Week 3 Review/Week 4 Preview

I still don’t have a title for this so I think I’m just going to stick with what I’ve been doing. I promised to be better according to what I wrote last week, but in the end if you really think about it, the title isn’t everything. It’s about the content and I’m bringing it. I don’t want Deke to drop anyone from my team as no one has been dropped since week 1. I did beat the Moneyballers in Chip and Elsass. I’m 3-0 in this league and that’s lovely. I am in 8 other leagues so you may think I’m crazy for that. Truth be told, I am crazy about football. That’s ok though! We’re really in the NFL season with full seats all the time. I can’t stress enough how much I missed it. What’s crazy is we’re 3 weeks in and week 4 starts tonight with the Bengals and Jaguars.

Looking back to week 3, I apologize to you WFT and Eagles fans because I may have jinxed you. I definitely believed in them upsetting the Bills and Cowboys, but both got rolled on. We saw some really good games too. Justin Tucker hit a BOMB from 66 yards to win the game for the Ravens in Detroit. The Chiefs are 1-2 and a fumble away from being 0-3. The Rams established themselves as the dominant team in this league so far by knocking off the Bucs in the game of the week. In the toilet bowl, the Falcons barely won. That game was still better looking than the Steelers offense. To finish up my week 3 review (because I’m not going to recap every game), Matt Nagy still has a job and I cannot fathom why.

Biggest Takeaways

The AFC west may be the best division in football. Football on the west coast with the AFC and NFC divisions is nothing short of a bar fight. I say this mainly because the Chiefs are currently in the basement of that division. They’ve won this division 5 straight years and could be a legit 0-3 where Patrick Mahomes is 100% healthy. I don’t know what to make of the Raiders. They battled week 1 vs the Ravens and walked it off, week 2 they came to Heinz Field and knocked off the Steelers, and in week 3 they escaped the Dolphins in a game I believe they should have lost. The Broncos I believe are for real. Ted B is playing lights out football and that defense just swarms opposing offenses. Justin Herbert looks like a top 10 QB in this league and is on his way to superstar status. The Chargers went into KC and beat the Chiefs in dramatic fashion. Typically those are games they lost. Stay tuned here.

Sticking in the AFC West, I have no idea what’s wrong with Kansas City. The fact they are 1-2 if baffling to me. We know of their fire power on offense. They have the best QB in the league, the best TE in the league, and the fastest WR in the league. If I’m diving into this, it’s definitely their defense which is sort of baffling considering they do have athletes at all 3 levels. Through 3 weeks, that unit has given up an average of 430 yards per game. Their worst is their run defense which ironically is the best way to neutralize Patrick Mahomes. Keeping him on the sidelines is definitely the answer. It’s too early to say they are in trouble, but this division is tough so they better get it together.

I know it’s been 3 games, but the rookie QBs are struggling badly. Out of the 5 first rounders and Davis Mills who started for the Texans last week, no one has wowed me. Justin Fields was just thrown into the fire and we expected that. What was not expected was the gameplan Matt Nagy had against the Browns. It made me puke watching that kid to be completely dominated in that fashion. Zero protections, zero RPO’s, it was like he did not even want to draft Fields. T-Law hasn’t been good either as he was basically dubbed the chosen one. Him and Zach Wilson lead the league in INTs with 7 so far. I know there will be growing pains, but it is worth mentioning now that through 3 weeks they have not been good.

Looking ahead to Week 4

Game of the week: a no-brainer here in Cardinals vs Rams for the AFC West lead and I say that with a ton of great games on the schedule. Both teams are coming in playing lights out on offense. The Rams defense has definitely looked better than the Cardinals defense, but don’t sleep on that defense. While the Rams are holding opponents to 92 YPG against the rush, the Cards are allowing 140.7 rush YPG. With Jalen Ramsey you’d think the Rams pass defense would be better. It is actually the Cards pass defense that has been much more impressive thus far holding opponents to 202 pass YPG compared to the Rams at 281.3 pass YPG. This is going to be a good one and I for one cannot wait. I refuse to put Tom Brady going back to Foxboro on SNF here.

The “Lock of the Week” Game: the Chiefs vs Eagles shootout is going to happen. As it stands right now, the over is 54.5 on FanDuel. I believe that’s just way too low. The Eagles got embarrassed on MNF by the Cowboys. I will not sugar coat that one bit. That is a team though that is basically operating with a rookie QB since Jalen Hurts has not had a ton of starts coming into year 2. He has looked extremely impressive though so far in his limited time as the starter. I believe this is the breakout game for him where he legitimately balls out. I can see this game ending 45-38 where Hurts is responsible for 5 TDs. Maybe I’m too hopeful in thinking this, but the numbers don’t lie about that Chiefs defense. I don’t even need to analyze the Chiefs offense because we already know.

#DrePrediction Upset of the Week: Panthers will go into Dallas and beat the Cowboys to remain undefeated. This admittedly is their first real test because the Cowboys do look good. The Panthers defense is definitely the key to this as it currently is the best unit in the NFL in total yards allowed, and leads the league in sacks. It’ll be a tough task admittedly without Christian McCaffery, but I believe this is also the Sam Darnold coming out party type of game. This is the best he has played in his career by far and I think Sunday he marches into Dallas and pulls this victory out.