Dolphins @ Seahawks:
I find it mind-boggling that the Dolphins went into the season with Skylar Thompson as their backup quarterback. They knew that Tua had a checkered injury history and that he had one concussion from being out for the rest of his career. Thompson has no arm, and when the Seahawks dared him to throw the ball downfield, he wouldn’t even do it. There is one potential glimmer here: The Dolphins signed Tyler Huntley from the Ravens practice squad last week. If they can get Huntley up to speed, he has performed well in Baltimore, so he might be able to help this team get back on track. If he’s not involved this team is an absolute mess.
Ravens @ Cowboys:
The Ravens finally won their first game, beating Dallas in what turned out to be a very close game after Baltimore was up by three touchdowns. It was Derrick Henry, who had 151 yards and two touchdowns, who made a big difference. The Cowboys let up 274 rushing yards, which was an abomination, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting any better for Dallas. Truth be told, John Harbaugh was wrong in taking his foot off the gas pedal. Baltimore could have scored 40+ points and almost lost the game at the end.
If you look at the Cowboys stat line, it will look respectable, but the truth is that the entire second half was played in garbage time. Dak Prescott had 379 passing yards and two touchdowns, but the Ravens covered CeeDee Lamb very well, and he ended up with four receptions for 67 yards. Jake Ferguson came back to the lineup and had six receptions for 95 yards, which was good to see, but the Cowboys were only able to average 32 rushing yards. Don’t be shocked to see Dalvin Cook brought up this week from the practice squad.
Lions @ Cardinals:
On my SiriusXM fantasy sports show this past weekend, I discussed that I thought David Montgomery was a great leverage play because the Lions love to run the ball in games after a loss. Montgomery ran for 105 yards and a touchdown, and Jahmyr Gibbs ran for 83 yards. Jared Goff only threw for 199 yards, but he did have two touchdowns, including one to St. Brown. Sam LaPorta left the game with an injury, so that is something that we’ll have to watch this week.
There are going to be weeks when Kyler Murray is sensational, and they will be weeks when Kyler Murray is a disaster. When Murray is under pressure, he gets skittish and makes a lot of mistakes, just like he did against the Lions. He overthrew a lot of his targets. He rushed a lot of passes. It was not pretty to watch. James Conner struggled with only 17 rushing yards, which we knew would happen, considering the Lions have one of the best-run defenses in the league. One thing to note is that Trey McBride took a vicious hit toward the end of the game, and there’s a very good chance he may be out next week.