Week 2 is in the books and there were some huge results both on and off the field. Let’s have a look at some of the key takeaways from week 2.
Is it time to talk about Tua?
On Thursday night, the Buffalo Bills beat the Miami Dolphins, but the game was overshadowed with another concussion for their quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Tua has been placed on injured reserve and therefore will miss several weeks before being cleared to play. It is the third official time he has been put into concussion protocol and second time placed on IR since he entered the league.
The NFL has a challenging relationship with concussion, highlighted by the film of the same name, and have taken great steps to improve player safety and concussion protocols in recent years. Tua was a huge story in 2022, with lots of focus on how he would handle the next big hit. With all the medical knowledge around concussion, when does the risk outweigh the reward for Tua?
The south is rising for some…
For the last few years, the NFC South has been a bit of a dumpster fire. Two years ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made the play-offs with a losing record and at times last season it looked like nobody wanted to win it. However, this weekend, the south roared back in to life.
Tampa went back to the scene of their play-off loss last year and came up with a massive win in Detroit against the Lions. Incredibly missing some key starters and losing Vita Via mid-game, the defence, came up big with two game stopping drives in the final two minutes to preserve the win. On the other side of the ball, Baker Mayfield found a way with his arm, and his legs, to win the game. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a gritty and resolute. New Orleans Saints backed up their thumping win over the Carolina Panthers in week one, and went to Dallas and caused the shock of the weekend, beating the Cowboys. Derek Carr had a great game, but Alvin Kamara was the star with four touchdowns, scoring 40+ points for the second week in a row. And having had a huge weekend the south came up trumps again on Monday night, as the Atlanta Falcons won the battle of the birds beating the Eagles with a game winning drive from Kirk Cousins to win 22-21. From the division no-one wanted to win to football’s most competitive division shows the topsy turvy world of the NFL.
And falling for others
The Panthers have had a rotten start to the season. Hammered by the Saints in week one, it didn’t get much better in week two. Such was the lack of enthusiasm surrounding the organisation, for their home opener last weekend, you could get two tickets for $1.80, as reported by Pat McAfee.
The Chargers didn’t beat them by as many this week, but they were still resoundingly beaten. Their defence was leaky, their discipline cost them 90 yards and Bryce Young managed a career low 84 yards and hardly attempted a pass of over 10 yards. The former number one draft pick has fallen a quick victim to the boom or bust nature of the NFL and has been benched this week, in favour of veteran Andy Dalton. They have a 60 point differential over the first two games and it is hard to see where they might pick up a win, becoming the first team since the Browns in 2017 to have a winless season.
How not to win a game sponsored by the New York Giants
The Giants have found incredible ways not to win a game in recent seasons, but on Sunday night, they found an incredibly new way to lose. The Giants actually played reasonably well and Daniel Jones on the back of some heavy criticism from the previous week, made 16 of 28 passes for 178 yards and Devin Singletery supported with nearly 100 yards. They scored three touchdowns. So how did they manage to lose?
In the opening kick off, Graham Gano was injured and was replaced by punter Jamie Gillan, who missed the first PAT. After that the Giants decided not to kick PATs, opting to go for two, in which they failed on both occasions. In contrast, Washington replaced their kicker from last week and Austin Seibert kicked seven field goals, a new NFL record and in doing so, condemned the Giants to become the first team to outscore a team by three touchdowns to zero and still lose. The Giants and the Panthers meet in Munich in November and with the Giants luck, the Panthers might even get that win!
Week three kicks off with New York Jets taking on the New England Patriots on Thursday night. Heading into week three, there are nine teams with 2-0 record and nine teams with 0-2 record. Some big match-ups to look out for are the Chiefs and the Vikings, the Saints and the Eagles and the Rams against the 49ers. Week three ends with a double Monday night, with the Jags, Bills, Commanders and Bengals all in action.