Top 10 takeaways from Sunday’s Week 3 NFL action

Week 3 of the NFL season was filled with drama and intrigue. Some teams in desperate need of winning found a way to improve off what were disastrous starts to the season.

That was no more evident than in Buffalo where the Bills handed the Arizona Cardinals a shocking defeat.

On the other hand, two former Tom Coughlin-led squads laid absolute eggs in big early-season games.

It was, however, the two rookie quarterbacks in the NFC East who saw their stars shine the brightest once again in Week 3.

These are among the top-10 takeaways from Week 3 of the NFL season.

1. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are back

It might have required playing a bad Detroit Lions defense. It might have come against a quarterback in Matthew Stafford that’s been horrible at Lambeau during his career. That’s fine and dandy. But Sunday afternoon in Green Bay was just the tonic that Rodgers and the Packers’ offense needed.

After all the focus on this unit’s struggles in the first two games, Green Bay put up 31 first half points en route to a 34-27 win over the suddenly hapless Lions. For his part, Rodgers tallied four touchdowns in the first half alone.

While Green Bay recorded just one field goal after intermission, it’s readily apparent the team’s offense came to play on Sunday.

Whether that will equate to similar success against better competition remains to be seen. But it was definitely needed after the dumpster fire we saw during the first two weeks of the season.

2. What happened to the Arizona Cardinals?

This had the makings of a blowout in Arizona’s favor. Taking on a Buffalo Bills squad that just recently fired offensive coordinator Greg Roman and was coming off a Week 2 outing that saw their defense yield nearly 500 yards to the New York Jets, most figured Arizona would roll in this one.

That obviously did not happen.

Playing at home, Buffalo opened up a 17-0 first-half lead before pushing it to 30-7 late in the third quarter. A blocked field goal returned for a touchdown (watch here) coupled with four Carson Palmer interceptions surely played a role here.

It was a stunning loss for a Cardinals team that was primed to blow the Bills out. It also speaks to some widespread issues that may currently be taking hold in the desert.

Overall, Palmer completed 26-of-50 passes for 261 yards with zero touchdowns and those four picks. It’s the first time in Palmer’s career that he’s thrown four interceptions without reaching the end zone.

Despite putting up five scores and zero picks in the first two games, one really has to wonder if Palmer has fully recovered from last year’s brutal performance in the NFC Championship game.

He struggled throughout the preseason and absolutely stunk it up against the very same Bills defense that allowed Ryan Fitzpatrick to put up 374 passing yards a week ago. Yes, the same guy that threw six interceptions on Sunday (more on that here).

Defensively, it also seemed to be a complete mess for Arizona. While the secondary did its job against Tyrod Taylor and the passing game, Buffalo racked up 208 yards and three scores on the ground. That effort was led by amazing performance from LeSean McCoy.

Now at 1-2 on the season, it might be panic time in the desert. A team with Super Bowl aspirations, the Cardinals don’t look anything like a contender heading into Week 4.

3. Carson Wentz continues to shine

What Wentz and the Philadelphia Eagles are doing right now is absolutely insane. Hosting a darn good Pittsburgh Steelers squad on Sunday, the rookie quarterback led his team to a 34-3 win.

He completed 22-of-31 passes for over 300 yards with two touchdowns, including a 73-yard catch and run to Darren Sproles. For any rookie quarterback, let alone one that was playing at North Dakota State 10 months ago, this is tremendous.

It’s not just the stats that have to be considered surprising here. Box score scouting aside, the tape doesn’t lie.

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Notice how Wentz doesn’t panic when faced with pressure from the interior of the line? Instead, he steps up in the pocket while keeping his eyes down field. The end result here being the aforementioned touchdown to Sproles.

That’s a veteran play from someone many concluded would be in way over his head as a wide-eyed rookie.

Lifting up the overall performance of his team, Wentz has the Eagles at 3-0 on the season. That was made possible after the team handed Pittsburgh its worst loss in a decade.

4. New York Giants lose their cool and the game

Whether Josh Norman is in Odell Beckham’s head remains to be seen. But the talented young receiver sure wasn’t himself on Sunday. He did put up seven receptions for 121 yards against the Washington Redskins. He also burned Norman multiple times.

That’s not the point. Instead, it was all about OBJ losing his cool multiple times during the game, including this specific incident (watch here) following an Eli Manning interception.

Any more shenanigans from Beckham Jr., and he’s facing a suspension. We saw this rear its ugly head last season when he was suspended after getting into it with Norman. It’s a suspension that had a major impact on the Giants missing out on the playoffs.

It even got to the point where the Giants’ coaching staff had to talk with Beckham Jr. about displaying more maturity on the field. As a third-year receiver, that’s simply not acceptable.

As a team, New York absolutely laid an egg on Sunday. Leading 21-9 in the second quarter, the Giants allowed Kirk Cousins and Co. to came back for a 29-27 win.

Manning threw two interceptions, New York’s offense allowed over 400 yards and the team committed 11 total penalties. That’s just not winning football, and it ended up dropping the Giants one game behind Philadelphia heading into Week 4.

5. Another dominating performance from Minnesota’s defense

Cam Newton could have been Superman on Sunday and it wouldn’t have mattered. The Vikings’ defense absolutely laid it to Newton and the Carolina Panthers, sacking the reigning NFL MVP eight times in a 22-10 win.

The charge was led by underrated defensive end Everson Griffin who had three sacks. Overall, Minnesota’s front four got to Newton six times while throwing him to the turf a total of 10 times. It also forced Cam to throw an uncharacteristic three interceptions in the game.

It’s this type of dominant performance that has defined the Vikings’ early-season run. It’s also going to play a huge role in the team’s potential success moving forward now that Teddy Bridgewater, Adrian Peterson and Matt Kalil are on injured reserved.

Earlier in the season, we likened Minnesota to the 2011 version of the San Francisco 49ers. A solid running game with a dominant defense. Add in mistake-free football at quarterback, and that’s a recipe for success.

Including Sunday’s solid outing, Sam Bradford has now gone 59 passes without throwing an interception in is first two starts with the Vikings. No matter how much he might lack in terms of getting the ball down field, that’s a winning formula with the type of defense Minnesota boasts.

This was evident on Sunday in Charlotte and should continue to be a theme for the conference title contenders as the season progresses.

6. Gus Bradley done in Jacksonville?

This has to be the end of the road for Bradly with the Jaguars, right? Following yet another early-season loss, Jacksonville finds itself at 0-3 heading into Week 4. It now boasts a 1-14 record in September in three-plus seasons under Bradley.

As we mentioned last week, this might have been acceptable two years ago. It’s in no way acceptable for a team that’s as talented as the Jaguars are this season.

In fact, their fans let Bradley know that prior to Jacksonville eventually losing at home to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday (more on that here).

There comes a time when it’s readily apparent a process isn’t working. When it becomes obvious the philosophy set in place by the coach isn’t going to lead to widespread on-field improvement. We’re at this point with Bradley right now.

It just remains to be seen if owner Shahid Khan agrees. That answer should come in the next couple weeks, if not sooner.

7. The San Diego Chargers have a coaching problem

It’s now becoming some sort of twisted joke for fans in San Diego. This team simply can’t win the close games. It was a factor in the Chargers’ 4-12 record last season, a record that included a 3-9 mark in one-score games.

Add in two narrow losses to start this season, and the Chargers have lost 11 of their past 14 one-score games. And in reality, this has to be placed solely on the shoulders of head coach Mike McCoy. It’s scheming more than it is players on the field making mistakes at the worst possible times.

Let’s look at Sunday’s 26-22 loss to the Indianapolis Colts as a case study here. With San Diego up 22-20 and just over two minutes remaining in the game, its defense went in full scale prevention mode.

That enabled Andrew Luck to pick the defense apart underneath before hitting T.Y. Hilton on a 63-yard game-winning strike. Let’s look at the coverage on that particular play for a second.

Sure, you can see safety help over the top. But why is San Diego allowing Hilton the inside move 10-15 yards past the line of scrimmage? In situations like these, you have to do two things.

First, make sure the sideline is covered up so the offense can’t stop the clock by getting out of bounds. Check, San Diego did that perfectly.

Secondly, make sure the opposing team’s go-to route is not there for the taking. Unfortunately, the Chargers were somehow not planning for a slant to Hilton? Really? That’s magnified by the fact that the safety wasn’t lined up directly over the top of Hilton.

This is the biggest issue in San Diego. Its in-game coaching has been horrendous — something that’s been brought to light in close games.

8. Something interesting happened in Miami

Terrelle Pryor played quarterback, wide receiver and safety for the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. He also rushed the ball four times for 21 yards and a score.

Adding in eight receptions for 144 yards, and Pryor was pretty much the only thing Cleveland had going for itself here.

That’s taken to a whole new level when we consider he completed 3-of-5 passes for 35 yards while sharing quarterback duties with rookie Cody Kessler.

Despite the 30-24 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins, Pryor showed himself to be a dangerous weapon on the football field.

How Hue Jackson and Co. decide to utilize him moving forward should be a rather interesting story during what promises to be another lost season in Cleveland.

9. Russell Wilson’s injury concerns

Early reports following Sunday’s win over the San Francisco 49ers indicate that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson suffered a sprained MCL (more on that here).

It occurred in the third quarter on an Eli Harold sack. Wilson’s left leg buckled under the 49ers’ linebacker in an intensely awkward manner.

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Wilson would come back in one play later, but within a few minutes he had to exit for good. We won’t know the extent of the MCL injury for a bit, but Wilson apparently believes he can play next week against the New York Jets.

Either way, this has to be of utmost concern for Seattle. Even if Wilson doesn’t miss a game, this is now the second time in three weeks he’s suffered a leg injury of some sort.

The primary issue here for Seattle is pass protection. Wilson was hurt Sunday on a play in which he ended up being sacked, a sack that didn’t count due to a personal foul penalty on Harold.

All said, Wilson found himself sacked twice in the game and has gone down seven times in three games. This puts him on a better pace than last season, but that’s not the primary takeaway here.

Wilson is being pressured on over one quarter of his drop backs through three games. For someone that missed his first ever snap to injury on Sunday, that’s probably not a good thing. This is only magnified by the sprained ankle he suffered in Week 1.

Seattle has Super Bowl aspirations. It played like a contender against a weak opponent on Sunday. That’s all fine. However, any long-term injury to Wilson would put a damper on said expectations.

10. Dak Prescott in control, as Cowboys roll the Bears

Joining Wentz in elite company is this rookie fourth-round pick from Mississippi State. Prescott absolutely dominated the Chicago Bears on Sunday night en route to leading Dallas to a 31-7 win.

The rookie completed 19-of-24 passes for 248 yards with one touchdown and zero picks. He also added 36 yards and a score on the ground.

More than these basic stats, Prescott simply seems in control of the Cowboys’ offense. He’s reading defenses before the snaps, and changing plays at the line accordingly. Again, this is rare for a young quarterback in today’s NFL.

Now, three games into his rookie season, Prescott is yet to throw an interception in 99 passes attempts. It’s this mistake-free football coupled with a veteran mentality that has Dallas at 2-1 on the season.

It’s going to be extremely interesting what Dallas does once Tony Romo returns from injury. After all, the team’s offense is playing at an extremely high level with Prescott under center. Should he continue to perform at this rate, decisions will have to be made.