Week 3 NFL Takeaways: Dolphins' 70-burger, Tua trickery highlight historic Sunday

You know it’s going to be a long day for your team when you’re playing against the only left-handed starting quarterback in the NFL and he starts making right-handed no-look touchdown passes look easy.

That’s the kind of afternoon Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins had during a history-making outing against a porous Denver Broncos defence.

Miami embarrassed Denver in a mindboggling 70-20 victory, setting a new modern NFL record for most yards of offence in a single game with 726 and they nearly broke the league record for most points scored in a game.

Tagovailoa was a perfect 16-for-16 for 206 yards in the opening half with two touchdowns: a 54-yard Tyreek Hill reception on Miami’s opening drive and the highlight-reel no-look score mentioned above that went to De'Von Achane who introduced himself to NFL fans with an exclamation mark this weekend.

Miami was leading 35-13 at halftime and didn’t let up in the third or fourth quarter.

Tagovailoa tossed another two touchdowns in the second half, finishing the game 23-of-26 for 309 yards and four touchdowns. Backup quarterback Mike White went two-for-two for 67 yards and one touchdown.

Achane and Raheem Mostert led the charge rushing the ball. Achane alone had 203 yards on 18 carries and the two running backs finished the day with four touchdowns each as the Dolphins racked up 350 combined yards on the ground on 43 team carries.

The Dolphins became the first team to register 350 or more passing yards and 350 or more rushing yards in the same game.

A hardnosed 52-yard run from undrafted rookie Chris Brooks late in the fourth helped break the yardage record and set Miami up for a chance to attempt a field goal that would’ve broken the single-game points record. However, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel decided against it – presumably out of some form of, dare I say, misguided respect – and his team kneeled it out instead of going for the record in front of a crowd that booed McDaniel’s decision.

Just set the record already! Boo indeed.

The single-game points record was set by Washington in 1966 when they scored 72 in a game against the Giants and it remains intact partially because of McDaniel’s decision.

Week 3’s unbalanced schedule featured nine early contests and only three late afternoon matchups, so it was nearly impossible to focus on all the action simultaneously unless you had a screen setup similar to The Architect from The Matrix movies.

Miami and that juggernaut offence is set to travel to Buffalo to face a Bills defence that sacked Sam Howell of the Commanders nine times and picked him off four times in a 37-3 blowout win.  

The dominance from the Dolphins stood out Sunday but they weren't alone.

Lawrence, Jaguars stumped by Texans yet again

Trevor Lawrence entered Sunday’s contest with Houston with an ugly 1-3 career record versus the Texans throwing twice as many interceptions as he had touchdown passes. The quarterback and his Jacksonville Jaguars had another ugly outing against their AFC South rivals on Sunday losing 37-17.

Down 17-0 at halftime, the Jags scored early in the second half and followed that drive up with a field goal to pull within seven points, except the Texans immediately regained the momentum thanks to an improbable 85-yard touchdown from a fullback on the ensuing kickoff.

Lawrence threw his second interception of the season when Jacksonville got the ball back and his team couldn't manage to get within one score again, falling to 1-2 on the season. Lawrence finished with 279 passing yards and threw a fourth-quarter touchdown to Christian Kirk but it was too little too late and another disappointing result for a Jacksonville team that was favoured to win the division prior to the season. Lawrence is now 1-4 when facing Houston; he has not lost more than twice to any other team in the league.

The Jags will have a shot at redemption in Week 12 when they visit the Texans.

Historic day from Gay helps Colts upset Ravens in OT

The Texans weren’t the only AFC South team on upset watch early Sunday. The Colts surprised the favoured Ravens in overtime in a game that was capped off with some more NFL history.

Colts kicker Matt Gay went a perfect five-for-five on field goal attempts and became the first player in NFL history to make four field goals of 50-plus yards in the same game. He was good from 31, 54, 53, 53 and he nailed another 53-yarder with 69 seconds remaining in overtime to secure the win.

The offence couldn’t get into the end zone save for a second-quarter Zack Moss touchdown reception, but the offence moved the ball enough when it counted thanks to backup quarterback Gardner Minshew II who filled in for injured rookie Anthony Richardson. It was Minshew’s first win in a start since 2021 when he was with the Eagles.

Tough week for survival pools

Three of the four biggest underdogs entering Week 3 managed to pull off outright upsets on Sunday. The Bears were double-digit dogs and looked the part in a 41-10 loss to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, but the Texans shocked the Jaguars, the Colts edged out the Ravens, and no team pulled off a bigger surprise than Arizona’s shocking 28-16 takedown of the Cowboys.

The narrative heading into that one was Dallas was all set to go to 3-0 and the lowly Arizona would naturally fall to 0-3 even though the Cowboys lost star defensive back Trevon Diggs for the season this past Thursday and despite the fact the Cardinals have looked feisty early this season only losing to the Commanders and Giants by a combined seven points.

Arizona's players clearly didn’t get the memo that they were supposed to lose this game because it wasn't a fluke. They were simply the better team. The Cardinals face the 49ers next week and Dallas will hope they can do them a favour and also upset a 3-0 San Francisco team that looks like the clear class of the NFC.

The 49ers and Dolphins are the lone 3-0 clubs at the moment with one of 2-0 Philadelphia or 2-0 Tampa Bay joining them after they face each other Monday night, barring a tie of course.

At the opposite end of the standings, we’ve got the Broncos, Bears, Panthers and Vikings winless at 0-3. Cincinnati will fall to 0-3 too with a loss to the Rams on Monday.

Minnesota became the third consecutive team to steal a fourth-quarter lead from the Chargers this season but they couldn’t hold on for the come-from-behind victory, losing 28-24 at home. The Vikings only had four losses all of last season and things will need to turn around quickly if they have any shot at the post-season.

Prior to this season, only four of the 158 teams since 1990 to begin the season 0-3 went on to qualify for the playoffs.

Early whistle costs Browns huge touchdown

The Cleveland Browns entered their Week 3 matchup with the Tennessee Titans needing to send a clear message to teams that they won’t be throwing in the towel simply because their star running back, Nick Chubb, went down for the season with a knee injury. Cleveland relied on stout team defence and an efficient outing from Deshaun Watson to overcome the Titans. They also had to get past a blatant miscall from one of the officials that negated what could’ve, and arguably would’ve, been a 65-yard touchdown from Amari Cooper.

The play went down in history officially as a 25-yard completion since Cooper was incorrectly ruled out at the Titans 40-yard line. What made the gaff even worse was the fact the official had an ideal vantage point, mere feet away from Cooper’s catch, when he decided to blow the whistle.

The Browns ended that drive by settling for a 52-yard Dustin Hopkins field goal and ended up winning the game handily 27-3, so ultimately it was water under the bridge. Still an absolutely brutal call.

Jimmy Graham turns back the clock

Jimmy Graham had football fans double-checking what year it was when he opened the scoring for the New Orleans Saints on Sunday in Green Bay against the Packers, one of his former teams. It was the tight end’s first touchdown reception of the season and first overall since Week 16 of 2021 when he was with the Bears. More significantly, the eight-yard touchdown catch courtesy of Derek Carr was Graham's first touchdown while wearing a Saints uniform since Dec. 21, 2014 when he scored on a four-yard reception from Drew Brees in a Week 16 game versus Atlanta. Graham was a third-round pick of the Saints back in 2010 and spent the first five seasons of his NFL career with New Orleans, even leading the NFL in touchdown reception during his All-Pro campaign in 2013.