Remember the 2011 Buffalo Bills, and how their season ended? Of course you don’t. Only the faithful Bills mafia would have room in their memories for such a thing, and even they’re trying to forget.
That year the Bills started the season 3-0 and there was boundless optimism again in upstate New York. Then they won only three more games, and missed the playoffs yet again.
The 2011 Bills are a classic example of an early-season pretender. A team with a nice, round number in the loss column late in the season’s opening month. Those teams can deceive us for a number of reasons, the most common being that they simply haven’t faced quality competition yet.
There isn’t a turd in disguise among the current undefeated 3-0 teams still standing right now. They’re all legitimately talented, at worst will strongly contend for a playoff spot, and one can start raising a division champion banner now.
But there’s also a clear divide between the Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals. Simply put: one is a Super Bowl contender, and the other two are not.
Here’s how they stack up right now, and why.
3. Arizona Cardinals
The Bruce Arians pixie dust here is pretty remarkable. Arians has taken his backup quarterback and crafted a gameplan that’s resulted in two wins by near identical scores (25-14 and 23-14), one of which came over the division rival San Francisco 49ers.
While Drew Stanton made key throws in that game (highlighted by two touchdown passes to John Brown for 21 and 24 yards), the defense won the day. Even without Darnell Dockett, John Abraham, Daryl Washington and Karlos Dansby from last year’s fierce front seven, the Cards still held Colin Kaepernick to only 10 rushing yards after San Francisco’s second drive. Even more impressively, the Niners were held to only 108 passing yards in a second half when they scored zero points.
But although an offense with widespread talent and a shutdown secondary will indeed keep Arizona in playoff contention, a fall feels inevitable due to the utter lack of a pass rush.
The aforementioned loss of key pieces from last year’s defense due to injuries, free agency, and a suspension (again: Dockett, Abraham, Dansby, and Washington), has left the Cardinals without 25.5 sacks from last year’s total of 47. And eventually in the NFC West—a division where containing mobile quarterbacks has to happen—a poor pass rush becomes a fatal flaw.
2. Philadelphia Eagles
During the Eagles’ most recent win this past Sunday over the Washington Redskins, we were quickly given our weekly reminder of just how quick-hitting a Chip Kelly offense can be.
Chris Polk took a kickoff back for a 102-yard touchdown. That was great because the Eagles, you know, scored a touchdown. But it also meant Philadelphia’s offensive circus barely saw the field for an entire quarter of football.
After two Kirk Cousins drives that ended in touchdowns, Nick Foles finally took his first snap at the 2:01 mark of the first quarter, a quarter in which the Eagles ran six offensive plays to Washington’s 23.
Yet despite having basically only three quarters to work with, the Eagles still scored 30 more points, winning 37-34.
For the third straight week they scored at least 30 points, and recall that back in Week 1 Philly took their rapid offensive napalming a step further. In a win over the Jaguars they didn’t score a single point until the 11:46 mark of the third quarter.
Offensively the Eagles have a wealth of talent and creativity, more than enough to lap the NFC East. It’s a unit that’s been powered by Darren Sproles, who ridiculously leads the league in yards after the catch (199) despite being on the field for only 78 snaps.
But if the Eagles do somehow fall short of winning the division, their undoing will be a decimated offensive line that’s now lost three of its five starters to injury (and Lane Johnson will sit out one more game due to a suspension).
A still feeble secondary that can be picked apart easily and has allowed the third most passing yards in the league also isn’t helping matters. That’s the true glaring weakness here, and the reason why an Eagles trip to the playoffs won’t last long again. The offensive line health will improve in time, but those aerial assaults won’t stop.
1. Cincinnati Bengals
You want offensive depth and versatility? There’s Giovani Bernard and his average of 111 total yards per game so far. There’s Andy Dalton being regular-season Andy Dalton again with 8.6 yards per attempt. And there’s Mohamed Sanu with two completed passes, because hey, why not?
Defensively, the Bengals are allowing a league low opposing passer rating of 56.9, and they’ve recorded seven takeaways with only one giveaway. Early in yet another season Cincinnati looks like a well-rounded team capable of doing some serious steamrolling, and contending for a championship.
But this is the part when I remind you about those doomed Bengals post-seasons in the Dalton era: he’s face-planted. Over three playoff appearances Dalton has thrown six interceptions, with a per-attempt rate of 5.9 yards.
