Five Wide: 2022 Week Three

By Thomas Willoughby

So, week one was the week of the failed kicker. Week two was the week of the comeback. Week three…week of the underdog? Some mad results this weekend. I don’t think many of us expected Miami to get one over Buffalo, we certainly didn’t see Jacksonville doing the Chargers over, right? Denver getting a win over San Francisco, Carolina winning full stop, it’s been crazy. What a sport.

I think week three is when you can start to form a picture of what direction the league is headed. The good teams are largely thriving, the bad teams are languishing. Those middling ones are kind of just, well, middling. Little bit of time to sort themselves out, still, but fans of the Colts/Cardinals/Saints are starting to shuffle closer to the edge of their seat. We’re not quit at panic stations, but we’re getting there.

Unbeatables

Every year, without fail, we have a handful of teams that start the season very well. Not in terms of performance, necessarily, but in terms of results. Wins are the most valuable currency in the NFL’s economy, and starting a 3-0 is literally the best thing you can do. What comes with that is the question on everyone’s lips: can they do it? Will we finally see another team win every single game in a season? Not since the 1972 Dolphins have we seen a team achieve perfection, and I’m sick of it. Not because I have any stakes in the Dolphins or their rivals, nor because I particularly care for their achievement. It’s because I’m sick of seeing a bunch of old lads popping bottles when a team loses.

Which is why I’m all in on the remaining unbeaten teams achieving greatness. Heading out of week three of the 2022 season, we have the Miami Dolphins and the Philadelphia Eagles, two sides I don’t think anyone expected a great deal from this season, let alone some schmuck from England touting as unbeatable. But here we are, I guess. So, I’ll ask my own question again; can either of them do it?

“Probably not”, is the answer. Both teams have deficiencies that can be exploited (see Miami going down BIG in Baltimore), and both feel at least a year away from being serious contenders. What they both have in their favour, however, is a kindness of schedule. The Dolphins are benefitting from a 3rd place schedule, and, despite being in the same division as the Bills, should be either the favourites for each game they play, or at the very least very competitive. The Eagles, of course, are in a wasteland of a division, and should feel comfortable wrangling back the East from the Cowboys at this stage. Whether they can keep up this explosive offense for a full season, however, is another matter.

The great thing is that these two do not play each other this season. Get them through unbeaten, and plonk them in Arizona in February. Give me the Unbeaten Bowl as a Super Bowl, and get the ‘72 Dolphins a pitch-side view to the show, too.

Apologies to fans of the Dolphins and the Eagles for condemning your teams to defeats this weekend.

The Bored Bunch

I’m going to regret writing this, because I know that they’re going to snap and start laying waste to the league. But I will, because I have to deliver you fine people enough content to have me OldTakesExposed’d. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers: what’s going on there?

Their offseason was a semi-wild one, as Tom Brady decided to retire, then unretire in the space of about a fortnight. Bruce Arians called time on his coaching career, handing the reigns to Todd Bowles. Rob Gronkowski re-retired, however they replaced him with Julio Jones, which is as good an option as you can get when replacing one of the best to ever play his position. And they’ve kind of looked…bored?

Not boring. Bored. Don’t get my words twisted. Scoring loads of points is loads of fun, but it’s not the only path to victory. Through 3 games, the Buccaneers have scored 51 points, but have only conceded 27. That’s crazy, and their defense is putting the work in. But, man, that offense. Every yard seems to be a slog to pick up. Every throw seems to be a real struggle. And they don’t look like they could care less. On Sunday, they came up against a less than vintage Packers outfit, and lost 14-12. What’s going on there?

I’m fully aware that I’d effectively just released the Kraken. Mike Evans is back this weekend, and you can bet on him making up for lost time immediately. But something doesn’t feel quite right. Maybe it’s the loss of Arians. Maybe it’s father time knocking on the locker room door. But this Bucs outfit feels very different to the last two. Something to keep an eye on.

The Jacksonville Jaguars? Good? ...are you sure?

So I’m going to ask you a question, and I don’t want you to answer it straight away. Just mull it over, have a think, and get back to me at the end of the article. Are the Jacksonville Jaguars…good now? Like, this has plagued me since the beginning of the season, and I think I need to talk about it. Because, for as long as I’ve been following the sport, the Jaguars have been the model for how to not be a professional sports team. But, here they are, 2-1, top of the AFC South, having scored 84 points, looking positively competent. Is this for real?

On the best podcast in American Football (The Touchdown Review Show), I proudly proclaimed the Jacksonville Jaguars to be the worst team in the NFL, on the basis that they’ve been good exactly 2 times in their history. Until they prove me wrong, I could not take them seriously as anything more than the league’s whipping boys. The season started out with a close loss to the Washington Commadore 64’s, but (as listeners of the show know), I’ve long held the opinion that NFL Week 1 is effectively pre-season Week 4. They flew out of the traps in week two, however, bringing the hammer down on a listless Indianapolis 24-0, and followed up that performance with a 31-10 shellacking of everyone’s favourite Chargers. Granted, Justin Herbert is playing with a broken chest right now, but 31 points isn’t an easy figure to hit.

I guess when you’ve had a top 5 pick as many times as the Jags have had over the past decade, and have spent as much as they have over the off-season, there’s only so much losing you can do. Doug Pederson being your coach helps too. Tie him with a player of Trevor Lawrence’s talent, and you’ve got a recipe for success. This weekend they travel to Pederson’s former employer, the previously mentioned Philadelphia Eagles. A performance in Philly would go some way to answering that question. A result might answer it outright.

Lamarenaissance

I love Lamar Jackson, man. Every time he touches the ball, something exciting happens. He came into the league with so many knocks against him from allegedly professional scouts (“he’s a running back”, “he should convert to wide receiver” ring any bells?), and has been electric from day one. 2021 was a difficult one for him. Well, not just him personally, the Ravens at large. But Lamar took it personally. 2022, and he’s having none of it. What a player.

3 games, 10 touchdowns, 2 interceptions, 749 passing yards, another 243 yards on the ground, and 2 rushing touchdowns. Lamar Jackson is singlehandedly winning me games in fantasy, and games for the Ravens in real life. He torched the previously mentioned Miami Dolphins, and the Ravens folded. He carved up the vaunted Bill Belichick set up this past Sunday, taking matters into his own hands.

Lamar Jackson, barring anything unforeseen (touch wood), will be the NFL MVP this season. I have no doubt in my mind that he is the most exciting player in the league right now, backing it up with personal stats and team stats. He’s 25 years old, and has at least 6 or 7 more years at the top. The Ravens saw their last contract offered to Jackson turned down, and for good reason. Seeing what DeShaun Watson and Kyler Murray picked up this summer, he’s no doubt going to want some of that fully guaranteed pie himself. Every week, Jackson is adding another $10mil onto his asking price. If the Ravens don’t want to pony up…he’d look awfully cool in black and red.

London Calling

We’ll end this week with a look ahead to the one oncoming. Just over the horizon, the sun that is the NFL London Games is beginning to rise. Three games this season; Vikings @ Saints, Giants @ Packers, while closing with a return to Wembley Stadium seeing Broncos @ Jaguars. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

There’s something special about these games, man. Yeah, the quality is often pretty rubbish. Yes, we’ve never hosted a game between two teams with winning records. That said, if the Giants and the Packers win this weekend, that particular duck will have been broken. But the London games has an aura, or a feeling, unlike anything else in the NFL.

The Vikings are looking pretty reasonable this season. The Saints are disgusting. Tens of thousands will descend on North London this weekend to watch some of the brightest stars in the league. Justin Jefferson, Davlin Cook, Alvin Kamara, Wil Lutz. They’re all here. We get three or four of these a year. If you’re there for that game, drink it in this weekend. I’ll see you at Spurs next weekend, and at Wembley at the end of October. Shout me if you see me. Can’t wait.

Features Image Credit: Chris O’Meara-Associated Press

THOMAS IS A WRITER, AND REGULAR GUEST ON THE TOUCHDOWN REVIEW SHOW PODCAST, FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. YOU CAN FIND HIM @WILLO290592 ON TWITTER

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