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On four Sundays in the NFL's 2018 regular season, we have a pretty good sample to draw the first conclusions. So, yes, it's good to start dreaming.
The Los Angeles Rams are clearly the best football team. No shock: Sean McVay immediately raised this franchise in 2017 and The Snead has owned the offseason with a series of high impact acquisitions. The movement of the Rams is complete for months …
… but it's not too late to lag behind other developments! Here are nine hype trains that deserve to be shipped:
1) Chicago bears
If the Bears win the Super Bowl this year, they should give their own float to Jon Gruden during the parade. Khalil Mack's trade will remain in the history of the sport as a disaster for Oakland and a franchise changer for Chicago. Yes, Mack is only for a month, but the domino effect is pronounced. Chicago already had a strong defensive core and one of the best defense coordinators in the sport at Vic Fangio, but Mack is a stud that makes the difference and lays the groundwork. Now, this defense is an elite – a dominant unit that directly punishes enemies. The Bears crushed Tampa Bay 48-10, and it was not even that close.
But in reality, the biggest takeaway from Sunday's rout in Soldier Field came from the Bears offense – and more precisely, the quarterback position. Mitch Trubisky emerged from his funk Blake Bortles-esque to look like a facsimile of Jared Goff. At the beginning of the season, many of us thought Matt Nagy would raise his sophomore quarterback as Sean McVay did with Goff in 2017. In the first three games of the 2018 campaign, Trubisky posted the following numbers: 77 , 8: 3 ratio TD / INT, 5.7 yards per attempt, nine bags taken. Then Sunday, Trubisky absolutely ripped the Buccaneers: 19 of 26 for 354 yards and SIX (!) Hit against zero interception, with a bag taken. How does 13.6 yards per attempt do you hit? A rating of 154.6 passersby? Yes, the defense of the Bucs leaves something to be desired, but these figures can not be ignored.
Chicago is alone at the top of the NFC North at 3-1. I wrote about Cinderella's potential for this team in March, but we are at the next level. If Trubisky continues to play like this, the Bears are absolutely go to the playoffs. In fact, they could do a deep race.
2) Tennessee Titans
Tennessee keeps responding to the bell every week. His beyond impressive – and a credit to the first year head coach, Mike Vrabel. Marcus Mariota can not feel his fingers? Or he will stick a dagger in the heart of the opposition. And what is most impressive is who l & # 39; opposition East. The 3-1 Titans have just dropped the Jaguars and Eagles two weeks in a row. They are two of the best teams in the NFL, two teams hope to be touched Sunday for the second consecutive season. What we see from Tennessee is supreme toughness and resilience. Again, I think it comes directly from the new manager.
Mariota's winning touchdown pass to Corey Davis sent Nashville into a frenzy and crowned an outstanding performance (nine catches for 161 yards) for the No. 5 pick in the 2017 NFL draft, but drive that caught my eye . While there was a little more than a minute in overtime and the Titans trailed by three, Tennessee scored a fourth and second goal on the Eagles' 32-yard line. Send the reliable Ryan Succop for a 49-yard placement and a possible tie? Naw. After a timeout, Vrabel kicked off the ground and did it. Mariota then beat Dion Lewis for 17 yards and the Titans won.
"I felt we deserved to win," Vrabel said in the post-match. "Trust the players and that's what we did and they performed."
Just awesome. The stamp of Vrabel is everywhere in this team.
3) Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals (3-1) are real friends. The offensive is sensational. The defensive line is robust. But what happened Sunday in Atlanta says a lot about the fabric and character of this list.
After watching the class and popular Tyler Eifert suffer a horrible injury, the season the Bengals did not turn around. They were on the road against Matt Ryan, who was having a fabulous day. Still, Cincinnati, recently out of a third week loss to Carolina, showed good humor and talent to defeat the Falcons in a 37-36 thriller.
When Andy Dalton hit A.J. Green with a perfectly placed ball to score the touch with only six tics remaining, something became clear: these are not your older brother's Bengals. This is another team from Cincy, a team that can absolutely win the North AFC.
4) Baltimore Ravens
Speaking of impressive teams from the AFC North, Baltimore is 3-1 and seems to be one of the best balanced groups in the league so far, placing fifth in attack and third in defense. I chose the Ravens to win Sunday's game in Pittsburgh because Baltimore is the best team. And the group of John Harbaugh has indeed won, 26-14, the total victory over the Steelers 451-284. These Ravens demand your attention, starting with the reborn quarterback.
Think that the selection of the first round of Lamar Jackson has started a fire under Joe Flacco. The 33-year-old quarterback seemed extremely confident when I spoke to him on my SiriusXM Radio show "Schein on Sports" just before the start of the season. He has now had his best start in years, with a 8: 2 TD / INT ratio. He allowed Pittsburgh high school passes Sunday night, amassing 363 yards and two touchdowns. Big credit for Ozzie Newsome and Co. for additions to John Brown, Michael Crabtree and Willie Snead in the off season – this reworked reception corps makes all the difference for this suddenly explosive attack.
5) Patriots of New England
Yes, I know it's strange to present the Patriots in a play on the theme of the bandwagon. But after the discouraging defeat of Week 3 in Detroit that knocked New England down to 1-2, some people started saying funny things, like: "Is this the year when someone else wins the AFC East?"
Please.
New England is not the same heavyweight as we have experienced in recent years. Bill Belichick left inexplicably a lot of good players driving the coop in the off season. But Sunday, the score of 38-7 at Gillette Stadium recalled that the Patriots were still the class division and that the Dolphins were still the Dolphins.
Maybe I can not convince you to get on the Pats bandwagon – if such a thing could even exist – but just let it be remembered that this team's obituary has been written too often in the last two decades of domination.
6) Cleveland Browns
Yes, the Browns (1-2-1) lost in overtime, 45-42, against the Oakland Raiders. I do not care. There is no doubt in my mind that Myles Garrett and Genard Avery forced a fumble from Derek Carr who would have been fired for a touchdown that could have changed the game … without a wrong call "within reach". There is no doubt in my mind that Carlos Hyde took first place, as was the case originally in the field … before he was somehow knocked down. (I'm not quite sure what happened to the standard of clear and conclusive visual evidence.)
So, no, I will not dwell on defeat. It's a team on the rise. The Browns have their quarterback at Baker Mayfield – and a thrilling talent around him, in attack and defense. Climb on board.
7) Josh Rosen
The score of the box will not tell you the story; we had to watch the game. Rosen has he.
Thanks in large part to Phil Dawson's defective foot, Rosen's first start in the NFL is a 20-17 loss to Seattle. But fans of the Cardinals must be excited about what they saw on Sunday in the top 10. Rosen, who completed 15 of his 27 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown (without a choice), looked like the kind of guy with whom you want to form a team. Forget the statistics. His receivers were letting him down, big time. It is not a hyperbole to say that the drops cost Rosen an extra digit in meters in the three figures. And Mike McCoy's game call did not serve the rookie signal caller as well as you hoped.
But he did a number of high-level shots and showed real star potential. With just a little help from her friends, Rosen will be a stallion.
8) Ezekiel Elliott
These are not Cowboys. Or Dak Prescott. Or Jason Garrett. That's Zeke. His always Zeke The only football coach capable of stopping Elliott is Dallas. Elliott eats and the Cowboys win. It's so simple.
The third-year half set a 240-yard offensive record in the 26-24 win over Detroit. Zeke repeatedly slashed the ground Lions (152 yards out of 25 runs), and then, when Dallas needed a little bit of time with just over a minute, he was lined up and had a 34-yard pass. winning field goal.
Despite all their problems, the Cowboys are 2-2, as are the Eagles. Thanks to Zeke. It's still Zeke.
9) Los Angeles Chargers
Missed Kicks Moments in Mind The defense that allows C.J. Beathard to look like Joe Montana at times.
That's the chargers. It's like that that they're rolling. But a win is a win, and this L.A. team is 2-2 despite the fact that defensive dynamo Joey Bosa has not yet made a decision. Philip Rivers and the offensive are excellent. Derwin James is not only living up to my Rookie of the Year hype – he is one of the most influential and versatile defensemen of any league.
It's never easy with the Chargers, but I absolutely believe in these Bolts – especially when they recover one of the NFL's best forward challengers.
Follow Adam Schein on Twitter @AdamSchein.
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