JIM LANG’S 10 NFL THINGS WEEK 4
Good day y’all. We just went through another week with a lot of stories and surprises throughout the NFL. With that in mind, let’s get to my thoughts on week 3 in the NFL.
1 – Thursday Night – A great big thumbs up to Sam Darnold and the Carolina Panthers. Facing a less than talented (understatement!) Houston Texans team, Darnold and the Panthers took care of business, winning the game 24-9 and improving to 3-0 on the season. Darnold is completing an average of 68.2% of his passes (better than Aaron Rodgers) and he looks completely at home in a Panthers uniform. Credit to his Head Coach Matt Rhule and credit to their unknown general manager Scott Fitterer. A long-time scout and executive with the Seahawks, Fitterer quickly loaded up the Panthers with talent on both sides of the ball. Their defence is outstanding; and drafting (Canadian) running back Chuba Hubbard paid off after Christian McCaffery went down with a hamstring injury. After winning 5 games in 2020, Rhule and the Panthers are trending in the right direction, and they don’t face the Buccaneers until Week 16! Honestly, Darnold must feel like he won a football lottery after suffering through the start of his career with the Jets.
2 – The Undefeated – No, not the cool 1969 Western movie starring John Wayne and former Rams quarterback Roman Gabriel. No, I am talking about the rare class of undefeated teams left in the NFL after only three weeks. The previously mentioned Panthers are in that class. Kyler Murray and the Cardinals are part of that exclusive club. And so are the Denver Broncos. Teddy Bridgewater and the Broncos destroyed the poor New York Jets Sunday to improve to 3-0. Joining those teams in the ranks of the undefeated are the Rams and the Raiders. Matt Stafford had another outstanding game as the Rams beat Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. And Derek Carr put together his third straight great game as the Raiders beat the Dolphins in over-time. Carr has the Raiders off to their best start since 2002.
3 – Oh-fer – The Jets and the Jaguars are already on the clock, planning for the 2022 draft. The Lions and definitely the Colts are good enough to win some games this year. I am pretty certain the Giants will find a way to win a handful of games. But the Jets will be lucky to win one or two games this year. The Jaguars are not much better. Once upon a time the concept of ‘any given Sunday’ was real in the NFL. This year, the gap between teams like the Jets and Jaguars and teams like the Rams is so huge, that parity isn’t what it used to be. After scoring a total of six points in the past two games, the Jets now have to face Derrick Henry and the Titans. Ouch.
4 – Oh my! – I always like to say that in my best ‘Dick Enberg voice’. That, and much more was said Sunday when Justin Tucker nailed a new league-record 66-yard field goal to help the Ravens upset the stunned Detroit Lions. Courtesy of Field Yates, consider some of the following mind-blowing stats about Justin Tucker. Tucker has made 50 (50!!) straight field goals in the 4th quarter or over-time, and he has NEVER missed a field goal in the last 60 seconds of regulation of a game in his career. John Harbaugh has been forced to deal with a ton of injuries this year. But no matter what happens to the Ravens, he can always count on Tucker to make the game winning field goal. If it wasn’t for Tucker, we would be talking a lot more about Mason Crosby’s game-winning 51-year field goal in the Packers win over the 49ers.
5 – No!!! – You watch some NFL games, and it isn’t a real mystery why coaches age so fast. Having said that, I am sure Bears fans were aging at a rapid pace as they watched the Browns defence humiliate the Chicago offence. Justin Tucker’s 66-yard field goal was 19 yards more than the entire offensive production by Justin Fields and the Bears! To rub salt in the wounds of hurting Bears fans, coach Matt Nagy has said that he’s considering all three quarterbacks (Dalton, Fields and Nick Foles) for their next game versus the Lions! I pity any Jets fan that watched their team get shut out by the Broncos. Heck, the Jets are already on the clock for the 2022 draft after only three games! All-in-all, this has been a real baptism by fire for rookie quarterbacks in the NFL. Broncos coach Vic Fangio told the media the other day that in the NFL, every week feels like you’re a college team facing Alabama. And he wasn’t wrong.
6 – Stars – Browns defensive end Myles Garrett deserves all the gold stars after he set a new franchise record with a 4.5 sacks of rookie Justin Fields. Garrett and the Browns defence sacked Fields 9 times as they improved to 2-1. Bills quarterback Josh Allen had another stellar game, throwing four touchdowns and running in for another. And as well as Aaron Rodgers played Sunday night, his number one receiver, Davante Adams was even better. Adams torched the 49ers with 12 catches for 132 yards and a touchdown. Honorable mention goes out to Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson after he had a total of 14 tackles and two interceptions in Cincy’s win over the slumping Steelers.
7 – Justin Herbert – Before everyone starts piling on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs for their loss to the Chargers. Maybe we should a little credit to the other team. Particularly, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert. Playing in one of the most hostile environments in the NFL, Herbert threw four touchdowns, including two in the fourth quarter as the Chargers beat their division rivals. The Chargers are viewed as the ‘poor cousins’ of LA after the glitz and glam of the Rams. Up next, Herbert and the Chargers host the undefeated Raiders in what promises to be a real Slobberknocker of a game.
8 – The Steelers – It appears that the Steelers loss to the Raiders in week 2 was no fluke, The Steelers looked even worse Sunday as they got their butts kicked, by all teams, the Bengals. By the way, Joe Burrow has now thrown a touchdown to his former LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase every game this season. Before the Steelers go on their bye week in week 7, they have to play the Packers (Aaron Rodgers), the Broncos (solid team) and the Seahawks (Russell Wilson). The Steelers are in real danger of seeing their season slip away from them before Halloween. Moving on from Ben Roethlisberger in the off season and moving on to another starting quarterback HAS to be on the radar of the Steelers coaching staff and management.
9 – The Rams – My goodness, the 2021 Rams are a good football team. Playing in their brand new, multi-billion-dollar, space age stadium, the Rams beat the Bucs to stay undefeated. Matt Stafford is exactly the quarterback Sean McVay had been looking for to run his offence. And with the Rams offence playing so well, the defence doesn’t have the pressure of trying to shut down their opponents every week. It is highly likely that the next time that the Rams and the Bucs meet, it will be during the playoffs in January.
10 – Monday Mayhem – The Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles. Both teams came into this game with an identical (1-1) record. And in the weak NFC, both teams came into the game with an eye on trying to grab the early hammer in the division. Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott were awesome as the Cowboys beat the Eagles to grab their second win over the year. The unsung hero of the game was Cowboys defensive back Trevon Diggs. Diggs came up with a 59-yard pick-six off of Jalen Hurts and made a little franchise history in the process. Diggs is the firsts Cowboys player to have an interception in each of their first three games since Everson Walls way back in 1985. If Dak can stay healthy and their defence can keep making plays, the Cowboys should have little problem winning the division.
Week 4 kicks off Thursday night in Cincinnati as Joe Burrow and the Bengals will try to build off their win over the Steelers when they host the winless Jacksonville Jaguars. I won’t predict the score, but I can all but guarantee that Burrow will throw another touchdown to Ja’Marr Chase.
The NFL hype-machine is going into over-drive as Tom Brady and the Buccaneers prepares to return to New England to take on the Patriots in the Sunday night game.
That’s all for now, enjoy week 4. I will talk to you next week.
(Jim Lang is Canada’s foremost NFL expert. Follow him on Twitter at @JimLangSports)
