Beckham puts on Cleveland clinic
The two best matchups of the week were both rescheduled because of positive coronavirus tests — New England-Kansas City was played Monday night, and Pittsburgh-Tennessee will be played in Week 7 — but Sunday managed to pack in enough action to help distract a league that is doing its best to avert a crisis.
Here’s what we learned: ■ Odell Beckham Jr. is a touchdown. He’s had injuries and a few minor off-field issues, and he was a disappointment in his first season in Cleveland. But Beckham reminded the world of what he’s capable of in Sunday’s wild 49-38 win over Dallas. He caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from his fellow wideout (and former LSU teammate) Jarvis Landry. He caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield. And with the Cowboys threatening late in the game, Beckham sucked all of the oxygen out of AT&T Stadium by running a sweep in which he narrowly evaded a tackle attempt by Aldon Smith deep in the backfield before slicing through the entire Dallas defense on his way to a 50-yard touchdown.
If you squinted, you might have thought Beckham was back in New York Giants blue. Cleveland is 3-1 for the first time since 2001, and next week Mayfield and Beckham will have a shot at getting the Browns their first 4-1 start since 1994 — a feat that predates the original team’s move to Baltimore.
■ The 2020 quarterback class is working out just fine. Joe Burrow (first overall pick, Cincinnati) became the first NFL rookie to have 300 yards passing in three consecutive games — and got his first career win in the process. Justin Herbert (sixth pick, Los Angeles Chargers) went toe-to-toe with Tom Brady and Tampa Bay on Sunday, two weeks after nearly beating Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Tua Tagovailoa (fifth pick, Miami) might be inching closer to getting some playing time after two more Ryan Fitzpatrick intercep
tions this week against Seattle. Jordan Love (26th pick, Green Bay Packers) might not play soon, but his selection has seemingly inspired some brilliant play from a vengeful Aaron Rodgers.
■ The Panthers are more than just Christian McCaffrey. Carolina was onedimensional over the last few seasons, relying on the decidedly multidimensional McCaffrey to do nearly all the work. But with McCaffrey on injured reserve with an ankle injury, the Panthers have rediscovered their other players.
Sunday’s win over the suddenly reeling Arizona Cardinals was powered by quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who threw for two touchdowns and ran in another — his first rushing touchdown since Dec. 20, 2015 — and running back Mike Davis, who rumbled for 111 total yards from scrimmage.
■ Russell Wilson and Dak Prescott are running out of superlatives. Between Wilson tying Peyton Manning’s record for passing touchdowns through four games (16) and Prescott becoming the first player to throw for 450 or more yards in three consecutive games, the young season has already provided numerous
moments that required deep dives into Pro Football Reference’s Stathead database for any adequate comparisons.
But while Prescott has an absurd (and record-setting) 1,690 yards passing through four games, his 1-3 record has him way below Wilson (4-0) as far as early consideration for the MVP award.
Running back is a dangerous position. The Browns are anxiously awaiting the results of a magnetic resonance imaging test of Nick Chubb’s right knee, as the star running back needed to be helped off the field in Cleveland’s huge win.
Losing Chubb for any amount of time would be a huge blow for Cleveland, but the news is likely worse for Los Angeles, where the Chargers expect Austin Ekeler to miss four to six weeks after he injured his knee and hamstring on the same play. Chubb is better than Ekeler, but the Browns are buoyed by the presence of Chubb’s backup, Kareem Hunt.
The spirit of Jameis Winston lives on with the Bucs. Last season, Winston kept Buccaneers fans on an emotional roller coaster with 33 touchdown passes and 30 interceptions, and he broke a record that had
stood since 1966 by having seven of his interceptions returned for touchdowns.
Tom Brady has stabilized the Bucs quite a bit in a 3-1 start, and his five touchdown passes Sunday powered a come-from-behind win over the upstart Chargers. But Brady also threw a pick-six in the first quarter, giving him an NFL-leading two and already matching his career-high, which he set in 2001 and matched in 2015.
The Rams and Giants have very convenient amnesia.
Shortly after the Rams-Giants game — a 17-9 home victory for Los Angeles — a fight broke out between the Rams’ Jalen Ramsey and the Giants’ Golden Tate.
Giants coach Joe Judge said he didn’t know “all the details,” Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald “didn’t see it,” and Giants center Nick Gates, who got in the middle of the fight, was “just trying to protect my teammate.” They all walked entirely around the drama between the players that has come as a result of Ramsey’s tumultuous relationship with Tate’s younger sister (Ramsey and Breanna Tate have two children). Neither Ramsey nor Tate was made available to the media.