The departure of Kirk Cousins from Minnesota was arguably the biggest story of the offseason, but the unquestionable biggest story of the actual season so far is the Vikings‘ success without him. And it’s not a Cousins thing: the Vikings are now 3-0 with their low-cost backup Sam Darnold starting and playing fantastic football in place of rookie J.J. McCarthy who was lost for the year before the year began. It’s a massive tribute to Kevin O’Connell’s ability to get the most out of the quarterback position.
Darnold outdueled reigning OROY C.J. Stroud pretty easily and generally looked fantastic for the third week in a row, going 17-for-28 with 181 yards and a quartet of passing touchdowns. We talked about O’Connell last week and I’m even more comfortable today suggesting he’s already a top-five coach in the NFL. But Darnold’s success isn’t schemed up, “easy button” stuff or remotely gimmicky. The scheme is sound and it’s good but Darnold is just running an NFL offense and making big-boy throws.
Having Justin Jefferson helps, of course, but Darnold spread things around on Sunday yet again, throwing touchdowns to Jefferson, running back Aaron Jones, emerging receiver Jalen Nailor and — because why the heck not — Johnny Mundt. All four of his touchdown passes came against man coverage on dropbacks over 2.5 seconds, per Next Gen Stats. It took a while, and Darnold had to bounce around with three different teams first, but he might be living up to his pre-draft pedigree under KOC’s tutelage.
The numbers could have been even gaudier for Darnold but the Texans declined to make this much of a game, posting just a single score in the ugly 34-7 blowout. Credit to that goes to a massive Jonathan Greenard Revenge Game and an incredibly well-orchestrated defensive game plan by Brian Flores.
Sunday was the type of game that showed why Flores emerged from the Bill Belichick tree in New England to secure the Dolphins job and why CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported earlier in the day Flores was starting to generate interest for future coaching vacancies.
Week 1 was a dominant thumping of the lowly Giants, not a huge shock, but certainly a harbinger of what a Flores defense might be able to do. The last two weeks should serve serious notice to the rest of the NFL about the Vikings’ validity — they took care of business against the NFC cream of the crop in San Francisco and then walked up to the Texans, one of the top preseason Super Bowl favorites, punched them in the stomach and took their lunch money.
Stroud’s been good this year, maybe not great, but he certainly flashed plenty and has an array of weapons in the passing game. Even without Joe Mixon, the Texans should have been able to score some points. Flores wasn’t having it and the Vikings defense was even fighting hard late to keep Davis Mills out of the end zone in garbage time to preserve the single-score game.
Flores’ crew jumped all over the Texans early, too. They picked off Stroud on Houston’s first possession on a tipped pass and poured it on from there. The Texans didn’t manage double-digit yardage on four of their first seven drives and didn’t engineer a drive over 50 yards until midway through the third quarter.
Stroud completed 20 of 31 passes but was largely forced into being a checkdown artist because of the pressure the Vikings put on him. And it wasn’t necessarily an all-out blitz party for Flores either. Per Next Gen Stats, Stroud finished 6 of 11 for 58 yards and a pick when blitzed by Minnesota, with the Vikings recording one sack and generating five pressures. So the blitz worked but it might have been the threat of the blitz, with the Vikings dropping out of pre-snap pressure packages that really put Stroud in the spin cycle.
He completed just one pass longer than 20 yards down the field and just four more longer than 10 yards, with several of them coming when the game was already out of hand, with the Vikings playing slightly softer coverage and the Texans trying to push things downfield in a last ditch, comeback effort.
The Vikings were an NFC North afterthought heading into the year, having lost Cousins. The Lions were an established force. The Packers and Jordan Love had arrived. And the Bears were set for launch with Caleb Williams. Three weeks in, it’s quite clear how much coaching matters and in Minnesota they’ve got a good one.
Offseason signings like Darnold and Aaron Jones are paying massive dividends early in the year. The schedule is tough, but Minnesota’s already shown they can hang with anyone in the NFL. This team looks very much for real and it’s the biggest story in football three weeks in.
Andrew Gregory Dalton!
What an impossibly tough scene for Bryce Young on Sunday. The 2023 first overall pick was benched just 18 games into his career earlier this week, replaced by 36-year-old Andy Dalton under center for the Panthers and, man, it would have been tough to draw up a better first start than what Dalton produced against the Raiders out in the desert.
Dalton became the first quarterback in the ENTIRE NFL to throw for 300 yards and three passing touchdowns in the same game this season, with the Red Rifle somehow setting the standard in a very down year for passing and offense. That he did it in the first game since he took over for Young is just insult to injury (and only metaphorical injury since Bryce lost his job for being bad).
The competition wasn’t elite, but the Raiders have plenty of juice on defense and are capable of slowing teams down. So it’s a real indictment of Young and kind of remarkable to think about how it played out during the afternoon slate.
I pointed out earlier this week I expected the Panthers offense to improve when Dalton took over under center, but I certainly didn’t believe the Panthers would get their first game with a 300-yard passer, 100-yard receiver and 100-yard rusher since 2022. Things have been bleak and Sunday was a bizarre little spot of sunshine in an otherwise disastrous run for Carolina.
What do the Panthers do now? Where do they go from here? I guess you just keep rolling Dalton out there and seeing if he can win. The next group of games is pretty winnable, including a Dalton Revenge Game against the Bengals in Charlotte next week, followed by matchups with the Bears, Falcons, Commanders and Broncos.
Let’s not go full Jim Mora here or anything, but if the Panthers offense looks remotely close to what it did on Sunday over the next month, the Panthers will at least be frisky. Dalton was throwing the ball down field — completing five passes of 10 air yards or more in the first half, the same number Young managed through two weeks — and Diontae Johnson looked like the type of receiver we’ve always expected from his talent, catching eight passes for 122 yards and a score on a gorgeous deep pass by from Dalton.
The Panthers could arguably dump Young for draft picks in a trade. But they reportedly got offers from four different teams over the last week and decided not to take any of them, or at least decided against moving Young already.
So much has happened with this situation just three weeks in. The smart money is on Young suiting up for Carolina at some point again this season, but Sunday’s dismantling of the Raiders via Carolina’s offensive explosion was pretty damning of last year’s first overall selection.
Will Levis‘ bizarre on-field Artwork of the Week
Every week Will Levis brings joy to millions with a bizarre physical action on the field. He’s 3-for-3 so let’s keep firing on it.
Panic time for 1-2 teams?
Only the aforementioned Levis and the Tennessee Titans — shoutout to Tuscan Castles! — are 0-3 this season. There are plenty of 1-2 teams, however. Let’s rip through some of them and debate the panic level for each one.
Cleveland Browns: Full-blown meltdown for Browns fans right now. Deshaun Watson is a shell of himself and there’s nothing the team can do about moving on outside of simply putting him on the bench and taking the financial hit. They just lost at home to Daniel Jones. Say it out loud. Major trouble brewing.
San Francisco 49ers: Piles of injuries for this team on offense and back-to-back losses. You have to be somewhat concerned if you’re the Niners right now but I’m not going to hit the panic button completely because we also know they’ve got the ability to turn it on offensively and rip off several wins in a row. Plus, this is a team playing for February. But coughing up that lead to the Rams was a tough way to go down on Sunday considering how banged up Los Angeles was.
Los Angeles Rams: With all their injuries and the tough schedule, you kind of have to think 1-2 is OK right? The beatdown by Arizona last week was unacceptable but what a bounceback late to steal a win against the 49ers. The injuries are a built-in excuse. If this team makes the playoffs, give Sean McVay COY immediately.
Miami Dolphins: Clearly this is a trouble spot with Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve after suffering an ugly concussion in Week 2. The Dolphins have some good teams ahead of them in Buffalo and the Jets and the offense was lethargic without Tua under center against a really good Seahawks defense. This is a big-time uphill battle for a playoff spot even assuming Tua is back in a few weeks.
Baltimore Ravens: They’ve played two really tough games (at K.C., at Dallas) and came out 1-1. If they hadn’t melted down against the Raiders, blowing a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead, they’d be feeling great about where they are, particularly in the wake of the first Derrick Henry Game of the Big Dog’s Baltimore career. He was destructive against the Cowboys on Sunday, rumbling for 151 yards and a pair of scores. If this offensive line jells, the Ravens will be fine.
Chicago Bears: PANIC!!!! Expectations got too high for this team and now they’re struggling pretty bad on offense. The Colts defense was supposed to be Swiss cheese and the Bears just couldn’t get more than 20 points. Their offensive line is an issue and expectations were so sky high that Bears fans are sort of melting down now. The division also suddenly looks much tougher with the Packers and Vikings surging.
Dallas Cowboys: On the other hand, how can you not be freaking the bleep out if you’re the Cowboys? After dominating the Browns in Week 1, the Cowboys have gotten their tails handed to them in consecutive weeks, both of which featured teams who we thought might have questionable offensive lines absolutely run over them. CeeDee Lamb had a rough game, Dak Prescott’s been off the last two weeks and the Cowboys can’t stop anyone right now. Jerry Jones’ radio appearances should be appointment listening this week.
New York Giants: Reports out of New York earlier this week had some red flags being raised for Brian Dabol but a huge upset of Cleveland on the road with a massive performance from Malik Nabers eases a ton of tension for this club. Nabers, by the way, is the absolute truth. That dude is special. He might be a top-10 NFL wide receiver out of the box.
Las Vegas Raiders: I guess it depends on your expectations for this team, but they could easily be 0-3 were it not for the miracle comeback against the Ravens. I think they’re a fun team with some really exciting players but I didn’t have the Raiders penciled in for a playoff spot this year, so I’m not melting down about this start to the season. On the other hand, they did just get LIT UP by Andy Dalton.
Carolina Panthers: Again, same sort of setup like the Raiders. But you’ve got to feel “good” after they took some of the pressure out of the Bryce Young situation with a great offensive performance. Dave Canales’ collar should be a little less sweaty on Monday morning and Carolina has some hope with a softer schedule, but this is probably still not a great football team.
New England Patriots: Thursday’s ugly performance notwithstanding, this has been a “positive” start to the year for Jerod Mayo in his inaugural season. They should probably be 2-1 instead, but they’ve been largely competitive and we have yet to see Drake Maye under center, though the calls are getting louder. No panic needed given the expectations.
Arizona Cardinals: Another team who would surely like to be better than 1-2, but also another team who didn’t have a ton of expectations in terms of wins. They’re exactly who we thought they would be: frisky and in every game, fun on offense and usually involved in some high-scoring affairs. No panic here, this team is headed in the right direction long term.
Denver Broncos: Bo Nix was MUCH better on Sunday against Tampa as Sean Payton continued his dominance of Todd Bowles. Like the Panthers, that was a massive, much-needed win that eased some of the pressure on this season for Denver. They have a rookie quarterback, so I don’t think the pressure is necessarily win related so much as it’s about Nix’s play.
