5 things we learnt from NFL week 3

Well what a beginning of a season it has been with all 3 weeks having provided big scoring games and there has been excitement across the NFL as the league starts to take shape.

There are still 6 unbeaten teams after 3 weeks and some really high quality matches on show with the Arizona Cardinals, New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills having racked up over 100 points in the three games combined. Teams have shone but teams have also shown weaknesses.

Jonathon Timmiss takes us through the action as we look at five things we learnt from the weekend’s NFL games.

Can Brady be stopped?

Brady has had an amazing start to the season with 3 wins out of 3. He has thrown 9 touchdowns and 1112 yards for Bill Belichick’s  Patriots side this season. He is the leading quarterback for total yards this season and is joint second for the most amount of touchdowns thrown and hasn’t been intercepted once. Can he be stopped by any team at all this season?

There is a good chance is the answer. They play a few defenses that have been really strong this season. The Jets and the Bronco’s are good examples of these defenses. Also they have their bye week next week(4) which is really early on in the season. With this being so early fatigue could kick in and this could affect the latter games of the season for the Patriots and Brady.

Rodgers is back to his old self

In the last 2 weeks, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been a bit hit and miss. He only managed to get 438 yards in two games. This isn’t like Rodgers though, in the previous seasons he has been averaging well over 350 yards per game and in some seasons he has managed an average of over 400 yards per game. This week he managed to get 333 yards with 5 touchdowns as the Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 38-28.

Rodgers faces the San Francisco 49ers who haven’t had the best of starts and have let over 40 points past them in both of the last 2 weeks, and have only beaten a weak Vikings team from week 1. Also Rodgers has beaten 30 of the 31 other teams with this win over the Chiefs. Only the Bengals are a team that Rodgers hasn’t beaten.

Are the Cowboys injuries going to cost them dearly?

The Dallas Cowboys have been hit with several big injuries over the past few weeks. The biggest is the injury of quarterback Tony Romo. He has been put on the official injury list meaning he will be out for a minimum of 8 weeks. He was put on this list in order to get a replacement for him but they look set to see how back up Brandon Weeden fares over the next few weeks.

Injuries to their big players don’t stop at the quarterback position with wide receiver, Dez Byrant out for a few weeks. These injuries showed that they were costly this week as they lost 39-28 to the Falcons. They lacked the intensity that Romo and Bryant have and this will cost them in the weeks to come.

What has happened to the Saints?

The New Orleans Saints had a couple of years at the top of the NFL at the beginning of the decade which included a Superbowl XIV win and several Play-off appearances. One of the main players in this roster was quarterback Drew Brees. He was a very versatile and dominant quarterback who easily won over various opponents.

However in the last couple of years he has been less notable and it is doubtful he will be spoken of in the same breath as a Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers who are still the industry standard as quarterback’s and it seems that the Saints have relied on him in order to be a good team. With injury and form affecting Brees, it seems that the Saints are struggling. Will the Saints find the form that they had?

Can any defense stop the Cardinals?

Last week I said that the Arizona Cardinals had come out of no where to become a dominant team. It seems that teams are still under estimating them. The Cardinals are the top scorers with 129 total points and an average of 42 points per game. They are a versatile team and have the most touchdowns in the whole NFL under Carson Palmer at the helm.They have had 9 passing, 4 Rushing, 1 return and 3 from Interceptions.

Defenses will find it hard to stop the Cardinals and unless they get hit with a big Injury they could go all the way. They should easily win their Division and should get 1st or 2nd seed. However the Play-offs are a whole new battleground as the Packers went 15-1 in a season and got beat in the Play-offs by the 6th seeded team.

All stats and scores were got from NFL.com