Sunday Scaries: The AFC South Blows…Again

Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty

Welcome back to another edition of Sunday Scaries!

We’re still early in the NFL season so it may be too early to make any bold proclamations but we can only go off of what we’ve seen so far.

Without further ado, let’s roll!

Sign up for the 107.5 The Fan Newsletter to receive the latest news updates!

Good Scary: Are The Vikings Under Sam Darnold For Real?

The most surprising undefeated team in the NFL has to be the Minnesota Vikings.  They lost Danielle Hunter in free agency, lost J.J. McCarthy to a season-ending injury in the preseason and looked poised to battle mediocrity under Sam Darnold.  Instead, they’re one of the best stories of the young NFL season.  Darnold has been outstanding so far, with four touchdown passes in Week 3 and an 8-2 touchdown to interception ratio to start the season.  The Vikings aren’t beating up on nobodies either.  They’ve got quality wins against the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans.  On top of the strong offense, Brian Flores has the defense firing on all cylinders and holding opponents to 10 points per game.  We’ll see how legit this Vikings squad is with games at Green Bay, the Jets and the Lions over the next three weeks.  As of now, they look pretty damn legit.

Source: Andy Lyons / Getty

Bad Scary: The AFC South Stinks Out Loud….Again

This will be the year the AFC South climbs out of the cellar and won’t be considered a laughingstock!  That’s what we were saying in the off-season.  Fast-forward a mere three weeks later and the AFC South might as well be called the ASS South, because it’s putrid.  The four teams that occupy the division are a grand total of 3-9.  Two wins over the Chicago Bears and the Texans beating the Colts in Week 1 are where all three of those wins have come from.  The Jaguars and Titans are both 0-3 and look to be complete shitshows for the foreseeable future.  The Texans are the cream of the crop but just got waxed by the aforementioned Sam Darnold-led Vikings.  This looks to once again be a division where nine wins may give you a home playoff game.  Yuck.

Source: Steve Marcus / Getty

Good and Bad Scary: Andy Dalton Leads Panthers To Win, But At What Cost?

I believe this is our first-ever double category winner.  Congratulations, Carolina Panthers!  Your certificate is in the mail!  The Panthers have pulled the plug on the Bryce Young Experience and turned to Andy Dalton in Week 3.  If it’s wins they want, then they made the right decision because the Red Rifle was tearing it up against an abysmal Raiders team.  Dalton racked up 316 passing yards and three touchdowns in the game and made the Panthers actually look competent for the first time in a long time.  But is that a good thing?  Andy Dalton is not a long-term solution for the Panthers and they will need to try and off-load Bryce Young at some point and find the next quarterback of the future.  Stacking wins with Andy Dalton will not help accomplish that goal.  If they are trying to get a top pick or top-3 pick in the NFL Draft, then they should ride Bryce Young into the pits of Hell and then draft his successor.  Dalton has already put one W on the left-side of the standings and he could stack a few more for a team that desperately need as many high-value draft picks as they can get.  It’s probably nice to have a win in Carolina, but are they damaging their long-term success for short-term gains?

The post Sunday Scaries: The AFC South Blows…Again appeared first on 93.5 / 107.5 The Fan .