NFL Week 3 Thoughts

I may do this weekly but I haven't totally decided yet. This is going to mostly consist of random thoughts by me. They probably won't be long form or anything like that. Maybe a couple of sentences about a particular player or team. So let's go...

Barkevious Mingo has 6 tackles and 2 sacks through the first 3 games of the season. I would like to see a written apology for all of the sports writers that bashed the Browns for taking him with their first round pick. Mingo has been a super athletic player and really causes issues on the line for other teams. So far he's my defensive rookie of the year.

Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Washington, NY Giants and Jacksonville are all 0-3. Only 3 teams have started 0-3 since 1990 and rebounded to make the playoffs and zero teams have done it since 1998. I know we like to say "it's early" but I think 0-3 is a good indicator that you aren't making the playoffs. The math is a really hard thing to overcome. Just to go 9-7 these teams would have to go 9-4 the rest of the way. And have you seen these teams play football? Woof... it's for the dogs.

I haven't quite figured out the Tennessee Titans yet. They seem to have a tough and gritty defense that keeps the offense in the games. Jake Locker has played pretty well so far too. The main knock I have against the Titans are that they beat an awful Steeler team and a pretty mediocre San Diego team. I think they'll probably beat the Jets next week and then their real challenge is going to be Kansas City. Who would have thought that would be a critical game?

Chip Kelly really doesn't seem to understand how NFL football works. He doesn't seem to understand that you're not going to wear down the opposing defense by just running a bunch of rapid fire plays. He also made the classic misstep of implementing his offense before he had the players to do it. So now the Eagles are running an offense that have averaged 20 minutes of possession the last two games and are leaving the D out their for 40 minutes a game. That's how you wear down an NFL calibur defense. It seems like the league adjusted to this style almost immediately and have it figured out. A couple of stops and the team just falls apart.

Peyton Manning is the MVP no questions asked thus far.

I think the Cincinnati Bengals are maybe the second best team in the AFC. They've gutted out two close wins, a feat which previous Bengals teams have struggled with. The Green Bay win was ugly but that was a signature win by a team that hasn't really had any in the Marvin Lewis era. This is the year for the Bengals to make a playoff run if they ever intend to.