Week 2 of the NFL brought us a ton of drama and some pretty big upsets. Jameis Winston led his Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a surprising road win against the New Orleans Saints. Meanwhile, the Jacksonville Jaguars took advantage of lackluster overall play by the Miami Dolphins to pull off that upset. In Oakland, Derek Carr’s late touchdown pass gave the Raiders a huge home win against the Baltimore Ravens.
While that’s all fine and dandy, what took place in Philadelphia will likely be the talk of the NFL water cooler for some time now. Not only did the Eagles lay another egg to open the season, they did so against a Dallas Cowboys team that lost Tony Romo for what appears to be at least the next two months after he suffered yet another collarbone injury.
And in what would have been an otherwise solid night of pats on the back, the Cowboys are left wondering how they are going to tread water for the foreseeable future without both Romo and Dez Bryant.
Here are your top 10 takeaways for the second week of the 2015 NFL regular season.
Injuries piling up for the Dallas Cowboys
With Dez Bryant out at least six weeks after suffering a broken bone in his foot in the Cowboys season opener, Jason Garrett and Co. were going to rely on Tony Romo’s veteran leadership and elite-level play to keep the team above water until his No. 1 receiver returns. All was looking great against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. And then, in one instant, everything turned against the Cowboys.
Romo took a huge hit against an Eagles defender in the third quarter and remained in the turf for some time. When he did get up, it was clear that the Pro Bowl quarterback was seriously injured. And within minutes, our worst fears were realized. Romo had suffered a broken clavicle — the same injury that saw him miss 10 games back in 2010.
While there won’t be any further updates from the team until later in the day on Monday, it’s safe to say Romo will be joining Bryant in street clothes for the foreseeable future.
Brandon Weeden took over for Romo under center on Sunday, helping Dallas embarrass the home-standing Eagles by the score of 20-10. That was good enough for a 2-0 start to the season, but the Cowboys must now tread water with Weeden being relied on to start for at least the next two months. Such an unfortunate situation for the Cowboys.
The New Orleans Saints are in big trouble
At 0-2 on the season, Drew Brees and Co. are in an unenviable position. Only 10 percent of teams that have started 0-2 since the 2007 season have earned a playoff spot. And while playing in the ultra-weak NFC South helps New Orleans early in the year, it lost a home game against a Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad that won just two games last season.
There isn’t much left up for interpretation here. New Orleans just isn’t that good.
Looking well past his prime, Brees was vastly outplayed by a rookie quarterback in Jameis Winston making his second NFL start. The 36-year-old signal caller completed 24-of-38 passes for 255 yards with one touchdown and one interception. This came on the heels of Tampa Bay’s defense yielding four touchdown passes to Marcus Mariota last week.
More than that, the Saints couldn’t contain a Buccaneers offense that was being led by a quarterback making his first regular season road start. The Buccaneers put up nearly 350 total yards and Winston added two scores in the surprising road win.
If the Saints can’t win a home game against a bottom-feeder in the worst division the NFL has to offer, it pretty much tells us what we need to know about this team. And unfortunately for Brees, the twilight of his career likely isn’t going to be spent with a contender.
Despite another solid performance from Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers blown out by the Pittsburgh Steelers
The expectation here had to be that San Francisco would fall back to Earth following an impressive Week 1 win against the Minnesota Vikings. Like clockwork, that’s exactly what happened. The 49ers defense was torched early and often by Ben Roethlisberger, as Pittsburgh put up 453 yards and 43 points against an inexperienced secondary. The likes of Kenneth Acker and Tramaine Brock were brutalized through the air all day long.
Heck, Antonio Brown went for 195 yards on nine receptions while DeAngelo Williams scored three touchdowns on the ground. In reality, it was an absolute clinic from a Steelers team that struggled big time against the New England Patriots.
Those of us with muted expectations of the 49ers this season (I have them at 8-8), knew there would be days like this. The primary thing we wanted to see was whether Colin Kaepernick was prepared to take that next step. Despite the 43-18 loss on Sunday, the embattled quarterback put up his second consecutive solid performance. He completed 33-of-46 passes (both career highs) for 335 yards and two touchdowns. Kaepernick also added 51 rushing yards to push his total yardage up near the 400 mark.
In similar games in the past (mostly against Seattle), Kaepernick would wilt under the pressure of having to move the ball through the air. That didn’t happen on Sunday. Taking into account two throwaways and five dropped passes, the fifth-year quarterback was on target all game long. He looks like a completely different quarterback from a season ago.
It’s now all about the rest of the team actually playing NFL-level football. This didn’t happen in a blowout loss against Pittsburgh. That’s the harsh reality of the situation.
Going to be a long season for the Chicago Bears
Before Jay Cutler even went down with a hamstring injury during a play that saw him throw a pick-six, it was rather obvious that John Fox and the Bears were no contest for what is quickly becoming a dominating Arizona Cardinals squad.
Starting with a David Johnson 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the game, the Bears were completely outmatched. And while Chicago found a way to put up 20 first half points, it allowed four touchdowns during that very same span, including two non-offensive scores.
This is a team that’s going to find it hard to win on a consistent basis without playing mistake-free football. Add in two turnovers and a special teams touchdowns against, and that mountain becomes nearly impossible to climb.
None of this can really be placed on Cutler. Prior to that interception, he was 8-of-8 passing. In fact, the Bears were down just 28-20 at the half. Instead, defensive breakdowns led to the team’s demise. Larry Fizgerald caught three touchdowns for the Cardinals, while rookie running back David Johnson added a 14-yard touchdown run to put up his second score of the game.
Overall, the Cardinals offense put up three touchdown scoring drives of 65-plus yards. Chicago’s offense simply isn’t good enough to maintain pace with good teams when other aspects of the team isn’t playing well. That was evident on Sunday.
Cleveland Browns may need to stick with Johnny Manziel
The Browns won a football game handily. This isn’t something we have been able to say many times throughout the years. Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, it started with another deep touchdown from Manziel to an emerging deep threat in Travis Benjamin — this time for 60 yards.
Cleveland added an 11-yard Isaiah Crowell touchdown and a 78-yard punt return by Benjamin to take a 21-0 halftime lead against a Titans squad that was coming off a blowout win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1.
And while the Titans made it close with two unanswered touchdowns, Manziel and Benjamin had an answer with less than three minutes remaining in the game. The second-year quarterback hit his favorite pass catcher for a 50-yard touchdown to give the Browns a 28-14 victory.
These are the types of game-changing plays the Browns have been missing from the quarterback position for some time now. Manziel may have completed just 8-of-15 passes, but he was able to limit the turnovers and make plays when the Browns needed him the most.
In reality, there is absolutely no reason for Mike Pettine to go back to a lower-ceiling quarterback in Josh McCown. That much was made obvious in an impressive Browns win over Tennessee on Sunday.
The Arizona Cardinals should be considered early NFC favorites
Fresh off a solid win against the New Orleans Saints in Week 1, Bruce Arians and the Cardinals laid the smack down against an inferior Bears team in Chicago. While the game was relatively close about halfway through, anyone watching it knew full well that Arizona was going to end up pulling away from the home team.
For Carson Palmer, it was a continuation of what has been an excellent recent run. The veteran quarterback has posted a 15-2 record with 34 touchdowns compared to 12 interceptions. His four touchdowns on Sunday represents the first time Palmer has matched that total since he was with the Oakland Raiders back in November of 2012.
What makes the Cardinals so dangerous on offense is that they have yet to find an identity on the ground. With Andre Ellington sidelined after suffering a knee injury last week, Chris Johnson was slated to take a bulk of the carries Sunday. He responded by putting up a workman-like 72 yards on 20 attempts.
However, it was rookie third-round pick David Johnson that stood out the most. Outside of averaging 8.4 yards and scoring a touchdown on eight attempts, the rookie opened the game with a 108-yard kick return for a touchdown.
If Arizona can find a way to get this type of production (117 yards) from its running backs, the team’s offense is going to be filthy good moving forward. That’s only magnified by the way Palmer is playing at quarterback. Enter into the equation a stingy defense, and the Cardinals have a real shot at the Super Bowl this year. Their 48-23 win over Chicago can only be seen as a step in the right direction.
Same old story for Jeff Fisher and company
All the good feelings the St. Louis Rams may have felt following their Week 1 win over the Seattle Seahawks came crushing down in D.C. on Sunday. Never really in control of the game against the Washington Redskins, St. Louis dropped an ugly game by the score of 24-10. At this point, we have come to expect Fisher-led squads to lay eggs following good performances.
It happened in all three of the Rams big wins last year — against Seattle, San Francisco and Denver. In fact, the Rams lost the following week after beating those favored teams. This is one of the primary reasons I refused to pick St. Louis against a bad Redskins team on Sunday.
It’s not really hard to pinpoint where everything went wrong here. Going against his former NFC East rivals, Nick Foles completed just 17-of-32 passes for 150 yards with one touchdown and zero picks. Averaging less than five yards per attempt is not acceptable. Seeing your long pass of the day go for 40 yards also means that you failed to push the ball down the field the rest of the day.
The other area of the field that struggled was the team’s defensive front. Widely considered one of the best front sevens in the NFL, the Rams failed to put pressure on Kirk Cousins on a consistent basis Sunday. Cousins completed 23-of-37 passes for over 200 yards without an interception.
It’s not a coincidence that the Rams only sacked the career backup two times after destroying Seattle’s offensive line last week. This enabled Washington to convert on 8-of-16 third-down attempts en route to a two score victory.
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots care little about offensive balance
So much for that elite-level Buffalo Bills defense. Tom Brady and the Patriots made mash out of it on Sunday. Deciding against even attempting to create some sense of balance on offense, New England put the ball up a whopping 59 times in an impressive 40-point road performance against Rex Ryan’s Bills. For his part, Brady completed 38-of-59 passes for 466 yards — the most Buffalo has yielded in the history of its franchise.
A total of nine different Patriots caught passes, including six-plus for Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, Dion Lewis and Aaron Dobson. For all intents and purposes it was a passing-game clinic for the future Hall of Fame quarterback.
At some point, the Patriots will have to find a run/pass balance on offense. They simply aren’t going to be able to dominate like this through the air on a consistent basis. The interesting dynamic here is that New England did average nearly four yards per rush. It’s not like the running game was completely ineffective.
Instead, Bill Belichick and Co. decided to make a statement. That statement read that the big boys of the East don’t reside in Western New York and play under Rex Ryan. In this, the Patriots second consecutive win to start the season was a smashing success.
The Philadelphia Eagles are a hot mess
About halfway through three quarters on Sunday against Dallas, the Eagles had racked up more penalty yards and total yards. Heck, the Cowboys domination could be summed up by the fact that they had run more plays (44) at about the nine-minute mark in the third quarter than the Eagles had total yards (34). It was that ugly.
Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford struggled with accuracy throughout the entire game, completing 23-of-37 passes with just one touchdown and two interceptions. It sure didn’t help that his running game failed to get going and his receivers couldn’t get open. Making his first appearance against his former team, DeMarco Murray gained two yards on 13 rushes. That brings his season total to 11 yards on 21 rush attempts.
Meanwhile, the combination of Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor failed to give Bradford many passing lanes until well into the fourth quarter.
It’s this type of offensive performance that will have many questioning Chip Kelly’s scheme moving forward. More than that, it will have skeptics on full alert when it comes to criticizing the team’s off-season moves. And now at 0-2 on the season, Philadelphia finds itself in a must-win situation against the New York Jets next week.
The Seattle Seahawks need Kam Chancellor
This one pretty much goes without saying. A week after yielding 34 points and 352 yards to the lowly St. Louis Rams, the two-time defending NFC champions ran into another wall Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Seattle gave up 27 points and 361 yards to Aaron Rodgers and Co. en route to a 27-17 loss — the team’s second consecutive defeat to begin the season.
Rodgers, one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL, completed 25-of-33 passes for 249 yards and two scores.
What makes Seattle’s defensive performance on Sunday night so underwhelming is that Packers running back Eddie Lacy missed three-plus quarters with an ankle injury. Filling in for Lacy, James Starks put up 106 total yards on 24 touches.
This right here is a prime example of Pete Carroll’s squad missing Pro Bowl safety Kam Chancellor, who has now missed the first two games of the season due to a holdout. Without any reported contact with the brass in Seattle since early this month, it appears that Chancellor’s holdout will last much longer.
However, there has to be some thought given by Seattle’s front office as it relates to paying the piper and giving Chancellor what he demands. If that doesn’t happen, Seattle could very well find itself on the outside looking in when it comes to the NFC Playoffs. After all, only 10 percent of the teams that have started 0-2 since 2007 have made the playoffs.