NFL Week 3: four key takeaways

By Alex Merson

Somehow, Week 3 has come and gone already in the 2024 NFL season, and as always, there is plenty to talk about. The week produced some great comebacks, mouth-watering performances and some big wins for some teams.

Here are four key takeaways from the Week 3 games:

Washington has found their quarterback

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In the late game of the Monday night doubleheader, the Washington Commanders faced off against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals, starting the season 0-2, needed a win to get their season going. However, the Commanders, led by rookie QB Jayden Daniels, went toe-to-toe in a thriller and held them off to take their record to 2-1.

The Bengals started perfectly, as Joe Burrow found his superstar receiver Ja’Marr Chase for a 41-yard touchdown on the opening drive. The number two overall pick, Jayden Daniels, came out firing back, constructing a perfect drive that ended with Brian Robinson Jr running in a one-yard touchdown. In the second quarter, Daniels threw a perfect pass to Terry McLaurin on a deep ball to set up the Commanders inside the five. Daniels would run in for his third rushing touchdown of the season, and the Commanders took a 21-13 lead into the half.

The Commanders would start the second half how they began the first, with Daniels putting together another great drive to get them down the one-yard line. This time, Daniels found his offensive lineman, Trent Scott, for his first career passing touchdown.

The teams traded possessions, Burrow threw two touchdowns on back-to-back drives to make it a five-point game and give the Bengals hope. With just under five minutes left in the game, the Commanders put the ball in the rookie’s hands on fourth down, and he found Ertz for a first down. In the next set of downs, on a third and seven on the Bengals 27-yard line, Daniels heaved a pass perfectly towards the endzone, and Terry McLaurin came down with it for a game-sealing touchdown.

Daniels, the Heisman winner out of LSU, threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns, with just two incompletions on the day, setting the NFL rookie record with a 91.3% completion percentage. On the season, Daniels has led the Commanders to a 2-1 start, with five total touchdowns and an average of 221 passing yards per game.

There is still plenty of football to be played, and the Commanders have a tough trip to Arizona to face the Cardinals next weekend, however, Daniels has looked great thus far, and if it continues, he could be looking at the offensive rookie of the year award at the end of the season, and potentially a first playoff berth in four seasons.

Malik Willis comes back to haunt the Titans

Malik Willis started his second consecutive game for the Green Bay Packers, after Jordan Love went down with an injury late in the game during the Packers’ week one defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles. After winning last week against the Indianapolis Colts, the attention turned to the team that drafted Malik Willis in the third round of the 2022 NFL draft, the Tennessee Titans, in Tennessee.

Willis came out hot, hitting Jaylen Reed and Christian Watson in the opening drive to set his team up inside the five-yard line. Willis capped off the impressive start with a touchdown run of his own, giving the Packers the perfect start. The Titans responded with a touchdown before the Packers drove down the field again to set themselves up with a field goal to regain the lead.

Jaire Alexander intercepted a pass from Will Levis on the Titans’ next drive and took it back for a touchdown at the end of the first quarter, giving the Packers a 17-7 lead. The game became a little cagey, with both teams having to punt. However, towards the end of the half, Willis zipped a perfect pass to receiver Christian Watson on 3&18 to get the Packers into field goal range, which gave the Packers a 13-point lead going into the half.

At the start of the second half, Willis found running back Emanuel Wilson on a screen pass, and Wilson took it 31 yards for the touchdown. The Packers opted to keep the ball on the ground for the rest of the game, with a substantial lead and would win the contest 30-14.

Willis finished the game 13/19 for 202 yards and a touchdown, as well as six carries for 73 yards and a score on the ground. In the three games that Willis started for the Tennessee Titans in 2022, he only managed to throw for 234 yards, with no passing touchdowns and three interceptions.

Whilst Willis will most likely go back to his role as Jordan Love’s backup when Love returns, he has proved that he can stick around in the league and has set the Packers up perfectly for another run at the playoffs, winning both games to take their record to 2-1.

Malik Nabers is the new OBJ in New York

Last week it was Marvin Harrison Jr taking the credit for the rookie wide receivers, and whilst he had another touchdown and solid performance, it is impossible to not talk about Malik Nabers after the Giants’ last game.

Nabers, the sixth pick out of LSU in this past draft, has been unstoppable to begin the season. He leads the rookies with 271 receiving yards and sits in fifth across the league. He also has three touchdowns, which is the joint-highest in the NFL.

The receiver opened up week one with five catches for 66 yards and followed it up with a huge ten catches for 127 yards and a touchdown in week two. This past week, Nabers proved his worth once again, with eight receptions, 78 yards and a pair of touchdowns, as the Giants secured their first win of the season against the Browns.

Both touchdowns came within a minute and a half of each other late in the second quarter. The first of those touchdowns was an incredible snag in the back of the endzone for a three-yard score. The throw looked like it may have been over his head, but Nabers got up highest and placed both feet down in the corner of the endzone.

The second touchdown was again from inside the five, with just fifteen seconds left before halftime, quarterback Daniel Jones zipped it to Nabers who found himself wide open, and he brought it in to give the Giants a 21-7 lead at the half, which they would hold on to.

Nabers is the first player in NFL history to record 20+ interceptions, 250+ receiving yards and 3+ touchdowns in his first three career games. It has been a remarkable start for him, and whilst the Giants have many things that they need to fix on their team, having a star receiver is not one of them.

Josh Allen leads the early MVP race

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It is still early days, but Josh Allen looks to be the early front-runner for MVP after three weeks of the season. Allen had led the Bills to a 3-0 record, and just had a monster game on Monday night football, throwing four touchdowns in a blowout victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

It takes his total up to seven on the season, whilst throwing no interceptions, something only three quarterbacks have done so far. Allen has also run in for two touchdowns so far. The start for Allen may come as a surprise for some, after his number one receiver Stefon Diggs joined the Houston Texans, no one was really sure who would step up and be the main target.

Whilst Khalil Shakir has had the most targets, receptions and yards, Allen has found six different receivers for his seven touchdown throws. He has been able to constantly find targets all over the field, and his 75% passing completion percentage, which is second-best in the league, has been key in giving the Bills such a good start.

So far on performance, the man closest behind Allen would probably be Sam Darnold, who, like Allen has led his team, the Minnesota Vikings, to a 3-0 record. Darnold also had a perfect week three performance, throwing four touchdowns in a blowout victory against the Houston Texans. Darnold leads the league in touchdown passes with eight but does has two interceptions to his name.

The Vikings have three tough games coming up, as they travel to the Packers, before facing the Jets and the Lions at home. If Darnold can keep up his impressive performances for those games, he may have a serious chance of being in that conversation.

Behind those two, there rest of the competition is mixed, the only other quarterbacks that are 3-0 are Geno Smith, Justin Fields and Patrick Mahomes. We know that Mahomes will always be up in the conversation, but he hasn’t started pretty, throwing four interceptions and just five touchdowns.

After just three weeks there is no doubt that there will be many players moving around on the MVP ladder each week, but Josh Allen is certainly the early front-runner.

ALEX MERSON

NFL ANALYST

Previously writing for Ninety-Nine Yards, Alex is a sports content creator and Football Journalism graduate from the University of Derby. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexMerseJourno.

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