Week 3 Games to Watch

Good evening! It’s Saturday night which means that Naptime Huddle’s Friday series of NFL Games to Watch should have been posted yesterday. That’s my bad. I’m Kerri’s nephew Eric and I am absolutely thrilled to let you all know which NFL games you have to tune into this weekend. So enough with the introductions, let’s get down to business.

This weekend contains a bunch of games that are going to be fantastic. However, only two of them are really must see games and no, those two games do not include Green Bay traveling to Chicago because I can tell you how that one ends right now; Green Bay wins so don’t bother watching. Instead, do yourself a favor and check out two of the best rivalries in football from year in and year out the most competitive division in the league.

Just a forewarning though, I happen to be a bit of a Cowboy’s fan so if you’re expecting these previews to be bias you’re probably right.

New York Giants (1-1) @ Philadelphia (1-1)

1:00 PM on Fox

Week 3 of the NFL season kicks off with a huge early afternoon showdown between two NFC East rivals who absolutely hate one another. The injury riddled New York Giants travel to the City of Brotherly Love to take on the NFL’s self-anointed “Dream Team” (just to put that into perspective the nickname was given to the team by their third string quarterback Vince Young). The Giants host a record of 1-1 while the “Dream Team” has its own incredibly average record of 1-1.

There are two major storylines going into this game. The first is the health concern of Eagle’s quarterback (who you may have heard of before) Michael Vick. Vick suffered a concussion last week against Atlanta but it’s been announced that he will play this week which is strange considering the NFL has a new rule in place which prevents players from any action for 7 days after a concussion. I guess we are to assume that the rules do not apply to Mike Vick. Anyway, it should be interesting to see how Vick fairs against the merciless Giant’s defense. Personally I hope he fairs pretty bad but that’s probably just the Cowboy/puppy fan in me.

The second storyline of this game comes from one of last season’s biggest blunders. The Giant’s held the lead with just mere seconds left in the game and were forced to punt to the Eagles. For whatever reason punter Matt Dodge (who is ‘surprisingly’ no longer with the team ) chose to punt the ball to one of the league’s most explosive players, Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson. A few missed tackles and some showboating into the endzone later because that’s the kind of person Jackson is and the Eagles had shocked the Giants. The Giants have lost their last 6 to the Eagles and hope Sunday they will be able to seize the opportunity and end that horrid draught.

Washington (2-0) @ Dallas (1-1)

8:30 PM Monday Night on ESPN

On Monday night, the Dallas Cowboys will become the last NFL team to have its home opener when they host the hated Washington Redskins. Last weekend the Cowboys rallied around a quarterback who came back late in the third quarter to lead the Boys to victory despite having suffered both a fractured rib AND a punctured lung. It was just the performance Tony Romo needed to make the world forget about him literally throwing away a game in week 1 to the league’s best Cornerback, Darrelle Revis.

The Cowboys are like the rest of the league right now in the fact that they are plagued with injuries. The Cowboys will play without number one receiver Miles Austin but are hopeful that receiver Dez Bryant and running back Felix Jones will be able to suit up. Starting cornerback Terrence Newman also suits up for the first time this season. It will be important for the young offensive line of Dallas to protect Romo from a Redskins defense that has not been shy about wanting to hit those ribs of his. If the Boy’s can’t keep University of Texas alum Brian Orakpo out of their backfield, Romo’s season may be over quicker than it was last year. The Cowboys are 1-1 right now and could move into a tie for first place in the NFC East if they can protect their house against the evil ‘Skins.

On the other side the Washington Redskins sport an impressive unbeaten record of 2-0 mainly due to the fact that they have somehow managed to make Quarterback Rex Grossman look like a competent football player. In week 1 the Redskins beat division rival New York decisively 28-14 and last week the Skins won a 1-point thriller at home against the Cardinals. 2008 2nd round draft pick Fred Davis leads all tight ends in receptions and Grossman will hope to dump the ball off to him often Monday night because well, that’s what Rex Grossman does. The Redskins are one of this year’s surprise unbeaten teams to this point and despite what I, or any other Cowboy’s fan may have to say they have certainly earned it this year and are a huge improvement over the 2010 version of the team that went 6-10. Head coach Mike Shanahan has the team turning the corner to success and a win in front of the whole country in Dallas would do nothing but accelerate this momentum big time. Expect this game will come down to which defense can make a big play late in the game.

So there you have it, week 3’s must see match ups. Do yourself a favor Sunday and relax by the TV and munch on some fried food that’s probably terrible for you while you enjoy the Eagles-Giants matchup. You might as well also tune into the Green Bay-Chicago game so that when Chicago wins you can all tell me how horrible I am at picking football games. Once you’re done with that do not forget to have your TVs on ESPN Monday night so you can watch the Cowboys move into first place in the NFC East. You also may have a chance to watch Tony Romo literally die on the field due to playing with a punctured lung. But let’s hope not because Dallas needs a super bowl pretty soon.