I remember thinking before the season started that there'd be a lot more injuries this year than normal. I think that's held true, so it's a good thing there aren't that many cases of COVID-19. No, instead, it's just a whole lot of hamstring, ankle, knee and concussion issues. And more hamstring injuries.
The other thing that's stood out from the games so far is how far offenses are ahead of defenses. No one can be surprised by the Falcons or Raiders giving up lots of points, but the Saints, Seahawks, Bills and Packers, among others, have some defensive talent -- it's surprising these teams are playing 37-30 games every week. Dallas last season allowed just 20 points per game; they've allowed 77 the last two weeks. Previous notions of what might be defensive struggles (e.g., Bills-Rams) need to be set aside for now.
Texans at Steelers: So Houston comes through its tough three-game stretch to start the season at 0-3. Many teams would. I don't think they're done, but their margin for error is pretty low. Another good game for James Conner, I remain certain that if I believe in him too much he'll immediately get hurt. But perhaps I'm being unfair. Diontae Johnson suffered a concussion, hence the absence from the box score. Scores for JuJu, Ebron. Deshaun Watson and David Johnson both had decent numbers for those who started them, Will Fuller too.
Bengals at Eagles: So Eagles lost DeSean Jackson to a hamstring injury in this one, as expected. But they also lost Dallas Goedert to injury, that was not as expected. That left them so thin on offense that maybe a tie isn't anything to be sad about? Good rushing numbers from Miles Sanders and...Carson Wentz. Did all he could to win this one, at least he didn't lose it. Joe Burrow made some good throws and took some huge hits. Joe Mixon didn't score and they're using Giovani Bernard more in the passing game. Not easy to use a non-three down back on a losing team. Big game for Tyler Boyd, guess I shouldn't have benched him this week. Quiet one for A.J. Green and Drew Sample, with Tee Higgins scoring twice. Won't be the case all the time, but nice game for the rookie.
49ers at Giants: Even with half their lineup on IR or otherwise damaged, the 49ers are still way, way better than the Giants. Breakout game for Brandon Aiyuk in a week of breakout games by rookie wideouts. Nick Mullens had a better game than maybe we've seen out of Jimmy Garoppolo very often. Giants turned it over a lot and used an absolutely worthless three-man committee backfield. Hope you didn't start any of them. Jordan Reed hurt, yeah, not a huge shock. Good games and touchdowns for both Jerick McKinnon and Jeff Wilson.
Raiders at Patriots: Patriots lost a high-scoring slugfest last week while the Raiders dominated the Saints on Monday night. So naturally, Raiders come out perhaps flat and New England takes away Darren Waller and runs all over Las Vegas (I'm still not comfortable hearing or calling them Vegas, it sounds like they're talking about the city not a team). Rex Burkhead big game, hard to blame those unwilling to trust him. Next week probably James White returns and Burkhead gets 5 touches. For this week, his 34 points beat me. New England passing game didn't do much, didn't have to. Hunter Renfrow lost a touchdown on one of those freeze-frame replay reviews, but scored later. New England doesn't give up many rushing scores, so no surprise Josh Jacobs didn't have one.
Titans at Vikings: Another high-scoring game between two teams which entered the year seemingly with good defenses. Some players missing, especially for Minnesota, but still. Both running backs had big games, rewarding those who drafted them, annoying those of us who took Michael Thomas or Barkley early in drafts. Big story was Justin Jefferson's breakout game, about the lone positive for the 0-3 Vikings. Cool touchdown by Kyle Rudolph. Still not usable.
A Football Team at Browns: Picking up the Browns defense to use today worked out great. Not a pretty outing for Dwayne Haskins; did some good things, others not so much. On draft day I picked Terry McLaurin over Tyler Lockett in a league even though we had Lockett ranked considerably higher. A mistake I'm literally paying for. Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt are the Browns offense. Antonio Gibson another decent game for Washington. Which will probably be looking for a quarterback again next year.
Rams at Bills: Wild game in which the Bills took a huge lead, blew it, and then came back and won. Much discussion of the debatable pass interference call that enabled Buffalo to score the winning touchdown. It was a bit ticky tack perhaps but it gets called plenty and the defender throwing his arms up in the air to say "I didn't touch him" didn't help his case. Great numbers performances all around, particularly Josh Allen but also Darrell Henderson, Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Jared Goff et al. Stefon Diggs scored and had 2 others erased on the same series. John Brown in-game injury.
Bears at Falcons: So when previewing this game I said that Chicago's 2-0 start should have bought Mitchell Trubisky some rope if he struggled. Yeah, about a half's worth! Falcons winning big early, but Nick Foles came in and did what Nick Foles does. Bears say they're not sure who's going to start in Week 4. I say it's Foles and it doesn't matter if it's not because they'll replace Trubisky after his next mistake anyway. But it will be Foles. Another week, another brutal loss for Atlanta. You start to worry about firings and whatnot, which would be bad because the offense might change, to the detriment of the hyper-busy passing game. Big game for Allen Robinson, Anthony Miller loses touchdown on dubious call, Jimmy Graham scores twice, maybe he'll disappear the rest of the way or maybe he just likes working with Nick Foles. Oh, concussion for Russell Gage.
Panthers at Chargers: Interesting game. Big numbers from Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen and Austin Ekeler, because the Panthers defense is just that bad, and the only solace I can take from the freak injury to Tyrod Taylor is he would have been benched by this week or next anyway. Herbert should start the rest of the way. Mike Davis rewarded those who had faith; he's not Christian McCaffrey but they'll use him the same way; 16 catches the last two weeks.
Jets at Colts: NFL players are generally a well-paid lot, and the organizations and owners make tons of money off us, the fans. So I can't exactly say I feel sorry for the Jets. But what a disaster has been wrought here. They've been ridiculously injury-riddled, but the roster was really bad to begin with. The team made a terrible hire of Adam Gase -- this is not hindsight, it looked terrible at the time -- and this is what it is. No fantasy value on this team right now, although Braxton Berrios is soaking up the junk catches that would have been Jamison Crowder's if healthy. Colts took care of business, you got about what you could expect if you started them. Way more than that from their defense.
Cowboys at Seahawks: This game was exactly as expected, right down to Russell Wilson making more big plays when it counted than any other quarterback is doing nowadays. Seattle's defense not too impressive thus far, if you want a negative takeaway. Funny moment when DK Metcalf caught what should have been a long touchdown only to slow to a walk near the end zone and have the ball Leon Letted out by the nearest Cowboys defender. Metcalf later scored, Tyler Lockett (should be on most Index teams) scored 3 TDs including a pair of 1-yarders, rough week for those with Chris Carson. Even rougher with him having his ankle twisted unnecessarily in a pileup and we'll see if he misses time. Make sure Carlos Hyde on a roster. Big game for lots of different Cowboys receivers including Cedrick Wilson, who I'm not planning to chase on the waiver wire. Still no better than the No. 4, and Dak won't throw for 472 every week.
Bucs at Broncos: Brady to Evans (2 TDs) and Godwin (until he left with a hamstring injury) was working, the ground game was not. But half an offense against Denver is plenty with the product they're putting on the field. Jeff Driskel benched for Brett Rypien. Some small amount of PPR production for Fant, Jeudy and Patrick. Sad fact that on Thursday night we're going to get Jets...Broncos. About the worst possible matchup in today's NFL.
Lions at Cardinals: Slow starting but entertaining game where Kyler Murray made some big plays but also some uncharacteristic mistakes. Lions played their game and pulled it out. D'Andre Swift played little and did little, not sure why as I write this. Game flow? Team was ahead more often and able to run Adrian Peterson, rather than use its passing downs back. But a little strange. Andy Isabella with 2 TDs, will be interesting to see the snap counts but maybe he's making a case to be the 2nd-best wideout on this team -- maybe he already is.
Packers at Saints: Hard not to be impressed by what Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense are doing right now. They made it look easy for a lot of this one despite not having Davante Adams. With the Saints, everything looked more difficult for Drew Brees, whose main play was a short pass to Alvin Kamara. They miss Michael Thomas, of course, but the offense just seems a lot more labored. If you had Aaron Jones or were facing Aaron Rodgers, the late-game sequence where Jones was somehow ruled short of the end zone, so Rodgers threw a 1-yard touchdown, was mildly frustrating. Allen Lazard, not Marquez Valdes-Scantling, was the big Green Bay beneficiary of Adams being out, while Emmanuel Sanders joined the season with a touchdown grab for New Orleans.
Monday, Monday: This should be a great one, and thus far the "should be great" games have actually turned out that way. I don't think there'd be much argument these are the AFC's two best teams, at the least, and of course the last two MVPs. The general consensus seems to be that Baltimore is the better team; I guess there's not much doubt they have the better defense. But I would still take Mahomes over the field, and don't doubt he might find a way to put up a big number, leaving the Ravens to play catch up. I'm going to go with Kansas City 34, Baltimore 31.