All Things: Fun League (NFL) – Volume One

             Three weeks into the 2024 NFL Season, and there is already so much to discuss. From some contenders from last week falling off to newcomers joining the fight to get to the Super Bowl, so much has already happened. This week in the NFL Column, we discuss the quite impressive Buffalo Bills, the disappointing 49ers, the confusing Baltimore Ravens and our game of the week. Next week this column will be on a different site so be on the lookout from an announcement from my social media accounts. Without further or do, here is my first volume of All Things: Fun League.

              Team of the Week: Buffalo Bills – The Bills haven’t played the toughest of schedules, as they have yet to play a team with a winning record yet. What we can judge this team on though, is the improvement since week one. They managed to escape Arizona with a controversial win, a missed pass interference call on the last play of the game marred the victory. That win led some to ask the question of how they will handle not having stud wideout, Stefon Diggs.

In week two, Josh Allen’s offense answered the question, and we saw they were just fine. In previous years, this team would jump on teams through the air but against the Dolphins their running back, Jared Cook scored three touchdowns with one being a catch from a Josh Allen pass. It should be stated that in the Bills thirty-one to ten win in Miami, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was injured but that was well after the Bills had the game in hand.

              In the week following the Bills thrashing of the Dolphins on Thursday Night Football, the Bills hosted the Jacksonville Jaguars. With a talented group on offense, many including me, thought the Jaguars could hang with Buffalo. I was surely mistaken as the Bills won by a score of forty-seven to ten, thoroughly embarrassing head coach Doug Pederson’s Jaguars. Josh Allen threw for four touchdowns, two-hundred-sixty yards and ran for forty-four yards against the Jags. Josh Allen is an early MVP candidate with the only knock being his turnovers. If Allen can avoid turnovers against the Ravens on Sunday night, they will win but it is a huge if as Allen is known to be a gunslinger.

              Loser of the Week: San Francisco 49ers – In the first week of the season, the 9ers played the Jets in a game where their opponent seemed to run into some turbulence. The 9ers won thirty-two to nineteen and seemed to have picked up right where they left off, reaching the Super Bowl. In the second week of the season, the 9ers suffered a loss to the Vikings on the road. With a trip to Los Angeles in the stadium 49ers fans call “Levi’s South” because of the lack of Rams fans that show up, the 9ers were humiliated.

              Against the Rams, the 49ers were up less than ten minutes to play and had the ball up seven points with six minutes left. They could not get into field goal range so they missed a field goal that would have put the 9ers up ten with less than three minutes left. The Rams, with great field position, would go down and score a touchdown to tie the game at twenty-four with just under two minutes to play. On the ensuing 49ers drive, the Rams would force a three and out to get the ball back with fifty-five seconds left. On the punt from the 9ers, punt returner, Xavier Smith made a return for thirty-eight yards, which gave the Rams the ball at the fifty.

On the first play of the Rams final drive, the 9ers committed three penalties defensively with the most consequential being a pass interference call on linebacker De'Vondre Campbell, to put the ball on the 9ers’ twenty-five-yard line with just forty-two seconds to play. The Rams would go on to kick the winning field goal to pull off the insane come back. The 9ers now have a get right game at home against the struggling New England Patriots in a game that is essential to get their season back on track.

              Player of the Week: Jayden Daniels – The best rookie quarterback and really there is no competition. Daniels lit the Bengals defense up all night on Monday and with just two incompletions all night. Daniels has yet to throw an interception and leads the league in completion percentage despite having far from the best receiving core in the league. Under Daniles lead, the Commanders have an impressive record of two wins and one loss and will be on the road to see a struggling Arizona Cardinals team.

           B's Formidable Four:

1. Kansas City Chiefs – The two-time defending champions are still undefeated three weeks into the season, with wins over the Falcons, Ravens, and Bengals. All three of these teams have a good chance of making the playoffs. The Chiefs have dealt with major injuries such as running back Isiah Pacheco going on the Injured Reserve, Clyde Edwards Elaire being out and wide receiver Marqise Brown missing the rest of the season. This weekend the Chiefs will play a surprisingly good LA Chargers squad that is two and one under the new direction of Coach Jim Harbaugh.

2. Minnesota Vikings – The Vikings have a new quarterback in Sam Darnold and have been firing on all cylinders. They have yet to lose a game, beating the 49ers, Texans, and Giants in convincing fashion. New running back Aaron Jones has found his old groove back and Darnold has been able to get Justin Jefferson the ball no matter who is covering him. The Vikings will play divisional rival Green Bay this week in Aaron Jones homecoming. This will be the biggest test to date for the Vikings and one where they can prove themselves as true contenders to the league.

3. Buffalo Bills – The Buffalo Bills have been on cruise control over the past two weeks after a close encounter with the Arizona Cardinals. The Bills over the past two weeks have imposed their will on the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Miami Dolphins. Both games were over before they began, with the Bills scoring a combined fifty-eight points in their previous two games. The Bills jump out on teams and with a balanced offense, they are looking to be a true threat to the Chiefs Kingdom. Before we can have that conversation though, they have to beat the Ravens in Baltimore on Sunday night to prove they can get over the hump they have so desperately craved to conquer.

4. Pittsburgh Steelers – First impressions never tell a whole story, but the one the Steelers are giving is quite intriguing. The Steelers handed the Chargers their first loss of the season last week and have yet to lose a game. In their first two games, against the Falcons and Broncos their defense propelled them to wins as they struggled to find the endzone. Against a tough defense in the Chargers, quarterback Justin Fields found the endzone once on the ground and once through the air. Week by week this offense is improving and will have another chance this week with a matchup against the quite bad Indianapolis Colts.

              Game of the Week: Seattle Seahawks vs. Detroit Lions

              Despite being on Monday night, this game will not get the attention it truly deserves. Although both teams have had recent success, both have had to scratch and claw for wins. Ironically, the story for the Lions has been their ground attack and for the Seahawks it has been their air attack with Geno Smooth being third in the entire league for passing yards. The Lions lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because according to head coach Dan Campbell, “their coach cost them this one.”

              The Lions beat the Arizona Cardinals last week who were coming off a monumental thirty-one-point victory over the Los Angeles Rams. With the win over the Rams, the Cardinals look to have found their mojo offensively with rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. having one-hundred-thirty receiving yards on four receptions. Against the Lions in Arizona, Harrison Jr. had just five receptions for sixty-four yards. The Seahawks dominated a banged-up Dolphins team by a score of twenty-four to three. Despite the Seahawks undefeated record, their competition has not been the best in the three games they have played so this is a great opportunity to prove they are legit. The Lions can find their winning ways that propelled them to the NFC Championship last season with a win on Monday night.

              Story of the Week: The Baltimore Ravens – I honestly do not know how to read the Ravens after last week. I don’t think anybody does if they are being truthful which is why they make for such an interesting story. In the opening week at the defending champions the Ravens made a game of it late, not getting an opportunity to tie or outright win the game on a two-point conversion because Isiah Likely’s foot as on the out of bounds line. The Ravens were not the better team in that game as they led for a whopping two minutes and twenty-nine seconds.

              In the following week, the Ravens played what some would call a “get-right” game against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Ravens were leading by ten points with ten minutes to play and had numerous opportunities to seal the game but somehow lost at home. The Raiders would proceed to lose to the Carolina Panthers who are undoubtedly the worst team in the league on paper. The game was not close.

              This past week, the Ravens jumped out to a twenty-two-point lead in Dallas heading into the fourth quarter. I had told my father, whom I was watching the game with, that the Cowboys didn’t have enough resilience in them to win the game. The Ravens in this game, fed the rock to Derrick Henry and the gains were massive. Henry score two touchdowns and rushed for one-hundred-fifty yards. Henry finding his place in the Ravens offense means the Ravens can surely get back to the place they were last season but the question is will they?

I had told my father, whom I was watching the game with, that the Cowboys didn’t have enough resilience in them to win the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Cowboys would proceed to outscore the Ravens by a score of nineteen to zero with the Ravens only escaping with a victory thanks to a great pass from reigning MVP Lamar Jackson to Zay Flowers to win the game. The game should never have come down to that, but it is not on Lamar as automatic kicker Justin Tucker missed a field goal with just over ten minutes to play. From the time Dallas got the ball on their first touchdown drive, (10:41 left in fourth) to the time they scored their last touchdown (2:53 left in fourth) the Ravens had the ball for one minute and forty-one seconds.

The Cowboys failed to convert two two-point conversions in the fourth quarter, but they have looked abysmal all season failing to stop the run. What looked to be an impressive win turned into an escape that Lamar Jackson had to bail the Ravens defense out of. This week the Ravens will play the Bills in what some are looking at as an early game of the year candidate. The Ravens will have to exorcise the demons that they see late in games over the next couple of weeks if they want another run at the AFC Championship.