NFL Week Three: Cowboys-Packers, Steelers-Eagles, Saints-Broncos, and More!

Week Two might have been the most exciting week of games the NFL has seen in a long, long time. We had huge comebacks, high-scoring games, a game winning two-point conversion, and perhaps the best offensive football game I’ve seen in years.

There aren’t enough words to describe last week. It was tremendous. Riveting. I was glued to my TV.

When it ended, I had three separate discussions with three different people about whether or not it was the most exciting week in NFL history.

We all agreed that, at the very least, it was the most exciting in recent memory.

But as good as Week Two was, Week Three actually has the potential to top it.

Game to watch, part one: Dallas at Green Bay

The No. 1 team in the NFL Power 10 meets the No. 4 team.

I don’t like to make guarantees, but I am comfortable enough to guarantee that there will be a TON of points scored in this game.

The NFL’s No. 2 offense meets the NFL’s No. 6 offense.

The Cowboys and Packers have given up 23 and 22 points per game respectively. Both offenses are capable of putting up 35 points without breaking a sweat.

The point I’m trying to make: take the over.

This is the game that “should” have been the NFC Championship game last year, only Brett Favre has been replaced with a younger, faster, more energetic version of himself.

The Cowboys look unstoppable right now, but the Packers haven’t looked too shabby themselves. This should be a fantastic game.

Game to watch, part two: Pittsburgh at Philadelphia

The best team in the AFC meets one of the best teams in the NFC.

Poor Philadelphia.

They may be one of the top five teams in the NFL, but they’re stuck playing the first and second-best team in consecutive weeks and could be staring a 1-2 record square in the eyes.

The Steelers’ defense has looked dominant in wins against the Texans and Browns, but I think it’s fair to say that neither team has an offense on the level of the Eagles. It’ll be interesting to see just how dominant the Steelers’ defense really is.

For the Eagles, they played the game of the century last week and lost. How they rebound will go a long way towards deciding whether or not they can win this game.

Game to watch, part three: New Orleans at Denver

This is a classic “OK, let’s find out who’s real and who isn’t” game.

The Broncos beat up on the Raiders and then dominated the Chargers. The Chargers have looked awful and didn’t have a healthy L.T. on offense. The Raiders are...The Raiders.

The Saints beat the defending NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then lost to the previously hapless Washington Redskins.

I’m not sure you can make an accurate assessment of either team based on the first two weeks. This game, however, will go a long way towards defining both teams.

Are the Broncos just lucky to be 2-0, or are they for real? Are the Saints the Super Bowl team we thought they were after Week One, or are they the team that couldn’t stop the Redskins’ offense in Week Two?

Should be an extremely entertaining game.

What else to watch for in Week Three

The Gus Frerotte Era Begins in Minnesota

If you’re a Minnesota Vikings fan, and you hear your head coach say the words, “Gus Frerotte just gives us a better chance to win,” do you actually get physically ill? Or do you just throw up in your mouth a little?

We all knew the Vikings’ season would hinge on Tarvaris Jackson’s development. If you were like me, and thought he’d be OK, you had the Vikings at or near the top of the NFC.

If you thought he’d remain terrible, you had them somewhere in the bottom half of the NFC.

Now that they’ve started 0-2 and are a loss to the surprising Panthers away from 0-3, I’m pretty sure we know which side of that argument was right.

If the Vikings don’t beat the Panthers, their season is basically over.

Joey Porter Might Have Tourettes

In case you missed it, Joey Porter once again forgot he plays for the worst team in the NFL and basically predicted a win over the Patriots due to the fact that Matt Cassel sucks.

While I’m not sure I disagree with him on Matt Cassel, there’s no way the Dolphins beat the Patriots. It just won’t happen. The Dolphins are terrible.

And a terrible team just gave the New England Patriots bulletin-board material.

Thank YOU Joey Porter.

Moron.

Lane Kiffin Still Has a Job, We Think

OK Al Davis, it’s time to crap or get off the pot.

The Raiders might have a team good enough to compete in a suddenly mediocre AFC West. But they won’t compete if the top story out of Oakland every week is whether or not Lane Kiffin is still employed.

Put Kiffin out of his misery already.

He wants out. You want him out. So fire him already.

Eventually this is going to become a distraction, if it hasn’t already. The Raiders are staring a four-win season in the eyes if the coaching/front office situation doesn’t change.

Letting your head coach dangle in the wind like this because you don’t want to fire him and be responsible for paying the rest of his contract is inexcusable.

Kurt Warner’s Rejuvenation Continues

The Cardinals are undefeated, and Kurt Warner thinks it’s 1999 again.

He’s passing at a 70-percent clip. He’s averaging almost 300 yards a game. His quarterback rating is a ridiculous 128.5—a number aided by his perfect rating from last week. He has four touchdowns, and more importantly, zero interceptions.

Warner is proving all of the doubters, myself included, wrong. Maybe they are a playoff team with Warner at the helm.

Washington will be a good test this week, but we won’t really know how good the Cardinals are until their Week Six game against the Cowboys.

But Warner has been beyond fantastic thus far, and is one of the great stories in the NFL so far this season.

Sean Crowe is a Senior Writer and an NFL Community Leader at Bleacher Report. You can email him at [e-mail]. His archive can be found here. You can find everything he writes, including articles for other publications, here.