The 2021 NFL season is still in its infancy, but we are learning a lot about certain teams and players. Many franchises still have a chance to make some things shake this year.
As you know, we give you a breakdown week by week of what’s going on in the league. So do me and favor and just flow with me.
Let’s check out what happened in Week 3.
Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams saved the day for the Packers once again.
In a great game on Sunday Night, Jimmy Garoppolo took the 49ers down the field and scored a touchdown to take the lead with less than a minute to go. However, they left too much time for Rodgers, who made a couple of passes to Adams in the middle of the field. This allowed Mason Crosby to kick the 51-yard game-winner and allow the cheeseheads to steal this game.
Going into San Fran and beating a good 49ers team is nothing to scoff at. For a team that looked worse than a shopping addict’s credit score in Week 1, the Packers have bounced back to prove that they are as legit as everyone thought they would be.
Green Bay can now be invited back into the conversation as one of the preeminent contenders in the NFC. Rodgers will play and so will Adams. If both can stay healthy, they’ll always give their team a chance to win. Not to mention Aaron Jones, whose versatility out of the backfield will be a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses.
If the Packers’ D can play well enough to get crucial stops or force timely turnovers when the momentum of the game needs to shift, they’ll be able to make opponents sweat more than Michael Irvin under studio lights.
For the 49ers, the NFC West will make the road to prosperity extremely tough. But they are a good team, and they’ll have some things to say this season. I just don’t know if they are dynamic enough with Garoppolo to beat out the rest of the quarterbacks in the division who also have very good talent around them.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like Garoppolo was bad last night. Against 90 percent of the quarterbacks in this league, scoring a touchdown with 37 seconds left all but solidifies a win. But sadly with Garoppolo, that’s the point in his career that he’s at. He has to prove that he can beat the 10 percent of guys who can win a game in a situation like that, and not the 90 percent who can’t. When you look at it logically it seems like a crazy thing to say, but that’s Jimmy G’s reality and it’s the reality for the 49ers.
The Packers will have a higher ceiling moving forward than the 49ers, but these will both be good teams that will have a chance to make a playoff run.
The rest of the league has caught up with Kansas City.
The days of just relying on Patrick Mahomes to save the team by making a play downfield to Tyreek Hill or Travis Kelce are nearing their end. The Chiefs’ defense looks like the inside of my garbage disposal. They can’t stop the run or the pass and good teams are just moving the ball at will on them.
The Chiefs had four turnovers yesterday (two picks, and two fumbles) and set up the Chargers in scoring position far too many times.
We all knew the Chargers would be a good team, so it’s no surprise they beat the Chiefs. But what’s surprising is the way the Chiefs lost, and have now dropped back-to-back games . It seems like that aura of invincibility is starting to slip from them.
They need to start learning how to improve that defense and they need to stop playing with the arrogance that no one can beat them, because it’s becoming clear that some of these teams out here actually can.
The New Orleans Saints gave the Patriots more problems than a retail manager who cares way too much about his job.
The Pats’ outing yesterday was the first time all season where Mac Jones looked a little shaky. The Saints hit New England in the mouth early like a 7 a.m. high school fight, forcing them to play from behind for the majority of the game. That’s not a position Jones and the Patriots are built to win from at this point. Their focus on running the ball and staying at manageable downs and distances allows Jones to thrive with his short passing and decision making, but it won’t make for many come-from-behind victories.
Jones had to throw the ball 51 times on Sunday with only 49 rushing yards to supplement the passing game. That’s not a recipe for success. The Saints, on the other hand, seemed to have found their groove again and Jameis Winston got back to playing smart football. They will be a contender in the NFC this season.
I do believe that the Bengals are better than a lot of people give them credit for, which is why I’m not surprised that Joe Burrow and crew could beat a divisional foe like Pittsburgh at home.
What I am surprised to see is how this Pittsburgh offense continues to look as exciting as a bowl of cold oatmeal. How you can throw the ball nearly 60 times and leave the game only scoring 10 points? That’s like going into a food festival with a pocket full of money and walking about with a granola bar and bottled water.
Burrow was highly efficient yesterday. He only threw the ball 18 times but had three touchdowns. Two of them went to first-round pick Ja’Marr Chase, who has silenced a lot of critics in the first couple weeks of the season by catching four touchdown passes already. That’s tied for second in the NFL right now.
Pittsburgh has some issues to resolve and Cincy is a team on an upward trend.