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The theme for Week 3 will be for teams to earn their first win of the season.
Six teams entered Sunday’s games with two losses to start the new season, but that’s changed this week, with only the Tennessee Titans still winless after three games, although the Cincinnati Bengals and Jacksonville Jaguars could join them after Monday night.
Additionally, some of the Super Bowl contenders had some impressive performances and wins that cemented their status as heavy favorites to win the title.
Here are the key storylines from Sunday’s match:
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Two wins to open the NFL season might be seen as a fluke, but the Minnesota Vikings erased any concerns that their success was fleeting with a dominant 34-7 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday.
Any doubts that Minnesota could pull off a miracle in the first few weeks of the season were erased by another impressive offensive performance from Sam Darnold, who was a preseason reserve before first-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy was deemed out for the season.
Darnold completed 17 of 28 passes for 181 yards and four touchdowns against a strong Texans defense featuring Justin Jefferson, Aaron Jones, Jalen Naylor and Johnny Mundt.
The 27-year-old Darnold is enjoying a new lease on life with coach Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings, and Sunday’s game marked the first time Darnold has thrown multiple touchdowns in three consecutive games in his career.
Darnold has thrown four touchdown passes in one other game over 66 games with the New York Jets, Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers, but the streak came in just his third game with Minnesota.
According to the NFL, Darnold became just the fourth quarterback in Vikings history to start a season with a 3-0 record, joining Hall of Famers Fran Tarkenton, Brett Favre and Daunte Culpepper.
Afterward, O’Connell called Darnold’s performance against the Texans “really, really good.”
“He was smart, he was decisive, he took care of the ball and he was accurate,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Texans’ previously explosive offense was neutralized by the Minnesota defense, led by coordinator Brian Flores.
Flores’ play calling seemed to confuse second-year passer C.J. Stroud, who opened the game with an interception for Houston, and he threw another interception, capping a disappointing afternoon for last season’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Vikings linebacker Jonathan Greenard had his usual stunt against his former team, finishing with three sacks.
“It’s in my best interest to not mess with me,” Greenard said after the game. “I’m glad I’m in Minnesota because everybody respects me. If somebody else wants to do that, go for it.”
The loss was so devastating that Stroud was benched midway through the fourth quarter to prevent a serious injury as the Texans suffered their first loss of the season.
Both the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys were coming off disappointing Week 2 performances and needed wins heading into Sunday’s Week 3 matchup in Arlington, Texas.
Sunday’s game was close, but the Ravens earned their first win of the season, winning 28-25 and putting “America’s Team” in crisis mode.
Baltimore jumped out to a big lead thanks in part to offseason signing Derrick Henry.
The running back scored two rushing touchdowns and quarterback Lamar Jackson added scores on passes and runs to help the Ravens take a 28-6 lead into the fourth quarter.
Henry ran 25 times for 151 yards and Jackson added 87 rushing yards, and the two ripped Dallas apart.
According to the NFL, Sunday’s game marked Henry’s 12th career game with at least 150 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, tying him with LaDainian Tomlinson for second most in NFL history and one behind Jim Brown.
The offense struggled late and the defense allowed three consecutive touchdown drives, but Baltimore held on and finally earned its first win of the season.
After starting the season 0-2, Jackson spoke after the win about the importance of achieving preseason goals.
“Honestly, every game is important to us because we’re trying to get somewhere,” Jackson said. “We have to win these games to get to the playoffs, we have to win these playoff games to get to the Super Bowl, but it starts with the game in front of us.”
It was Dallas’ third straight loss at home and warning bells are ringing for Mike McCarthy’s squad.
Dallas was coming off a tough loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 2, but was hoping to bounce back and bounce back against the Ravens.
But the pressure on McCarthy’s shoulders continues to mount as the team falls to 1-2. With just four days until their Thursday Night Football matchup with the New York Giants, the Cowboys head coach said he wants to focus on his team’s late comeback against Baltimore.
“That’s something that doesn’t show up in a playbook or a strategy, it’s the heart and soul of a football team and the ability to grow emotionally and the experience,” McCarthy told reporters. “Great fourth quarter for our first-year guys.
“Right now we’re missing that connection with the level of caliber that we have, so that’s an emotional area where we need to get better. They have a hard work ethic, a really good locker room, they have the talent. Mentally, we just need to take a step forward from last week, which we just weren’t good enough last week. The emotional side is where the gold mine is, and this late in the game will help us.”
The Panthers were the NFL’s most disappointing team through two weeks, suffering two straight losses to the Saints and Los Angeles Chargers.
First-year head coach Dave Canales made the big decision ahead of Week 3 by benching 2023 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young and replacing him with veteran Andy Dalton.
And that decision quickly paid off, as the Panthers appeared to have a much improved performance in a 36-22 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
Dalton completed 26 of 37 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns, and Carolina looked like a completely different team with the 36-year-old at the helm, scoring more points in the first half of Sunday’s game (21) than they had over the previous two weeks combined (13).
His chemistry with wide receiver Diontai Johnson was key, as the former Pittsburgh Steeler had the best day of his career, finishing with eight catches for 122 yards and a touchdown. The duo’s success through the air revitalized the running game, which saw Chuba Hubbard gain 117 yards on 21 carries.
Dalton said after the win that it had been a “busy week” within the team with Young being benched, but he also spoke about how special the performance against the Raiders was for him.
“It was awesome. Obviously for me to get the opportunity to go out there and it went well, it couldn’t be better,” Dalton told reporters. “I thought our guys came out with the right attitude, the right mentality from the get-go and never slowed down.”
“That was fun. We didn’t just make one drive. We did it the whole game. We played complementary football and the guys had a lot of fun. That’s the way it should be.”
It was a disappointing result for the Raiders, coming off a surprising win over the Ravens in Week 2.
Las Vegas scored just seven points in the first three quarters of Sunday’s game, and the team was booed off the field at Allegiant Stadium after the loss.
After the home loss, Raiders coach Antonio Pierce expressed anger at his team’s performance and said some players made “business decisions” during Sunday’s game.
“We got beaten up,” Pierce told reporters. “We had to put on the pads and, you know, sled. We have pretty much the same group back, not the same technique, same coaching staff, different scheme, so obviously we’ve got to coach better and be tougher on our guys. And our guys have to endure some tough coaching because we didn’t see it on either side of the ball.”
“We had opportunities to run the ball and we didn’t. We just didn’t. We tried again and again and I would have booed them. We didn’t do a good enough job up front, offensively and defensively. It wasn’t good enough.”
Away @ Home (winners in bold)
New York Giants 21-15 Cleveland Browns
Chicago Bears 16-21 Indianapolis Colts
Houston Texans 7-34 Minnesota Vikings
Philadelphia Eagles 15-12 New Orleans Saints
Los Angeles Chargers 10-20 Pittsburgh Steelers
Denver Broncos 26-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Green Bay Packers 30-14 Tennessee Titans
Carolina Panthers 36-22 Las Vegas Raiders
Miami Dolphins 3-24 Seattle Seahawks
Detroit Lions 20-13 Arizona Cardinals
Baltimore Ravens 28-25 Dallas Cowboys
San Francisco 49ers 24-27 Los Angeles Rams
Kansas City Chiefs 22-17 Atlanta Falcons
