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Surprises After 3 Weeks

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I was going to wait until after the conclusion of tonight's game to post this thread, but as neither team winning would surprise me, I figured I could throw it out over lunch break.

 

What are some early surprises in this NFL Season? I'll list a few.

 

1. The Cardinals winning 2 consecutive games with Drew Stanton at quarterback, the Cardinals 3-0 start, and the tenacity of that defense.

--I have nothing against the Michigan State alum, and was actually a fan of his coming out of college. I just thought he was a game manager at best who'd be lucky to throw more than 1 TD, and would need a run game to lean on. That clearly wasn't the case, yesterday, as Stanton delivered two beautiful touchdown throws to dark horse OROtY candidate John Brown. That, and Stanton survived 3 vicious hits from the 49ers defense, 3 hits that all warranted flags, though the most egregious hit was the one the crew missed. The guy kept getting up, and kept throwing darts. Did he make a couple of questionable throws? Yes, but the past few seasons, questionable throws have been Carson Palmer's forte. Palmer provides a more potentially prolific option for the Cardinals, but Stanton may be less likely to commit crippling turnovers. Overall, the Cards are off to a surprising 3-0 start, and if you'd believe it, their defense is surviving many key losses. Bruce Arians looked to be on the downswing of his NFL career in his last few seasons in Pittsburgh. It just goes to show to changing scenery can do wonders for more than just players.

 

2. Norv Turner's refusal to utilize Cordarrelle Patterson.

--Say all you want about not being able to force feed the ball to any individual player who isn't a running back, but the Vikings have failed to match their opening week point total, even when you combine the last two weeks. Turner's often used Patterson as a decoy. While that might be extremely effective under the best of circumstances, the Vikings were starting an incredibly mediocre quarterback and Adrian Peterson is likely done for the year, and probably done in purple. It's time to get the ball to +84 in any way, possible.

 

I could list more, obviously, but what is surprising the rest of you?

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Bengals starting 3-0. Weakness of the Packers. 49ers not looking strong. Saints too. Cardinals & Eagles being only undefeated NFC teams. Allen Hurns emergence. Aaron Rodgers doing so poor. Bucs being THIS bad.

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The Cardinals being this good.

The Bucs being this bad.

The Patriots being so underwhelming.

 

 

As for my Eagles, the 3-0 record isn't a HUGE surprise. If we manage to beat San Fran with our offensive line injuries, that will be shocking.

Edited by SteVo

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Cardinals and Bengals both teams are playing lights out football. Cardinals are little more expressive winning with Stanton at QB. Arians da god.

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The Patriots weren't really dominating people last year either. Not surprising.

 

The Bucs have been on this dysfunctional path for 7 years. Not surprising.

 

You have me with the Cardinals. I have no idea what to make of the AZvsSEA matchups down the road this year.

 

I don't think the 49ers slipping has been a huge surprise either, however as overrated as I thought Kaepernick was he's doing even worse after they gave him Stevie Johnson to go along with Boldin, V Davis, Crabtree, etc. I didn't think he could get worse. He can.

 

Edit: And after PackersDynasty's post, I do recall Aaron Rodgers failing to connect to wide open Jordy Nelson both the Lions and Seahawks game. Something is definitely up with Rodgers this year. The Green Bay offense also seems like it doesn't know how to get anyone other than Nelson involved. They have Cobb, Boykin, Quarless. Start making some plays or something. Jeepers.

Edited by BC

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The Patriots look pathetic but they're still gonna make the playoffs at this rate. What the shit, AFC East.

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How bad the Packers' offense has looked. At the start of the season, I saw 1-2 as a possibility but not like this. I was expecting the defense to struggle, instead it has been the offense doing nothing outside of the 2nd half against the Jets. The offense is loaded with playmakers yet we are struggling mightily and even Rodgers looks off.

 

The defense playing well is a big surprise.

 

A league-wide surprise is how turbulent this season has been so far. Seeing these great teams being upset throughout the first 3 weeks or how teams can look good one week and then get blown out the next or vice-versa. It's been a crazy 3 weeks so far, excited for the next 17.

Edited by Packers Dynasty 2010
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For the Jags: that Bortles is starting already. It's a dream come true.

 

For the rest of the league: I hate to take something that's already been mentioned, but it's definitely the Cards winning games with Drew Stanton. Drew "I haven't thrown a regular season pass since 2010" freakin' Stanton.

 

Let that sink in.

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A league-wide surprise is how turbulent this season has been so far. Seeing these great teams being upset throughout the first 3 weeks or how teams can look good one week and then get blown out the next or vice-versa. It's been a crazy 3 weeks so far, excited for the next 17.

 

This is what I was gonna say. It's been a wild 3 weeks. A lot of upsets, and sooo many comeback games. Each week has been extremely hard to predict, and I expect that to continue.

 

For the Broncos, I'm both surprised and not-that-surprised at how pedestrian the offense has looked. Glad the nation got to recognize how damn conservative we were against the Squawks (and the Chiefs and Colts)... even the announcers were shredding us for it. Hopefully it leads to a more aggressive philosophy going forward. We're just a couple plays away from being an 0-3 team.

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It's always like this a few weeks into the season. To an extent, things will return to the norm/expectations, but every new NFL season brings surprising teams, and that's part of what makes the sport so great from year to year.

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Le'Veon Bell has begun breaking out. It's sort of a shame that he'll be suspended at the start of next season. Still he's everything the Steelers have ever wanted in a back. I'll admit I didn't see him having the best season so far compared to other backs in his class (Gio, Stacy and Lacy)

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I'll admit I didn't see him having the best season so far compared to other backs in his class (Gio)

This is debatable.

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Gio is stealing all of Andy Dalton's touchdowns. >_> My All Bengals fantasy offense isn't a fan of this.

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Le'Veon Bell has begun breaking out. It's sort of a shame that he'll be suspended at the start of next season. Still he's everything the Steelers have ever wanted in a back. I'll admit I didn't see him having the best season so far compared to other backs in his class (Gio, Stacy and Lacy)

 

+slow and hesitant Montee Ball.

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No one thought Montee Ball was gonna be good. Broncos fans deluded themselves into believing that fantasy. But the future refused to change...

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Gio is stealing all of Andy Dalton's touchdowns. >_> My All Bengals fantasy offense isn't a fan of this.

:yes:

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Probably the Cardinals. I was dogging them and anyone who tried to say they'd be one of those teams this year. Looks like I'm wrong thus far. They are winning with these QBs I thought would work against them.

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The Bucs being bad isn't a surprise, but the defense sucking this bad sure is. Most people thought with Lovie this defense would be a solid unit but they struggled against two backup QBs and then got torn to shreds in every way imaginable on national TV. I'm starting to wonder if Lovie's style of defensive coaching just can't get by in today's NFL.

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Steelers leading the league in rushing.

 

This. Absolutely this.

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Falcons offense being #1 is passing...ahead of teams like the Saints, Packers, Patriots and so on.

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Steelers leading the league in rushing.

I knew the running game would get better, but only because it couldn't have gotten much worse than it was last season. I wasn't expecting such a huge jump, though, so I'm pleasantly surprised.

 

The only drawback to this is that those who refuse to give Ben Roethlisberger any credit will conveniently switch their arguments from "Ben Roethlisberger can't win without a dominant defense" to "Ben Roethlisberger can't win without a dominant running game." They gotta keep moving those goalposts on him, you know.

Edited by DBR96A
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The Browns having two rookie backs that make Ben Tate look like a punk.

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