32 things we learned from Week 3 of 2022 NFL season: Super Bowl, MVP favorites emerging?
The 32 things we learned from Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season:
1. Last week, we documented the peril of starting 0-2, only 11.3% of teams since 1990 (when the playoff field expanded from 10 to 12 entries) digging out of that kind of hole to reach the postseason. But 0-3? Even more dire by an order of magnitude. Since 1990, only four of 157 squads (2.5%) to begin 0-3 have made the playoffs – and none of them reached the Super Bowl.
2. In that vein, the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and reigning AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals are relieved to be off the schneid, all of them winning Sunday.
3. Ditto the Tennessee Titans, who effectively won an elimination game with the Las Vegas Raiders, who also began Sunday 0-2. Last season, Tennessee was the AFC’s No. 1 playoff seed, while Las Vegas earned a wild card.
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4. Dating back to their 2013 season at Fresno State, Raiders QB Derek Carr and WR Davante Adams have connected on a TD pass in 12 consecutive games. Might be the only thing that provides them solace given Vegas is now the league’s only 0-3 outfit.
Fins were dominated on the stat sheet by the Buffalo Bills, the preseason Super Bowl darlings suffering their first loss of the season 21-19 despite outgaining Miami 497-212 and running 51 more offensive plays than the Dolphins.The NFL Players Association initiated a review of the team’s handling of Tagovailoa’s injury. Tagovailoa and coach Mike McDaniel characterized the injury as a lower-back issue, not one involving the QB’s head.
10. As for the already infamous “butt punt” from Miami veteran Thomas Morstead? It was the ugly way to reach the proper conclusion. Morstead could’ve taken a safety by more conventional – and less viral means – but the consequential free kick, which pushed Buffalo back to its own 23-yard line to start its final (failed) drive, was a key turning point in the Dolphins’ upset.
The Pack’s 14-12 escape act hardly delivered Gunfight at the O.K. Corral drama between a pair of epic passers – but should anyone really have expected aerial fireworks given the personnel issues these clubs are navigating?If New England has to go with QB2 Brian Hoyer for any extended period, Bill Belichick and Co. are in serious trouble.
14. MVP frontrunner? Though Hurts has a claim, too, it might be Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, who’s now accounted for 12 TDs in three games after throwing for four and running for one in Sunday’s 37-26 defeat of the Pats.
14a. Jackson has also rushed for more than 100 yards in successive weeks and has done so a dozen times in his career, extending his own league record among quarterbacks.
14b. Lastly, on Sunday he became the first player during the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to rush for at least 100 yards and throw for at least three TDs in back-to-back games.
15. Lovie Smith Bowl? His old team, the Chicago Bears, didn’t seem to miss their former coach much in a 23-20 win over Smith’s Houston Texans. The Bears last reached the Super Bowl with Smith at the helm in 2006.
16. Carson Wentz Bowl? His old team, the Eagles, didn’t seem to miss their former quarterback at all in a 24-8 shellacking of Wentz’s Washington Commanders. The Eagles last reached the Super Bowl with Wentz under center in 2017 … for most of the season anyway.
arguably playing the worst football in the league, somehow bowed up to beat the seemingly elite Kansas City Chiefs 20-17.
20. K.C. QB Patrick Mahomes threw his first interception of 2022 on his team’s final play to seal the win for Indy. Mahomes expressed his displeasure with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy regarding the Chiefs’ lack of urgency to get into field-goal position at the end of the first half, instead willing to let the clock run out while nursing a 14-10 lead.
21. Didn’t help at the end of the game when Kansas City DT Chris Jones was flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on what would have been a drive-killing sack to the Colts. Instead, Indianapolis’ march concluded five minutes later with a game-winning TD pass from QB Matt Ryan to rookie TE Jelani Woods – a score that only gave Mahomes 24 seconds to work with.
Dan Campbell’s decision to take his foot off the accelerator late in Sunday’s game, opting for a (failed) 54-yard FG attempt with 74 seconds remaining and his team up by three. The Lions, who were 4-for-6 on fourth down in the game, surrendered the game-winning TD on the Minnesota Vikings’ ensuing drive. “I should have gone for it,” Campbell said afterward. “I just felt like, ‘You know what? Let’s kick the field goal. We go up by six and force them to score a touchdown for the win.'”
24. Early vote for Bears LB Roquan Smith, who “held in” amid a nasty contract dispute with Chicago’s front office this summer, as the NFC Defensive Player of the Week. Smith racked up 16 tackles against the Texans, but it was his interception of QB Davis Mills with 65 seconds to go that paved the way for the Bears’ game-winning field goal.
25. Interim New York Jets QB Joe Flacco turned the ball over four times Sunday (2 INTs, 2 fumbles). If the NYJ weren’t already inclined to ground Flacco in favor of Zach Wilson, who’s recovering from preseason knee surgery, Sunday’s performance may sway the decision.
38-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
29. Jacksonville QB Trevor Lawrence may be arriving. Touted as a generational prospect when he was taken first overall in the 2021 draft, Lawrence is playing his best professional football with five TD passes and no turnovers during his team’s two-game win streak.
30. How did we not focus on the hirsute aspect of the Jags-Bolts matchup? Props to the NFL’s social media warriors.
Rihanna. Should be quite a show – within the show – as she joins musical legends like Michael Jackson, U2, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, Tom Petty, Bruno Mars, The Who and last year’s collaboration between Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar as Super Sunday entertainment performers.
32. If the season ended today – it doesn’t – the Jaguars (2-1) would be AFC South champions and a No. 2 playoff seed. Talk about Urban renewal.
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Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis.