No Cooper Kupp? No Puka Nacua? No problem, apparently, for the L.A. Rams. Running back Kyren Williams scored enough for both of his injured teammates Sunday against San Francisco, plus a third TD for good measure to propel the home team to an upset victory that went down to the final seconds. Of all nine teams heading into Week 3 without a win, the Rams’ situation felt the most perilous thanks to the injury bug striking early and taking away Matthew Stafford’s top two weapons.
Up until the third quarter, it felt like the biggest story of this divisional matchup would be 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings, whose own three-touchdown game made the absence of Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, and Deebo Samuel look more like minor details than major concerns for this stacked offence.
Despite the 49ers’ long list of injuries to match that of the Rams, everything about this contest appeared to be siding with San Francisco — even the red-clad crowd in L.A.
But these Rams aren’t to be counted out, which they proved on Sunday. The 49ers led for 59 minutes of Sunday’s game, and held a 14-point lead twice. But a series of questionable play-calls from Kyle Shanahan to try to close things out — including an ill-fated pass to depth receiver Ronnie Bell — saw the Rams put up 13 unanswered points, including Williams’ third TD of the game to tie things up with just under two minutes to go and a game-winning field goal with two ticks on the clock for the 27-24 win.
Defence digs deep as Chiefs stay perfect
After making some off-season moves to bring a little more power to their offensive punch, the Kansas City Chiefs looked like they might be returning to their high-scoring ways. But Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, it was the team’s defence that pulled off the victory — and something tells us we’ll be seeing plenty more of these kinds of games in 2024.
After letting Kirk Cousins & Co. march down the field for a first-possession touchdown, the Chiefs’ defence really tightened up, pressuring Cousins plenty throughout the game and downright locking them out of the endzone in the fourth quarter despite ample opportunity for the Falcons to score. The game-sealing play featured Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton stuffing Falcons running back Bijan Robinson on fourth-and-one. Had Atlanta gotten that first down with less than a minute to go, we might be talking about Cousins’ prime-time heroics right now.
Kansas City’s defensive performance Sunday night couldn’t have come at a better time — the team took a hit in last week’s win over Cincinnati when they lost Isiah Pacheco to a fractured fibula, and they missed him against Atlanta. Wide receiver Rashee Rice had himself a breakout performance with a dozen catches for 112 yards and a touchdown, but if the Chiefs are to defend their Super Bowl title it’s their defence that will need to continue to step up once again. Lucky for them, that’s kind of become their M.O.
Darnold has Vikings rolling
Between Justin Fields’ 245-yard performance in Pittsburgh’s win over the Chargers and Malik Willis’ revenge-game win as his Packers visited his old home in Tennessee, it’s a great time to be a second-chance quarterback right now.
But the best story of this football-filled Sunday — and, arguably, of the season so far — has been the success of Sam Darnold, now on his fourth team in seven seasons and looking right at home at the helm of the Minnesota Vikings. Darnold, whose signing felt like an insurance policy for a team everyone knew was shopping for a quarterback in last spring’s draft, is playing the best football of his career through the first three weeks of the 2024 campaign. Head coach Kevin O’Connell has created a strong culture in Minnesota that’s become known for being a really quarterback-friendly organization. Look at last year: After Kirk Cousins went down with an Achilles injury, O’Connell coached up Josh Dobbs in just a matter of days and helped the journeyman rediscover his game.
He’s doing the same with Darnold now, who on Sunday threw a remarkable four touchdown passes in a statement 34-7 victory over the Houston Texans. This, just one week after toppling the San Francisco 49ers. In fact, the Vikings have the third-toughest schedule in the league, making this early run of success over formidable opponents that much more important, considering the division they’re in won’t be doing them any favours.
The NFC North has all the makings of a powerhouse division this year, and Sunday showed why. The Lions and Packers both notched victories to bring their respective records up to 2-1, while the Bears need a little more time to prove on offence (but don’t look too far off).
Will Levis has a pick problem
It’s all fun and memes until you find yourself 0-3 after losing to your former backup.
Okay, maybe the past two weeks weren’t exactly fun if you’re a Tennessee Titans fans, but quarterback Will Levis’ trio of interceptions in his first two games — which, yes, resulted in a pair of perfect screenshots — felt like fixable cases of a young gunslinger trying to do too much. But Sunday’s loss to Green Bay, featuring two more picks from Levis to bring his season tally up to five so far, felt different. Levis threw two interceptions in the 30-14 loss, including a pick-six snagged by Jaire Alexander late in the first quarter on a blatantly bad read from the second-year QB.
Adding salt to the wound was the fact that Levis’ Titans were suiting up against his old teammate and backup, Malik Willis. The Titans traded Willis to Green Bay in late August, the Packers flipping a seventh-round pick in return for a little extra insurance in their QB room.
Drafted by Tennessee in the third round in 2022, Willis walked into a situation without many chances of starting. And the opportunities he did get didn’t lead to more. Willis appeared in 11 games (including three starts) for the Titans over the span of two seasons, registering 350 yards, no touchdowns, and three interceptions while being sacked 14 times. In two appearances with the Packers since Jordan Love suffered his knee injury this season, he’s got 324 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions in a pair of Packers wins.
In Levis’ defence, his offensive line — a group that was the subject of many renovations this off-season — has done him no favours. He was sacked eight times on Sunday, bringing his season tally so far up to 15. (Only Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson has more.) And these Packers are a pick-happy bunch, already matching last year’s season-long interception total (seven). But while Titans head coach Brian Callahan said post-game Sunday he’s still backing Levis, it’s not hard to imagine there’s more than a little consternation about the state of the quarterback position in Tennessee. The team’s depth chart lists Mason Rudolph at backup. The pressure is only going to ramp up, as Levis and the Titans get prime-time treatment next Monday against the Dolphins.
Ravens’ run game ramps up in crucial win over Dallas
What do you get when you bring Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry together? You get an offence capable of running all over just about any opponent… only, their efforts hadn’t amounted to much in the way of wins through the first two weeks of the season.
Back-to-back losses had Baltimore in unfamiliar territory heading into their Week 3 bout against the Dallas Cowboys, but they righted the ship with a statement 28-25 victory. The statement was this: 274 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
That’s more like it.
While the Ravens’ run game so far this season has been strong — they rushed for a combined 185 yards in their season-opening loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, and outran Las Vegas 151-27 last week — neither were enough for the Ravens to win. Sunday’s win over Dallas, whose defence was outstanding in Week 1 but struggled in two games since, saw Jackson run in the team’s first score and rack up 87 rushing yards, with Henry cashing in two in what was a 151-yard game for the running back.
Panthers’ pain subsides (at least for one week)
Considering he’s in the 14th season of his career, it’s safe to say Andy Dalton is not the long-term answer for the Carolina Panthers. But on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders, he delivered something scarcely scene by the team in Charlotte: a win.
The biggest storyline for the Panthers remains focused on the 2023 first-overall pick now wearing a headset on the sidelines, and whether he’ll ever reprise his role as the team’s starter after being benched last Monday. But Sunday’s 36-22 win — which saw Dalton & Co. strike first early in the opening frame and lead all the way through — gave us a chance to see what Carolina might look like with a confident QB at the helm. Dalton threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns in the win, with running back Chuba Hubbard taking a big workload with 21 carries for 114 yards.
The Panthers, in fact, were the only NFC South squad to win in Week 3, as the Buccaneers were upset by the Broncos, the Saints cooled off against Philadelphia, and the Falcons fell to the champion Chiefs on Sunday night.
NFL, you got us again.
Is Bo Nix’s breakout game a sign of things to come?
While rookie wide receivers have been quick to make their mark on the NFL this September — Marvin Harrison Jr. is a first-quarter king in Arizona, and Malik Nabers leads the league in catches over 20 yards and has the second-most receptions behind only Kansas City’s Rashee Rice — things haven’t gone so well for their peers in the pocket.
First-year quarterbacks Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, and Bo Nix have all struggled to start the season. Case in point: It took until the third week of games for a rookie QB to register his first touchdown pass — Williams, who connected with Rome Odunze for both Bears rookies’ first passing TD; wonder who gets that game ball?
But while Williams’ performance was otherwise lacklustre, maybe the third time was the charm for Nix. Following a pair of uninspiring dink-and-dunk games to kick off the season, Nix looked dynamic against the Buccaneers — his best opponent yet. Against Tampa Bay, the 24-year-old completed 25 of 36 passes for 216 yards and showed off a little footwork, too, as he rushed for 47 yards and ran in a score. He distributed the ball well, with passes completed to nine different receivers and after back-to-back games with two picks apiece, he kept things clean this time as the Broncos dominated the Buccaneers 26-7.
A lesson in patience, perhaps. And maybe a sign of things to come, too?