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Hawks in the NFL: Week 3

Did you all watch Sunday’s morning slate? WOW was that wild. The shine is off the Packers slightly, Philly comes way back and then blocks a field goal to win AND returns it for a touchdown, and the Jets lose on a field goal again. And that was just the morning! Anyway - Hawks in the NFL, Week 3!

Tight Ends

We start with our tight end corps. No George Kittle again, as the 49ers won in the afternoon block on a game-winning kick to beat Arizona, 16-15. The Niners placed him on IR so he’ll miss two more games, against Jacksonville and the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams game is a Thursday game, so they have a mini-break heading into Week 6 against Tampa.

T.J. Hockenson is the standout this week as Minnesota mauled Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati, 48-10. Hockenson caught 5 passes for 49 yards and his first touchdown of the year to put the final score on the board for the Vikings.

On the other sideline, Noah Fant had 5 catches for 26 yards. This might be a tough hill to climb for the Bengals without Burrow.

Sam LaPorta finished Detroit’s impressive 38-30 win over Baltimore with 4 receptions for 33 yards. LaPorta also recovered Baltimore’s final onside attempt for a last possession to seal the game. Detroit looked bad the first week of the season in Green Bay, but has since put up 90 points in two weeks. They’ll be fine. Meanwhile - Baltimore has a date with Kansas City next week. Someone will be 1-3 next Sunday afternoon.

Lukas Van Ness

Van Ness finished Green Bay’s surprising 13-10 loss in Cleveland with 2 tackles and 2 quarterback hits. Cleveland sort of stinks, but their defense is excellent. There’s some shine off the Packers after that loss, but that’s still a playoff team that looks like they’re on course for a duel with Philadelphia deep in the playoffs. Weird things happen in this league, such as…

…Anthony Nelson and Kaevon Merriweather being on a 3-0 team that’s won those 3 games by a combined 6 points. Nelson had 2 tackles and a tackle for loss while Merriweather had 1 tackle as the Bucs beat the Jets, 29-27. The Bucs are 3-0 to start a season for the first time since 2005, and they became the first team in the Super Bowl era (post-1966) to win in the final minute of the fourth quarter in each of their first three games. They also became just the third team to do that at any point in a season, sharing the spoils on that record with the 2017 Steelers and the 1994 New York Giants.

Riley Moss

Not as great on this corner with Moss. Look - Moss has been mostly fine this year. Teams are going to go at him with Pat Surtain II on the other side. Go at Moss or Surtain, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year? Easy call, and that’s not an indictment on Moss at all. He finished with 6 tackles and a pass defended in Denver’s atrocious 23-20 loss to the Chargers that definitely didn’t put me on tilt at all Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately Moss had the coverage on the tying touchdown by Keenan Allen. He’ll get the heat for it but look at the play again - it’s a perfect throw by Justin Herbert, who has been awesome this year, and Moss was right there. Just a great throw by Herbert.

Denver didn’t lose this game because of Moss. They lost because their quarterback overthrew three touchdowns by about an inch on each throw. Now they’re 1-2 after trailing for ZERO SECONDS in each of the last two fourth quarters. Things are going great in the Mile High City.

Kaleb Johnson

We’ll end it here, and it’s not great on this corner either. After last week’s high-profile gaffe that handed Seattle a touchdown in Pittsburgh’s Week 2 loss, Johnson got…zero touches this week in their 21-14 win over New England. No touches. He was demoted from the kick return team, had no carries, and I don’t see him with any snaps at all. So…not great.