Sam Darnold’s MVP run continues, Ravens save season with win in Dallas
Sports Seriously’s Mackenzie Salmon “overreacts” to the key news from Sunday’s games.
Sport in Seriousness
This story has been updated with new information.
The 32 things we learned from Week 3 of the 2024 NFL season:
QB1: I’ve been banging this drum for a month now, but are there any more Russell Wilson fans after Justin Fields took the helm – if not the “pole position” – as the Pittsburgh Steelers improved their record to 3-0 for the fourth time under HC Mike Tomlin? The Steelers made the playoffs after Tomlin’s continued 3-0 starts, including a berth in Super Bowl 45 to close out the 2010 season.
2. Fields’ jersey number, by the way, but also the number of touchdowns (1 pass, 1 run) he scored in Sunday’s win over the previously unbeaten Los Angeles Chargers – notable because Pittsburgh entered the game with one scored TD on the season, a league low. It wasn’t spectacular – yet – as Fields continues to adjust to OC Arthur Smith’s offense. But he makes enough plays – he’s using his leg weapons more judiciously now than he did in Chicago – and limits his mistakes, a formula that almost perfectly complements the Steelers’ teeming defense and scoring K Chris Boswell.
3. Wilson’s jersey number, by the way, but it also means Pittsburgh is his third NFL stop. If his lingering calf issue heals, would it make sense for the Steelers to trade Wilson, who plays for the veteran minimum ($1.2 million), while the Broncos pay him $39 million to stay out of Denver? Sure, Fields could get injured, and Wilson would be a fine replacement. But veteran QB Kyle Allen is also on that roster, and it’s pretty clear that Fields is the only one of those pending 2025 free agents who could have a long-term future in the Steel City. Why not get something for Russ, especially at a time when a team like the Miami Dolphins or Las Vegas Raiders could really use him?
4. Back to the Steelers defense, which was the first in 15 years to allow 10 points or less in the first three games of a season.
5. Guess who is back in the race for the NFC South after newly promoted QB Andy Dalton (319 yards, 3 TDs passing) had one of the best games of his 14-year career and beat the Raiders in Sin City? seek like the league’s worst team over the past two weeks with former No. 1 pick Bryce Young at the helm – he had orchestrated a single TD drive – the Carolina Panthers are suddenly one game out of first place after stumbling two of the NFL’s early surprises, the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You just can’t predict what’s going to happen in this league.
6. That’s how many teams have made the playoffs after an 0-3 start since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. We’re looking at you, Tennessee Titans… and the Cincinnati Bengals and Jacksonville Jaguars better watch out before the season’s first Monday Night Football doubleheader.
6a. Six teams with 0-2 wins on Sunday.
6b. Four teams – the Steelers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs – are 3-0 and could be joined by the Buffalo Bills on Monday.
7. The number of interceptions the Green Bay Packers defense threw (equal to their 2,023 total) after intercepting Titans QB Will Levis twice in Sunday’s 30-14 win.
8. The number of times Levis was sacked on Sunday. That means he’s been knocked down 15 times in three starts — and is on pace to suffer a record 85 over the course of the season.
8a. Also the number of turnovers committed by Levis, who started the day with five turnovers (league-most), after losing the ball three times against the Pack. Green Bay was delighted by a 35-yard pick-six from CB Jaire Alexander by the mayonnaise-loving passer.
9. Green Bay quarterback Malik Willis is also not to be missed. He did well during the week before getting revenge on the Titans, who drafted him two years ago but seemed to have given up on him long before he was traded to the Packers last month. On Sunday in Nashville, he threw his second NFL touchdown and set a personal best with 202 yards. He also ran for 73 yards and another touchdown, securing his second win in place of injured starter Jordan Love. Seems like Willis would have been a guy who could have helped in Music City now?
10. But don’t worry, Mr. Levis, even if you get sacked 85 times … Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson is actually on pace for 91 after going down eight times behind a ragtag line in a nasty home loss to the previously winless New York Giants on Sunday.
11. On Sunday, Denver was the only team, along with Carolina and Pittsburgh, to reach the end zone once, but rookie QB Bo Nix, in his first NFL game, ran a clean sheet and scored a point to lead the Broncos to a somewhat surprising victory over the previously unbeaten Bucs in Tampa.
12. But perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came in another meeting between two teams that were both 2-0, when the Vikings embarrassed the Houston Texans 34-7 and quarterback Sam Darnold set a career high with four touchdown passes.
13. In his first game against his former team, Texans DE Danielle Hunter was limited to two tackles. Hunter had 87½ sacks in eight years with Minnesota before signing a two-year, $49 million contract with Houston in the offseason.
14. In his first game against his former team, Vikings OLB Jonathan Greenard had three sacks. Greenard had 23 sacks in four years with Houston — including a personal-best 12½ — before signing a four-year, $76 million deal with Minnesota in the offseason.
15. The Vikes collected a total of five sacks on Sunday, becoming the first team in the last 23 seasons to record at least that many sacks in each of their first three games.
16. What kind of career could RB Saquon Barkley really have enjoyed if he hadn’t toiled for the Giants for six years? His 351 rushing yards in the first three games of his tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles are 34 yards better than his best three-game start for Big Blue. His four touchdowns, two more in Sunday’s loss to the previously unbeaten Saints, are double his best three-game start in New York.
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17. After scoring 91 points in their first two games, the Saints scored 12 on Sunday.
18. After not allowing a run of 8 yards or more in their first two games, the Saints were burned by Philadelphia by at least 20 yards three times – including a 65-yard touchdown run by Barkley that nicely made up for his game-winning run six days earlier in a Week 2 loss to Atlanta.
19. The Dolphins took the longest NFL domestic flight ever – more than 2,700 miles – to get beaten by the Seahawks in Seattle. At least the Finns don’t have to swim back to Miami.
20. Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald becomes the first since Miami’s Mike McDaniel in 2022 to start his career with three straight wins. Macdonald is the fifth coach under the age of 40 since 2000 to start with a 3-0 record.
21. Even better for Seattle? The Seahawks now have a two-game lead over the rest of a turbulent NFC West field that saw the San Francisco 49ers collapse against the decimated Los Angeles Rams on Sunday afternoon.
22. Number of starts Ravens QB Lamar Jackson has made against NFC teams. After outlasting the Dallas Cowboys 28-25 for Baltimore’s first win of the season, he is now 21-1 in those matchups. If only the Ravens could reach the Super Bowl…
23. The 2024 NFL Draft was the first in league history to feature a half-dozen quarterbacks selected in the first 12 picks, but it took until Sunday for one of them – No. 1 pick Caleb Williams – to throw a touchdown pass in the regular season, albeit in another losing effort for his Chicago Bears (1-2).
24. Still, Williams made a piece of history: His 1-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Rome Odunze marked the first time a quarterback and wide receiver, both selected in the top 10 by the same team, combined to score a touchdown in their rookie year. (It’s still unclear which mantle the ball landed on.)
25. But let’s leave the rookie quarterback aside for now, where he belongs right now — and, heck, Darnold could out-score injured Minnesota quarterback JJ McCarthy Wally Pipp-esque (to the extent that a player who hasn’t taken a snap in the regular season can be out-scored). But some people thought the best players in the 2024 draft were the receivers, and that may show when it comes time to cast the votes for Offensive Rookie of the Year. Predictably, Arizona Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. and Giants WR Malik Nabers are the early frontrunners and apparent favorites for the award. But Jags WR Brian Thomas Jr. and Raiders TE Brock Bowers have also lived up to expectations so far — far more than can be said for the guys who throw the ball.
26. Harrison and Nabers have each caught three touchdowns. On Sunday, Nabers became the youngest wide receiver (21 years, 56 days) in league history to catch two touchdowns in a game.
27. It seems only a matter of time before Cowboys K Brandon Aubrey makes the longest field goal in NFL history after hitting it from 65 yards on Sunday – the second longest in league history – after also previously hitting a 51-yard chip shot.
28. What may be more worrying for America’s Team is the fact that Aubrey is currently their best offensive weapon.
29. What else is troubling the Cowboys? After winning 16 consecutive games at AT&T Stadium, they have now lost their last three.
30. Uniform Note of the Week: Apparently a team once called the “Orange Crush” needed to honor its history. The Broncos finally donned their new orange jerseys on Sunday — on the road in Tampa, unfortunately — and picked up their first win of the year.
31. The very premature MVP vote goes to … Darnold. It’s not necessarily a surprise that his career is being revived in Minnesota under the tutelage of HC Kevin O’Connell. But a 3-0 record and eight touchdown passes while rehabbing a knee injury on Sunday? If you predicted that, we don’t believe you.
32. It’s always nice to see more women making NFL history, like what happened on Sunday in Las Vegas.
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Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.
