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The Carolina Panthers are officially the first NFL team to 3-0. They beat the Houston Texans 24-9 on Thursday Night Football to open Week 3. It wasn’t a pretty game and the final score doesn’t really indicate the scare Houston gave them in the first half.
Houston never took a lead in the game, but they did manage to take this game into half only trailing by one. Considering they were an eight-point underdog with a rookie quarterback making his starting debut, this could have gone a lot worse. But Carolina was too good for Houston and put this away in the second half.
It was a rough night on the injury front for the Panthers as they lost running back Christian McCaffrey to a hamstring injury and cornerback Jaycee Horn to a broken foot. But they still handled their business. There’s something to be said for going on the road for the first time and winning when they’re now in an expectation to beat bad teams. And now Carolina is 3-0 for the first time since their 2015 Super Bowl squad.
Carolina came into this game sitting at +5000 to win Super Bowl 56 at DraftKings Sportsbook. They opened the season at +9000, improved to +6500 after their Week 1 win over the Jets, and then to +5000 after their win over the Saints in Week 2. A win is always good, but beating a bad Texans squad is not going to move the needle. They could improve a bit depending on how teams ahead of them do this weekend, but we won’t see a big move.