CNN
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For some, Week 3 is a chance for redemption, for others it is an opportunity to keep the momentum going.

The 2024 NFL season is still in the planning stages, but the fate of the franchises this year is already becoming clear: both positively and negatively.

The first team to make a significant change after their winless start is the Carolina Panthers. They benched last year’s first-round draft pick Bryce Young after struggling in the first two weeks of the new season. However, there are plenty of other teams willing to resort to desperate measures if things don’t go well this weekend.

Here are the three top duels from Sunday’s games of week 3:

The Houston Texans and the Minnesota Vikings are two of the early leaders in the NFL, both with very different histories.

The Texans were one of the surprises of last season. Their young core and new head coach grew into a playoff team that exceeded all expectations. They dominated the Cleveland Browns 45-14 in the AFC Wild Card Game before falling to the No. 1 seed Baltimore Ravens 34-10.

The bar has been raised for this season, and second-year quarterback CJ Stroud and his offensive line have lived up to those higher expectations with two hard-fought wins to start the season.

The Vikings also entered the 2024 season with high expectations, but suffered a major blow when their 2024 first-round draft pick, quarterback JJ McCarthy, was out for the entire year after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus.

With the season seeming to fall apart before it even began, Minnesota turned to former No. 3 pick and current backup Sam Darnold to help rejuvenate the team—and boy, did he deliver.

Darnold has won his first two games as coach in impressive fashion; his 97-yard touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson was the deciding factor in last Sunday’s victory over the last Super Bowl runner-up San Francisco 49ers, the team he played for last season.

After tough stints with the New York Jets – the team that drafted him in 2018 – and the Panthers, Darnold is excited for the opportunity to lead an offense again.

“I feel like I’m always growing as a quarterback. I think any quarterback in the league or in college and high school would say the same thing,” the 27-year-old told reporters on Wednesday. “You’re always learning and growing through experiences, and I don’t necessarily pay attention to what people say.”

“Of course I know how positive what we’re doing is, but that’s not why you have to pay too much attention to it. I think for us it’s about taking one day at a time and putting one foot in front of the other every day and approaching it with that mindset.”

When the Philadelphia Eagles and the New Orleans Saints meet on Sunday, there will be very different moods among their respective fan bases.

Despite a largely positive performance, the Eagles were at a loss after their last-minute loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts looked more like his old self and running back Saquon Barkley continued his dynamic start in Philadelphia. However, these positive aspects were overshadowed by a Barkley dropped pass late in the game that inadvertently led to the Falcons’ late comeback.

The Saints are arguably the flagship team of the NFL season so far, with their explosive offense leading them to two impressive victories.

New Orleans scored 91 points in its first two games, crushing the Panthers 47-10, before scoring 44 points against the Dallas Cowboys last time out. The combination of quarterback Derek Carr, running back Alvin Kamara and new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak has worked wonders so far.

Continuing the Saints’ offensive explosion against the Eagles will be no easy task, but another strong performance at home in the Superdome could cement the team’s position as a serious playoff contender.

For New Orleans head coach Dennis Allen, this would be quite a turnaround after two disappointing previous seasons that put a lot of pressure on his shoulders.

On Wednesday, Allen described the game against the Eagles as a “big challenge.”

“After that, we will have a better idea of ​​where we stand,” he told reporters.

For two teams that had Super Bowl aspirations at the beginning of the season, the first two weeks were quite disappointing for the Ravens and Cowboys.

Baltimore is winless so far, and the surprise home loss in Week 2 to the Las Vegas Raiders raises concerns about the team’s future prospects.

Dallas, meanwhile, started with an impressive 33-17 win over the Cleveland Browns, but was then thoroughly humiliated by the Saints in Week 2.

Both could really use a win on Sunday to get back on track and bring some positivity to their lackluster season so far. If they lose, alarm bells will undoubtedly ring.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said he told his team on Wednesday that they should keep their eyes on the upcoming game and not the season as a whole.

“We are focused on the task at hand. We have a long-term understanding of what we need to achieve and we have a short-term focus, which is now – this week,” he told reporters.

“That’s always the focus, (and) it has to be the focus in this league – it’s a one-week league. We have to do everything we can to play our best football that we are capable of at the moment.”

For the Cowboys, Sunday’s loss was their second major home loss in a row after losing 48-32 to the Green Bay Packers in last year’s playoffs.

And the team’s star pass rusher, Micah Parsons, stressed the importance of improving the performance of the entire team in order to get back on track for success.

“This weekend I have to prove myself,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “And I’m not demanding anything from my teammates. I’m also telling myself: I have to improve. We all have to improve.”

“It would hurt me more if we didn’t all improve our performance. If we all played at that level again, then to me that would just show that we are not moving in the direction we should be moving.”

Whoever wins, one team will breathe a sigh of relief while the other will feel a certain amount of panic, even though it is only the third week of the season.

Away vs. Home

New York Giants (0-2) @ Cleveland Browns (1-1) – 1:00 p.m. ET

Chicago Bears (1-1) @ Indianapolis Colts (0-2) – 1:00 p.m. ET

Houston Texans (2-0) @ Minnesota Vikings (2-0) – 1:00 p.m. ET

Philadelphia Eagles (1-1) @ New Orleans Saints (2-0) – 1:00 p.m. ET

Los Angeles Chargers (2-0) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (2-0) – 1:00 p.m. ET

Denver Broncos (0-2) @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-0) – 1:00 p.m. ET

Green Bay Packers (1-1) @ Tennessee Titans (0-2) – 1:00 p.m. ET

Carolina Panthers (0-2) @ Las Vegas Raiders (1-1) – 4:05 p.m. ET

Miami Dolphins (1-1) @ Seattle Seahawks (2-0) – 4:05 p.m. ET

Detroit Lions (1-1) @ Arizona Cardinals (1-1) – 4:25 p.m. ET

Baltimore Ravens (0-2) @ Dallas Cowboys (1-1) – 4:25 p.m. ET

San Francisco 49ers (1-1) @ Los Angeles Rams (0-2) – 4:25 p.m. ET

Kansas City Chiefs (2-0) @ Atlanta Falcons (1-1) – 8:20 p.m. ET