The Washington Redskins and the New York Giants each lost on Sunday to drop to 0-3 and while the two games were different, with the Giants getting killed and the Skins hanging in against the Lions, the results were the same and now both are looking ahead to see if they can salvage the season.
The Giants have looked terrible all season, turning the ball over with reckless abandon and not doing anything on offense and the Redskins simply have not been able to play solid defense at all and that is what is hurting them the most. There are now four teams at 0-3 in the NFC, with the Giants, Redskins, Vikings and Buccaneers all winless. Can anyone rebound to make the playoffs?
The seeds of the Redskins game were planted last week against the Packers in Week 2. The Green Bay Packers were looking to regain some swagger after losing to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1 of the season and Aaron Rodgers had just the recipe for it, throwing for a career high amount of yards as the team defeated the Washington Redskins 38-20 on Sunday afternoon.
Rodgers put up a career-high 480 yards and was nearly perfect while missing on just eight throws and he finished with four touchdowns in the game to give the Packers their first win of the season. The Redskins are now 0-2 after losing to the Eagles on Monday night football and the Packers on Sunday and things have not gone very well for quarterback Robert Griffin III in his first two games since having knee surgery in the offseason. The Packers started off the game fast and went up 24-0 heading into halftime before sealing the game later on after a slight comeback from Washington.
Rodgers was efficient and proficient in the offense on Sunday, hitting James Jones on a number of beautiful plays after only targeting him twice against the 49ers. Rodgers went to Jones early and often and he finished with 11 catches and nearly 180 yards receiving, while the speedy Randall Cobb had nine catches for over 100 yards and a touchdown. The Packers also finally broke a very long streak of not having a 100-yard running back with James Starks finally breaking through and Eddie Lacy looked solid in the game before getting banged up.
At one point the Packers went up 31-7 before the Redskins made a slight comeback, but it wasn't enough to win and now the team is 0-2 to start the year. Griffin ended up with over 300 yards passing and three touchdowns, but early on he looked uncomfortable and slow and while he was able to put up numbers, the Packers defense didn't break down the stretch and held on for the victory. The 100-yard game from Starks broke a streak that head coach Mike McCarthy detested and was the first running back for the Packers to gain that many yards since back in 2010 when Brandon Jackson had 115 for Green Bay.
Lacy suffered a concussion in the game and was knocked out to leave Starks as the primary running back and going forward he may get the bulk of the carries. Lacy is looked at as a feature back, but McCarthy has no problem doing it by a committee and going forward it likely will be Starks first in the pecking order. Despite losing last week to the 49ers, Rodgers has been off to a fantastic start this season, passing for seven touchdowns to just one interception and he completed over 80 percent of his passes on Sunday against the Redskins.
Rodgers is on pace to be one of the top players in all of fantasy football and if he can continue throwing touchdowns at this pace, his receivers in Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson and James Jones all could put up excellent numbers. Nelson had a big game last week with 10 catches for 130 yards and one touchdown and on Sunday he was the odd man out with just four targets and three catches for 66 yards, but he came through the biggest, scoring his second and third touchdowns of the season and he now has positioned himself to be a top scoring wide receiver. The Packers should continue to put up big numbers with three wide receivers that have the potential to go over 100 yards in any game.