Never mind what I said a week ago. Week 3 turned out to be a great weekend of football — lots of drama and several incredible milestones.
Such as:
"It bounces off the crossbar ... and IT'S GOOD! OH MY GOODNESS!"
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Justin Tucker, ladies and gentlemen. His 66-yard FG won the game (Ravens 19, Lions 17) and gave Tucker the All-Time Longest FG crown, which he'll probably wear for a while. Here's the end zone angle if you haven't seen it.
Here are two more bonkers things about that kick.
First: In 1970, Tom Dempsey kicked it 63 yards (and held the record for 43 years) to give the Saints a last-second win over the Lions. That score? 19-17 .
Second: The record had been held by Matt Prater, who booted it 64 yards for Denver in 2013. If you wondering whatever happened to Matt Prater, here he is about an hour earlier on Sunday, wearing No. 5 for the Cardinals:
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Gus Johnson is a national treasure, ain't he?
Meanwhile, Jamal Agnew's 109-yard return tied a record for longest play. Two other guys have gone 109 yards: Cordarrelle Patterson, who in 2013 returned a kick for the Vikings against Green Bay; and Antonio Cromartie, who had a kick six for the Chargers in 2007 against the Vikings.
Agnew's record run was the first 109-yard play that didn't take place in the Metrodome (RIP).
Speaking of Patterson (and also speaking of the Vikings), here's Patterson's best kick return, a 104-yard gem last season for Chicago against Minnesota. The live sky cam view is *chef's kiss*.
Also Sunday:
* Patrick Mahomes got to 15,000 passing yards faster than anyone else in history — 49 games. The previous fastest was 53 for one Matthew "Matt" Stafford.
The Chargers wunderkind who beat Mahomes on Sunday is not (yet) on pace to beat Mahomes in this contest. Justin Herbert has thrown for nearly 5,300 yards in 18 games. At his current 294-yards-per-game pace, Herbert will be at 14,406 yards after Game No. 49 and won't hit 15,000 until Game No. 52. If Herbert can squeeze out a few 400-yard games over the next two seasons, he might beat Mahomes' pace.
* Congrats (sarcastically) to the Dolphins, who managed to give up the first safety in NFL history "on a completed pass with no penalties or fumbles." That's why you don't throw a screen pass in your own end zone .
* Congrats (seriously) to Bucs QB Tom Brady, who became the second human to pass for more than 80K yards in the NFL. Expect him to break the record Sunday night. I'm sure no one really cares much about where the game is being played or who the Bucs are playing or anything. Hope the game will be on TV!
* Chicago QB Justin Fields was sacked 9 (!!!!!!) times Sunday, the most in game since 2015. The Bears, meanwhile, had one net passing yard (68 yards gained by Fields, 67 yards lost on sacks). You can watch all nine sacks here if you're the kind of person who kicks puppies and old ladies and laughed at that earlier video of that old man falling down.
* Lastly, here's The Ringer on Sunday's collective performance of the 2021 QB class that was a month ago was considered one of the best in recent memory:
The four rookie starters combined to go 77-for-140 passing for 717 yards, two touchdowns, and seven interceptions. That adds up to a 53.2 passer rating and 5.1 yards per attempt, both of which would’ve been dead last in the NFL last season. The last time a quarterback started at least five games and had a passer rating lower than 53.2 was in 2009, when both JaMarcus Russell and Derek Anderson did it.
That's right: Lawrence, Wilson, Lance (tho he barely counts), Fields and McCorkle are in JaMarcus territory. Yikes.
STAT OF THE WEEK
The starting D-linemen in the Buffalo-WFT were all first-round draft picks. That's the first time that has happened since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970s.
Bills: Greg Rousseau (No. 30 in 2021), Star Lotulelei (No. 14 in 2013/Panthers), Ed Oliver (No. 9 in 2019/Texans), Jerry Hughes (No. 31 in 2010/Colts)
WFT: Chase Young (No. 2 in 2020), Daron Payne (No. 13 in 2018), Jonathan Allen (No. 17 in 2017), Montez Sweat (No. 26 in 2019)
VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
Here's something you don't see every day: Nick Bosa getting knocked on his ass. (Sorry this is a Twitter vid, but I couldn't find a GIF or YouTube vid.) The Packers did a nice job Sunday of keeping Rodgers upright.
Here's something you've seen a lot if you watch the YouTube and the TikTok: olds falling down. Playing the role of Old Man Falling Down is Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger:
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POWER RANKINGS
This week's edition is courtesy of USA Today :
1. Rams (2 last week)
2. Bucs (1)
3. Browns (4)
4. Raiders (6)
5. Cardinals (5)
Biggest riser: Chargers (+9 to No. 9)
Biggest faller: Steelers (-12 to No. 20)
WEEK 4 SCHEDULE
(Here are your coverage maps for Sunday's games.)
Thursday night: Jags at Bengals (NFL Network)
Sunday early: Titans at Jets, Chiefs at Eagles, THE THREE AND O CAROLINA PANTHERS at Cowboys, Giants at Saints, Browns at Vikings (Stefanski Bowl), Lions at Bears (of the NFC Norris), Texans at Bills, Colts at Dolphins (old AFC East matchup), Washington at Falcons
Sunday late: Seahawks at Niners, Cardinals at Rams, Steelers at Packers (CBS Game of the Week), Ravens at Broncos
Sunday night: ***** BRADY VERSUS BELICHICK ***** (aka Bucs at Pats)
Monday night: Raiders at Chargers; no ManningCast this week (until Week 7)
GRAPHIC OF THE WEEK
Because Week 4 will be all about Tom Brady (because he'll almost certainly become the NFL's all-time passing against his old team and in his former stadium), we're going to go ahead and bandwagon it with this cool graphic of all the dudes Brady has thrown TD passes to (including the playoffs):
Buckle up, folks. Week 4 will be wild.
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