Upsets and Record-Breakers Highlight NFL Week 3

Article ByKyle Garlett

September 25, 2023

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Posted in: US Sports Betting News, US Fantasy Sports News, US Gambling News

Just when you think the NFL season has been figured out, everything flips on its head. The “best” team through two weeks was a loser in Week 3. Three winless teams got victories, and a team starting a backup quarterback moved into first place. And the NFL bets that we thought were sure things turned out to be anything but.

Dallas Cowboys Stunned in Arizona

When the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cowboys kicked off on Sunday, the point spread was 13. And even that seemed small, considering how good the Cowboys had looked in the first two weeks. They allowed just 10 points in two games while scoring 70.

Arizona was coming off one of the worst second-half collapses in years, and there was apparently absolutely no way that they would hang with the high-scoring Cowboys. They played close games in their two losses, but this was a juggernaut. Dallas was going to roll.

In the NFL, conventional wisdom is neither conventional, or wise. It was the Cardinals that rolled, picking up 222 yards rushing, 400 yards overall, and they averaged 7.5 yards per play. Just last week, the Cowboys forced 15 incomplete passes and got three sacks. This week, in losing the game 28-16, the Dallas defense allowed quarterback Josh Dobbs to complete 17 of 21 passes.

Losing cornerback Trevon Diggs to a torn ACL just a few days before the game was a big blow to Dallas. But that alone does not explain the way they played in Arizona. The Cowboys were outplayed from the opening kickoff, and the San Francisco 49ers are now the team to beat in the NFC. The Cowboys still have some work to do.

XBet.ag has the Cowboys at -7 in the early line for next week’s game at home against the New England Patriots.

Gardner Minshew Leads Colts Over Ravens

The Indianapolis Colts suddenly have two straight wins, and they are sitting in first place in the AFC South. After a Week 1 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Indianapolis beat the Houston Texans last week, and the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

Beating the Texans is one thing. The Colts were actually favored in that game by one point. But this week they were in Baltimore as eight-point underdogs. The Ravens were unbeaten, their offense was coming together, and the Colts were starting backup quarterback Gardner Minshew, with starter Anthony Richardson out with a concussion.

As far as backups go, Minshew is a pretty good starter. This was the 25th start of his career, and he has 46 career touchdowns to just 15 interceptions.

Minshew protected the football, Zack Moss ran for 122 yards, and the Indianapolis defense got to Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson for four sacks. Indianapolis kicker Matt Gay was good from 53 yards to send the game into overtime, and he hit another 53-yarder to win it.

BetUS.com still has the Ravens as the favorite to win the AFC North at +175.

Miami Dolphins Have Video Game Offense

The only time 70 points are scored in a football game is when you’re playing Madden on your PlayStation, or a college team named Southeastern Tech State is playing Alabama in the first week of September. Otherwise, it doesn’t happen. Or only happens once every 57 years.

For the first time since 1966, an NFL team has scored 70 points in a regular season game. The Miami Dolphins, favored to beat the Denver Broncos by 6.5 points, won on Sunday, 70-20.

Miami finished the game with 726 yards of offense, the second-most in NFL history. They are the second team in history to have multiple players score four touchdowns in the same game (Raheem Mostert and De’Von Achane), and they are just the second team since 1940 to have more than 300 passing yards and 300 rushing yards in the same game.

The Dolphins have the most total yards of offense through three weeks in NFL history (1,651), and their 130 points through three weeks is the second-most in history.

This off-season, new Broncos head coach Sean Payton said that his predecessor, Nathaniel Hackett, was responsible for one of the worst coaching jobs in history. After Sunday, Payton himself is now a contender for that award.

XBet.ag has the Dolphins as the second betting favorite to win the AFC at +440. The Broncos have dropped to +5400, 13th of the 16 AFC teams.