$.01--The NFL set up the marquee matchup of the weekend in the late-afternoon time slot. Tom Brady vs. Aaron Rodgers. Tampa Bay vs. Green Bay. The setup was awesome.

The game? Yeah, not so much…

A largely boring, underwhelming game between two good-but-flawed teams battled through an offensive struggle, with Rodgers and the Packers winning 14-12. To put it in perspective, Green Bay scored touchdowns on its first two possessions and then managed just five first downs in the remaining nine full drives. Tampa Bay had a field goal on the opening drive and then managed just nine first downs on its next eight drives, losing two fumbles along the way.

The Bucs finally woke up on their final drive, a well-executed touchdown march that gobbled up seven more first downs and 82 yards. They scored on a play where there probably should have been a delay of game penalty called. It was called on the potential game-tying 2-pt. conversion and helped the Packers defense successfully preserve the victory when criminally underappreciated LB DeVondre Campbell swatted down Brady’s pass into a crowd.

Sometimes low-scoring games are caused by strong defensive efforts. This game had some of that, for sure--on both sides. But the Hall of Fame quarterbacks were merely good, with Rodgers and Brady each still adjusting to lesser receiving corps than either has had in years. In Brady’s case, it was temporary; Julio Jones and Mike Evans both return next week. Rodgers continues to deal with the growing pains of an inexperienced group, one that has promise but isn’t always reading from the same Packers page as their leader. Both will have better days, no doubt.

The game was broadcast to almost the entire country, which is perfectly understandable due to the high-profile QBs and franchises. It was evidence that the matchup with the highest Q factor isn’t always the best game, unfortunately.

$.02--The Miami Dolphins survived oppressive heat, Josh Allen, a wild offensive play discrepancy and a butt punt safety and managed to emerge as the AFC’s only unbeaten team after three weeks.

It was quite a trip for the Dolphins and rookie head coach Mike McDaniel, even though the game was at home. His Miami team somehow managed to hang the first loss of the season on the Buffalo Bills, 21-19, despite being dominated on the stat sheet.

Buffalo ran 90 offensive snaps, racking up 497 total yards and 31 first downs. Miami managed just 212 combined yards on 39 plays, the lowest total in the NFL this season. Buffalo had nearly as many third-down conversions (11) as Miami had first downs (15). And yet Miami scored three touchdowns while Allen and the Bills posted just two. A missed field goal, a failed goal-line fourth down attempt and a lost fumble ruined three impressive Buffalo drives. The last Bills effort ended when Allen couldn’t quite spike the ball in time to set up a potential field goal attempt. That did not sit well with Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey in the booth:

Maybe it was the heat that ravaged the Buffalo players during the game. Or maybe it was the heat of being in an actual game. The Bills had not been challenged at all in the first two weeks and their inability to execute in pressure situations was evident. Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins, outside of their punt protection, had no such issues in staying well-focused and sharp when Miami needed to make plays. The better team doesn’t always win, the better team when it matters usually does. That was Miami on Sunday and they’ve got the shiny 3-0 record to show for it.

$.03---Carson Wentz returned to Philadelphia for the first time since the Eagles sent his sorry ass packing traded him to the Colts. After an unsuccessful season in Indianapolis, Wentz is now in command in Washington. He might never want to see Philadelphia again after Sunday’s debacle.

The return trip for Wentz did not get off to a good start. In the Commanders’ first six possessions, Wentz was 2-for-7 for 21 yards and got sacked six times, fumbling twice. Washington had minus-16 net passing yards at the half. That’s right: negative passing yardage for a half.

It’s obviously not all on Wentz. The Commanders clearly missed injured center Chase Roullier and didn’t handle the Eagles aggressive defense well. The playcalling was predictable early on, something that plagued Washington’s offense in their Week 2 loss in Detroit, too.

It was 24-0 Philly at the half before the Eagles lost some collective interest and stopped hitting the Wentz pinata. The second half was almost entirely garbage time and both teams played with the associated enthusiasm. The Commanders eventually scored on their final offensive possession when even the most loaded fans at Lincoln Financial Field were ready to go home.

The Eagles improve to 3-0. I don’t know if the Eagles are the best team in the NFC, but I dare you to try and find another team playing better than Nick Sirianni’s squad. Jalen Hurts continues to bolster his MVP candidacy with another strong outing. While Wentz was producing negatively at the half, Hurts had 279 passing yards and three touchdowns. Hurts didn’t run wild in this one, but that’s because the Eagles didn’t need him to try.

$.04--A key battle in the AFC North kicked off the week. The Cleveland Browns did what they so rarely do, beating the rival Pittsburgh Steelers 29-17. Riding a powerful ground attack from Nick Chubb and an efficiently clean night from QB Jacoby Brissett, the Browns superiority on both sides of the ball carried them to an uneasy but also largely unthreatened win.

This game showed the impact of having a true No. 1 wide receiver for Kevin Stefanski’s Browns offense. Amari Cooper netted exactly 101 receiving yards and a touchdown for the second game in a row. Other than one isolated incident of dumbassery, Cooper was the outstanding alpha dog (err, dawg--it’s Cleveland after all) the Browns desperately needed at wideout. Cooper is dependably where and when he needs to be on his routes every time, something that Brissett clearly trusts. It’s something the oft-injured Odell Beckham never understood in his star-crossed Cleveland tenure. It’s something the Dallas Cowboys desperately miss after letting Cooper walk for the net of a fifth-round pick. Cooper has brought out the best in TE David Njoku and made life a lot better for Brissett and the Browns' precision-based offense.

Other than an impossibly awful final two minutes in Week 2, the Browns have played some very good football. They should be 3-0, though most Cleveland fans are happy to be at 2-1 without Deshaun Watson. Having one of those wins come against the reviled Steelers set my hometown up for a happy weekend. The Thursday night triumph makes Kevin Stefanski the first Browns coach since Bill Belichick to rack up three wins (including the postseason) against Pittsburgh. Heck, the entire Browns organization managed just three wins against Pittsburgh between 2003 and 2019 and they play twice every season.

The Steelers are fortunate not to be among the 0-3 teams. It took a miraculous overtime escape against the Bengals in Week 1 to give Mike Tomlin’s undertalented Pittsburgh team their only win. Pittsburgh’s passing attack is about as potent as baby aspirin, doing little to ease the pain of a defense that doesn’t tackle or cover particularly well.

$.05--It’s not going well for the New England Patriots, and things might have taken a significant turn for the worse at the end of their 37-26 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

The Patriots got smoked in their home opener and the offense continues to be a problem. The 26 points are a sign of hope but also a bit of a misnomer; Baltimore’s pass defense continues to have massive communication breakdowns. Mac Jones took some advantage there, and the Pats run game was strong too; Rhamondre Stevenson ran well (73 yards on 12 carries) and New England cashed in three red zone rushing scores.

Unfortunately, it appears Jones will not be ready, or certainly not at 100 percent, in the near future. He suffered an ankle injury on the meaningless last play of the game, taking an awkward hit for no reason. There isn’t an 11-point play in the NFL book, something New England offensive overlord and rocket scientist Matt Patricia probably should know already. Jones is their entire hope for offensive progress, and now he’s apt to be out for some time for no discernible reason. The Patriots defense isn’t what you’ve come to expect from Bill Belichick’s units, but they’re at least capable of keeping the offense in games if the offense is decent. That delicate balance is dashed if Jones is sidelined for any amount of time. The backup is the amazingly employed Brian Hoyer, who has lost his last 17 NFL starts dating back to 2016.

There are no such worries for Baltimore, which happens to have an MVP candidate in Lamar Jackson. Wickedly effective in carving up the Patriots defense with both his arm and his legs, Jackson became the first quarterback in NFL history to run for at least 100 yards and throw for at least three touchdowns in consecutive games. MVP voters take note: entering Sunday night football, Jackson led the NFL in passer rating and touchdown passes and was also 3rd in the league in rushing yards. Baltimore has an offense that can capably outscore what its own leaky defense surrenders, a luxury most teams don’t have. New England certainly does not.

$.06--No team that has started 0-3 has made the postseason since the 2018 Houston Texans. Before that unlikely accomplishment, the last team to do was the 1995 Detroit Lions. That gives some perspective on the uphill battle facing the league’s only 0-3 team, the Las Vegas Raiders.

Josh McDaniels is still looking for his first coaching win in a Raiders uniform. Las Vegas fell to Tennessee, 24-22, unable to complete the comeback after falling behind 24-10 at the half. Scoring two touchdowns in six red zone possessions will do that to a team. The inability to cash in such an abundance of scoring opportunities cost the Raiders a notch in the win column.

Even worse for the Raiders is the quality of their schedule. The three teams that beat them are all 1-2 with their only wins at the expense of the woebegone Raiders. They draw the divisional rival Broncos next week, then a trip to Kansas City before a bye week. Denver is certainly beatable and the Chiefs are not without their flaws, but the Raiders have to string together good possessions on both sides of the ball a lot better than they have in their first three losses to make that initial victory happen.

Back to the five Super Bowl-era teams that have traversed the 0-3 mountain to make the postseason. Just one has actually won a playoff game. That was the 1992 Chargers, who knocked off future Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer’s Chiefs 17-0 in the Wild Card round thanks to five sacks of KC QB Dave Krieg and 115 rushing yards from Marion Butts. Folks, Marion Butts ain’t coming through that 0-3 door again…

$.07--Tennessee avoided the 0-3 start by sending Las Vegas to that fateful record, but the Titans weren’t the only team to pick up their first win of the season on Sunday.

The Cincinnati Bengals put forth their best effort of the season and grounded the New York Jets, 27-12. It wasn’t an easy win despite the score, but the defending AFC champs aren’t concerned with style points after an 0-2 start. Forcing four turnovers and only giving it up once is a nice step in the right direction for Cincinnati.

Atlanta also jumped into the win column, beating the Seahawks in Seattle by a 27-23 score. Cordarrelle Patterson ran for 141 yards and a touchdown to help lead the Falcons in the battle of the birds. Atlanta’s defense picked off Seattle QB Geno Smith on the final drive to preserve the victory in a game where neither team scored in the fourth quarter.

Finally, Carolina got the winless monkey off its back and beat New Orleans. I’ll be honest here: I didn’t watch a single snap of this one and as I write this I’ve yet to see a highlight. But I do have a lot of Saints media folks on my Twitter timeline, and their reactions to the “effort” from their team speak volumes about how this game was won and lost.

The Houston Texans are technically winless at 0-2-1, but their Week 1 tie with the Colts keeps them from being chronically defeated. Losing to the Bears, who are somehow 2-1, should carry a more negative stigma for Lovie Smith’s Texans, however. Those Colts improved to 1-1-1 by stunning the Chiefs and their wretched special teams.

$.08--College/Draft quickies

--Ohio State absolutely dominated Wisconsin in a game that wasn’t nearly as competitive as the 52-21 final score would indicate. The Buckeyes led 28-0 after the first four drives for each team and very much looked like the best team in the country. Now if they’d just ditch those black uniforms and helmets. The black unis look great, but not for a team that doesn’t have black as a regular color.

--Wake Forest has quietly turned up its football program recently, and the Demon Deacons nearly got their marquee pelt on the wall on Saturday. They lost to Clemson in double-overtime in a very entertaining game that saw over 1,000 combined yards of offense. Wake Forest QB Sam Hartman might throw the best deep ball in college football and you’d better believe he’s on the NFL radar.

--Georgia struggled a lot more than expected with MAC also-ran Kent State. The Golden Flashes made it a game late, closing the Bulldogs' lead to just 10 in the fourth quarter. Kent pulled out quite a few stops and kept Georgia QB Stetson Bennett from throwing a TD pass. Georgia prevailed largely because sophomore TE Brock Bowers ran (yes, ran) for two TDs, including a 75-yarder on the second play. Bowers is a darkhorse Heisman candidate and will be a fascinating conversation for NFL teams and draftniks come 2024.

--Keeping with the MACtion for a second here, there currently is no MAC team with a winning record. My beloved alma mater, Ohio U., barely survived a shootout with FCS school Fordham.

--Sacramento State smoked Colorado State, 41-10. It’s the largest margin of victory for an FCS school over an FBS school in six seasons. The Hornets hadn’t beaten an FBS opponent since stunning Colorado in the 2012 season. CSU, which lost 42-23 to FBS-level South Dakota State last year, has been outscored 165-43 in four games.

$.09--NFL Quickies

--Give some respect to Duval. The Jaguars annihilated the Chargers, 38-10, to improve to 2-1 and seize control of first place in the AFC South. Don’t look now but Trevor Lawrence is starting to look like the guy Jacksonville envisioned as the No. 1 overall pick in 2021: 77-for-111, 772 yards, 6 TDs, 1 INT through three games.

--Normally, I’m a sucker and watch all of the Sunday night game. Not this week. I flipped over to watch the weather at the end of the third quarter when Denver and San Francisco had combined for 12 points and 14 punts. Granted the game featured some truly spectacular punting and punt coverage, but c’mon now. Who won? Everyone who didn’t watch the game.

--Congrats to Patriots kicker Nick Folk, who set the NFL record by making his 57th straight field goal from inside 50 yards. Folk hasn't missed inside 50 since 2020. Ironically, Folk was just 16-of-24 from inside 50 yards in his two prior seasons, the worst mark of any regular kicker (min. 20 attempts) in the league over that time.

--Here’s a feel-good moment from the Commanders:

--Another feel-good moment, this one from Australia. Congrats to Geelong, who smoked my Brisbane Lions in the semifinals, on winning the AFL champs:

--Dan Campbell has done a pretty darn good job in Detroit but he cost his Lions a win with a brutal decision late in their loss to the Vikings. That one hurt and Campbell knows it.

$.10--The Friday night lights were dark at Zeeland Stadium this week. The regularly scheduled homecoming game between the Zeeland East Chix--my son’s school--and the Holland Dutch was canceled because Holland High School no longer fields a varsity football team.

The Dutch, a perennial also-ran in football, pulled the plug on their season after four games, all incredibly lopsided losses. Instead of risking injury to the youngsters and crushing team morale any harder, Holland elected to drop down to junior varsity for the rest of the season. This was the first week where they did not play.

I understand why Holland’s varsity roster was predominantly freshmen and sophomores. Only five seniors played. They weren’t competitive against teams that aren’t good.

Now they’ll get that experience at the JV level, where they belong and can compete. It stinks for the Chix and the other upcoming opponents. Our school, still winless on the season, had to alter homecoming on the fly and could not find a replacement football game. I know many of the Chix players; they sorely wanted and needed a win that Holland would have provided. Our JV team won handily over what’s left of the rebuilding Holland program, but it was more of a contested game than what would have taken place on Friday night.

I hope the Holland families support their young men. I hope all those kids taking their massive lumps choose to stick with football and appreciate their experience. I hope someday they’ll taste victory together, be it JV or eventually in a return to the varsity level. It was not an easy decision to kill the season, but it was the right one. Maybe they’ll return in 8-man ball, as a couple of nearby schools have recently done.

This isn’t just an issue here in West Michigan. Football numbers are down in a lot of areas, and the competitive imbalance between communities where football is prioritized and where it isn’t has made for some ugly, lopsided scores. That’s a self-propagating death spiral for the losing teams; youth numbers decline, enthusiasm dwindles. Here’s hoping Holland’s experiment pays off and can be an example to other struggling schools--but that those schools realize it before the season.