NFL Schedule Week 3: What to expect
By Chris Lacey
This week in the NFL there is a good selection of games to watch. One game that will be compelling to watch is the Houston Texans taking on the Baltimore Ravens. The Texans are undefeated but it will be interesting to see if they win a game without having to rally late in the game.
Another good game is the Green Bay Packers going to take on the Cincinnati Bengals. Green Bay was led by the arm of Aaron Rodgers last week against the Washington Redskins. However the Bengals do play better defense and they understand the concept that you have to tackle a player to stop him. It might be difficult for Rodgers to repeat his results from last week.
The other game that has the potential to be great is the Atlanta Falcons taking on the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins are one of the surprises early in the season with them starting 2-0 and they have a good group of young players. For the Falcons, it’s a matter of can they get their offense going to jump out to an early lead like they did against the St.Louis Rams.
A great match up this week involves Eli Manning taking on the Carolina Panthers defense. Eli has had issues with him throwing a league-high seven interceptions. As long as he makes better decisions, the Giants should be able to earn their first victory of the season.
The next match up involves New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees and if he can rebound against the Arizona Cardinals. Brees had a somewhat decent game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he threw two INTs.
The other match up involves the worst team on offense being the Jacksonville Jaguars taking on the best defense in the Seattle Seahawks. It will be a moral victory for the Jaguars if they can get the ball up to midfield. They have the worst offense in league, as the have scored only 11 points in two games.
Seattle should have no issues after what they did to the San Francisco 49ers last week. The Jaguars will also have to contend with the 12th man as well and expect them to have plenty of false starts on offense.
The top performers of this week begins with Matthew Stafford facing a Redskins’ defense that looked lost in the field the previous week. Stafford will throw for over 300 yards with at least four touchdowns through the air, and also Calvin Johnson will have 200 receiving yards to include a couple of touchdowns.
Another top performer is Sam Bradford, as he takes on Dallas Cowboys. He had no problems against the Falcons and I expect more of the same in this game. He could throw for more than 350 yards through the air in this game.
Another player that will have a solid game is Peyton Manning for the Denver Broncos. Peyton will carve through the Raiders’ defense with the precision of a surgeon. He will have over 400 passing yards and possibly throw five passing TDs.