Much of the focus during the NFL's Week 3 games was on what players, coaches, and owners did during the national anthem, and what may have gotten lost in the wide range of responses to pregame gestures was that the past week boasted one of the most exciting game slates of recent memory. Not only were eight games decided by one score, but we also saw some exciting young quarterbacks show intriguing potential, and some of the established players and teams in the league struggled mightily. Let's take a look at the nine most interesting takeaways from Week 3 of the 2017 NFL season.

Jared Goff can play

I know, I know—putting up points on the San Francisco 49ers is nothing to get too excited about. The 49ers will be among the worst teams in the league throughout the season, but don't forget that they faced two Pro Bowl quarterbacks—Cam Newton and Russell Wilson—over the first two weeks and allowed just 176 passing yards per contest. Jared Goff, meanwhile, shredded the 49ers for 292 yards and a 145.8 passer rating—and the Los Angeles Rams needed all of that production, as they won narrowly by a score of 41-39.

Goff now has a 118.2 passer rating on the season and a league-leading 10.1 yards per pass attempt.

His one slip-up was a late-game blunder against the Washington Redskins, when he threw a bad interception to end the Rams' comeback attempt. Even so, he finished the game with an 85.2 passer rating against a defense that just made Derek Carr (52.9 passer rating against Washington) and the Oakland Raiders' vaunted offensive line (four sacks allowed for 22 yards against Washington) look like trash.

Under offensive-minded head coach Sean McVay, Goff looks like he can lead this Rams offense to plenty of production.

The Jaguars should move to London

Okay, this is mostly a joke—for the record, I believe putting a team on the other side of an ocean would be even sillier than putting a team in an MLS stadium—but a trend is developing with these Jacksonville Jaguars and their trips across the pond.

Since the start of the 2015 season, the Jaguars are 7-25 in America but 3-0 in London! Those three wins have come against a decent Buffalo Bills team that led the league in rushing in 2015, the Andrew Luck-led Indianapolis Colts, and a 2-0 Baltimore Ravens team with an imposing defense. On Sunday, Blake Bortles (244 passing yards and four touchdowns) reverted to the 2015 version of himself that tricked us into believing he might become a franchise quarterback.

There must be something in the water over there that the Jaguars like. Or maybe they all take well to tea. Or maybe a franchise that excels at making its fans miserable thrives on forcing its fans to wake up at 9:00 a.m. to watch a football game.

Whatever it is, the Jaguars may want to consider making London their permanent home.

The Broncos have vulnerabilities

After Week 2's virtual curb-stomping of the Dallas Cowboys, the Denver Broncos looked like they might dominate their way through 2017 with a ferocious defense and a ball-control offense that wouldn't give opponents any easy opportunities and would score just enough points to squeeze out victories. There was talk of Trevor Siemian being overlooked among the top young quarterbacks. But the team unraveled a bit in Week 3, losing 26-16 to the Bills in Buffalo.

The Broncos outgained the Bills by 94 yards, but the defense was unable to force any turnovers for the first time this season, and the offense wasn't able to generate many points on its own.

Other than one 32-yard scamper, lead running back C.J. Anderson was bottled up on all of his runs, and Siemian ended up having to throw the ball 40 times. He was predictably hesitant to push the ball downfield, averaging just 6.5 yards per pass attempt, and he threw a couple of interceptions while under pressure. All teams obviously have certain vulnerabilities, but it seems like if you can slow down the Broncos run game and force Siemian to be more than a game manager, they may be easier to beat than we thought a week ago—particularly on the road.

The Steelers are especially volatile so far

We've known about the Pittsburgh Steelers' volatility for some time now, but through three weeks of the 2017 season, the Steelers have been particularly all over the place.

We wrote off Week 1's narrow 21-18 win against the lowly Cleveland Browns as an anomaly—coming out a little flat in a season opener on the road is nothing to be ashamed of, and after all, a win is a win. But after manhandling the Minnesota Vikings (a team that just beat up on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) last week, the Steelers lost to Mike Glennon and the Chicago Bears on Sunday. When you trot out a future Hall of Fame quarterback against a signal-caller who is likely to be benched for a rookie in the near future, you should always win that game, but the Steelers were out-gained by the Bears despite the Chicago passing offense totaling just 84 yards.

The Steelers have long been a much worse team on the road—Ben Roethlisberger's 55-40 road record is far worse than his 71-22 record at home.

But these 2017 Steelers have been particularly worrisome away from Heinz Field. If they can't beat the Bears in Chicago and can only barely squeeze past the Browns in Cleveland, how will they possibly win a road playoff game, if they can even make it that far? Head coach Mike Tomlin is known as a great motivator, and it's time for him to get his talented roster to show up for games regardless of where they're played. The Steelers travel to the rival Baltimore Ravens next.

Cam Newton kind of stinks

What is there to say other than the numbers? In Cam Newton's 2015 MVP season, he boasted a 7.1 touchdown percentage to a 2.0 interception percentage for the Carolina Panthers—this year, those numbers are 2.4 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively.

Yikes. Additionally, his rushing efficiency has been spiraling downward over the past several years—in 2014, he averaged 5.2 yards per carry, then 4.8 in 2015, 4.0 in 2016, and a horrifying 3.3 this season.

You can make all the excuses in the world for Cam—he's coming off shoulder surgery, he needs more help, he takes too many hits. But remember that this is a player who said he had "no concerns" over his health prior to the season opener, according to Bill Voth of the Panthers' official website, and spent the summer talking up his offensive weapons, saying that "it's up to me to execute."

The fact of the matter is that Newton's production has been declining ever since he was roughed up by the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl two seasons ago, and now he can't even get more than 13 points on the board against a New Orleans Saints defense that looked like perhaps the worst in the league through the first two weeks.

Newton is missing on easy throws and failing to create plays. He's a home run hitter who isn't hitting any home runs. He obviously has the raw talent to turn things around, but he simply can't be considered a good quarterback right now.

Jacoby Brissett could be an NFL starter

We all remember when Jacoby Brissett filled in for Jimmy Garoppolo, who was filling in for Tom Brady, at the beginning of the 2016 season. Brissett had an 83.9 rating over three games (two starts) for the New England Patriots as a third-round rookie, helming both a dominant shutout win and an embarrassing shutout loss. Brissett is still getting acclimated to his new team, the Indianapolis Colts, who acquired the signal-caller earlier this month in light of Andrew Luck's health woes, but Brissett has shown some strong signs during his brief time with the team.

Brissett's latest performance was perhaps the best of his young NFL career, as he racked up career-high marks across the board—259 passing yards, a 120.0 passer rating, a passing touchdown, and two rushing touchdowns. Yes, he was facing the Cleveland Browns, but he led his offense to 31 points—more points than Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco were able to generate when they played Cleveland. It's obviously still too early to be sure, but in a league starved for quarterbacks, the 23-year-old Brissett looks like he may have the potential to generate plenty of wins if put in the right situation.

The Jets won't go 0-16

Well, that win came a little earlier than expected—in fact, it may have come too early for many New York Jets fans who have their sights set on USC quarterback Sam Darnold in the 2018 draft.

Interestingly, the Jets didn't just beat the Miami Dolphins on Sunday—they bullied them 20-6.

Jets fans shouldn't go checking the prices of flights to the Super Bowl just yet, but this definitely did not have the look of a team that can't win any games for the rest of the year. Don't forget that this team still boasts an imposing defensive-tackle duo in Muhammad Wilkerson and Leonard Williams, and rookie safety Jamal Adams looks like a future star on the back end. Josh McCown may be more fragile than your grandmother's china, but he can sling the rock alright when healthy. The Jets still have a chance at ending the season with the worst record in the NFL, but they might be a little better than we expected coming into the season.

Deshaun Watson looks like a franchise quarterback

From 2014 through 2016, the Houston Texans finished each season at 9-7 with a different leading passer. It seems like they always have a great roster but a hole at quarterback. On Sunday, despite losing to the New England Patriots, it looked like they may have finally filled that hole. Deshaun Watson was on fire in Week 3, racking up 301 passing yards, a couple of touchdowns, and 41 more yards on the ground. Entering Week 3, head coach Bill Belichick and the Patriots had held first-year starters to a combined passer rating of 64.8 since the start of the 2015 season, but Watson registered a rating of 90.6. He made plays with his arm and legs and traded some blows with Tom Brady.

Of course, we don't want to overreact to a player making one strong start, especially in a losing effort, but Watson was a winner in college, and on Sunday, he brought a confidence to the Texans offense that the unit has been missing seemingly forever. The Texans invested a first-round pick in Watson for a reason, and so far, the returns look pretty good.

The Raiders have some concerns

In Week 1, the Oakland Raiders offense wasn't quite as explosive as expected, scoring a moderate 26 points against a Tennessee Titans defense that can't defend the pass. They seemed to set things straight in an easy home win over the New York Jets, scoring 45 points, but the offense went into the tank against the Washington Redskins on Sunday Night Football in Week 3. The 27-10 score doesn't tell the whole story—the Raiders got abused on national television.

It seemed like every offensive lineman not named Donald Penn was bullied throughout the game, Derek Carr couldn't make his throws even when he had time, and the receivers dropped some of the few passes that made it to their hands. This team is not built to grind out victories—it's built to win shootouts with its offensive firepower. The Raiders have the personnel to get everything straightened out, but if the offense doesn't start clicking soon, they'll struggle to win games.
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