With all the games, backstories, injuries and developments in a given week in the NFL, it is tough to know what to look for on Sunday. Here are five things to watch
Little surprise story to watch
There isn’t a more improbable success story in the NFL at the moment than the Cowboys’ diminutive Cole Beasley.
The 5-foot-8, 174-pound slot receiver leads Dallas through three games with 20 catches for 213 yards — a figure that puts Beasley on pace to catch 107 passes for the year. The undrafted free agent from SMU never has had more than 52 receptions in a single season in the first four years of his career.
Though tight end Jason Witten always was Tony Romo’s security blanket, Beasley appears to have assumed that designation with Dak Prescott. Not only does Beasley lead the Cowboys in catches, but his 25 targets also top the Dallas receiving charts.
With Dez Bryant now sidelined indefinitely by a knee injury and the Cowboys already thin at receiver, Beasley figures to play an even bigger role starting with Sunday’s visit to the 49ers. The only thing he is missing so far is a touchdown.
Bad British matchup to watch (again)
The NFL returns to London on Sunday, and the combined 1-5 record of the two teams involved in the first of this year’s three games — the Colts and Jaguars — is depressingly par for the course for European fans.
This will be the 15th game in London since the league started playing each year there in 2007, and not one of them has featured two teams with a winning record.
Though much of that can be attributed to annual participant Jacksonville’s recent ineptitude, just eight of the first 28 teams that played in London had a winning mark at the time of the trip.
That has led to a lot of blowouts, with teams winning by an average margin of 16 points and just five of the first 14 games being decided by a touchdown or less.
The NFL’s bad British luck might be coming to an end, though. The second of three games in England this year — Oct. 23 at Twickenham Stadium — features the Giants and Rams, both currently above .500.
Regression trend to watch
It isn’t a full-fledged sophomore slump just yet, but Marcus Mariota’s start has to be at least a bit disconcerting for the Titans.
Last year’s No. 2-overall pick set insanely high expectations with a four-touchdown, zero-interception effort in his NFL debut (a 42-14 rout of the Buccaneers and No. 1 pick Jameis Winston), but Mariota has been pedestrian — at best — since the middle of his rookie year.
The former Oregon star enters Sunday’s trip to Houston sporting a dismal 79.3 passer rating this season. His touchdown ratio and average yards per attempt are both down, and his interception rate is up, which aren’t trend lines you want to see out of your franchise quarterback.
Winston isn’t much better, sporting an 81.0 passer rating, but Tampa Bay has had more success in the won-loss column. The Titans are just 4-11 in games started by Mariota.
Rushing attack to watch
Though Matt Ryan is deservedly getting much of the credit for the Falcons’ 2-1 start, don’t overlook Atlanta’s suddenly potent backfield.
The combination of running backs Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman remains deadly heading into Sunday’s home matchup with the NFC South-rival Panthers.
Freeman is averaging an eye-popping 6.3 yards on 42 carries, giving him 265 yards on the young season, while Coleman has been a touchdown machine with four TD rushes just in the past two weeks.
The Falcons rank fourth in the league in rushing as a result, which qualifies as rarefied air for a team that had been among the NFL’s worst in that category the previous four seasons. Atlanta hasn’t finished a season in the top 10 in rushing since 2008.
Falling ax to watch?
The attention in Jacksonville has turned to Jaguars owner Shad Khan now that his team has dropped to 12-39 under the fourth-year duo of coach Gus Bradley and general manager Dave Caldwell.
Khan has shown incredible patience with the pair, considering the Jaguars are off to 0-3 start for the third time in Bradley’s four seasons and Caldwell’s all-in bet on a franchise quarterback — Blake Bortles — is regressing wildly with a dreadful 75.0 passer rating and more interceptions (six) than TD passes (five).
Not surprisingly, Khan kept the status quo with the Jaguars making their annual London trip this week to face the Colts. But if Bradley to 0-4 on Sunday, Jacksonville’s bye next week couldn’t be more badly timed for his job security.