Well, well well!! Week 3 is in the books and the NFC North is in a state of chaos. The NFC North is led by *checks notes* the Chicago Bears (2-1) after three weeks of the season. The Vikings (1-1-1) and Packers (1-1-1) were embarrassed by the Bills and Redskins in Week 3. The Lions (1-2) throttled the defending AFC Champion New England Patriots and Tommy Brady pretty handily on Sunday Night football to start their rise to North champion. Matt Patricia is now the mentor to Belichick.
Buffalo Bills 27 Minnesota Vikings 6
Wow! Rookie Josh Allen took the reigns for the Bills and stuck the Vikings horn right up their own ass. Ask Shooter. Allen had a 111 QB rating in his first start and the Bills forced 3 turnovers on Kirk Cousins. Cousins fumbled twice and was picked once making life easier for Allen. The two fumbles gave the Bills 10 points after Buffalo scored on the opening possession. They were up 17-0 quickly in the game and led 27-0 at half time. It was a thorough beat down. Cousins threw a late TD in garbage time for the only 6 points of the day for Minnesota. Buffalo went from the worst team in the league to a decent team. This was a bad loss at home for the Vikings.
Washington Redskins 31 Green Bay Packers 17
The Redskins destroyed Green Bay in the first half for a 28-10 lead. Paul Richardson scored a 46 yard deep ball on the first drive. Green Bay punted followed by the Redskins punt. Green Bay punted again and Rodgers was fine but the Packers dropped many balls and committed penalties to kill drives. The Redskins responded with a 10 play 79 yard drive for a 14-0 lead.
Green Bay notched a field goal drive and got a big interception to change the tide but the Packers squandered the chance and were forced to punt. Redskins drove 98 yards down the Packers throat and took command at 21-3. 34 yards to Jordan Reed and *checks notes* Adrian Peterson 41 yard run were the highlights of the drive. Smith capped the drive with a TD pass to Jamison Crowder.
Rodgers responded with a beautiful 64 yard TD to Geronimo Allison but the Packers defense was still asleep. Washington marched 75 yards on 5 plays with a 50 yard pass to *checks notes* Vernon Davis. Adrian Peterson rushed for the TD and commanding 28-10 half time lead.
Green Bay stormed out in the second half with a quick TD but wouldn’t score the rest of the game. Green Bay’s defense actually rebounded well holding Washington to 3 in the second half. The first half performance was too poor from Green Bay and they lost their first game of the year. Rodgers had a 93 rating due to some drops.
Chicago Bears 16 Arizona Cardinals 14
The Bears took the lead in the division with a road win against the lowly Arizona Cardinals. Arizona built a 14-0 lead and slowly died and losing to the Bears 16-14. The Bears defense was strong yet again with good pressure and forced some turnovers (3 picks and 1 fumble). Trubisky wasn’t good with a 73.5 QB rating and the Bears only ran at 3.9 YPC. However, they scored just enough points and ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE. Wait, nobody thought they were a first place team.
Detroit Lions 26 New England Patriots 10
Yes, that score is correct. The Lions dominated the Patriots and got back in the NFC North race. The mentee became the mentor as Matt Patricia outclassed and outcoached Bill Belichick. Tom Brady was kept off the field most of the night and earned only a 63 QB rating. Detroit’s secondary finally showed up and Darius Slay had a big pick on a Brady deep ball. Gronk was doubled all night and DeShawn Shead really played well since re-signing with Detroit before Week 3. Mistake to cut him for sure but glad he is back.
The Lions won with smart passing and running the ball well. Yes the Lions had a 100 yard rusher for the first time in 70 games. Kerryon Johnson had 101 yards and looked great. Blount had some tough runs and Stafford only made one mistake.
Golden Tate, Marvin Jones and Kenny Golladay all had nice contributions and the Lions controlled the time of possession with many long drives. They settled for four field goals though with two nice TD drives (Golladay and Marvin Jones).
Detroit dominated the first half up 13-3. They let the Patriots back in after the Stafford pick in the 3rd Quarter and a Brady TD to James White. The Lions responded with a huge TD drive with a long deep ball to Marvin Jones and great defense. Stafford had a 101 rating on the day. Detroit shored up the run defense with more 4-3 looks and Eli Harold had two nice coverage sacks in big moments. The Lions won without Ansah/Hyder and it feels good.
Detroit must continue the momentum in Dallas next week. Boombaya!!