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Week three of the NFL season is in the books. As usual we had the blowouts, the nail biters and, well, the boring games. Some things remained constant: Tom Brady, the Cowboy’s offense and Favre’s legacy. Struggles continued for the New Orleans Saints, Ladanian Tomlinson and the atrocious mess we call the Atlanta Falcons. And some things just plain surprised us: the Bear’s defense, the Giant’s goal line stand and Kevin Curtis (wait, who?).
The Patriot’s trouncing of the Bill’s was one of many spankings dealt out in the NFL this weekend. Tom Brady threw for 311 yards with four touchdowns, two of which were mailed to Randy Moss who had 115 receiving yards. This was the third-straight week that the Patriot’s completely dominated their opponents.
In Tampa, the Buccaneers resembled their ’03 Super Bowl-champion defense and knocked off the St. Louis Rams 24-3. The Rams continue to struggle with their normally potent offense and remain winless on the season.
Speaking of winless, the Eagles were hoping for their first win Sunday against the Detroit Lions. Earlier in the week, quarterback Donovan McNabb was criticized for his comments regarding his belief that black quarterbacks face more scrutiny than their white counterparts. Evidently, McNabb didn’t let the criticism keep his mind off the game. He threw for an impressive 381 and four touchdowns. Wide receiver Kevin Curtis was at the other end of most of these passes, compiling 11 receptions for 221 yards and three touchdowns. I bet some fantasy owners picked up Curtis after that amazing performance. Lion’s quarterback Jon Kitna tried his best, throwing for more than 400 yards and two touchdowns, but his efforts fell short. Basically the Eagles offense lit up the Lions and defeated them by a score of 56-21.
Other bashings around the NFL included Dallas getting their third win over Chicago 34-10; Pittsburgh remains undefeated after a 37-16 win over a young San Francisco team; the Saints continued to struggle while Vince Young and the Tennessee Titans went down to New Orleans and grabbed the 31-14 victory.
If you aren’t a big fan of the blowouts, perhaps you enjoyed the tight, intense games played over the weekend. The New York football Giants and divisional rival Washington Redskins hooked up on Sunday afternoon for a tense battle that wouldn’t be decided until the final seconds of the game. With the Giants leading 24-17 into the final seconds of the game, the Giants’ defense pulled out some big stops and prevented the Redskins from scoring on a fourth-and-goal play. The win was the Giants’ first on the season, while the Redskins dropped to 2-1.
Kickers were the big stories in two games this weekend. Baltimore kicker Matt Stover punched in the game-winning field goal as time expired in their game against the Arizona Cardinals, which they would win by a final score of 26-23. In Oakland, the Raiders called a timeout before kicker Phil Dawson of the Brown’s was able to get off his field goal attempt, which he made. Who would have guessed that the second attempt by Dawson would be blocked by the Raiders? It was a good ending to a game between two bad teams.
Another notable game was Bret Favre’s history-making performance against the San Diego Chargers. Favre tied Marino on Sunday for the most touchdown passes in NFL history with 420. Not only did Favre throw for three touchdowns, but his Green Bay Packers went to 3-0 and defeated the Chargers 31-24.
In other games around the league, the Jets defeated divisional rival Miami 31-28; Kansas City topped Minnesota 13-10; Peyton Manning and the Colts handed the Texans their first loss of the season in a 30-24 win; Jacksonville defeated Denver 23-14; Carolina worked to their second win against the struggling Falcons 27-20; and Seattle came out on top over Cincinnati 24-21.
Bangor Daily News