Ten worst QB performances from NFL Week 3

The quarterback play in NFL Week 3 was rough for many. Through the first two weeks of the season, the worst performances mostly went to guys who had decent stats, but accomplished a lot on garbage time.

That was not the case this week. A number of NFL quarterbacks were just bad from start to finish; even at the end of blowouts. This was not a good week to be an NFL signal caller. The good news is that NFL Week 3 gave us plenty of bad performances to revisit and pick apart.

So, who had the 10 worst quarterbacks from NFL Week 3?

Ryan Fitzpatrick, New York Jets

Fitzpatrick clinched his spot on this list in the first 56 minutes of the game. Four interceptions and no touchdowns. How could it get any worse?

Well, he threw two more interceptions. One of those was returned for a score.

In total, Fitzpatrick was 20-for-44 with zero touchdowns and six interceptions.

But as bad as the six interceptions were, even they don’t tell the whole story. Two of those picks came in the end zone, possibly costing the Jets six points each time. Another came deep in Jets territory, directly leading to Kansas City’s only offensive touchdown of the day. We can conservatively say that those three picks attributed to a 13-point swing.

Those three, combined with Johnson’s pick-six, made Sunday a horrific day for New York’s quarterback.

Carson Palmer, Arizona Cardinals

Western teams struggle when travelling east to play in the early games. This is a real thing.

But the Cardinals are basically a better version of the Jets team that put up 37 points in Buffalo during Week 2. Maybe a blowout wasn’t likely, but a win sure was. Arizona simply has a far more talented roster than the Buffalo Bills.

For the Cardinals to win, Palmer didn’t need to have a great day. He just couldn’t have a bad one.

Palmer didn’t have a bad day — he was awful.

The quarterback did throw for 287 yards, but he went 26-for-50 getting to that total. More problematic is that he threw four interceptions against no touchdowns. Those four picks came on Arizona’s last four possessions. Not good. Not good, at all.

The Bills won in a 33-18 blowout.

Palmer wasn’t the only Cardinals’ player to fail in Buffalo. Still, he was sure a big contributor to the defeat.

Though not quite as bad as Fitzpatrick on Sunday, he wasn’t much better, either.

Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers

The reigning MVP struggled all day in a loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Newton’s backers may be inclined to point out that he had no help. That’s indeed true. The Carolina offensive line allowed the superstar quarterback to be hit 12 times with eight sacks. The big nastys have to be much better.

But so does Newton.

The Panthers’ quarterback was 21-for-35 with no touchdowns and three picks.

On another note, it’s definitely time to respect Minnesota’s defense. This isn’t simply a good unit, it’s dominant. In consecutive weeks, it has now made the last two league MVPs look well below average. Newton and Aaron Rodgers didn’t simply wake up on those days forgetting how to play. The Vikings’ defense is just exceptional.

Marcus Mariota, Tennessee Titans

A game against Mariota and the Tennessee offense was apparently just what the Oakland Raiders’ defense needed to cure what was ailing it. After allowing monumental passing performances to Drew Brees and Matt Ryan, the Raiders more than kept Mariota in check.

The former Heisman winner was 17-for-33 with 214 yards passing, no touchdowns, two interceptions and lost a fumble.

He was productive in the fourth quarter but couldn’t seal the deal at the end.

Week 3 was a perfect reflection of Mariota’s season. He was solid late but took far too long to get going.

A franchise quarterback has to be good for four full quarters. If he’s not, his team will lose more than it wins.

Blake Bortles, Jacksonville Jaguars

 

Through three weeks, it’s hard to imagine a more disappointing NFL player than Bortles. He put up big numbers in 2015. The 2016 season was supposed to be the one where he emerged as a true leader.

That hasn’t happened, and Week 3 was a perfect sign of the season’s struggles. Bortles was 24-for-38 with two touchdowns and three interceptions.

It’s certainly true that the game’s result might have been different if a late field goal hadn’t been blocked. But on consecutive fourth quarter possessions that started deep in Baltimore territory, all Bortles and the offense could muster was a returned interception and a long field goal attempt, which was blocked.

The Ravens tried as hard as they could to give the Jags the game, but Jacksonville just choked a little more.

The season is only three weeks old. Still, Bortles hasn’t taken any steps forward. Instead, the young Jaguars’ quarterback has gone in the other direction.

Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens

How does a winning quarterback whose day featured a streak of 21 straight completions make a list like this? For starters, he made 20 other throws that weren’t so hot.

Honestly, the numbers during the 21-for-21 streak weren’t even that great.

The Ravens won and are 3-0, so there’s no real need to panic in Baltimore. Still, Sunday’s win really only came because Flacco was slightly better than his opposite number. He did everything he could to give that game to Bortles. Jacksonville’s quarterback just didn’t comply.

When we consider that Flacco’s day included him challenging the single game consecutive completion record, saying he was only “slightly better” than another awful quarterback is pretty telling.

Blaine Gabbert, San Francisco 49ers

To have a chance at beating the Seattle Seahawks, the 49ers needed to do two things.

1. They had to limit the Seattle offense, just like the Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Rams did. The Seahawks had over 400 yards of offense and scored 37 points. That didn’t happen.
2. They had to keep Gabbert clean. The last thing any quarterback needs to do is throw hurried balls into the Legion of Boom. Gabbert wasn’t sacked and was only hit twice. That did happen.

Despite that, Gabbert managed only 14-of-25 for an anemic 119 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.

Nobody is mistaking Gabbert for Joe Montana or Steve Young. Heck, nobody’s mistaking him for the in-their-primes versions of Alex Smith or Colin Kaepernick. But when his line gives him a chance, he has to make a few plays. That’s a bare minimum requirement for an NFL quarterback.

San Francisco allowing 37 points is not on Gabbert — not directly, anyway. Scoring only 18 (with 15 coming in garbage time) is on him, though. The Seahawks scored 14 points early and this one was over.

For the second time in as many weeks, Gabbert’s performance was abysmal.

Brock Osweiler, Houston Texans

It’s been a few days since Osweiler put his stamp on Week 3. With all of the awful performances we saw Sunday, it would be easy to forget.

Unfortunately for Brock, we just can’t let that happen.

Sure, the Patriots scoring 27 points caught most of us a little off guard. If Osweiler had led his offense to a 24-point effort, he wouldn’t make this list. But that didn’t come close to happening. The Texans were shut out, and he was a big reason why.

Osweiler 24-for-41 with 196 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. That’s the perfect recipe for a shutout.

Let’s imagine what would have happened if Osweiler and the Texans’ offense got it going early. Then, unproven rookie Jacoby Brissett and the New England Patriots might have felt a little more pressure on offense. Who knows what could have happened?

We’ll never know. What we do know is that Brissett and the Pats only had to manage Thursday’s game to win.

Houston is 2-1, so we’re a long way from needing to press a panic button for the Texans. But Osweiler has not shown himself to be the definitive answer at the quarterback position yet.

Ben Roethliseberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

One thing that the Steelers have is unquestioned depth at the receiver position. That just didn’t manifest itself Sunday.

Big Ben wasn’t that precise when he was targeting Brown. On his other throws, though, Roethlisberger was awful.

What looked  like a Pennsylvania showdown between one of the game’s best quarterbacks and one of its most promising youngsters never came to fruition.

While Carson Wentz was solid for the third week in a row, Roethlisberger struggled. He never got the Pittsburgh offense on track, and this game went from an exciting showdown to an absolute blowout in no time at all.

The youngster indeed got the better of the veteran on Sunday.

Eli Manning, New York Giants

Sure, Manning went 25-for-38 with 350 passing yards.

He makes this list not for that, but for how he played when the game was on the line. Manning’s performance was terrible.

Let’s walk through through the last three New York possessions against the Washington Redskins.

• Possession 1, Giants trail 26-24: Two big plays get New York into field goal range. On a first-and-10, Manning makes a terrible (and unnecessary) throw to the end zone. Quinton Dunbar intercepts the ball, prompting Odell Beckham Jr. to pick (and lose) a fight with a net.
• Possession 2, Giants trail 26-24: Manning leads a nine-play, 58-yard drive and kicks the go ahead field goal. It left too much time on the clock for Kirk Cousins (good luck saying that with a straight face), but was a fine drive.
• Possession 3, Giants trail 29-27: Needing only a field goal with a shade under two minutes remaining, Manning leads New York to a first down on its own 39 with more than a minute left. Manning makes another unnecessarily risky pass. This one is intercepted by Su’a Cravens, ending the game.

Two interceptions over the final three possessions. Both on passes that didn’t need to be thrown. In a game decided by two points, those overshadow anything good he did Sunday.