It was a pretty remarkable day of football, one started really early and ended late, with big plays, long touchdowns and fantastic finishes all the way through. High drama in the final seconds, and a game where everyone thought one team had won until an official review decided that the other team had. And kind of caused it to happen. Let's get right to it.
Ravens versus Jaguars across the pond: Not sure what was most stunning about this one: Baltimore giving up 44 points or Marcedes Lewis catching 3 TDs. Major takeaways are that Baltimore's passing game can not be even considered right now and it appears to be a three-man backfield, so that's not a great choice either. Steelers and Ravens play this week and it will be probably be a defensive struggle decided by 3 points. For the Jaguars, impressive game by Blake Bortles. I don't expect Lewis to score 3 TDs in total the rest of the season. Decent fantasy production by Leonard Fournette against an always tough run defense.
Broncos at Bills: After two great weeks, Trevor Siemian sure was terrible in this game. It's a team game and other guys struggled and the defense failed to get a couple of critical stops late and Vance Joseph's fake punt from deep in his own end might have been a mistake...but mostly this loss was on Siemian, who threw a couple of absolutely inexcusable interceptions. And the Bills just sat around and waited for it to happen. Touchdown to Andre Holmes actually bounced off Zay Jones' hands. Tyrod Taylor did OK but mostly just wasn't as off-target as Siemian.
Saints at Panthers: Talk after this game was that Cam Newton maybe isn't healthy, and that's possible. But I couldn't understand why Carolina was such a big favorite anyway. Offense had done very little, it's a new system/approach, it just lost its best receiver, plus Kelvin Benjamin also got hurt. New Orleans got a few gift turnovers, Michael Thomas finally looked worthy of the first-round pick I spent on him in a couple of leagues, and Christian McCaffery had a huge day catching it (because, well, somebody had to). But rough outing for Carolina. Maybe Newton's hurt, maybe he isn't. Either way, he hasn't looked good thus far.
Steelers at Bears: Didn't see this one coming. Bears seemed to just decide, OK, we will definitely lose if we pass the ball. So we're just going to run and run and run, and hope we can do well enough against a tough run defense to get it done. And so they did. Benched Jordan Howard in a league after taking his zero a week ago; ouch. Good final numbers for Tarik Cohen too, and Benny Cunningham also getting snaps but no carries. Typical day at the office for Antonio Brown and LeVeon Bell joined the season, too.
Falcons at Lions: OK, so I guess the right call was ultimately made? Sure looked like a touchdown live, but I guess he was touched down short of the goal line. Question is whether in eight seconds Detroit could have maybe run up and snuck the ball into the end zone before time expired. I think they could have, but couldn't because there was an official review going on. After which by rule there was a 10-second runoff. So I'm thinking they need to not penalize teams if a touchdown is originally ruled, which is what happened here. Disappointing game from Marvin Jones, and I guess I picked the wrong week to drop Taylor Gabriel. TJ Jones more involved than Kenny Golladay during Detroit comeback.
Browns at Colts: Called this one; only wish I had bet it accordingly. But Browns just too mistake prone on offense and obviously their defense still has a long, long way to go. Didn't expect T.Y. Hilton's big game, but a nice outing. And a pair of rushing scores for Jacoby Brissett, one relying on a really cool spin move in the pocket. Andrew Luck apparently might return in Week 6 -- hmm, exactly soon enough that the Colts don't look underhanded for keeping him off the regular-season PUP list. How convenient. Good game for Duke Johnson, again usable in fantasy it appears. Touchdowns for Britt, Njoku; Browns are getting the rookie TE involved, to the detriment of Seth DeValve (for that small minority of us who thought he'd be a nice sleeper).
Buccaneers at Vikings: Benched Stefon Diggs and won't do that again. He's looking like the elite, start-every-week No. 1 wideout he looked like when healthy a year ago, and then it disappeared down the stretch. If he can have a game like that without Sam Bradford, you have to tip your hat. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Jameis Winston. Wow that was awful, forcing bad throws in the end zone against a really good defense. Time and again. Still a young quarterback who evidently isn't ready to win in that situation (and not only not win but make a lot of really ugly mistakes).
Texans at Patriots: Houston gave New England a much better game than anyone thought. No getting around it, the Patriots defense is not what it once was or needs to be. But when Houston, driving late, failed to pick up 2 yards on 2nd and short and 3rd and short and settled for a field goal and a five-point lead, it was pretty clear what was going to happen. Although the game-winning touchdown should really have been better defended; maybe hitting Cooks instead of just giving him a head slap? Just a thought, but I guess it's easy to say from the couch. Brady, Cooks, Hogan, Gronkowski -- that game was why you drafted those guys. And if the defense is worse than usual, those guys might just end up being better. Oh, nice performance from DeShaun Watson.
Dolphins at Jets: Didn't expect this one. Evidently the Dolphins didn't either. Guess there's nothing to say but Any Given Sunday. Jets shockingly put the clamps on Jay Ajayi (so much for their run defense being all done), moved the ball efficiently and carefully on offense (so much for them quitting etc.), through a long bomb to Robby Anderson (so much...ah, forget it) and the Dolphins were the ones going through the motions. At least a late DeVante Parker touchdown saved his day. So there's that.
Giants at Eagles: For about three quarters, this game was pretty much as expected. Eagles dominated, Giants were being shutout. Then Odell Beckham Jr. had a couple of spectacular touchdown grabs, Sterling Shepard blew up on everyone's benches, and even Brandon Marshall caught a bunch of passes. Giants still couldn't run, but they were gonna win. Then came a questionable pass interference call on a long bomb out of bounds, and the capper, a 61-yard field goal that barely snuck inside and over the uprights for a win at the final gun. Huge win for Philly, brutal loss for the Giants. Hey, but probably Eli won't take as much heat this week. So there's that. LeGarrette Blount, Wendell Smallwood and Corey Clement all ran well in this game, while Darren Sproles got hurt. So three-man backfield, and they probably won't rush for that many yards most weeks.
Seahawks at Titans: We know the Titans have a lot of offensive talent at the skill positions. The games they put it all together, it's pretty impressive. Nice game for DeMarco Murray probably on a lot of benches. Most heartening was the Seattle offense, Russell Wilson, Jimmy Graham and Doug Baldwin finding themselves. That's what you drafted those guys for, and why you can't give up just two weeks in. Line still terrible and running game frustrating (though personally I've already dropped Rawls in the one league he fell and I said, OK, whatever), but offense has value.
Bengals at Packers: We've seen it year after year with this Green Bay team: the pass rush and secondary have holes, and teams can have offensive success against them. Even one struggling the way Cincinnati had been. Nice to see A.J. Green and Andy Dalton break out a little, and good also to see Geronimo Allison make a couple of big catches late (if you took that gamble). Tough week if you were starting Ty Montgomery and facing Aaron Rodgers, with a pair of 1-yard TD passes (including one after Montgomery seeming to get a poor spot). Great week if you had all your chips on Green Bay in a Survivor Pool, though.
Kansas City at Chargers: We can put Philip Rivers in the basket of dreadful Week 3 performances along with Jameis Winston and Trevor Siemian. (And Derek Carr.) I am guilty of overrating Rivers' recent past against this opponent. We've now got Kansas City making both Tom Brady and Philip Rivers look well past it, something to remember going forward. Rivers' mindset on some throws was just a little odd, throwing it up downfield instead of taking shorter, easier completions.
Raiders at Washington: Rough game for the Raiders offense. Maybe they're a little too predictable? Everything goes to those two wideouts and if a team has the corners to stay with them, things kind of fall apart. Plus Oakland's defense is bad, and once they got behind, hard to run things with Marshawn Lynch the way you'd like. Just a good old fashioned butt-kicking. If you started Carr, hope your opponent started Rivers, I guess.
Monday, Monday: After some of the surprising matchups from Sunday, not sure anything could be surprising in this one. I feel pretty good about the Dallas offense, but I did about San Diego and Oakland, too. Arizona has a solid defense so I'm not going to have expectations too high, but I think Dallas wins this one something like 24-17.