Football fans have been treated to an interesting start to the NFL season. Every team has had at least two contests now, and the third round is underway as I write this column from a booth at Buffalo Wild Wings. So what’s been going on, you ask? Well, since you’ve apparently been living under a rock, I’ll tell you.
Some things have been entirely predictable. Denver quarterback Peyton Manning has taken full advantage of the most stocked corps of receivers in the NFL — sorry, Green Bay — throwing nine touchdowns and no interceptions en route to the Broncos starting the season 2-0 and looking like one of the prohibitive favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy come February.
The New England Patriots are 2-0 despite having a squad of pass-catchers populated by Julian Edelman and a bunch of players that even hardcore football junkies have never heard of.
Even though Philadelphia’s 1-2 record might suggest otherwise, new coach Chip Kelly and his blur offense have made the Eagles one of the most exciting teams in the league to watch and have brought Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson back to relevance.
And the Jaguars and Browns have been exactly as terrible as advertised. Hey, someone’s got to get the top pick in the 2014 draft.
But there have also been some serious surprises. Yes, Denver’s hot start was expected, and many — myself included — thought that the Kansas City Chiefs would be an improved team this season. But can you say that you expected KC to start 3-0? Sure, they haven’t played a particularly difficult schedule so far; the Jaguars, the Cowboys and the Eagles are not exactly an intimidating bunch. But I’ll openly admit that I didn’t see the Chiefs’ defensive performance coming, and the presence of Alex Smith is keeping opposing defenses honest and allowing stud running back Jamaal Charles to return to the top tier of NFL rushers.
Another trendy pick going into this season was Tampa Bay. The Bucs took a high-potential offense featuring tailback Doug Martin and wide receiver Vincent Jackson and supplemented it by adding shutdown corner Darrelle Revis to a defense that was expected to be one of the league’s better units. Instead, Tampa has blown two straight leads against the hapless Jets and the division rival Saints to start 0-2, and it looks more and more every day like both coach Greg Schiano and quarterback Josh Freeman could be gone sooner rather than later.
And we all knew that Seattle was a strong team, but I don’t think many expected the 29-3 beating the Seahawks put on the defending NFC champion 49ers in Week 2. Get used to it; the Seahawks are here to stay.
Then there’s possibly the most unexpected development of the entire season. We all knew the Browns were somewhat hopeless with Brandon Weeden at the helm, but show me a person who saw Cleveland’s trade of star running back Trent Richardson coming, and I’ll show you a liar … or maybe ESPN NFL expert Adam Schefter. Instead of being the lone bright spot in Cleveland, Richardson joins Andrew Luck in Indianapolis in a push to bring the Colts back to the playoffs. I know I was shocked when I saw that the trade happened. I actually had to shut my laptop for five minutes and sit at my table in the Pav, just trying to process what had happened.
Fear not, Virginia fans; there’s even something for you. Houston signal-caller Matt Schaub, the Cavaliers’ all-time leading passer and holder of numerous Virginia passing records, got off to a sizzling start in 2013. Schaub has thrown for 644 yards and six touchdowns through the first two weeks of the season, helping to lead the Texans to a 2-0 start despite injury concerns for Houston’s top weapons, running back Arian Foster and wide receiver Andre Johnson. By the time this column goes to press, however, Schaub will have put the finishing touches on a clunker of a game, as the Texans are currently getting crushed by the Ravens.
But just as with Virginia’s big win against VMI Saturday, we should all get appropriately excited about Schaub’s start; after all, you have to take your moments of Wahoo pride where you can get them.
So where do we go from here? Obviously, it’s far too early to be making predictions like these, but since that won’t stop me or the pundits on ESPN, I’m calling that the playoff teams will be Denver, Houston, New England, Cincinnati, Miami, Kansas City or perhaps the new-look Colts in the AFC, while the NFC will be represented by Seattle, Green Bay, New Orleans, Dallas, San Francisco and Atlanta in the quest for the Lombardi Trophy.
Of course, there could be more surprises around the corner. After all, there are still 14 more weeks of regular-season football to go, and everyone knows that games are played on the field, not on a writer’s notepad. I guess we’ll just have to keep watching to find out what’s next.
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