NFL Week 3 Afternoon Recap: The 49ers Survive, Minnesota Stays Perfect, the Raiders Are Somehow 3-0 and Baltimore Wins a Thriller in Brazil

The late-afternoon slate did not have the volume of the 1 p.m. window, but it made up for it with four games that all had something interesting going on. San Francisco nearly let Arizona steal a divisional game before Brock Purdy and George Kittle slammed the door. Minnesota improved to 3-0 while Tampa Bay fell into an 0-3 hole and watched Baker Mayfield leave injured. Las Vegas continued what might be the strangest undefeated start in football by rallying past New Orleans. Then Baltimore and Dallas finished the window with complete chaos in Brazil, where a 57-yard field goal with one second remaining decided the best game of the afternoon. Week 3 is over for most of the league, and we are already reaching the point where some of these starts cannot be dismissed as early-season weirdness anymore.

49ers 36, Cardinals 30: San Francisco Keeps Finding Ways to Score

San Francisco is 3-0, and through three weeks its offense looks absolutely terrifying. The 49ers beat Arizona 36-30 despite possessing the football for only 21:16 and running just 50 offensive plays while Arizona ran 81. That normally looks like the box score of a team that got dominated. Instead, San Francisco averaged an absurd 8.7 yards per play and produced 437 total yards anyway.

Brock Purdy was the reason. He completed only 15 passes, but those completions went for 297 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. That comes out to 11 yards per attempt. After completing 20-of-22 passes in last week's destruction of Miami, Purdy followed it by basically turning every completion against Arizona into an explosive play. At some point we probably have to stop treating this as Kyle Shanahan simply pressing the easy button. Purdy is playing excellent football.

Deebo Samuel delivered the biggest explosion with an 80-yard touchdown, Mike Evans found the end zone twice, and George Kittle took over when San Francisco needed him most. Kittle finished with six catches for 82 yards and two touchdowns, both coming in the fourth quarter. The second was the dagger. Arizona had somehow fought all the way back to 29-27 on a Jacoby Brissett quarterback sneak with 2:55 remaining, giving San Francisco an actual game after the 49ers had led 23-6 in the third quarter. Purdy answered by finding Kittle for a 20-yard touchdown with 1:36 remaining to make it 36-27.

That response was probably the most impressive part of San Francisco's afternoon. The Cardinals spent almost the entire second half hanging around. Brissett threw 52 passes, completed 38 of them for 280 yards, threw two touchdowns without an interception and added a rushing score. Michael Wilson caught 11 passes for 89 yards and a touchdown, while Trey McBride added nine catches for 75 yards. Arizona did not turn the football over once, but the Cardinals needed 81 plays to produce 365 yards while San Francisco needed only 50 to produce 437. That efficiency gap is enormous. Arizona had long possessions and moved the chains, but the 49ers could erase all of that work with one explosive play.

Christian McCaffrey quietly added another 75 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. The 49ers are now 3-0, and the scary part for the rest of the NFC is that San Francisco still does not feel like it has played a complete game. They scored 36 anyway.

Vikings 23, Buccaneers 16: Minnesota Is 3-0 and Tampa Bay Is in Trouble

Minnesota's 3-0 start is becoming difficult to ignore. The Vikings beat Tampa Bay 23-16 despite producing only 230 yards of offense, and this game was another example of Minnesota finding completely different ways to win. They scored 39 against Green Bay in Week 1. They won a miserable 9-3 weather game in Chicago last week. On Sunday, they got a special-teams touchdown, survived an uneven offensive performance and made the important plays late.

Kyler Murray returned after clearing concussion protocol and was not spectacular. He went 15-of-29 for 168 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Minnesota managed only 4.2 yards per play, and Justin Jefferson caught just two passes for 32 yards. The Vikings still won because Jordan Addison provided the biggest offensive play, catching five passes for 90 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown in the second quarter, while Minnesota also got an early punt-return touchdown that immediately forced Tampa Bay to play from behind.

Will Reichard deserves a ridiculous amount of credit too. He drilled field goals from 54, 56 and 43 yards, with the final two coming in the fourth quarter. Tampa briefly cut Minnesota's lead to 17-16 with 9:06 remaining, and the Vikings responded with two field goals instead of allowing the game to flip. That is what good teams do. It does not always need to be pretty.

For Tampa Bay, this season is becoming a problem very quickly. The Buccaneers are 0-3 after opening the year with losses to Cincinnati, Cleveland and now Minnesota. None of the losses have been complete blowouts, which almost makes the start more frustrating. Tampa keeps hanging around and then finding a way to finish second.

Baker Mayfield went 17-of-34 for 217 yards, one touchdown and one interception before leaving with a hand injury. Jalon Daniels took over late and was thrown into the worst possible situation, down seven with seconds remaining and needing to drive the length of

the field. Daniels finished 0-for-3 and threw an interception at the Minnesota three-yard line with eight seconds remaining to officially end it.

The Buccaneers also continued the exact problems that had hurt them through the first two weeks. Against Minnesota they turned it over twice while producing only 243 yards. Bucky Irving was held to 46 rushing yards on 15 carries, and the offense averaged 3.8 yards per play. At 0-1, nobody panics. At 0-2, you start asking questions. At 0-3, you start looking at the schedule and figuring out where exactly the wins are supposed to come from.

Minnesota, meanwhile, is 3-0 without getting anything close to a perfect version of its offense. That might actually be the more impressive part.

Raiders 35, Saints 27: Las Vegas Is 3-0, Which Apparently Is a Thing We Have to Discuss

The Las Vegas Raiders are 3-0, which is something I have checked several times and somehow remains true. Las Vegas went into New Orleans, fell behind by 11 in the second half and then scored 19 unanswered points to beat the Saints 35-27. The Raiders have now scored at least 26 points in all three games and continue to look far more competent than anyone had a right to expect this quickly.

Kirk Cousins has been excellent. Cousins went 22-of-33 for 248 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions Sunday. Through three weeks, he has repeatedly avoided the catastrophic mistake and put the ball where it needs to go. He is not being asked to play superhero football. He is distributing the ball, letting his skill players work and keeping Las Vegas out of bad situations.

Brock Bowers was the biggest beneficiary against New Orleans. He caught 10 passes for 116 yards and the touchdown that put the Raiders ahead 35-27 with 6:27 remaining. It was one of those games where everyone watching knew where Cousins wanted to go with the football, and New Orleans still could not consistently stop it.

The most impressive part was the comeback. New Orleans went ahead 27-16 midway through the third quarter after Tyler Shough threw consecutive touchdown passes. The Superdome was alive, the Saints' offense was rolling and Las Vegas looked like it might finally take its first loss. Then Mike Washington Jr. broke a 36-yard touchdown run, Cousins found Zamir White for a touchdown early in the fourth, and then he found Bowers. Suddenly 27-16 had become 35-27 and New Orleans never scored again.

Shough actually played pretty well. He completed 29-of-42 passes for 250 yards and four touchdowns. Chris Olave caught nine passes for 107 yards. Juwan Johnson caught two touchdowns and Noah Fant caught two more. The Saints produced 376 yards and possessed the football longer than Las Vegas, but they lost because they could not stop giving the football away. Four turnovers and three lost fumbles will destroy almost any good offensive performance.

New Orleans repeatedly did enough to move the football and then handed possessions back. The final mistake came with just over a minute remaining when Johnson fumbled and Las Vegas recovered, allowing Cousins to kneel out the game. That is a painful way to waste

a four-touchdown quarterback performance.

The Saints fall to 1-2 after their impressive win over Baltimore last week, but there are legitimate reasons for optimism. Shough looks much more comfortable than a young quarterback probably should this early, and Olave remains one of the better receivers in football. This offense can score. They just need to stop donating possessions.

For Las Vegas, the bigger question is when we are officially allowed to stop calling this a cute start. The Raiders beat Miami. They beat the Chargers. Now they have gone on the road again and beaten New Orleans. Three games is a small sample, but three wins still count. The Raiders are 3-0, and that is officially becoming one of the strangest stories of the season.

Ravens 34, Cowboys 31: Absolute Chaos in Brazil

This was the game of the afternoon. Baltimore beat Dallas 34-31 at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on a 57-yard Tyler Loop field goal with one second remaining, capping a final minute that made absolutely no sense.

Dallas trailed 31-28 after Lamar Jackson found rookie tight end Mason Hibner for a touchdown with 1:34 remaining. Dak Prescott then drove the Cowboys down the field and got Dallas inside Baltimore's five-yard line. The Cowboys had a chance to win, but a false start backed Dallas up and Prescott had two incomplete passes. Instead of scoring a touchdown, Dallas settled for a 23-yard Brandon Aubrey field goal with 10 seconds left to tie the game 31-31. With only 10 seconds remaining, overtime felt automatic, but Lamar apparently had somewhere to be.

After the kickoff, Jackson immediately hit Zay Flowers for 26 yards to the Dallas 39 with seven seconds remaining. Baltimore called timeout, sent Loop onto the field and the rookie drilled a 57-yarder as time expired. Ravens win. Absolute insanity.

Lamar's raw passing numbers do not jump off the page because they did not need to. He completed 15-of-20 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns without an interception while adding 50 rushing yards. Baltimore ran the ball 38 times for 192 yards, with Derrick Henry carrying 26 times for 89 yards and two touchdowns. That is basically the Ravens' ideal offensive formula. Lamar averaged more than nine yards per pass attempt, Henry wore down the defense and Baltimore did not turn the football over once.

Dallas actually played well enough offensively to win. Prescott threw for 276 yards and a touchdown without an interception. CeeDee Lamb had seven catches for 112 yards, George Pickens added seven for 82 and Javonte Williams ran for 98 yards and a touchdown. The Cowboys finished with 415 total yards compared with Baltimore's 377 and possessed the ball slightly longer, but none of it mattered because Baltimore won the moments at the end.

Dallas also had the game's only turnover, losing a fumble, while Baltimore played clean football. In a three-point game, those small differences matter. The Cowboys deserve credit for fighting back. Baltimore led 24-13 in the third quarter before Prescott hit Jake Ferguson for a touchdown and CeeDee Lamb caught the two-point conversion. KaVontae Turpin's nine-yard rushing touchdown gave Dallas a 28-24 fourth-quarter lead, and for a while it looked like the Cowboys were about to steal this thing.

Then Lamar did what Lamar does. His late touchdown drive put Baltimore back ahead, Dallas tied it, and Jackson needed only one completion to Flowers to give Loop a chance to win it. Loop delivered.

Baltimore improves to 2-1 after last week's ugly home loss to New Orleans, and this was exactly the type of response the Ravens needed. Losing to the Saints and then flying to Brazil to play Dallas could have become an early-season disaster. Instead they leave South America above .500 with Lamar looking like himself again.

Dallas falls to 1-2 after its blowout win over Washington last week. The Cowboys are not a bad football team, but they have already played three games where the emotional swing has been enormous. They lost the opener, destroyed Washington and then lost on a 57-yard field goal in Brazil. Nothing calm ever happens to the Dallas Cowboys.

What the Afternoon Slate Told Us

San Francisco might have the most explosive offense in football right now. The 49ers ran only 50 plays and scored 36 points. Purdy has been absurdly efficient through three games, and when McCaffrey, Kittle, Deebo and the rest of those weapons are contributing, there simply are not enough defenders to cover everything. Minnesota is also 3-0 despite not playing the same style twice, which matters because good teams can win shootouts, ugly games and afternoons where the offense barely cracks 200 yards.

Tampa Bay is in real trouble. The Buccaneers are 0-3, their offense has not found consistency and now Mayfield's hand becomes something to watch. Las Vegas, meanwhile, is officially one of the most interesting stories in the league. Cousins is playing clean football, Bowers looks uncoverable and the Raiders have already won twice on the road. I am not ready to declare them a powerhouse after three weeks, but they are no longer something you can laugh away.

New Orleans is probably better than its 1-2 record, but four turnovers will ruin almost anything. Baltimore needed Sunday's win badly and got it in the most dramatic way possible. Lamar remains one of the hardest players in the league to defend when Baltimore stays balanced, and Loop just introduced himself to a national audience with a 57-yard walk-off field goal in Brazil. Dallas is 1-2 despite looking dangerous offensively, which should make Cowboys discourse completely normal and rational all week.

The biggest takeaway from the late window is that the undefeated group is starting to get interesting. San Francisco, Minnesota and Las Vegas all reached 3-0 Sunday, but they have gotten there in completely different ways. It is still only Week 3, but 3-0 is 3-0.