NFL Week 3: Packers learn, painfully, what ‘reversal of fortune’ means

What’s the worst that could happen?

The Green Bay Packers found out Sunday in one of the wildest sequences of Week 3.

Protecting a three-point lead and hoping to get another score — and run out the clock with four minutes left — the Packers thought they had a first down at the Cincinnati 29. The Bengals challenged, however, and replays showed Green Bay was just short.

So on fourth and inches at the 30, Packers rookie Johnathan Franklin took a handoff up the middle but was stopped and stripped of the ball. Bengals safety Reggie Nelson recovered the fumble and ran a couple strides in the opposite direction before he too fumbled.

In a head-spinning reminder of just how quickly fortunes can turn in pro football, Cincinnati’s Terence Newman scooped up the rolling ball and ran 58 yards for a touchdown, ultimately the winning score in a 34-30 thriller between two legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

“I saw Reggie pick it up. . . . I was screaming, ‘Pitch it! Pitch it!’” Newman said. “Next thing I know, I saw the ball pop loose. It took a nice little bounce where I could just grab it and run.”

Just another example of how America’s biggest sports league has the turning radius of a Smart Car. Fortunes can flip in an instant. On a day when it was difficult to tell who was coming and who was going, Cleveland’s Jordan Cameron had three touchdowns, and New Orleans’ Cameron Jordan had two sacks.

Those 3-0 Saints, who last season gave up more yards than any team in NFL history, flexed their improbable defensive muscle Sunday in a 31-7 thrashing of Arizona.

“It was all just pressure everywhere,” said Jordan, part of a unit that had four sacks and two interceptions. “We’re you’re part of a D-line like that, I mean, it’s a party.”

The New York Giants and Washington Redskins aren’t in a festive mood. They are both 0-3, and no 0-3 team has gone on to make the playoffs since the 1998 Buffalo Bills.

“We have to find ways to slow down the pass rush,” said Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who was sacked five times in the first quarter of a 38-0 loss at Carolina. The Panthers finished with a franchise-high seven sacks, and, Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said, “Our quarterback must have gotten hit 20 times.”

San Francisco was knocked around too. The 49ers, who looked so good after beating Green Bay in the opener, lost at home to Indianapolis, 27-7. In consecutive losses to the Seahawks and Colts, the defending NFC champions have been outscored, 56-10, and for the first time 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh has lost consecutive games.

The NFL is about redemption. For a league-record 10 years in a row, at least one franchise has gone from worst to first in its division in consecutive seasons. The Kansas City Chiefs are on track to continue that trend, following their 2-14 year by winning their first three games. Of course, they would have to get past mighty division rival Denver, and the undefeated Broncos play host to Oakland on Monday night.

Whereas the Chiefs have whipped a U-turn, another AFC West team is driving in circles. The San Diego Chargers blew a fourth-quarter lead to Houston in the opener, found new hope with an upset victory at Philadelphia, then Sunday melted down again by giving up the winning touchdown with 15 seconds left at Tennessee.

Finally, the Browns didn’t win until they traded their most acclaimed offensive player. Four days after shipping running back Trent Richardson to Indianapolis, and promoting third-stringer Brian Hoyer to starting quarterback, Cleveland won at Minnesota, 31-27. The Browns had scored 10 and six points in their first two games.

Said Browns tackle Joe Thomas: “If you let the distractions that are outside of the locker room affect the way you play, then you are tanking the season and you will have no chance.”

Then again, if the first three weeks have taught us anything, it’s that everybody’s got a chance. And another, and another.

Rising Ryan

Bunched with fellow rookie quarterbacks Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson, Miami’s Ryan Tannehill was Ringo last season.

Not anymore.

Tannehill is a rising star who led the Dolphins to a 27-23 victory over Atlanta on Sunday. It wasn’t a pristine performance. He was sacked five times and had two turnovers, but he was sharpest when he needed to be. On the winning drive, he completed eight of 11 passes for 69 yards, with two passes dropped.

That was Miami’s home opener. Tannehill had already led his team to road wins at Cleveland against Brandon Weeden — the fifth Beatle? — and against Luck at Indianapolis.

We’re No. 1

There were a few firsts Sunday.

The Lions beat the Redskins on the road for the first time since 1935, when the franchise was the Boston Redskins, ending a 21-game streak of futility that was the second-longest in NFL history.

Tennessee beat San Diego for the first time in 10 tries, and the Titans did it with a touchdown catch by rookie Justin Hunter, his first and only NFL reception.

Franklin, the former UCLA star whose day with the Packers ultimately ended in frustration, rushed for 103 yards in 13 carries and scored his first touchdown in place of the injured James Starks.

Leave of absence

San Francisco will be without Aldon Smith indefinitely, as the star linebacker is voluntarily entering a treatment facility for substance-abuse issues, 49ers CEO Jed York said. He will not play Thursday against St. Louis.

“We support Aldon if [he] is willing to fight for himself and try to make this right, and I will stand here and I will support him,” York said. “And I’ll take any shots that anybody wants to direct at the organization, you can direct them to me. And I will support Aldon as long as he’s willing to work at this and fight to get better.”

Smith, who was arrested Friday under suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana possession, read a statement at his locker after Sunday’s game, admitted he has a “problem,” and apologized for his actions. It was the second alcohol-related arrest of his three-year career.

Suspicion and suspension

Denver linebacker Von Miller tried to cheat the NFL’s drug-testing program with the help of the person assigned to collect his urine sample, according to an ESPN report.

Miller, who was second in the league with 181/2 sacks last season, had been suspended for the first six games — inexplicably, two more games than the typical NFL penalty for that transgression.

According to the report, Miller’s representatives and the players’ union were prepared to fight his initial four-game suspension but backed off when they became aware Miller and the collector worked together to help the player avoid a failed test.

Sources told ESPN the Miami-based collector was “star-struck.”

The scheme reportedly was uncovered when a second collector learned Miller was not in the city where his collection was to have taken place.

A steady reign

Seattle’s Wilson tied a career high with four touchdown passes in a 45-17 trouncing of Jacksonville, the first of the Seahawks’ four consecutive games against AFC South teams. Next up, Seattle plays at Houston, at Indianapolis, and then at home against Tennessee.

Depending on the oddsmakers, the Seahawks were favored by 19 to 20 points against the Jaguars. The previous eight NFL teams who were favored by 20 or more failed to cover the spread, so Seattle broke that streak and improved to 3-0 for the first time since 2006.

Trading places

Richardson didn’t wait long to make a contribution for the Colts. He ran for a one-yard touchdown the first time he touched the ball, and finished with 13 carries for 35 yards.

“Imagine practicing Wednesday in one city, and you get on a flight and you’re practicing Thursday in another city,” Luck marveled, “and practicing, you know, third down against a top-five NFL defense.”

Richardson was a bit more matter-of-fact about the day: “It was nice to score.”

Now that’s acting like you’ve been there before.

sam.farmer@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATimesfarmer