By Brandon Simmons
Backups Backups Cause It’s On
Plenty of teams have turned to their backup QB’s this past weekend because of unfortunate early season injuries. The list includes Tyrod Taylor for the New York Jets, Carson Wentz for the Minnesota Vikings, Mac Jones for the 49ers and Jake Browning for the Cincinnati Bengals. Browning and Jones are the longest tenured of this bunch as they have been starting and playing, respectively, since Week 2. Taylor suits up for New York in place of Justin Fields, who is under concussion protocol. However, the biggest storyline of this was Wentz making history as the first player to start for 6 different teams in 6 seasons. It’s as absurd fact that kind of overshadowed the real fact that the Vikings won the game. Wentz was inserted into the starting lineup after Vikings QB J,J, McCarthy was ruled out with a knee injury.
It might seem insignificant that a bunch of backup QB’s were started during a week of the NFL season, until you realize it’s only Week 3. Lot of teams’ fortunes can change based on who is at the quarterback position. Teams like the Jets and Vikings have new signal callers starting this season and can’t afford to lose any time with them. Injuries are going to happen, but starting QB’s will not.
The Giants Need to Stop Playing Around
After their Sunday night loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, the New York Giants have decided to name rookie QB Jaxson Dart as their starter. Tuesday, the sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter made that Dart is expected to be a starter for Week 4. nNo time would be better for him to start than right now.
All signs have pointed to Jaxson Dart taking over this team for the future. The Giants traded up to getting Dart in the first round, right after they signed Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston in the offseason. Wilson has been the starter so far, but has not managed to generate any wins. In 2 of the games he’s played, Wilson has not even scraped 200 yards or threw for a touchdown in either game. However, for the past few years, Wilson has been trending downward in his career so none of this seems surprising, but it kind of makes the perfect situation to bring in the rookie for a spark. Daboll seems to be high on the Dart and has even inserted him in a couple of games. It’s likely that they like him too much and fear they will shatter his confidence should things get too disastrous too quickly. If that’s the case, then keep him out of the spot plays. It’s either start him or not. It’s possible that him starting could put a spark in this team to turn things around. Not saying that the Giants would make a playoff run, but even competing for a playoff spot would be a success, especially with a rookie QB.
What’s Going on With the Texans?
The Houston Texans are a surprisingly 0-3 because of a familiar problem. Inefficiencies with the Texans offensive line has stalled the offense, causing them to lose their first 3 games of the season. This has happened after they fired their offensive coordinator, bobby Slowik, and replaced him with Nik Caley, a former assistant coach for the Los Angeles Rams. They traded left tackle Laremy Tunsil then drafted Aerontae Ersery in the 2nd of this year’s draft and signed guards Laken Tomlin as well as Ed Ingram. However, none of that has worked as Texans QB C.J. Stroud has been sacked multiple times in every game this season. The failure of the offensive line has also failed to provide running lanes for the newly signed running back Nick Chubb. Defensively, they have held opponents to some of the lowest scoring this year but missed tackles and blown coverages have caused the unit to give up big plays early and late in these games.
A team that was once considered a solid contender has almost flipped back to their fledgling ways after one offseason. The offensive line started the year with struggles, as the entire group dealt with injuries, which rearranged the starters each week. That misplacement caused 2 straight games of Stroud getting sacked 3 times and not allowing the offense to gwtnin rhythm. Imjuries also affected other areas such as their wide receiver room. The Texans lost wide receiver Tank Dell last season to a knee injury, which he will spend all of this year healing from and their new receiver, Christian Kirk, whom they acquired in a trade, has been hurt to start the year as well. . All of this inconsistency on offense has affected this team greatly.
The defense has been solid but you need points. A new offense and offensive line is going to take time to adjust and be effective, but it should not be this long as good as this team has been the past 2 years. A once dangerous team is looking at dangerous results for their season.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to field goal blocks. Week 3 saw 3 games where field goals were blocked for scores. In the game between the Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers, Browns defensive back Denzel Ward blocked a potential game winning field goal to set Cleveland up for their own game winning attempt. In the game between the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneer, Jeta defensive end Will McDonald blocked a field goal and returned it for a score that gave NY the lead. In the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams, there were 2 blocks. The first block came when Philly was down 26-21 and it gave them momentum to go score and take the lead. The 2nd block came on the Rams’ attempt at a game winning field goal, in which Eagles defensive tackle blocked it and returned it for a touchdown to put the game away. Each of these teams won, except for the Jets, which is unfortunate since Jets head coach Aaron Glenn probably produced the meme of the year so far.
Shut out to injuries. Sunday, 2 major injuries occurred during game action. San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa suffered an ACL injury during the 1st quarter of the win against the Arizona Cardinals. Los Angeles Chargers running back Najee Harris suffered a torn Achilles during the team’s win against the Denver Broncos on Sunday. Hopefully these 2 guys will make full effective recoveries and come back even better.
Week 4 is here and teams are either looking to build their momentum still hoping to turn early season misfortunes into something better. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will host the Philadelphia Eagles in a matchup of 2 unbeaten teams. Both of these squads are coming off huge late game wins and it should be the biggest storyline of the weekend but unfortunately it won’t; might not even be the most drama-filled game. The Dallas Cowboys are hosting the Green Bay Packers and it won’t just be another game in their rivalry. It will be the first time Packers defensive end Micah Parsons returns to Dallas and face the Cowboys since he was traded from them a week before the regular season. These two teams were likely set to have an intense battle even if a trade storyline didn’t exist and now that adds more fire to the fire. But until then…I’ll holla.
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