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The one thing nobody ever dreamed to worry about this season was the Green Bay Packers offense, especially since quarterback Aaron Rodgers was fully healthy again.
The Week 1 struggles at Seattle were understandable, because the Seahawks’ defense is almost impossible to beat, especially at home. Sunday’s loss to the Lions is a little tougher to explain.
Green Bay’s 19-7 loss was unlike practically any loss in the Aaron Rodgers era, or even back through the Brett Favre era. The Packers defense forced three turnovers and held the Lions’ potent offense to a manageable 19 points. And Green Bay had just 223 yards. After a first-quarter touchdown pass to tight end Andrew Quarless, the Packers didn’t score again, even against a Lions defense that didn’t look too great in a 24-7 loss to Carolina the week before. Green Bay just couldn't move the ball.
The seven points scored were the fewest for the Packers in any game Rodgers has started and finished. His 162 passing yards were the fewest since Nov. 9, 2008, at Minnesota, and he didn't have a pass longer than 18 yards. In the Packers' three games, they scored 16 points in a loss to Seattle, seven points in a loss at Detroit and had to pull off a big rally to beat the Jets after falling behind 21-3.
There’s no reason to believe the Packers just can’t play offense anymore. Eddie Lacy is a good back, Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb are top receivers and Rodgers is one of the best players in the NFL. Green Bay doesn’t have a death sentence at 1-2 with two road losses, of course. But it's not the way a team that hopes to get a first-round bye and get to the Super Bowl wanted to start. And they'll need to look at some offensive issues, which hasn't really been the case in Green Bay for about, oh, 22 years.
Here are the rest of the winners and losers for Week 3 in the NFL:
WINNERS
Kam Chancellor
It’s so fitting that Kam Chancellor, the under-appreciated Pro Bowler in Seattle’s secondary, made one of the biggest plays of his career and a few minutes later it was totally overshadowed.
Chancellor doesn't get widespread attention like Richard Sherman or Earl Thomas, which just speaks to how good those two are, because Chancellor is one of the best strong safeties in the NFL. But it was the lesser celebrated Chancellor who made the biggest play on Sunday to seal Seattle's exciting Super Bowl rematch win against Denver.
With the Broncos driving late in the fourth quarter, trailing 17-12, Chancellor made a great interception, leaping and picking off Peyton Manning. It's unclear what Manning saw on the play, because intended receiver Wes Welker was covered very well. Chancellor was lurking underneath and picked off the reigning MVP.
That interception set up a field goal, which set up a dramatic game-tying drive by Manning. Seattle won in overtime. Chancellor’s interception was an enormous play by a fantastic player even though it wasn’t the biggest highlight by the end of the game. He’s probably used to that.
Dallas Cowboys
When Dallas fell behind 21-0, thanks in large part to Tony Romo’s pick-six to Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins, it would have been easy to pack it in.
If you don’t respect what the Cowboys did the rest of the way, you don’t get how hard it is to win in the NFL. It doesn't matter that the Rams are down to quarterback Austin Davis, or that Rams tight end Jared Cook’s terrible end-zone drop was a very generous gift. The Cowboys’ rally to win 34-31 is impressive. It matched the biggest comeback win in franchise history.
Romo came alive, throwing for a pair of second-half touchdowns. That was important, because he hadn’t looked great in the first 10 quarters of the season as he returned from back surgery. The defense made some plays, including a pick-six by linebacker Bruce Carter in the fourth quarter and a game-sealing interception by cornerback Morris Claiborne, the former sixth overall pick who was beaten repeatedly before that play. All of a sudden, the Cowboys are 2-1 and look much better than most preseason predictions (including mine) figured.
Bruce Arians
Arians didn’t get a chance to run his own team until he was in his 60s. With the job he’s doing in Arizona, it’s baffling it took that long.
Arians has the Cardinals off to a great start this season, and it’s not like he has had an easy road. The team lost some key defenders, including Daryl Washington to suspension, Darnell Dockett to injury and Karlos Dansby to free agency. Running back Jonathan Dwyer is done for the season because of an alleged domestic violence incident. And the last two games, the Cardinals have been without quarterback Carson Palmer. Despite it all, the Cardinals just keep winning.
Even though Arizona fell behind early to the 49ers, the Cardinals rallied behind quarterback Drew Stanton and beat the 49ers 23-14 to improve to 3-0. Arians won the NFL coach of the year award in an unusual way in 2012, when he led the Colts while Chuck Pagano was battling leukemia. He should be in the running for his second such award in three seasons. He didn't get a head-coaching job until he was 60, but now he's one of the best in the business.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles are, to say the least, are on a really weird path so far this season.
Credit to Philadelphia for coming back and winning each of their first three games. But the Eagles might not want to do this high-wire act every single week.
The Eagles fell behind to the Redskins, who got a great performance out of Kirk Cousins, but came back to win 37-34. It was fairly historic.
The Eagles are the first team in NFL history to overcome at least a 10-point deficit and win each of their first three games. The Eagles also became the first team in NFL history to win each of its first three games despite giving up 17 first-half points in each game, according to CSN Philly.
At least we know the Eagles have the mental toughness to come back and win if they fall behind. What we don’t know yet is if they’re capable of playing a good game from beginning to end. They might want to do that soon.
Jaguars and Vikings fans
For these two fan bases, the rest of your season just got a lot more interesting. While we don't like seeing injuries, Matt Cassel's foot injury should keep him out a while and it forces the Vikings to go with their best option at quarterback, rookie Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater looked competent, with 12-of-20 for 150 yards in a hostile environment at New Orleans. Blake Bortles is by far Jacksonville's best quarterback, and the Jaguars finally gave up the ridiculous plan of sitting Bortles all season for Chad Henne. The third pick of this year's draft will start next week. If nothing else, both teams will be much more interesting to watch.
LOSERS
Joe Philbin
The Dolphins have officially wasted that great Week 1 performance against the Patriots. First with a dud at Buffalo in Week 2, but that was understandable with the Bills’ fans and players being so excited for an emotional home opener. Sunday’s dud is hard to overlook, and it'll bring about a lot of questions about Philbin's job security.
The 0-2 Chiefs came in without Jamaal Charles and dominated the Dolphins. Miami's defense couldn’t stop Knile Davis (who, in fairness, is much better than your typical backup tailback) and the offense kept getting bogged down as quarterback Ryan Tannehill struggled again.
Not only that, Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald suggested the players might be starting to revolt.
Dennis Pitta
You have to feel for Pitta, the Ravens tight end. He suffered a horrible injury last year when he dislocated his hip. Then he suffered the same injury again on Sunday.
Pitta wasn’t hit when he suffered the injury. He just caught a pass and lunged awkwardly as he went to the ground. According to many reports, including Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports 1, he dislocated his hip again. He’ll undergo more tests to see if there’s a fracture, as there was last year when he missed most of the season.
It’s a sad situation for Pitta, for sure. It definitely put a damper on the Ravens’ last-minute 23-21 win at Cleveland. Without Pitta last year, the Ravens struggled to sustain drives with their intermediate passing game. It looks like the Ravens might have to try to figure out their offense without Pitta going forward this season, too.
Gabe Jackson and Denarius Moore
The Raiders had a real chance to at least tie Sunday's game at New England late, which is amazing. They were 14-point underdogs. But there they were, apparently cutting New England's lead to 16-15 on Darren McFadden's 6-yard touchdown with about a minute to go. But wait. Guard Gabe Jackson was called for a holding. That took the touchdown off the board. No surprise, but according to ESPN's Bill Williamson, Raiders coach Dennis Allen and several players disagreed with the call.
The next play, rookie quarterback Derek Carr threw over the middle to Denarius Moore. Moore let the ball go right through his hands, it bounced off defensive back Logan Ryan and into the hands of defensive tackle Vince Wilfork. Ballgame.
It won't be easy for the 0-3 Raiders to get wins this season. They had a chance to pull off an enormous upset on Sunday. It had to be a really long flight home for them all, especially Jackson and Moore.
Chargers running game
The San Diego Chargers got a complete 22-10 victory at Buffalo, one that puts them at 2-1 and made them look like a serious playoff contender. The problem is they're losing a key running back every week.
Ryan Mathews went down with a knee injury last week. He'll be out a few weeks. The news isn't as good on Danny Woodhead, who suffered a high-ankle sprain with a fractured fibula, according to Fox Sports' Alex Marvez. That will likely end his season.
The Chargers gave former Colts first-round pick Donald Brown a three-year, $10.5 million contract this offseason, but he didn't look very good at Buffalo with just 62 yards on 31 carries. And now the Chargers' depth at tailback is in really bad shape, at least until Mathews returns. So while the Chargers have a two-game winning streak, it has come at a price.
The Week 1 struggles at Seattle were understandable, because the Seahawks’ defense is almost impossible to beat, especially at home. Sunday’s loss to the Lions is a little tougher to explain.
Green Bay’s 19-7 loss was unlike practically any loss in the Aaron Rodgers era, or even back through the Brett Favre era. The Packers defense forced three turnovers and held the Lions’ potent offense to a manageable 19 points. And Green Bay had just 223 yards. After a first-quarter touchdown pass to tight end Andrew Quarless, the Packers didn’t score again, even against a Lions defense that didn’t look too great in a 24-7 loss to Carolina the week before. Green Bay just couldn't move the ball.
The seven points scored were the fewest for the Packers in any game Rodgers has started and finished. His 162 passing yards were the fewest since Nov. 9, 2008, at Minnesota, and he didn't have a pass longer than 18 yards. In the Packers' three games, they scored 16 points in a loss to Seattle, seven points in a loss at Detroit and had to pull off a big rally to beat the Jets after falling behind 21-3.
There’s no reason to believe the Packers just can’t play offense anymore. Eddie Lacy is a good back, Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb are top receivers and Rodgers is one of the best players in the NFL. Green Bay doesn’t have a death sentence at 1-2 with two road losses, of course. But it's not the way a team that hopes to get a first-round bye and get to the Super Bowl wanted to start. And they'll need to look at some offensive issues, which hasn't really been the case in Green Bay for about, oh, 22 years.
Here are the rest of the winners and losers for Week 3 in the NFL:
WINNERS
Kam Chancellor
It’s so fitting that Kam Chancellor, the under-appreciated Pro Bowler in Seattle’s secondary, made one of the biggest plays of his career and a few minutes later it was totally overshadowed.
Chancellor doesn't get widespread attention like Richard Sherman or Earl Thomas, which just speaks to how good those two are, because Chancellor is one of the best strong safeties in the NFL. But it was the lesser celebrated Chancellor who made the biggest play on Sunday to seal Seattle's exciting Super Bowl rematch win against Denver.
With the Broncos driving late in the fourth quarter, trailing 17-12, Chancellor made a great interception, leaping and picking off Peyton Manning. It's unclear what Manning saw on the play, because intended receiver Wes Welker was covered very well. Chancellor was lurking underneath and picked off the reigning MVP.
That interception set up a field goal, which set up a dramatic game-tying drive by Manning. Seattle won in overtime. Chancellor’s interception was an enormous play by a fantastic player even though it wasn’t the biggest highlight by the end of the game. He’s probably used to that.
Dallas Cowboys
When Dallas fell behind 21-0, thanks in large part to Tony Romo’s pick-six to Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins, it would have been easy to pack it in.
If you don’t respect what the Cowboys did the rest of the way, you don’t get how hard it is to win in the NFL. It doesn't matter that the Rams are down to quarterback Austin Davis, or that Rams tight end Jared Cook’s terrible end-zone drop was a very generous gift. The Cowboys’ rally to win 34-31 is impressive. It matched the biggest comeback win in franchise history.
Romo came alive, throwing for a pair of second-half touchdowns. That was important, because he hadn’t looked great in the first 10 quarters of the season as he returned from back surgery. The defense made some plays, including a pick-six by linebacker Bruce Carter in the fourth quarter and a game-sealing interception by cornerback Morris Claiborne, the former sixth overall pick who was beaten repeatedly before that play. All of a sudden, the Cowboys are 2-1 and look much better than most preseason predictions (including mine) figured.
Bruce Arians
Arians didn’t get a chance to run his own team until he was in his 60s. With the job he’s doing in Arizona, it’s baffling it took that long.
Arians has the Cardinals off to a great start this season, and it’s not like he has had an easy road. The team lost some key defenders, including Daryl Washington to suspension, Darnell Dockett to injury and Karlos Dansby to free agency. Running back Jonathan Dwyer is done for the season because of an alleged domestic violence incident. And the last two games, the Cardinals have been without quarterback Carson Palmer. Despite it all, the Cardinals just keep winning.
Even though Arizona fell behind early to the 49ers, the Cardinals rallied behind quarterback Drew Stanton and beat the 49ers 23-14 to improve to 3-0. Arians won the NFL coach of the year award in an unusual way in 2012, when he led the Colts while Chuck Pagano was battling leukemia. He should be in the running for his second such award in three seasons. He didn't get a head-coaching job until he was 60, but now he's one of the best in the business.
Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles are, to say the least, are on a really weird path so far this season.
Credit to Philadelphia for coming back and winning each of their first three games. But the Eagles might not want to do this high-wire act every single week.
The Eagles fell behind to the Redskins, who got a great performance out of Kirk Cousins, but came back to win 37-34. It was fairly historic.
The Eagles are the first team in NFL history to overcome at least a 10-point deficit and win each of their first three games. The Eagles also became the first team in NFL history to win each of its first three games despite giving up 17 first-half points in each game, according to CSN Philly.
At least we know the Eagles have the mental toughness to come back and win if they fall behind. What we don’t know yet is if they’re capable of playing a good game from beginning to end. They might want to do that soon.
Jaguars and Vikings fans
For these two fan bases, the rest of your season just got a lot more interesting. While we don't like seeing injuries, Matt Cassel's foot injury should keep him out a while and it forces the Vikings to go with their best option at quarterback, rookie Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater looked competent, with 12-of-20 for 150 yards in a hostile environment at New Orleans. Blake Bortles is by far Jacksonville's best quarterback, and the Jaguars finally gave up the ridiculous plan of sitting Bortles all season for Chad Henne. The third pick of this year's draft will start next week. If nothing else, both teams will be much more interesting to watch.
LOSERS
Joe Philbin
The Dolphins have officially wasted that great Week 1 performance against the Patriots. First with a dud at Buffalo in Week 2, but that was understandable with the Bills’ fans and players being so excited for an emotional home opener. Sunday’s dud is hard to overlook, and it'll bring about a lot of questions about Philbin's job security.
The 0-2 Chiefs came in without Jamaal Charles and dominated the Dolphins. Miami's defense couldn’t stop Knile Davis (who, in fairness, is much better than your typical backup tailback) and the offense kept getting bogged down as quarterback Ryan Tannehill struggled again.
Not only that, Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald suggested the players might be starting to revolt.
One source says Dolphins players are "beyond furious. Irate" at defensive adjustments and game plan. Not good. At all.
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) September 22, 2014
After all that has happened in Miami, with the way the team has taken a big step back the last two weeks, Philbin probably needs to turn things around pretty fast.— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) September 22, 2014
Dennis Pitta
You have to feel for Pitta, the Ravens tight end. He suffered a horrible injury last year when he dislocated his hip. Then he suffered the same injury again on Sunday.
Pitta wasn’t hit when he suffered the injury. He just caught a pass and lunged awkwardly as he went to the ground. According to many reports, including Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports 1, he dislocated his hip again. He’ll undergo more tests to see if there’s a fracture, as there was last year when he missed most of the season.
It’s a sad situation for Pitta, for sure. It definitely put a damper on the Ravens’ last-minute 23-21 win at Cleveland. Without Pitta last year, the Ravens struggled to sustain drives with their intermediate passing game. It looks like the Ravens might have to try to figure out their offense without Pitta going forward this season, too.
Gabe Jackson and Denarius Moore
The Raiders had a real chance to at least tie Sunday's game at New England late, which is amazing. They were 14-point underdogs. But there they were, apparently cutting New England's lead to 16-15 on Darren McFadden's 6-yard touchdown with about a minute to go. But wait. Guard Gabe Jackson was called for a holding. That took the touchdown off the board. No surprise, but according to ESPN's Bill Williamson, Raiders coach Dennis Allen and several players disagreed with the call.
The next play, rookie quarterback Derek Carr threw over the middle to Denarius Moore. Moore let the ball go right through his hands, it bounced off defensive back Logan Ryan and into the hands of defensive tackle Vince Wilfork. Ballgame.
It won't be easy for the 0-3 Raiders to get wins this season. They had a chance to pull off an enormous upset on Sunday. It had to be a really long flight home for them all, especially Jackson and Moore.
Chargers running game
The San Diego Chargers got a complete 22-10 victory at Buffalo, one that puts them at 2-1 and made them look like a serious playoff contender. The problem is they're losing a key running back every week.
Ryan Mathews went down with a knee injury last week. He'll be out a few weeks. The news isn't as good on Danny Woodhead, who suffered a high-ankle sprain with a fractured fibula, according to Fox Sports' Alex Marvez. That will likely end his season.
The Chargers gave former Colts first-round pick Donald Brown a three-year, $10.5 million contract this offseason, but he didn't look very good at Buffalo with just 62 yards on 31 carries. And now the Chargers' depth at tailback is in really bad shape, at least until Mathews returns. So while the Chargers have a two-game winning streak, it has come at a price.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab