Plus, the Patriots Way wins again, Joe Burrow gets the tie, Eagles remain a mess, Gostkowski is perfect, the 49ers’ bench gets a win, a Fail Mary redux and much more!
Reacting and overreacting to everything that happened in the Week 3 Sunday afternoon games...
Things That Made Me Giddy
Josh Allen Is the World's Wildest Roller Coaster: Allen’s afternoon included four passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown, a reckless jump-ball prayer with a 25-point lead that worked ... but was incorrectly ruled an interception. There was another lost fumble, the rare quarterback facemask penalty committed as he used one pass rusher as a human shield to block another pass rusher. And he had another late lateral to an unsuspecting teammate—that teammate was unsuspecting because no reasonable person would ever attempt such a lateral (the ball rolled safely out of bounds). Anyway, the Bills defeated the Rams in a football game, by three points.
Bills Score Seven When They Get to the Red Zone: Five red zone trips, 35 points, and they needed every one of them. In a league where no one seems interested in tackling anyone, red-zone efficiency is a very important thing.
Rams Playing From Behind: Perhaps they prefer not to be playing from 25 points behind, but they’re perfectly capable of scoring points in bunches if they need to.
The Foles Era Is Underway in Chicago: Just like any video game, you start with the easiest level: Complete a fourth-quarter comeback against the Falcons. He wasn’t exactly sharp—and, hey, Mitchell Trubisky also led a three-TD fourth quarter against a bad defense this month!—but he was sharp enough considering what the Bears have been dealing with the past three seasons. (Though you really have to wonder how Foles didn’t win the job this summer...)
Patriots Erase Darren Waller: There’s a saying I made up just now, and it’s that Bill Beichick’s philosophy is to take away an opponent’s best weapon. After lighting the Saints ablaze on Monday night, Waller had two catches for nine yards, all of that production coming in the final five minutes of a three-possession game.
Stephen Gostkowski Never Misses: At least not in the past 24 hours. He goes 6-for-6 in Minnesota as the Titans win a back-and-forth affair.
Robert Woods With the Ball in His Hands: He piled up YAC yards again, and went for 9, 15 and 6 yards on his three carries.
49ers Win on Take Your Kid to Work Day: Or I think that’s how they assembled their roster for this one.
The Browns Win Games They Should Win: Which is a very good thing, because they didn’t do that a year ago.
T.J. Watt Declares His Defensive Player of the Year Intentions: More on that later this week.
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Regrets
Falcons Prove They Can Blow Any Lead at Any Time: You might say the defense is the issue—and it is!—but how about this offense? Against Chicago, their last six possessions included three three-and-outs, four punts, a missed field goal, and an interception. Over the last 20 offensive plays they ran with the lead, they produced 68 yards of offense and three first downs.
Jalen Ramsey, Toyed With: Ralph Wilson Stadium continues to be Ramsey’s house of horrors; he was culpable on three touchdowns on Sunday. On a fourth-and-goal in the first quarter, Allen moved Ramsey to the other side of the field with his eyes and then dropped the ball off to Lee Smith for an easy touchdown. On the second, Ramsey jumped inside and left Tyler Kroft uncovered for another easy drop-off. And on the third, Stefon Diggs ran to the corner then moved back inside behind Ramsey as Ramsey seemed to forget he was participating in a football game.
This Eagles Offense: Without seeing the all-22 angle it’s tough to know whether it’s a matter of designs not work, receivers not getting open or Wentz not even trying to throw the ball anymore because he doesn’t know where it’s going when he does. (The guess is that it’s a mixture of all three.) But they were scratching and clawing for everything they got against the Bengals (the Bengals!).
Falcons Petition to Make the NFL Two-Hand Touch:
Josh Allen Going Wild When He Shouldn’t Be Going Wild: The call was atrocious—the actual result of the play should have been a 30-yard completion—but there’s no reason for Allen to be throwing a first-down downfield jump ball to Tyler Kroft when protecting a 25-point lead in the second half.
Mike Zimmer Has a Bad Defense: This was the best performance of their three games so far, but they had a 12-point lead with 20 minutes left and gave up 20 points to lose.
Matt Pryor Jumps: With the Eagles lining up for a potential 59-yard game-winner in the final seconds of overtime. Doug Pederson punted rather than try the 64-yarder. Which was a shame, because had he tried and missed Bengals kicker Randy Bullock could have countered with a 64-yard try, and if he missed Elliott would have gotten a chance to come out and try from 64 again. (Well, most likely the Bengals would have run a play first, but it will always be the dream.)
Jadeveon Clowney Is a Bad Blocker: This probably didn’t factor into the Titans’ decision to sign him, but during Johnathan Joseph’s walk-in pick-six to open the second half, Clowney needlessly laid out Justin Jefferson with a blindside block to take the points off the board. The Titans went three-and-out on the ensuing possession.
Dwayne Haskins Throws Picks: He sailed a seam throw, made a bad read and stared down a receiver for his three turnovers. Chalk it up to a learning experience, but it’s a little tougher to stomach in a very winnable game.
A.J. Moore’s Difficult Time: He’s a fine special teamer in Houston. Really, he shouldn’t be left one-on-one on Eric Ebron on a third-and-goal—that’s a free touchdown for the Steelers. But Moore also blew the coverage on a JuJu Smith-Schuster 26-yard walk-in TD a few minutes later—it was a zone call, and Moore just ignored the receiver that had been passed off to him.
Rookie Problems for the Giants: Particularly, rookie corner Darnay Holmes committing a blatant and wholly unnecessary illegal contact foul on third-and-22 late in the first half. The Giants would have been getting the ball back in a 6-6 game, instead the 49ers were in the end zone three minutes later. Holmes probably didn’t run enough laps at training camp.
Allen Robinson Was Good and All, But…: He had a defensive back—in this case Darqueze Dennard in the end zone—take an interception out of his hands for the second straight week.
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Moments We’ll Tell Our Grandkids About
This Fourth-Down Pass Interference Call: Tastes more like illegal contact—for the record, Mike Pereira said on the broadcast that it was a defensive penalty—the question is whether or not Gabriel Davis initiated the contact, or Darious Williams grabs Davis first. The Bills stayed alive and won it on the next play.
Will This Stand as the Worst Call of the Season?: Granted, this was tough to call in real-ti—actually, no it wasn’t. This was worse than the Fail Mary, and the fact that it was upheld on review is an indictment of the entire replay system.
This Josh Allen Facemask: Of all the quarterback facemask penalties you'll see, this is easily the most impressive. He uses one defender as a human shield, then switches the ball back to his right hand for the throw away.
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What We’ll Be Talking About This Week
Trubisky’s Leash Runs Out: It’s been a wild ride the past three years, but it’s going to take a Nick Foles injury for Trubisky to take another snap for the Bears. Most likely, someone who thinks they can fix him mechanically and manage him in a highly-schemed offense will take a Bortles-like flier on the former No. 2 overall pick next offseason.
The Bears Are … 3-0?: I’m gonna need a fact-check on that.
Joe Burrow Gets His First Career Tie: Though it felt like a loss for his opponent, so that’s something.
Titans Are 3-0: With a +6 point differential (and are 0-3 against the spread, if you’re into that kind of thing).
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