Does anyone want to know what New England Patriots’ tight end Rob Gronkowski’s chances of success are against Rex Ryan’s Buffalo Bills? How about which NFL team lost its first 26 games in a row. Or, how about which NFL team has the most hated fans?
Then check out these fun NFL trivia facts that involve this Sunday’s Week 2 matchups.
Buffalo Bills vs. New England Patriots
The Buffalo Bills should have better success in shutting down New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski with new head coach Rex Ryan aboard.
In the past seven career games against Ryan’s defenses, Gronk tallied only 31 receptions, 342 yards and five touchdowns. In Gronkowski’s past seven career games against the Buffalo Bills, before Ryan’s arrival, he got away with 37 receptions for 543 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Ryan and the Bills defense will have Gronk’s number in Week 2.
Carolina Panthers vs. Houston Texans
The Panthers and Texans have only played each other three times in history, in 2003, 2007 and 2011.
The Panthers lost twice and their only win was in 2011 in Cam Newton’s rookie year.
Newton led the Panthers in scoring while running back Arian Foster torched the Panthers defense for 109 rushing yards on 16 attempts along with 58 receiving yards. Houston turned the ball over three times and the Panthers won 20-18.
Might we expect a repeat victory for the Panthers against a Ryan Mallett-led Texans?
Chicago Bears vs. Arizona Cardinals
These two teams have 95 years history that dates back to 1920 when the Decatur Staleys played the Chicago Cardinals.
The Decatur Staleys evolved into the Chicago Staleys in 1921 then were renamed into the Chicago Bears in 1922.
As for the Chicago Cardinals, they had an interesting history and have played against the Bears under the names of the Chi/Pit/Cards/Steelers in 1944 and the St. Louis Cardinals starting in 1965.
The team changed its name to the Arizona Cardinals in 1994 and have since met up with the Chicago Bears in seven matchups for which the Bears have won all but two.
The last time the Cardinals and Bears squared off was in 2012 when Jay Cutler helped lead the team to a 28-13 win. Based on the contrasting directions both franchises have taken of late, we fully expect Arizona to reverse the trend of Chicago dominance starting on Sunday.
Cincinnati Bengals vs. San Diego Chargers
This matchup features the two quarterbacks who ranked first and second in throwing the most interceptions in 2014.
Philip Rivers had 18 picks and Andy Dalton had 17. Rivers’ 18 interceptions were his second most of his career falling short of 2011 when he threw 20 picks.
Dalton’s record-high interceptions were 20, which took place in 2013. The two teams have played each other 34 times with the Bengals losing 20 of those games.
It’s anyone’s guess as to how many interceptions will go down on Sunday, but we’ll take the Chargers in this one.
Cleveland Browns vs. Tennessee Titans
We’re talking about watching two teams in Week 2 that have only one Super Bowl appearance combined on the books.
That would be the Titans, who lost Super Bowl XXXIV in 1990.
The only thing that makes this game potentially exciting is that we’ll get to see rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota try to top his spectacular NFL debut while Johnny Manziel will be attempting to not turn over the ball and not get shown up by his “younger” quarterback competition.
Both quarterbacks’ combined age equals 43, which is only four years older than Denver Broncos veteran quarterback Peyton Manning.
Minnesota Vikings vs. Detroit Lions
These two NFC north teams have a long history of playing against each other. The two franchises have faced off 107 times since 1961, and, unfortunately for the Lions, the record is very lopsided.
The Vikings have won 69 games versus Detroit’s 36, with two games ending in a tie.
The worst and longest losing streak for the Lions versus the Vikings was 13 games, which took place between 1968 and 1974. Both current quarterbacks are coming off of big losses, so it should be interesting see if veteran quarterback in Matthew Stafford can beat second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater on Sunday, which will ultimately force one team to a 0-2 start.
New Orleans Saints vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
All signs would point towards the Saints, led by Drew Brees, to severely dominate the Bucs and rookie quarterback Jameis Winston on Sunday.
Why is that? The Bucs kind of have a knack for being defeated, such as losing their first 26 NFL games prior to joining the league in 1976. And between 1983 and 1996 the Bucs tallied 14 losing seasons in a row, posting 63 wins versus 161 losses.
While the Bucs are the underdogs this week, the Saints are all too familiar with losing in their early franchise years as well. Since becoming an NFL team in 1967, it took until 1987 for the team to advance to a playoff game.
Both franchises have only one Super Bowl win apiece.
New York Giants vs. Atlanta Falcons
These two teams feature the defense that allowed the second-highest wide receiver yards (Atlanta, 3,135) in 2014 and the receiver who averaged the most yards per game (Odell Beckham, Jr., 108.75) last year.
This could be the perfect recipe for Beckham Jr. to wreak havoc on the Falcons’ secondary this week. Another interesting fact regarding these two teams is that both Eli Manning and Matt Ryan are their franchises’ leading quarterbacks in career passing yards.
The two teams have played each other only 23 times and if the Falcons win, they’ll tie it up at 12 wins each.
Pittsburgh Steelers vs. San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has yet to face the Pittsburgh Steelers defense.
The last time the two teams played each other was in 2011 when Alex Smith was under center, and the 49ers won 20-3.
Something worth noting about this matchup is that the Steelers defense allowed New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski to score three times in the season opener. Could the same breakout performance be in the cards for 49ers tight end Vernon Davis this week?
Perhaps this handy little stat might prompt some people to give Davis a start in a daily fantasy football league this week.
Washington Redskins versus St. Louis Rams
These two franchises have met up 38 times against each other.
As for the Rams, they played 13 games as the St. Louis Rams, 19 games as the Los Angeles Rams and six games as the Cleveland Rams from 1937-1945.
The last time the two teams met was in December of 2014, when the Rams completely shut out Washington, 24-0 while quarterback Colt McCoy was under center. With how fiercely the Rams defense performed against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1, they could certainly deliver to Washington another shut-out performance on Sunday.
It should be an easy task for St. Louis to force turnovers out of Kirk Cousins and company this week. Should this happen, we might just see a different quarterback on the sidelines on clipboard duty.
Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Miami Dolphins
These two Florida teams have only met seven times since the Jaguars became an NFL franchise in 1995.
If the Jags can pull of a win, they’ll be tied at four wins a piece.
Worth noting is that both teams feature linebackers — Jaguars with Chris Clemons and Dolphins with Cameron Wake — with big-time sack totals (67 and 63, respectively).
Add Dolphins’ defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh into the mix and 2014’s most-sacked quarterback Blake Bortles, who endured 55 sacks, could be in some serious trouble on Sunday.
Oakland Raiders vs. Baltimore Ravens
The Oakland Raiders have been dreadfully unsuccessful at beating the Baltimore Ravens.
Their only win in their total eight meetings together came in December of 2003. The last time the two teams faced each other, the Ravens walked away with a massive 55-20 win in November of 2012.
This Week 2 game will be the first time since 1969 that the Raiders have had their first two games played at home. With the Ravens preventing the Denver Broncos from scoring any offensive touchdowns in Week 1, they could certainly be primed to limit a questionable Oakland offense this week.
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys
Besides seeing Philadelphia Eagles running back DeMarco Murray face his former Dallas Cowboys, these two NFC East teams always bring out the best and the worst in their fans.
Remember this incident between the two teams 16 years ago?
“In 1999 when the Eagles played the Dallas Cowboys, it is reported that fans were booing wide receiver Michael Irvin when he lay on the field with a neck injury that unfortunately ended his career. As it turns out, the fans were really booing Deion Sanders but were actually cheering while Irvin’s motionless body lay on the field.”
For this, according to a recent study performed by Sports Illustrated, Eagles fans were ranked as the “most hated” in the NFL.
The two teams have a massive history of 112 games, for which the Cowboys lead in wins, 63-49, over the Eagles.
Green Bay Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks
The last time the Green Bay Packers hosted the Seattle Seahawks in a regular season game was 2009, and the Packers won 48-10.
Ouch.
It should be interesting to see if the Seahawks can pressure Aaron Rodgers into throwing an interception at home, which is something that the ultra-accurate quarterback has not done since December of 2012.
However, enough with tooting Rodgers’ horn. He was picked off a total of three times on the road in Seattle during the 2014 season. He threw one interception in Week 1 and then threw two more in the 2015 Conference Championship game.
The Packers are ready to sock it to their rivals by attempting to rattle them with some “noise” at Lambeau Field during Sunday Night Football.
This revenge matchup is sure to be one of the highest viewed NFL games in Week 2.