NFL preseason 2018: The big winners and losers from Week 3 so far

The third week of the preseason is supposedly a dress rehearsal for the regular season. More starters play more snaps, sometimes a few of them even make it into the second half of the game.

Teams still aren’t going all out or opening those back chapters of the playbook. And this week, for coaches, is still more about putting the finishing touches on the roster than anything else.

But it’s close enough — less than two weeks now! — to give us a better sense of where things are going. What we can maybe be excited about, and which things should leave fans in the depths of despair.

This week’s preseason action opened with the Eagles at the Browns, a 5-0 Cleveland win that was pure exhibition football. Friday night gave us some actual touchdowns — there was even one in the Raiders’ 13-6 slogfest win against the Packers.

Since the scores don’t really matter, we still feel obligated to name some winners and losers. This is sports, after all. We’ll keep updating our list throughout the weekend, so be sure to check back.

Peterson, the one-time NFL MVP and owner of the single-game rushing record, turned 33 this March. He had been a free agent since about the same time, which wasn’t much of a surprise in a league that values running backs over 30 like they’re characters in Logan’s Run.

But then Washington came a-calling, following preseason injuries to young running backs Derrius Guice, Samaje Perine, and Byron Marshall. Just four days after signing with the team, Peterson made his Washington debut.

You’d understand if he was rusty — he’s elderly in running back years, missed his last five games in Arizona last season with a neck injury, and had practiced just a few times with his new team.

He wasn’t, though. He ran hard, found some holes, made cuts, and even looked … spry?

That 15-yard gain on fourth down was his longest play against the Broncos. By the end of the night, Peterson was the game’s leading rusher, with 11 carries for 56 yards.

That doesn’t mean that Peterson has found the fountain of youth. He even said after the game that he’d have to see how his body responds the next day. And this is the same player who kept alternating between strong games and terrible ones last year before he got hurt.

But for someone who just joined a new team and hadn’t played since November, that was an impressive performance — no matter what his age is. — Sarah Hardy

Winner: Sam Darnold looks ready to be the Week 1 starter

Sam Darnold kept his stellar preseason rolling against the New York Giants. On his first drive, he led the Jets down the field on an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. He had a key scramble on a third-and-long to keep the chains moving en route to a touchdown.

Darnold has shown the poise, accuracy, and ball security to make a serious case to be the Jets’ starter right out of the gate. At this point, he probably will be considering he started the past two preseason games, including the ever-important Week 3 “dress rehearsal.”

As it stands now, the only other rookie quarterback with a real shot to start is Josh Allen — two rookie quarterbacks starting in the AFC East. Somewhere, Bill Belichick is smiling. —Charles McDonald

Loser: Matt Patricia and the Lions fail a Kick 6 lesson

At the end of the first half against the Bucs, first-time head coach Matt Patricia made a curious decision. The Lions were facing third-and-5 from the Tampa Bay 37 with 20 seconds left and had all three timeouts. Patricia declined to use one then to set up a play and Matthew Stafford got sacked on third down instead.

It was only AFTER that when Patricia decided to use two timeouts … to set up a Kick Six, Auburn-Alabama style:

But … what if it was all on purpose? Maybe Mr. P was just trying to teach them a lesson and see how they’d handle a Kick Six in a game situation:

It’d be befitting of the guy dressed like a substitute teacher who wants to be taken seriously:

But nah, there’s no excuse for such lousy clock management. Somewhere, Bill Belichick is shaking his head. — Sarah Hardy

Winner: Christian McCaffrey is thriving in Norv Turner’s offense

When the Panthers selected Christian McCaffrey with the eighth overall pick, they were hoping to get a do-it-all back with the ability to create explosive plays on a consistent basis.

Heading into his second year, he looks poised to become that player. McCaffrey had another strong preseason performance — this time against the New England Patriots. After scoring a 71-yard touchdown against the Dolphins, McCaffrey has continued his streak of hot play.

It’s taken them awhile, but it appears the Panthers finally have a weapon not named Greg Olsen to alleviate some of the pressure on Cam Newton. McCaffrey looks fantastic — hopefully his play continues into the regular season. — Charles McDonald

Loser: What happened to Nick Foles?

Are you a half-full glass kind of person or half-empty? That outlook on life may have a lot to say about how you view Nick Foles’ uninspiring preseason performance so far. Three games into the preseason, he’s yet to produce any points for the Eagles.

Thursday night was his worst outing yet. Foles was responsible for three turnovers, a fumble and two interceptions. He even got sacked for a safety.

A glass-half-full take would immediately point out that the Eagles were without their starting left tackle and best wide receivers. Half-empty says we’ve seen a lot more of this Nick Foles in his career than we have the guy who won the Super Bowl MVP.

Can he bounce back? Maybe.

From Bleeding Green Nation:

It’s only the preseason, and we’ve certainly seen Foles bounce back from bad games before. But even including training camp practices, it has not been a good summer for No. 9.

Winner: The Browns QBs survived

Nobody would’ve questioned the Browns, or any other team, for keeping the playcalling as vanilla as possible. This is a preseason game. Not the Browns though. Sitting on first-and-goal, the Browns lined up in the shotgun and threw the ball, not once, not twice but FOUR times. It was on the fourth-and-1 when Taylor injured his hand.

Taylor left the game with a left hand injury. Turns out he was okay. Bullet dodged. Not content to leave fate well enough alone, Hue Jackson decided to let Taylor back into the game.

Remember too that Taylor has the starting job locked up, so this move makes even less sense.

Baker Mayfield was evaluated for a concussion in the second half, but he cleared the protocol. The rookie’s stats were nothing special, but he certainly wasn’t getting ANY help from the offensive line backups. But he did show the ability to avoid sacks and looked good in the pocket.

Winner: Myles Garrett and the Browns defense

Led by Garrett, the Browns pass rush pushed around Philadelphia’s offensive line. Garrett had two of Cleveland’s seven sacks on the night, and the unit produced four turnovers.

Rookie corner Denzel Ward left the game with a back injury. He did not return to the game. However, it does not appear to be a serious injury. Ward will have an MRI on Friday.