback are favored to go to 3-0 when they play the winless Titans. If the winless Texans beat the Jaguars, they will both be 1-2, and the Colts could have a two-game lead in  the  division.  

–Just seven months ago, the Kansas City Chiefs were a game away from becoming the first team of the Super Bowl era to threepeat. Instead, they were routed by the Eagles, 40-22 in the Super Bowl. Now after losing to the Eagles in the rematch, 20-17, the Chiefs are off to an 0-2 start for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era and facing questions about whether they’re in a rebuilding stage. Mahomes doesn’t have enough weapons, and Travis Kelce suddenly seems near the end. A pass went off his hands at the goal line and turned into an interception that was the turning point in the game, although Mahomes said he could have made a better pass and it appeared to be tipped. Meanwhile, the defending champion Eagles are 2-0 in their quest for a repeat. The Eagles weren’t particularly impressive, but they find ways to win and their “tush push” keeps drives alive, although there may be another attempt to ban it after the officials failed to call the Eagles for being offsides on the play once Sunday. Coach Nick Sirianni said to the naked eye it might not be as obvious they were offsides as in slow motion, but they have to clean up the play. 

–The Bengals beat the Jags 31-27 but probably lost their season when Joe Burrow suffered a turf toe injury and will undergo surgery for ligament damage that will sideline him three months, if not the entire season. Backup Jake Browning led the Bengals to a victory over the Jaguars for the second time in three years but is unlikely to take them to the playoffs, so the Burrow injury may open the door for another team in the AFC to make the playoffs. Burrow’s injury also raised questions about whether the Bengals need to do a better job of getting him a good offensive line so he doesn’t become another Andrew Luck. 

–The Colts are a surprise team with a 2-0 start with Daniel Jones at quarterback after the Broncos tried to block a 60-yard field goal attempt at the end and were called for leverage. The Colts then kicked a 46-yard field goal to win the game. The Broncos probably shouldn’t have attempted to block the long kick. Even coach Sean Payton said it was a mistake not to go into their usual  field-goal formation because it was such a long kick instead of the one that they use to try to block game-winning field goals, and it resulted in the leverage penalty. Payton admitted the officials made the right call.

–The NFC West is the only team with three teams at 2-0 as the 49ers beat the beat the Saints 26-21 with Mac Jones replacing the injured Brock Purdy, while the Rams beat the Titans 33-20, and the Cardinals beat the Panthers, 27-22. It should be a good division race. All four teams play the four AFC South teams. 

–The Lions bounced back from the opening loss to Green Bay to spoil Ben Johnson’s homecoming and beat the Bears, 52-21. The Bears are off to an 0-2 start under Johnson, one of nine teams at 0-2. The odds are against them making the playoffs. Only 32 0-2 teams since 1990 made the playoffs.