This article is part of our NFL Reactions series.
For the first time in NFL history, a quarterback threw for over 500 yards and a wide receiver had over 300 receiving yards in the same game. And, of course, it came against the Carolina Panthers, who went 15-1 last season and made it to the Super Bowl, in part, because of their excellent secondary. Ridding themselves of Josh Norman in the offseason didn't solely ruin the entire unit, but boy did they look awful Sunday against the Falcons.
Julio Jones caught 12 of 15 targets for an even 300 yards and one touchdown, while quarterback Matt Ryan completed 28 of 37 passes for 503 yards and four touchdowns, throwing his other scores to Aldrick Robinson, Austin Hooper and Jacob Tamme, who combined to catch five of six targets for 93 yards. There's no question that Jones is one of the top wideouts in the NFL, but the knock against him going into this season was that he didn't score enough touchdowns. He was targeted a league-high 203 times last season but scored only eight TDs, a total 16 other players reached, including 14 who bested it. Jones looked like he was going to put the TD struggles behind him by scoring in the first two games of the year, but he put up a dud in Week 3 at New Orleans (one of the worst pass defenses in the league) by catching one of seven targets for 16 yards. And let's not forget that his injury
For the first time in NFL history, a quarterback threw for over 500 yards and a wide receiver had over 300 receiving yards in the same game. And, of course, it came against the Carolina Panthers, who went 15-1 last season and made it to the Super Bowl, in part, because of their excellent secondary. Ridding themselves of Josh Norman in the offseason didn't solely ruin the entire unit, but boy did they look awful Sunday against the Falcons.
Julio Jones caught 12 of 15 targets for an even 300 yards and one touchdown, while quarterback Matt Ryan completed 28 of 37 passes for 503 yards and four touchdowns, throwing his other scores to Aldrick Robinson, Austin Hooper and Jacob Tamme, who combined to catch five of six targets for 93 yards. There's no question that Jones is one of the top wideouts in the NFL, but the knock against him going into this season was that he didn't score enough touchdowns. He was targeted a league-high 203 times last season but scored only eight TDs, a total 16 other players reached, including 14 who bested it. Jones looked like he was going to put the TD struggles behind him by scoring in the first two games of the year, but he put up a dud in Week 3 at New Orleans (one of the worst pass defenses in the league) by catching one of seven targets for 16 yards. And let's not forget that his injury history isn't short, and there was this from Sunday:
Julio Jones had 300 yards receiving while fighting a calf injury that caused him to go in and out of game often today to get it worked on
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) October 3, 2016
Back to the Panthers for a bit; both NFC Championship game participants from last season have started this year 1-3, and things could get even worse, as both Cam Newton and Carson Palmer were knocked out of their games Sunday with possible concussions. Derek Anderson was excellent for a bit, as he threw touchdown passes to Greg Olsen and Corey Brown to get the Panthers back in the game, but his pick six with 1:14 left put the nail in the Panthers' coffin while reminding everyone what he brings to the table. If Newton has to miss any time, picking up Anderson won't yield close to Newton's results, as the later does so much on the ground, particularly near the goal line, and Anderson simply doesn't have that in his game.
If we want to move to last year's AFC Championship teams, the Broncos lost starting quarterback Trevor Siemian to a shoulder injury Sunday, while the Patriots were shut out at home for the first time since 1993, with third-string quarterback Jacoby Brissett struggling mightily while playing through a thumb injury. Brissett was only under center because backup Jimmy Garoppolo was ruled out with a shoulder injury, and he was unable to get any kind of rhythm going against the Bills, who limited the Pats to just 295 yards on offense. On the plus side for Patriots fans (and no one else), Tom Brady is set to return from his four-game suspension, which should certainly cure their ails a lot faster than the other championship game participants from last season.
Hey, remember when Melvin Gordon went an entire season without scoring a touchdown? Well, he's doing his best to make sure people forget, as he scored two touchdowns Sunday against the Saints to give him six rushing scores, becoming the third player in the last 10 years to have at least six rushing touchdowns through the first four weeks of the season (Devonta Freeman 2015, Ronnie Brown 2008). There has been plenty of talk that Gordon's inefficiency (he averaged 1.9 yards per carry Sunday and is getting 3.2 for the season) hurts him, but when you're the only healthy running back on the roster and you're trusted with goal-line carries, how much does that inefficiency matter? That being said, he did lose a fumble in the fourth quarter Sunday, and the Chargers eventually lost 35-34, but are they really going to turn the backfield over to Dexter McCluster, the only other running back to get a carry this weekend? We can talk all day about whether Gordon is a good running back (he's probably not), but he may be one of the only cases where the volume of opportunities overshadows that discussion.
Want to know what happens when there is a viable option in case you struggle? If not, just ask Mark Ingram, who rushed 18 times for 57 yards and a touchdown Sunday but had to sit back and watch fullback John Kuhn score three times, including one four-yard TD reception. What's particularly surprising about Kuhn taking over near the goal line is that Ingram was actually quite good from that range last season. That being said, it's possible Kuhn doesn't score again for the rest of the season if Ingram can retake the job in Week 6 after their Week 5 bye.
Speaking of scoring three touchdowns, Michael Crabtree did it Sunday against the Ravens, the first three-TD game of his career. While many people were high on quarterback Derek Carr this season because of Amari Cooper, it's Crabtree who is the one with three games of at least 80 receiving yards while Cooper hasn't broken 75 since he had 137 in Week 1. The early season returns are still encouraging for Cooper, and it still seems more likely than not that he will outscore Crabtree over the course of the season.
