NFL Best And Worst: Falcons Turn It Around; No Answers For Packers, Patriots

The biggest disappointments in the NFL so far this season? That’s easy: Patriots quarterback and 2025 MVP runner-up Drake Maye and the 1-2 Packers. What about the biggest surprise? The 3-0 Raiders, even with No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza yet to take a snap. Meanwhile, pressure is already mounting on 2025 No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward just three games into his second season with the Titans. All these teams are represented in my best and worst superlatives coming out of Week 3. In this edition, I focus on individual plays, offenses and overall team performance. Let’s dive in. Remember last season when kicker Tyler Loop missed the field goal in Baltimore’s regular-season finale against Pittsburgh that would’ve sent the Ravens to the playoffs? Afterward, remember how then-Ravens coach John Harbaugh consoled Loop on the way to the locker room? That’s part of what makes his 56-yard, game-winning field goal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — the kick that lifted the Ravens past the Dallas Cowboys 34-31 as time expired — so awesome. In his first chance at a walk-off field goal since that Week 18 miss last season, Loop rose to the occasion. And he’s been delivering since the season began. A brief competition with veteran Jake Moody after Loop went 3-of-8 on field goals in the preseason ended when he went 2-for-2 in the Ravens’ 41-23 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1, hitting from 57 and 45 yards. Baltimore released Moody from its practice squad after that performance. A sixth-round pick last year, Loop is 5-for-6 on field goals so far this season, showing that he can be a reliable scorer for a Ravens team expected to contend. It was all set up for Cam Ward to have his moment. The Titans were knocking on the end zone at the Giants’ 7-yard line, trailing by five points with 24 seconds left. Ward’s second career game-winning drive was at his fingertips … but it slipped through when he made a very bad decision. The second-year Titans quarterback rolled to his left and fired a pass intended for wide receiver Elic Ayomanor at the back of the end zone, failing to see Giants safety Jevon Holland lurking around the goal line. It was an easy pick for Holland, sealing the game for New York. It wasn’t a do-or-die situation for Tennessee. Ward could’ve thrown the ball away if he had any doubts about the window he was seeing. It was a first-down play, after all. He had space to run, too. Even if Ward couldn’t get out of bounds, the Titans had two timeouts to stop the clock. So time wasn’t an issue either. It was just a terrible decision all the way around by Ward, who had flushed a shaky performance through three quarters with a terrific final period up until the interception. Now, the clock must be ticking on last year’s No. 1 overall pick. And not the clock for a benching, to be clear — another Titans season appears to be headed nowhere, so to sit Ward in favor of veteran backup Mitch Trubisky and miss out on reps doesn’t make sense. But at the current trajectory, the franchise could be having the quarterback conversation this offseason — whether to bring in veteran competition or to draft a QB to compete with Ward in 2027. We’re 20 games into the Ward era in Tennessee. He’s 3-17 in those games. Ward has had a lot of dysfunction around him for much of that time, and he’s flashed at times in spite of that dysfunction, but his development has been headed in the wrong direction to this point in Year 2. The Titans have invested heavily at the wide receiver position with No. 4 overall pick Carnell Tate and free-agent acquisition Wan’Dale Robinson. The pass protection has been fine — Ward has been sacked just five times through three games and has faced a 34.3% pressure rate, 12th-lowest amongst qualified quarterbacks, according to Next Gen Stats. So the onus is on Ward to start playing better. We’re running out of excuses to make for last year’s No. 1 overall pick. Turns out that the return of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was the solution to the Falcons’ problems. After missing Atlanta’s first two games as he worked his way back from the torn ACL that ended his 2025 season, Penix returned for Thursday Night Football against the Packers, leading an electrifying Atlanta offense that netted 500 yards before his back-to-back kneel downs to end the game. Superstar running back Bijan Robinson had 29 carries for 194 yards and two touchdowns. Standout wide receiver Drake London caught nine passes for 194 yards. Robinson and London became the first teammate duo in league history to finish with 150-plus rushing yards and 150-plus receiving yards in the same game three times, according to Next Gen Stats. So the Falcons’ biggest stars led the way in what was a thorough whooping for Atlanta, which recorded 242 yards rushing and had a 37:05 time of possession. All of a sudden, the Falcons become an intriguing team. It remains to be seen whether Penix can stay healthy and replicate his Week 3 success (72.0% completion rate for 256 yards and a touchdown with an interception). But with competent play at the quarterback position, Atlanta is a legit NFC playoff contender given its talent at the offensive skill positions and on the offensive line. Right now, it’s difficult to believe that the Patriots were in the Super Bowl just seven months ago. Their offense continued to sputter Sunday, when they were blown out 35-6 by the Jaguars. New England reached Jacksonville territory seven times but failed to score a touchdown on any of those possessions, its most drives in plus territory without a TD since Week 8 of 2023, per NGS. The play of quarterback Drake Maye is the biggest concern. Against the Jags, he completed just 56.0% of his throws for 199 yards with no touchdowns and three total turnovers (two interceptions, one lost fumble), giving him a league-high seven giveaways. His throw to a tightly-covered Efton Chism III in the end zone just before halftime that was picked off by Travis Hunter was a shockingly bad decision — awfully similar to his game-sealing interception in New England’s season opener in Seattle. The Patriots need to figure out what’s wrong with their young quarterback and fix it fast, because things could get even spookier for New England. Its offensive line, which was an Achilles’ heel in the Super Bowl run last season, is already becoming problematic again. The Patriots were down to their third-string right guard against the Jaguars because starter Mike Onwenu (broken ankle) is on IR and backup Greg Van Roten didn’t finish the game because of a thigh injury. How about those Raiders? They improved to 3-0 with their 35-27 win over the New Orleans Saints. And it was truly a complete victory — the Raiders scored four touchdowns and forced four turnovers, all of which came in the fourth quarter. It marked their first 30-plus point performance since Week 15 of 2023, and the four takeaways in the final period were more than what the team had in the fourth quarter of the entire 2025 season (3). No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza will be the Raiders’ starting quarterback eventually, but Las Vegas has no reason to move off the Kirk Cousins wave right now. The veteran QB has thrown three touchdown passes in each of the first three games of the season. He’s leading a team that has far exceeded expectations under first-year coach Klint Kubiak. And Las Vegas just got one of its best players back in star tight end Brock Bowers, who had a team-high 10 catches for 116 yards in his season debut Sunday. We knew that the AFC West would be tough, with the talented Broncos and the return of Chiefs star QB Patrick Mahomes, but didn’t anticipate the Raiders being part of the equation. Now, here we are. No NFL team is inspiring less confidence right now than the 1-2 Packers, relative to the expectations for Matt LaFleur’s squad this season. The Packers were completely overwhelmed in their 35-14 loss to the Falcons. Green Bay’s run game produced 17 net yards, while quarterback Jordan Love completed just 52.8% of his passes and was pressured 23 times. Defensively, the Packers gave up 242 rushing yards and pressured Penix just five times on 25 dropbacks. As lead running back Josh Jacobs sits on the commissioner’s exempt list, Green Bay is averaging an alarmingly-low 48.7 rushing yards per game through three weeks, by far the NFL’s worst. Its offensive line is in shambles. The defense has no identity without Micah Parsons. Parsons is eligible to return from his ACL rehab in Week 5, but nothing changes in Green Bay’s outlook until the offensive line play improves. And that’s difficult to imagine right now, considering right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele — the team’s best lineman — suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2 and Green Bay’s struggles at the guard position. The team signed veteran Laken Tomlinson off the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad and free agent Mekhi Becton in recent days for reinforcements.