NFL Week 3: Notes and observations

The NFL is never predictable, something the 2018 season is proving over, and over, and over again. NFL Week 3 provided us with plenty of talking points.

Nobody could have imagined that the Houston Texans would be without a win in the final weekend in September. Just as nobody would have believed that the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers would still be undefeated.

The league always takes on wild twists and turns. Sometimes because of injuries, and other times because of players who step up out of nowhere (see: Fitzpatrick, Ryan). Then there are the youngsters who begin making names for themselves. This is something we’ve seen out of the favorite for Most Valuable Player at the moment, Patrick Mahomes.

Plenty of people thought Mahomes would be good. Few, if any, predicted that 13 touchdown passes and zero interceptions would be his line after the first three contests.

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So what does it all mean? What have we learned, or what do we think we’ve learned, after NFL Week 3?

For starters, the AFC is a completely wide open race to the Super Bowl. The Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs are the only undefeated teams remaining, while the perennial favorites, the New England Patriots, have stumbled out of the gates to a 1-2 mark. The Pittsburgh Steelers, another team that most pencil in for a January run, are 0-1-1 and looking to potentially cut ties with Le’Veon Bell. Not the start they were looking for.

In the NFC, things aren’t quite as open after NFL Week 3. The Los Angeles Rams appear to be the league’s best team, rolling through the Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Chargers in their first three tilts. At some point, the Rams will stumble and people will wonder whether Jared Goff is truly good enough to win the Super Bowl, but for now, they look all but unbeatable with a tremendous defense and wonderful offensive scheme.

Read: Steelers Looking to Trade Holdout Le’Veon Bell

Then there is the NFC North, which has been turned upside down and then some. The Chicago Bears have been incredibly unremarkable offensively, but lead the division despite blowing a 20-0 lead against the Green Bay Packers in Week 1. Green Bay has not won since, tying the Minnesota Vikings and losing to the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field on Sunday. Incredibly, the Vikings couldn’t take advantage of the break, because they were busy being blown out at home by the lowly Buffalo Bills, 27-6.

Finally, the Arizona Cardinals might be on the clock. They are 0-3, but worse have already benched their starting quarterback — doing so in the final minutes of a one-score game no less. Arizona looks terrible, isn’t being coached very well and has a tough schedule. Could be a long, long season in the desert.