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NFL Week 3 overreactions

USA Today’s Lorenzo Reyes breaks down the biggest NFL storylines from Week 3.

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Lions’ big win almost fully restores them to 2024 heights.Both LA teams now reside in top five.What did Chiefs’ first win of 2025 season do for their standing?

NFL power rankings entering Week 4 of the 2025 season (previous rank in parentheses):

1. Philadelphia Eagles (1): They’re not blowing anyone’s doors off. Not yet, anyway. But one surefire sign of a champion, one that’s won 12 in a row at home and 19 of 20 overall going back to last season, is the ability to win in multiple ways − and Philly finally broke the seal on its passing game and leveraged timely special teams plays to overcome a 19-point deficit against a legit Rams squad Sunday. Also, doesn’t hurt to have a 336-pound defensive lineman who can rev to nearly 20 mph. Next up? The Kryptonite Bucs, who have beaten Philly in six of their past seven meetings.

Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis, who blocked a potential game-winning field goal and returned it for a touchdown as time expired, reached a top speed of 18.59 mph on the return, the fastest speed by a player over 330 pounds since at least 2017.

Powered by @awscloud pic.twitter.com/QbQP21uych

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 21, 2025

2. Buffalo Bills (2): They’re favored by 16½ points, per BetMGM, to beat New Orleans this Sunday in what could be the lock of the year − a 14th straight regular-season victory at Highmark Stadium.

3. Los Angeles Chargers (6): The Bolts just became the third team since realignment in 2002 to open a season 3-0 by sweeping all of their divisional opponents. Next up, a two-game detour through the NFC East − starting with the winless Giants on the road.

4. Los Angeles Rams (5): They’ve lost four of their past 12 games − a Week 18 contest they didn’t need in January … and three setbacks to Philly. Shoulda kept the gas pedal down Sunday. On the plus side, the injury bug has stayed away from QB Matthew Stafford and Co. so far in the regular season while biting down hard on the Rams’ NFC West rivals.

5. Green Bay Packers (3): Maybe Micah Parsons and Co. − specifically his teammates − were looking ahead to Dallas this week … even though this franchise hasn’t lost to the Cowboys in nearly nine years? While all the focus this week will be on Parsons, the Pack’s potentially makeshift O-line better ensure it can protect QB Jordan Love and find RB Josh Jacobs at least a sliver of daylight in Big D.

6. Detroit Lions (10): They don’t appear to be lacking for much since a Week 1 face plant at Lambeau. The offense is once again in high gear − 90 points over the last two games − while Monday night was also a reminder that DE Aidan Hutchinson is back for a team that allegedly lost too many coaches in the offseason.

7. Baltimore Ravens (4): Officially, another slow (1-2) start for a team that might be two Derrick Henry fumbles away from being 3-0. Still, there’s definitely defensive concern for a unit that was shoved around by Detroit amid the absence of injured Pro Bowl mainstays Kyle Van Noy and DL Nnamdi Madubuike.

8. Washington Commanders (7): Coach Dan Quinn is something of a microcosm for this team right now − bloodied but unbowed, all the more important as the Commanders prepare to hit the road for four of the next five weeks.

9. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9): They’re undefeated − and in spectacular fashion, the first team in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to score the winning points in the final minute of the fourth quarter in its first three games. But let’s also note the Bucs’ opponents to date are a combined 1-8.

RESILIENT.

The first team since 1970 with a game-winning score in the final minute of regulation in each of their first three games of a season 💪 pic.twitter.com/VkpftrHIgK

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) September 21, 2025

10. Kansas City Chiefs (8): They got off the mat, albeit fairly unimpressively against the Giants, but do get to play at Arrowhead four of the next five weeks.

11. Indianapolis Colts (11): After three weeks, they have the largest point differential in the league (+47) and a three-game lead over reigning AFC South champion Houston. It’s the NFL, what else did you expect?

12. Seattle Seahawks (14): It’s obviously early, but this is shaping up as the complementary football team second-year coach Mike Macdonald wanted amid a mini-makeover in the offseason. The defense, in particular, is dialing in − allowing the second-fewest points per game thus far.

13. San Francisco 49ers (12): A 3-0 start is obviously nice. But when you’re winning by an average of 3.3 points then lose Pro Bowl DE Nick Bosa (torn ACL) for the duration? It’s got the potential to become fool’s gold awfully fast.

14. Pittsburgh Steelers (15): Next up, the league’s first regular-season game in Ireland − great spot for Aaron Rodgers to share his thoughts on Sinn Féin. On the football front, they need to get the NFL’s second-worst ground attack into gear or risk being overly reliant on their 41-year-old slinger.

15. Minnesota Vikings (22): Next up, the league’s first regular-season game in Ireland − and doesn’t ginger Carson Wentz kinda resemble an oversized leprechaun? On the football front, WR2 Jordan Addison is set to rejoin the team for its two-game European swing once he’s reinstated from his suspension this week.

16. Arizona Cardinals (13): The loss of RB James Conner to season-ending ankle surgery will likely cost this team dearly in terms of production but most certainly in the leadership department.

17. Jacksonville Jaguars (19): DE Josh Hines-Allen needs two sacks to become this franchise’s all-time leader. Tony Brackens, with 55, is currently the standard bearer … and a reminder that the Jags’ best days occurred a quarter-century ago.

18. Denver Broncos (16): Per Next Gen Stats, QB Bo Nix’s “average completed air yards” are 3.8, the lowest in the league save Rodgers (2.9). What does it mean? Apparently that Denver’s pass game stinks through three weeks.

19. Chicago Bears (26): Sunday was sophomore QB Caleb Williams’ best day as a pro. It was also the first time in 20 NFL starts that he wasn’t sacked − all the more remarkable given he should have been wrecked while executing one of the worst flea flickers of all time.

20. Cincinnati Bengals (18): We knew they were likely to struggle without injured QB Joe Burrow. But falling into a 45-point hole type struggling? To a team also without its QB1? Ominous.

21. Houston Texans (20): When they start losing games in Jacksonville − for the first time since 2017 − then it’s time to start eyeing that panic button … especially if pushing it could add points to the league’s worst offense (12.7 per game so far).

22. Carolina Panthers (30): A team that allowed the most points (534) in NFL history last season pitched its first shutout in five years Sunday and posted its largest margin of victory (30 points) in a decade.

23. Atlanta Falcons (17): They were on the other side of Carolina’s whitewash, blanked for the first time since 2021. Apparently it was WR coach Ike Hilliard’s fault, because he was fired Monday.

24. Las Vegas Raiders (23): Next we find out what all that intel Tom Brady collected on this weekend’s opponent, the Bears, is worth − because the Silver and Black kept the deficit inside three TDs on Sunday after TB12 saw Washington earlier in the month.

25. New England Patriots (24): Speaking of Brady, the last time the Pats committed five turnovers prior to Sunday was 2008 (also against Pittsburgh) − when the GOAT’s season was wiped out by a Week 1 ACL tear.

26. Cleveland Browns (31): As Shedeur Sanders’ father, Deion (Dion?), famously uttered, “If you look good, you feel good. If you feel good, you play good.” Props to the “Alpha Dawgs” (presented by DUDE Wipes) who managed to upset the mighty Pack despite their appearance Sunday.

27. New York Jets (27): WR Garrett Wilson ranks among the NFL leaders with 21 receptions. No other NYJ wideout has managed even five catches.

28. Dallas Cowboys (21): No Parsons. No CeeDee Lamb for the foreseeable future. No ability to stop other teams defensively. But Jerry Jones thinks this is a playoff team. Naturally.

29. Miami Dolphins (32): They’re in the midst of an 11-day interlude between games after putting up a fight in Buffalo last Thursday. With the Jets, Panthers and Browns among their next four opponents, hardly time to throw in the towel.

30. New York Giants (25): Their starting backfield could have been Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley. Their starting backfield could be Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo − and, after Tuesday’s verdict to bench Russell Wilson, the G-Men are now at least halfway to that rookie pairing.

31. Tennessee Titans (29): Will this be two years in a row that a head coach is fired midseason despite his team just spending the No. 1 draft pick on a QB? The Titans are 3-17 under Brian Callahan, and the Nashville natives were quite restless during Sunday’s 21-point loss to Indy.

32. New Orleans Saints (28): Three weeks, three different helmets. Can’t say they don’t lead the league in something.

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