The first three weeks of the NFL season has had its fair share of surprises. In fact, some teams have unexpectedly excelled on the field, while others have stumbled out of the gate.
The three teams that fans expected to be bad: the Oakland Raiders, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, are all 0-3 and the race for the number one pick in the draft is on. The Bucs managed to lose to backup quarterbacks Derek Anderson and Austin Davis as they were embarrassingly beaten by Carolina and St. Louis.
They then went on to get drubbed 56-14 by the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football.
Jacksonville, while holding a 17-point lead against Philadelphia in the first week managed to blow it and is already near the bottom of the league in most categories. The Raiders have struggled to begin the season but rookie quarterback Derek Carr looks solid so far.
However, the first year signal caller is showing that he has a long way to go to make a name for himself.
After three weeks, there are three undefeated teams left, and they aren’t Denver, Seattle or New England.
The Arizona Cardinals, Philadelphia Eagles, and the Cincinnati Bengals are currently 3-0 and are headed in the right direction. Arizona beat the 49ers 23-14 with backup quarterback Drew Stanton starting. What the heck is going on in the desert?
Cincinnati has finally become the team to beat in the AFC North and Philadelphia looks to take advantage of an ugly looking NFC East.
The San Diego Chargers are finally playing like a team that is living up to their name. After losing 18-17 to Arizona in Week One, the Chargers defeated Seattle in Week Two (who beat the Broncos in week 3)and beat the Bills in Week Three.
While it’s still only a fifth of the way through the season, it seems that the Chargers might give the Broncos a run for the AFC West title. Speaking about the Broncos, they weren’t able to defeat the Seahawks in Week Three and beat both the Colts and Chiefs by only a touchdown in the previous two weeks. Is it finally the year that Peyton Manning and co. look vulnerable?
While Arizona is off to a 3-0 start, both the San Francisco 49ers and St. Louis Rams are sitting at 1-2. Colin Kaepernick’s crew doesn’t look like the same team that has made two NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl appearance in the last three years. With Arizona playing hot and Seattle still the favorite to repeat as Super Bowl champions has to dampen the 49ers spirit.
The NFC will get interesting, as the NFC South has already as the Carolina Panthers are playing great football again and the Atlanta Falcons are coming back from their disastrous 4-12 season last year.
After three weeks, they already have half as many wins as they did last year. Though the Saints may be off to a rough 1-2 start, it’s hard to ever count Drew Brees out, as the Saints always seem to have a way to make things interesting.
Arguably, the most aggravating team in the NFL, the Detroit Lions, is are once again off to a solid start after defeating beating rival Green Bay and only allowing them to put up seven points. What seems to be a solid running back duel consisting of Joique Bell and Reggie Bush behind Matthew Stafford and the dangerous defensive line the Lions have, they so far have impressed the critics.
They still felt flat when they lost 24-7 against Carolina in Week Two, but still being early in the season, a lot can change between now and January.
Connor Anthony can be reached at connor.anthony@spartans.ut.edu