Around the League: Week 3 Results

While not a terribly crazy week in terms of scores or upsets, Week 3 definitely had a lot of great football played and some interesting developments. Let's take a look.   New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills As I expected, both Tom Brady and Ryan Fitzpatrick showed that there is no "I" in defense, meaning they aren't the slightest bit worried about opposing secondaries. A Fred Jackson touchdown that got called back late in the 4th quarter actually helped the Bills out, who took the lead and then gave Tom Brady only 18 seconds to score. Buffalo is 3-0 for the first time since 2008. Can any teams in the AFC East play defense? -Jared Jared - 1 for 1 Travis - 0 for 1 Buffalo 34 New England 31 San Francisco 49ers at Cincinnati Bengals A second game that went just like I thought it would, these two sneakily good defenses did just enough to lose the interest of the masses. I didn't watch much of this game as there were far more entertaining games going on. Cincinnati is young on offense and flatly, the 49ers are in the Andrew Luck race. -Jared Jared - 2 for 2 Travis - 0 for 2 San Francisco 13 Cincinnati 8 Miami Dolphins at Cleveland Browns Well, Colt McCoy is showing week in and week out that he can play in this league. The only reason this game wasn't out of reach is that Peyton Hillis was sick and didn't play. Otherwise, the Browns run away with it. Miami is absolutely in the Andrew Luck race. -Jared Jared - 2 for 3 Travis - 1 for 3 Miami 16 Cleveland 17 Denver Broncos at Tennessee Titans Denver is hurting on both sides of the ball and Tennessee is trying to figure it out with new quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. I think Kenny Britt's season-ending ACL/MCL tear was the reason the Titans didn't put Denver away earlier. -Jared Jared - 2 for 4 Travis - 1 for 4 Tennessee 17 Denver 14 Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings This is one of those games where I get to say "this is why the spread exists". The Vikings blew a 10+ point first half lead for the 3rd straight week as Detroit improved to 3-0 for the first time since 1980. -Jared Jared - 2 for 5 Travis - 1 for 5 Detroit 26 Minnesota 23  Houston Texans at New Orleans Saints Drew Brees was still Drew Brees. Darren Sproles makes Reggie Bush look like he should have never won the Heisman (which means giving it back isn't all that big of a deal  after all). The Texans really are missing out on Arian Foster's red zone running ability. That said, Houston really did give who I consider to be the #2 NFC team a run for their money. -Jared Jared - 3 for 6 Travis - 2 for 6 New Orleans 40 Houston 33 New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles I'm guessing Michael Vick's concussion was still lingering, as he looked sluggish and confused a few times. Eli Manning had a huge game despite missing Mario Manningham and Dominick Hixon. The NFC East is going to be a wild race all the way to the end. -Jared Jared - 3 for 7 Travis - 2 for 7 New York 29 Philadelphia 16 Jacksonville Jaguars at Carolina Panthers In a battle of below average teams featuring two rookie quarterbacks, on top of being played in abysmal conditions, this game went about as expected. Cam Newton played without turning the ball over for the first time and what do you know, Carolina wins. Congratulations are in order for Cam and the Panthers, who won their first game of the year with their rookie quarterback.  -Jared Jared - 4 for 8 Travis - 3 for 8 Carolina 16 Jacksonville 10 Kansas City Chiefs at San Diego Chargers Flatly, the reason this game wasn't a blowout is because Antonio Gates didn't play due to injury. Philip Rivers is off to a rocky start this year, having thrown 4 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. On the bright side, San Diego running back Ryan Mathews is steadily improving to the point of pushing Mike Tolbert's contributions to a minimal level. As far as the Chiefs are concerned, regardless of the score, this franchise is in trouble. -Jared Jared - 4 for 9 Travis - 3 for 9 San Diego 20 Kansas City 17 New York Jets at Oakland Raiders It appears that the AFC East is going to be an interesting race, much like the NFC East. I think a lot of people, myself included, figured the Jets were just refined to lose to the much less polished Raiders. Darren McFadden has my vote for Offensive MVP right now. -Jared Jared - 4 for 10 Travis - 4 for 10 Oakland 34 New York 24  Baltimore Ravens at St. Louis Rams Flatly, Baltimore is healthy and competitive year in and year out. St. Louis is neither. Rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith, a University of Maryland product, showed why he was taken in the second round as he caught 5 passes for 153 yards and 3 touchdowns. Colts fans think they have it bad. Try having one of the league's best rushers, your best receiver, your best cornerback, and a second year quarterback either out of the game or injured. Then add in a underwhelming offensive line and not much to speak of defensively. Recipe for disaster. -Jared Jared - 5 for 11 Travis - 5 for 11 Baltimore 37 St. Louis 7 Atlanta Falcons at Tampa Bay Buccaneers There's a reason the line was only 1.5 points between these two teams. Frankly, they're on par with each other on both sides of the ball. Matt Ryan isn't nearly as efficient with the football early this season as in season's past. Josh Freeman is managing games well thus far. The race for second place in the NFC South is on! -Jared Jared - 5 for 12 Travis - 5 for 12 Tampa Bay 16 Atlanta 13 Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears This game didn't go at all how I figured it would. See, I'm a Matt Forte fan. 9 rushes for 2 yards? I expected Chicago to try to hold onto the ball and keep it relatively low scoring given Chicago's awful offensive line and Green Bay's quick strike offense. Of course this isn't how it went. It's Lovie Smith. Whatever that means. -Jared Jared - 6 for 13 Travis - 6 for 13 Green Bay 27 Chicago 17 Arizona Cardinals at Seattle Seahawks I just... the entire NFC West is awful. All four teams. In fact, if I were any of these teams, I would be trying as hard as I can to be as awful as I can. Of course, that doesn't happen. Arizona, however, spent a ton of money on Kevin Kolb. So far, he's not awful. He only gave away a game to one of the bottom 3 teams in the league. No big deal, right? -Jared Jared - 6 for 14 Travis 6 for 14 Seattle 13 Arizona 10 Pittsburgh Steelers at Indianapolis Colts I'll be the first to tell you, I like what I'm seeing from both of these teams. I don't mean that ironically. Pittsburgh is aging and rebuilding. The Colts are missing some key pieces (to say the least). Pittsburgh is going to struggle within their own Division.  Beating Indianapolis at this point, especially only by 3, is no feat. -Jared Jared - 6 for 15 Travis - 7 for 15 Pittsburgh 23 Indianapolis 20 Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys Frankly, this is what I get for thinking Washington was worth anything. I like the toughness Tony Romo displayed. DeAngelo Hall should really reconsider who he talks smack to, especially given how awful his performance was Monday night. -Jared Jared - 6 for 16 Travis - 7 for 16 Dallas 18 Washington 16 Pick of the Week goes to Travis, who called the Raider's upset over the Jets.