The third Sunday of the 2023-2024 NFL season is in the books as the routine starts taking hold.
Sunday’s games were full of hecticty. One score decided four games to complement two upsets and an NFL record. The Patriots, Saints, and Colts toughed out gritty games, while the Texans and the Cardinals shocked the NFL world with their week three wins. All of this goes along with the elephant in the room, the Miami Dolphins scoring 70 points, the most points since 1970, in their blowout win over the Broncos.
The Los Angeles Chargers are doing their best to attract national attention, even when the result shows a win on the scoreboard. The Chargers traveled to Minnesota to play the Vikings in an early season matchup with heavy playoff implications. Both teams are just three games removed from a playoff game and now sat 0-2 pregame. The two teams haven’t played in a game that wasn’t decided by one possession.
The road to the postseason gets much rockier after a 0-3 start. In the Super Bowl era, teams have a 2.4% chance of making the playoffs. Since the Super Bowl era began in 1967, the season has extended from 14 games to 16 to 17. But it hasn’t happened since the NFL expanded to the 17th game, and the last team to do so was the 2018 Houston Texans.
The Chargers outlasted the Vikings 28-24, to the dismay of O54 bettors all over the country. The game came down to the last play as the Vikings sat first and goal with 41 seconds left. It was clear the game would come down to the wire. Pregame, the spread was set at just one point, with the Chargers getting a slight edge with one point of relief.
The first half was surprisingly mellow, as the expectedly poor defense limited the explosive offenses. The Chargers went into the break with a 14-10 lead.
Quarterback Justin Herbert looked flawless in the win. He was 40/47 for 405 yards, three touchdowns, and a 123.8 quarterback rating. Herbert spread the ball all over the field, with eight Chargers players getting at least one reception in the win. The most impressive part of his game was how he could fit the ball into tight windows. He excelled at contested throws. His completion percentage was 16% higher than expected to increase his season lead. He leads the league in CPOE (completion percentage over expected) with 9.1%.
Keenan Allen continues to make his Chargers Hall of Fame resume more impressive. His 18 catches smushed the single-game receptions franchise record he previously held. Allen broke his 16-catch record, which was set in November 2020. He is second all-time in receiving yards, behind only Antonio Gates. His 215 yards on Sunday helped solidify his spot on the second step of the podium, but he is still over 2,000 yards behind arguably the greatest tight end of all time. On top of his 39 PPR fantasy points, Allen threw a 50-yard TD bomb for the first completion of his career to increase his fantasy total to 45 points. He became the only player in NFL history to play three games with over 15 catches.
The Herbert-Allen connection only got more robust through the game. The Chargers lost their WR2, and one of the most undervalued players in the league – the big Mike Williams tragically tore his ACL in the second half of the game. Injuries have ravished an unbelievable talent throughout his career, and the Chargers will be without the fade machine for the rest of the season.
It took a while for the offensive powerhouses to click in week three. The second half started with two punts and a missed field goal, but a Herbert-to-Allen connection broke the defensive seal. That’s when Allen threw his touchdown pass, which got the scoring moving. The Vikings responded with their own touchdown drive.
The game really started halfway through the third quarter when the Vikings got off the field after just five plays. The offense complimented the defense as Minnesota drove down the field with their second straight touchdown drive. A 50-yard Kirk Cousins pass to Justin Jefferson gave the Vikings their first lead of the game.
The Chargers immediately answered with a 75-yard touchdown drive, and the game finally started resembling the pregame expectations. Los Angeles took the lead back as the scoreboard took its final form, but the game was far from over.
Minnesota was finally rolling, and they went all the way down the field in just seven plays. They reached the Chargers’ two-yard line before Los Angeles finally stood firm with a goal-line stop.
Head coach Brandon Staley almost made it through the whole game without a terrible, borderline fireable play call. But once the Chargers got the ball back, the Vikings’ defense was playing their A game. The Chargers faced a fourth and one on their own 24 with 1:51 left in the fourth quarter. It was after the two-minute warning, and the Vikings had spent all their timeouts. A deep punt would almost guarantee the victory.
But Staley didn’t want to put the ball back in the hands of Kirk Cousins and the Vikings offense, so he decided to go for the final yard to finish the game. A Joshua Kelly run up the gut on fourth and one was clearly never going to work, and the Vikings stood strong. Instead of forcing the Vikings to go 60+ yards and score, Staley handed the ball to the Vikings with field position within striking distance of the endzone. He defended the call by saying he trusted his defense’s ability, but it can be argued that this play dictates the exact opposite. Instead of giving the defense a chance to stuff Cousins with 60+ yards of relief, he ran the defense out with only 24 yards of leeway. It seems he didn’t want the defense out there with the game on the line.
Fans all over the country were calling for the head of Staley before the game had even ended, and they probably would have gotten their wish if the Vikings hadn’t crumbled. The stadium stood still as Jefferson was hobbled on their first down. In the very next play, TJ Hockenson was cracked during the incompletion, and he was slow to get up. All of the air in U.S. Bank stadium was sucked into the lungs of the 66,000 fans inside.
Jefferson trotted back out the next play, and Hockenson the play after that. The momentum started to build back up. Cousins and Hockenson connected to bring the Vikings within six yards of winning the game. The Vikings got the first down with 41 seconds left on the clock and didn’t snap the ball until 12 seconds left. They only had nine yards to move up before getting set, and they didn’t spike the ball to stop the clock. Very odd time management resulted in only one play from their goal-to-go position. Cousins targeted Hockenson, sitting on the goal line. The ball was tipped up into the air and intercepted by the Chargers’ defense to end the game.
The last two minutes of the game were mind-boggling from both sides of the ball. Both teams had opportunities to put it away, and neither capitalized.
Minnesota was 11-0 in one-score games last season, one of the driving factors in their ’22 NFC North crown. They are 0-3 this season, and all their games have come down to one score. The Vikings lead the league in turnovers with nine, seven of which are fumbles. The Vikings are not protecting the football, which is one of the main reasons Minnesota has been unable to secure the win in the game’s final stages.
Cousins, who took most of the heat after getting upset in the Wild Card game against the Giants last year, has been on top of his game. Cousins leads the league in completions, yards, and touchdowns through the season’s first three games.
The Vikings travel to Carolina to play the Panthers in a must-win week four-game. It is far too early in the season to play in a must-win game, but a 0-4 start closes the door on the Vikings’ playoff chances.
The Chargers are on the other side of the spectrum. Los Angeles took their first win of the season after losing a heartbreaker to the Dolphins in week one and then losing in overtime to the Titans in week two. They go home to host their division rival, Las Vegas Raiders, as they look to even out their record.
