NFL Week 3 Recap: The Two 12s

Similar to literally every football fan in existence, I had Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season circled on my (mental) calendar for the very same reason: Packers vs Buccaneers. A battle between a pair of hallowed quarterbacks in Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, possibly the final battle of their careers, unless the fates allow them to clash in January. For this Packers fan, it was an opportunity to get off a small schnide against the Brady Bucs, as both meetings went the way of Tampa Bay. The meetings both took place in the 2020 season, with the first one being in Tampa Bay, but the damning one was the NFC Championship at Lambeau--a 31-26 victory by the Bucs.

The third conference meeting between Rodgers and Brady would actually turn into a war of attrition, as the injury report for this game was immensely bonkers. On the Packers' side, while Allen Lazard was healthy, he was the only top receiver who was able to play. As for the Bucs, Mike Evans was suspended for that game, and Chris Godwin and Julio Jones were both out. So basically, both 12s were immensely shorthanded, only bringing their running backs and defenses to the table. Some expected a low-scoring game as a result, and while the game wasn't that low-scoring, it was absolutely ugly.

After a Bucs field goal made it 3-0, the Packers managed a pair of touchdowns to make it 14-3, but that's where the Packers offense ended. What followed were Green Bay drives not resulting in much of anything, but to my surprise, the Bucs were absolutely tripping all over themselves. Tampa Bay did make it 14-6, and a final drive saw them finally find the end zone, but their two-point try saw a delay of game that forced the try to be moved back five yards, and it would later fail. Packers iced it by receiving the onside kick, and that's that--a 14-12 win. It was ugly, it was messy, but it was still a win. Not only that, an important win that could mean a lot in the standings by season's end.

Am I the only one surprised that the Las Vegas Raiders are winless? When the Raiders received Davante Adams in an offseason where they were coming off a drama-filled 2021 that saw them actually reach the playoffs, I had them winning a stacked AFC West. Instead, the Raiders entered Nashville in a battle between two teams needing their first win of the season, with the Tennessee Titans also off to that same bad start. The Titans started to run away, but the Raiders made it close late--however, all the latter would do is get close. The Titans won, 24-22, and as a result, the Raiders drop to 0-3. Since 1990, 11.3% of teams who started 0-2 actually reached the playoffs. Regarding teams starting 0-3, that percentage drops to 2.5%. The Raiders are in deep, deep trouble, especially since they have a pair of division games coming up.

The Miami Dolphins are for real. The Dolphins managed to do what the defending Super Bowl Champions and last year's #1 seed in the AFC couldn't do: defeat the Buffalo Bills in 2022. A key division win that was clinched in the strangest of fashions: a pass from Josh Allen to Isaiah McKenzie ending with the latter failing to get out of bounds, resulting in the Bills running out of time before they could line up offensively. With this and the Kansas City Chiefs' surprising loss to the Indianapolis Colts, the Dolphins are the only unbeaten team in the AFC. Teams who start 3-0 reach the playoffs 76% of the time, and they win the division 51% of the time. Ironically, each of the last three times the Dolphins started 3-0? No playoffs.

Staying on the subject of teams staying unbeaten, the Philadelphia Eagles pulled out a dominant division win over the Washington Commanders, who were led by their former quarterback, Carson Wentz. It was a nice even mix of offense and defense from the Eagles, as they shut down the Commanders for the most part, until a safety served as Washington's first score. The centerpiece of Philly's victory was wide receiver Devonta Smith, who had 169 receiving yards and a touchdown. How amazing was this performance on fantasy? Let's look at the numbers.

The scoring for wide receivers and tight ends is pretty simple: a point for every 10 receiving yards, and touchdowns are six points each. Of course, most fantasy leagues are PPR, which stands for Points Per Reception. Regarding Smith, he had eight receptions for eight points, 169 receiving yards equals 16.9 points, and a touchdown for six. The grand total: 30.9 fantasy points, which led receivers during Week 3.

The week began with the Cleveland Browns defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, 29-17, on Thursday Night Football, and as a result of the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals winning, Pittsburgh became the only AFC North team to lose this week. However, a key win in Week 3 came from, of all teams, the Jacksonville Jaguars, who blasted the Los Angeles Chargers, 38-10 on the road. That's right. The Jaguars are still in first place in the AFC South after winning back-to-back games. The Jaguars' back-to-back wins are the first since the final week of the 2019 season and the first week of the 2020 season, and they are the first in the same season since October 20 and 27, 2019. Think about how long ago that is. In 2019, the Raiders were in Oakland. The current pandemic hadn't started yet. What is happening with the Jaguars is monumental, and to think, all they really had to change was the coach.

Sunday Night Football saw Jimmy Garoppolo's first start of the season, and after a long drive capped off by a Brandon Aiyuk touchdown, it all seemed to go downhill for Jimmy G. The Niners couldn't get anything done offensively, but the centerpiece of the disaster was Jimmy G actually stepping out of bounds on his own end zone during a pass, which was actually a Pick Six. Of course, if you have the ball on your own end zone and you step out of bounds, that's a safety for the team on defense. The sad part of that moment: the safety was the better-case scenario. Remember: the pass was intercepted by Bradley Chubb and returned for a short touchdown, but the safety negated the score. The Niners ended up losing to the Broncos, 11-10, in another ugly game, despite Jimmy G having better stats than Russell Wilson.

So remember when everyone had the Dallas Cowboys' season over and done with after Dak Prescott's injury? Yeah, about that. It looks like there was a Rush to judgment. See what I did there? The Cowboys faced off against the New York Giants on Monday Night Football, and it look like it would be yet another ugly game. Dallas was up 6-3 at halftime, and at the start of the 2nd half, the Giants tied it up at 6. We finally saw some touchdowns later on, as Saquon Barkley ran one in, only for Ezekiel Elliott to answer with one of his own. Dallas took over after that, a field goal, a one-handed touchdown catch from CeeDee Lamb, and a game clinching interception. The Cowboys won, 23-16; they are 2-0 with Cooper Rush starting at QB.

So after three weeks, the Dolphins and Eagles are the only unbeaten teams in the league, with the latter being 3-0 for the first time since 2016 (they missed the playoffs that year). On the flipside, the Houston Texans and the Las Vegas Raiders are the only winless teams left, but while Houston is 0-2-1, Vegas is completely shutout at 0-3. The Jaguars and Browns are first place teams, the Colts are at .500 at 1-1-1, and the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions are each 1-2, but they are good starts for both teams.

Week 4 will eventually take us to the month of October, and will kick off with September's last Thursday Night Football contest, which will feature the Cincinnati Bengals and the Miami Dolphins. We will also see the first London game this season, as the Minnesota Vikings will face off against the New Orleans Saints. Sunday Night Football will feature the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the Kansas City Chiefs in a rematch of Super Bowl LV (the game's placement on the schedule is threatened by Hurricane Ian), and on Monday Night Football, it's the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Los Angeles Rams in an NFC West matchup, as well as a rematch of last year's NFC Championship.

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