Canal Street Chronicles
The NFL had an exciting Sunday of football, and now, we have some movement in the NFC South standings!
For some reason, the Buccaneers cannot escape having thrillers each game. Week 1, Tampa Bay beat the Falcons by three, Week 2, they beat the Texans by one point, and now in Week 3, they only beat the Jets by two. Once again, QB Baker Mayfield had a decent game and has continued to stay away from turning the ball over. It helps that the Buccaneers may have a star on their hands. WR Emeka Egbuka had an excellent game, making impressive catch after catch, and becoming a top target for Mayfield. The one question mark on the offense remains the run game, but Mayfield’s ability to rush has helped the team overcome that issue. On defense, the Buccaneers did fine, won the turnover battle, and stopped the run. The red zone was the main part where the defense could not stop the Tyrod Taylor-led Jets, but the real reason the game was even close in the end was a blocked field goal for a touchdown, giving NY the lead late.
It’s impressive that Tampa Bay is 3-0 to start the season, but these wins are against underperforming teams, and if one or two plays go a different way, the Bucs could very well be 0-3.
In week 3, the NFC South had an in-division matchup between the Falcons and the Panthers… and it did not go the way you would think. Entering Sunday, the Panthers were winless and struggling, while the Falcons were 1-1 and looked dominant in their last win. Well, the Carolina decided to absolutely destroy the Falcons 30-0. First, the Falcons losing this game was surprising, but not scoring a single point is unimaginable. QB Michael Penix was benched at one point and had two interceptions, the defense really had no chance with the Panthers’ field position, and after cutting kicker Younghoe Koo, the new kicker missed both of his field goals. After this embarrassing loss, the Falcons made some coaching moves, and now the hope is that this improves the offense going into Week 4.
On the other side of this surprising game, the Panthers had an easy day. The pass defense made Michael Penix’s day horrible, and this was really the main reason why Carolina won this game. If you look at the rest of the team, the run defense was not great, the pass rush got zero sacks, and the offense had an easy day due to the turnovers. Going into week 4, the Panthers will have some confidence, and the team could improve, but this could have also been an outlier.
Speaking of embarrassing losses, the Saints somehow did not have the worst one of the division, even when they lost to the Seahawks 44-13. This was an interesting game to say the least. QB Spencer Rattler didn’t have...
