Winners and losers of NFL Week 3

The magic that was outstanding Saturday in the country at college football games persisted a day later for the third week of the NFL.

The unthinkable happened more than once. The biggest surprise was perhaps the Minnesota Vikings – favorites at 17 points at home against the Buffalo Bills – being roasted by the team that many considered to be the worst in the league.

We'll start thinking about this and much more about the biggest winners and losers of NFL Week 3.

Winner: Baker revives the Browns

We all know the story. The Cleveland Browns are an accursed franchise for decades. They entered Thursday night's game with exactly one win in their last 34 tries. It had been 635 days since this last victory.

Tyrod Taylor had a tough start to the Browns against the New York Jets. He had sharp negative stretch marks when he had to go out with a concussion. At that time, the Jets had a 14-0 lead at the end of the second quarter.

Then Mayfield went into the game and flipped the script. Gathering an almost perfect performance, he led the Browns to a return win, giving his team real hope that things could finally turn for the first time in years.

Not surprisingly, head coach Hue Jackson is expected to name Mayfield as a starter, according to Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com.

Loser: The Vikings are embarrassed at home by … the Bills?

Nobody saw that coming. In fact, it's hard to imagine that the Buffalo Bills felt like they would not do the Minnesota Vikings after what happened on the first two weekends of the season.

That's why they play games.

Minnesota was a mess, embarrassing itself regularly in front of the faithful Vikings fans. Kirk Cousins ​​lost two early fumbles, earning the Bills a 17-0 lead in the first quarter. He ended up shooting the ball over three times the total and the Vikings did not even reach Buffalo territory until the fourth quarter.

On the other hand, the Vikings – who have one of the best defenses in the league, know that – have been burned several times by the Bills. It was only a crazy game that perfectly illustrated the parity that exists in the NFL.

Winner: The Rams attack is a mastodon

How do you stop the Los Angeles Rams? This is a question that no team has been able to answer successfully so far this season. On Sunday, Jared Goff and Co. lost 35 points on the Los Angeles Chargers. It's now three straight games where they scored at least 33 points.

There are just too many stars in this team – the defenses really have to pick their poison. For example, on Sunday, Todd Gurley had 156 yards and a touchdown, Robert Woods caught 10 passes for 104 yards with two touchdowns, while Brandin Cooks and Cooper Kupp combined 11 passes for 161 yards and one score.

Along the way, Jared Goff became just the third quarterback in the history of the NFL with at least 350 passing yards and a completion percentage of at least 75% in consecutive games, by Adam Caplan of ESPN.

This offense is just a heavy weight. Good luck to stop it.

Loser: Bad Blake Bortles dooms Jags

The Jacksonville Jaguars eliminated Blaine Gabbert on Sunday, forcing Marcus Mariota, who suffers from an elbow injury to lack of sensations, to play. The Jacksonville defense kept Tennessee 83 yards in the air, allowing only 15 first tries and nine points.

Yet the Jags are gone.

Blaine Gabbert, after a magnificent performance against the New England Patriots, was very inefficient. He got a decent percentage of his passes (21 of 34) but managed only 155 total yards. The Jacksonville attack ended with only 12 first tries and only six points.

It's embarrassing.

Winner: Cam and Run CMC wear Panthers

For the most part, Carolina's attack is a two-man show right now. It's a very good show, though.

Cam Newton and Christian McCaffrey dominated the field on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. Newton threw two touchdowns and ran twice. McCaffrey touched the ball 30 times (more than that, Norv Turner).

The Panthers are doing an amazing job to get around their offensive online shortcomings right now. It was a big moment as they canceled one of the best defensive lines of the NFL en route to a 31-21 win.

Loser: David Johnson continues to be criminally underutilized

The Arizona Cardinals have one of the best offensive weapons in the NFL at their disposal. They also know it, based on the extension of the contract, he landed before the start of the season.

They might need a reminder, though.

On Sunday, in a very lucrative game that saw Sam Bradford and Josh Rosen combine to reverse the situation four times, Johnson received 12 assists and was targeted four times. His 21-yard touchdown was one of the most electric games in Sunday's game.

One would think that a player of his caliber, capable of doing so much damage both on the ground and in the air, would be more present. Yet in three games, Johnson touched the ball 44 times.

The Arizona Quarters are not the answer. If the cardinals are going to do something, you have to start feeding that guy. They do not do it and the results speak for themselves.

Winner: Carson Wentz leads Eagles to victory in opening game

It was not good, but Carson Wentz led his team to victory Sunday on a messy field, to the delight of his supporters.

The Eagles were heavily penalized for the match because of injuries suffered by their host and their backstroke group. Wentz was also under intense pressure throughout the match and suffered five sacks. But when his team needed him to succeed, he designed a game of 17 games, 75 yards in the fourth quarter, down three points, which culminated with the winning landing.

In total, Wentz completed 25 of 37 passes for 255 yards with a touchdown on tight winger Dallas Goedert (see here). Now the Eagles are 2-1 and in great shape to lobby to defend their crown.

Loser: 49ers lose the game and Jimmy G

The San Francisco 49ers were stunned in the first half at Arrowhead Stadium, while the Kansas City Chiefs scored 35 points in their first five possessions.

While the defense was slightly stiff in the second half, the Chiefs did not need another point to win the match. That said, Jimmy Garoppolo and Co. were going to play it for a while. They designed two consecutive touchdown campaigns to open the second half to reduce the lead to nine points.

So the disaster struck. Garoppolo was trying to gain some extra yards on the left touchline when he started contact with a defender. Then he fell into a heap, and finally had to be transported to the locker room with what the 49ers were afraid of a torn left LCA.

Just a brutal blow for this team.

Winner: Saquon Barkley brings G-Men to first victory

It would be easy to focus on Eli Manning's hard day as a smuggler. He missed only four of his 29 attempts and he did not return the ball. It's great.

What has been most striking, however, is how rookie Saquon Barkley was the catalyst for all this success in the air. At the start of the game, he ran 30 yards on three runs, including a 15-yard touchdown.

Barkley's ability to crush Houston on the field opened the rest of the attack for Manning and Co. The rookie finished Sunday's game with 117 yards on 21 hits, including 17 runs. If he continues to crush teams like this, New York will have a chance in every game.

Loser: The Dallas game is on the support of life

The Dallas Cowboys are so bad in the game that they make the bad defenses look good. The Seattle Seahawks played Sunday a 509-yard match over a hat-trick of 7.2 yards per attempt and generated just three sacks against the Carolina Panthers and the New York Giants – two teams with weak offensive lines.

On Sunday, Seattle's defense again resembled the Boom Legion. Dak Prescott was sacked five times for 31 yards and finished with only 168 yards in 19 of 34 passes with one touchdown and two interceptions.

In the past three games, Prescott has had 498 passing yards. He averages 5.65 yards per attempt. It has trouble connecting with its receivers apart from hash marks.

This offense is barely alive right now. Without Ezekiel Elliott, things would be even worse.

Winner: Old Man Peterson still has the juice

The Washington Redskins really won the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, winning 31-17. The Washington defense deserves a ton of credit for correcting the Green Bay offense. But the player of the match was none other than Adrian Peterson.

For the second time in the first three games of this year, Peterson has been very effective on the field. He ran for 120 yards in 19 carries, hitting the ball twice for two yards for touchdowns.

Age does not seem to have slowed this man up. If he can support this type of production in the final stages of the 2018 season, Washington will have a boost to make the playoffs.

Loser: Denver does not get the 2017 version of Case Keenum

Over the course of three games, it seems pretty clear that the Denver Broncos will not see much of Case Keenum's version of last year in 2018.

During the 27-14 loss to Baltimore on Sunday, Keenum completed 22 out of 34 passes. It's not that great. But it was not impressive either. He failed to throw a touchdown for the second straight game and made his fifth interception of the season, which should have gone for six points, without a block in the back penalty that canceled the return.

The Broncos won last weekend despite Keenum, not because of him. And Sunday, they lost largely because he could not get anything consistent in the air. The last two Sundays combined, he managed only 414 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions.

This is not what the Broncos were expected when they chose not to take a rookie quarter, paying a nice sum to Keenum in free agency.

Winner: Drew Brees adds to HOF CV

No quarterback in the history of the league has more finishes than Drew Brees, who topped Hall of Fame member Brett Favre on Sunday to climb to the top spot on the list of all time.

In itself, this achievement would have deserved to mention Brees as a winner this week. But that's not all he did Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons. The veteran Gunslinger had 396 yards and three touchdowns in the overtime victory.

More impressively, Brees scored twice on the ground. The first was an incredible seven-yard run in which he released two Falcons defensemen from their shoes and the second was the winner of the match.

Legendary.

Loser: Andy Dalton turns into a machine with a business figure

Before Sunday's game against Baltimore, only two quarterbacks had thrown more touchdowns than Andy Dalton in the last 16 games.

Red Rocket threw two more touchdowns, but he also pitched four interceptions in a losing cause. Three of them took place in the second half when A.J. Green was on the sideline with a groin injury, and the Panthers converted those turnovers to 17 points.

In a game that was decided by 10 points, it is clear that Dalton and his receivers deserve a huge share of responsibility for the loss.

Winner: Josh Allen was almost perfect

Josh Allen played in the first two games of this year as he entered Sunday's game after completing half of his passes while making a touchdown and two interceptions. The Bills in general looked awful too.

So it was a huge surprise when Allen tore up the best pass defense in the NFL en route to a win on the road. The rookie had 15 passes out of 22 for 196 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. He also scored twice and was one of the most electrifying moments of the action this weekend (see here).

This performance should certainly give Bills fans the hope that there are better days.

Loser: Raiders continue to be awful late in the game

The Oakland Raiders are now at 0-3 to open the season. The three defeats can be based on really horrible performances at the end of the game.

Sunday in Miami, the Raiders entered the fourth quarter of three points. Then, the Dolphins absolutely put the Oakland defense to the test during a touchdown. Albert Wilson seemed to be backing off before he had a perfect pass to Jakeem Grant, who had no one within 10 yards of him. Faded away.

Derek Carr then chased the Raiders into the red zone before intercepting Xavier Howard. Two games later, Albert Wilson found a crease when Oakland's defensive front was dominated at the front, and he raised 74 yards for six.

Including the 14 points awarded by the Oakland defense in the fourth quarter Sunday, the Raiders have now awarded 37 points in the fourth quarter in the first three games of the season.

Winner: The student teaches the master

Given the way Sunday was played for so many teams, it was not surprising that the Detroit Lions, without Matt Patricia's win, took Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots to the pits.

But we were still pretty surprised.

Patricia's defense belonged to Josh McDaniels and the New England offense on Sunday night. Much of this was due to missing key players at the Patriots, but Tom Brady was completely stopped. It's never easy to do.

Equally impressive, after playing in the first two games, the Detroit offensive line woke up and played a formidable unit, leading to the first 100-meters (Kerryon Johnson) in 70 games.

It was an important match for Patricia and the Lions, who desperately needed that win.

Loser: Houston has a big problem

The Houston Texans have serious problems. The problems most knowledgeable analysts have experienced have come up all season, and all this has nothing to do with an NFL-style offensive line.

The Giants came in the third week with only one bag to record. They had three sacks on Sunday and Deshaun Watson was hit 11 times. Just as bad, the unnamed Texan players Watson managed to win 23 yards in 14 races. New York had already allowed 137.5 rushing yards per game.

Watson is always a quarter raw. The Texans are currently at risk of permanently hurting him, because if he continues to be beaten like the ones he has taken so far this year (10 bags so far), he will develop bad habits that could end up becoming permanent.

Winner: Patrick Mahomes does more history in the NFL

What goes up must come down, unless he's calling Patrick Mahomes. At the moment, Mahomes' action continues to skyrocket after a new second-year monster match.

In his first match at Arrowhead Stadium, Mahomes scored 314 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions while the Chiefs beat the 49ers. In the process, he spent the legendary Peyton Manning for the highest number of touchdowns in the first three games of a season in the history of the NFL.

At his current pace, Patrick Mahomes is expected to finish the 2018 season with 4,779 yards, 69 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Let it run for a minute.

Loser: NFL draft rule of the smuggler is an abomination

For the second Sunday in a row, the NFL's new rearguard rule is a failure for Clay Matthews. In Sunday's match against Washington, Matthews was hit by a 15-yard penalty that was even more disconcerting last Sunday.

Matthews hit Alex Smith in the chest. His own head was far from Smith's head. He did not touch Smith's legs or make him "bump" (look here). Instead, he wrapped it up as you learned to do, his arms around Smith's shoulders. He really had no other way to effectively tackle Smith without risking attacking the whole thing.

The worst thing about all this is that the league immediately said that it was the right call.

We are all for safety. The protection of these actors should be a priority. But what is happening right now is not football. This is nothing close to football. And if that is what the league will continue to impose, the defenders are absolutely crazy.