Is it possible to overreact to a team scoring 70 points in a single NFL game? Like, is there anything we can say about what the Miami Dolphins did to the Denver Broncos on Sunday that would be too over the top?
The Dolphins had 726 yards of offense in their Week 3 win, nine short of the single-game NFL record, which has stood since the Rams rolled up 735 on the Yanks in 1951. Yeah, the Yanks. Joe DiMaggio must have been out that day. The only team that has ever scored more touchdowns in a game than the Dolphins' 10 is the 1940 Bears, who scored 11 in that year's championship game against Washington. Yes, I know. You watch the Bears these days and you wonder if they'll score 11 touchdowns all season.
If you started Dolphins rookie running back De'Von Achane in fantasy this week, congratulations on being some sort of psychic wizard. Achane, who hadn't been much of a factor in Miami's first two games, rolled up 51.3 points on fantasy benches Sunday. But in the more likely event that you started Raheem Mostert, you had to be pretty happy with his 45.2 points. Or Tyreek Hill's 30.7. Or Tua Tagovailoa's 28.36. If you have Dolphins players in fantasy this year, it's like you're playing with an extra player each week.
No team in league history had ever scored five rushing touchdowns and five receiving touchdowns in the same game until the Dolphins did it Sunday. No team in league history had ever scored 70 points and put up 700 yards of offense in the same game until the Dolphins did it Sunday. No pair of teammates had ever had four touchdowns and 140 scrimmage yards each in the same game until Achane and Mostert did it Sunday. The Dolphins have scored 130 points in their first three games this season, and the only team ever to score more in its first three games was the 1968 Cowboys, who had 132.
I could say just about anything I want about the Dolphins' performance Sunday, and you wouldn't be able to convince me I'm overreacting. This team is absolutely terrifying right now, and there's no other place we could start the Week 3 overreactions column, as we judge a few potential takeaways from the weekend's games.
Jump to:
Dolphins' offense | Colts' playoff hopes
Titans' QB situation | Bears' draft projection
Cowboys' letdown
The Dolphins will set the NFL single-season scoring record this season
So the first question, of course, is what that record is. It is 606, set by Peyton Manning and the 2013 Broncos. The 2023 Dolphins are on pace for 737 points, which would of course annihilate that mark. Now, teams only played 16 games in a season back then, and they now play 17, so we need to adjust a little bit to account for that. But at their current pace, the Dolphins would only need 15 games to break that record.
The record for points per game by a team in a single season is 38.8, set by the 1950 Rams. The Dolphins are currently averaging 43.3.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
We've been saying since the summer, "If Tua can stay healthy, the Dolphins could be great." That has always been a big "if" because he never has, playing in just 13 games in both of his two full seasons as the team's starter. But things look so good right now that you have to imagine this is possible.
Geez, I mean, look back at the math again. The Dolphins have a pretty solid margin for error here. If Tagovailoa does stay healthy, who's going to stop this offense? They did all of this Sunday without receiver Jaylen Waddle, who's in the concussion protocol.
At this point, the better question about the Dolphins is this: If they're the last unbeaten team standing and they finally do lose a game, do the surviving members of the 1972 Dolphins still drink champagne?
The Indianapolis Colts are the best team in the AFC South
Behind backup quarterback Gardner Minshew, the Colts rolled into rainy Baltimore and beat the previously unbeaten Ravens in overtime to improve to 2-1. Every other team in the division is 1-2.
The past 12 months have felt like a complete disaster for the Colts at just about every turn, and the Jonathan Taylor situation still hangs ominously over the franchise as Week 3 comes to a close. But Shane Steichen is off to a solid start as a rookie head coach, and starting QB Anthony Richardson could conceivably be back from concussion protocol to start next week.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
Full kudos to Steichen and the Colts for what they've been able to do so far. The AFC South looks bizarre right now, with Houston and impressive rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud having beaten up on the division-favorite Jaguars on Sunday. Jacksonville's offense doesn't look like we expected it to look, and Indy's unit with Richardson looked a little better than I think we may have guessed. So the division doesn't appear to be the cakewalk for Jacksonville that we may have predicted it to be just three weeks ago.
But three games shouldn't be enough to change our opinions of these teams that drastically. Besides, the Jags are only one game back of the Colts, and they beat them 31-21 in Week 1. Long way to go in the South.
Will Levis will be the Tennessee Titans' starting quarterback by November
The Titans gained ... wait, this can't be right ... 94 yards of total offense Sunday in a 27-3 loss to the Browns? Ninety-four??
They ran just 45 plays, collected only six first downs and went 2-for-12 on third-down conversion attempts. They didn't even turn the ball over -- they just couldn't do anything with it when they had it. Ryan Tannehill was 13-for-25 for 104 yards. Derrick Henry had 20 yards on 11 carries. Just looking at the box score makes it look like the Browns were using 13 guys on defense. Or the Titans were using nine on offense. Or both.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
First of all, let me say that the Browns' defense looks absolutely legit and will make a lot of teams look bad this year. But no NFL team should look this bad on offense, no matter what kind of defense it's facing. Plus, this isn't the Titans' first dud of the year. Tannehill was 16-for-34 for 198 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions in the season-opening loss to the Saints. Henry only has 163 yards and one touchdown on 51 carries for the season. That's an average of 54.3 yards per game and 3.2 yards per carry. This offense is stuck in the mud, and the only thing that's keeping the Titans from being 0-3 is a Week 2 overtime victory over the bumbling Chargers.
Levis was the 33rd pick in this year's draft, so the plan is obviously for him to be the quarterback at some point. He may still be behind 2022 third-rounder Malik Willis on the depth chart, but the point here is that Tannehill may not be long for his current job. He's making a very reasonable $27 million this year and could be a trade option for QB-needy teams at the deadline (which happens to be right before November on Oct. 31). He's eligible to be an unrestricted free agent at year's end.
If the Titans' season is sinking the way the early returns indicate it could, a QB change at some point is far from out of the question. But that's also assuming Levis (or Willis, I guess) is ready to take over, of course.
The Chicago Bears are the favorites to land Caleb Williams in next year's draft
After the week the Bears had, the absolute worst thing that could have happened this weekend was a trip to Kansas City. But that's life, and Justin Fields and the Bears looked ill-equipped to take the field against the Super Bowl champs.
The Chiefs led 34-0 at halftime and won 41-10. Patrick Mahomes didn't play in the fourth quarter. To hold the audience, FOX resorted to an array of Taylor Swift cutaways. Fields was 11-for-22 for 99 yards, an interception and a late, garbage-time touchdown. He ran for 47 yards on 11 carries but overall has not shown anything resembling progress in the Bears' first three games.
Chicago has its own draft pick and Carolina's first-rounder in next year's draft, and those two teams are a combined 0-6 right now. It's entirely possible the Bears will have the No. 1 pick in the draft for the second year in a row, and if so, they'd have a decision to make.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION
Obviously, there's plenty of time for Fields to save his season and convince the Bears to pick up his fifth-year option next spring. But there's so much that needs fixing. And remember, Ryan Poles isn't the GM who drafted him.
You can't say the Bears haven't given Fields a chance, too. Rather than use last year's No. 1 pick on a quarterback, Poles traded it away and made efforts to build around Fields. But if you make that decision one year, and the guy you stood by plays poorly enough that you have the No. 1 pick again the next year, you're well within your rights to make a different decision.
If these shadows remain unchanged, the Bears likely find themselves in the QB market once again next spring. And Williams right now looks like the crown jewel.
New year, same old Dallas Cowboys
No one in the league looked better than the Cowboys did in the first two weeks of the season. But on Sunday, they went into Arizona and laid a major egg. The Cardinals picked up their first win of the season by handing Dallas its first loss, 28-16.
What's worse is the way it ended. Dallas was driving late when quarterback Dak Prescott, who tied for the league lead last season with 15 interceptions, threw a terrible pick in the end zone that killed any chance of a comeback. Now it's at least one week of "Dak let them down" conversations, and the Cowboys appear to be right back where they left off last year. No matter how good they looked against the New York teams over the first two weeks.
Verdict: OVERREACTION
Yes, it's a bad loss. And a bad interception. And when last year's problem rears its head in the early portion of this season, you're inevitably going to have to answer the "same old" questions.
But everybody's entitled to a dud. The Cowboys are beaten up on the offensive line, just lost one of their best defensive players (cornerback Trevon Diggs) to a season-ending injury and may have just come out inexplicably flat in this one.
They have a hugely important game coming up against the 49ers in two weeks, and they'd do well to beat up on the Patriots next week and get their mojo back going into that one. But while I know the reactions will be intense (with the Cowboys, they always are), I need to see more than one poor performance before I'm going to say this is the same old let-you-down Cowboys. With the way their roster looks, and the way they played in Weeks 1 and 2, it's way too early for any of that.