Welcome back to the Sunday Sprint, where we run through all the action that went down on everyone’s favourite day! Week 2 in the NFL did not disappoint when it came to highlights, lowlights, and downright gaffs (we’re looking at you Atlanta).
Chicago Bears 17- New York Giants 13
A loss to a mediocre Bears team undoubtedly hurts, but the pain is mild when compared to the heartbreak the Giants experienced when Saquon Barkley went down, in what wound up being a season ending knee injury. When it came to on-field action, Mitch Trubisky looked like…well Mitch Trubisky, throwing two touchdowns to go with his two picks. Yes, his team is sitting at 2-0, but haven’t exactly played any form of threatening opponents, something that will pose a problem if their starting QB continues to perform like an inconsistent backup.
LA Rams 37- Philadelphia Eagles 19
The fact that Carson Wentz managed to get booed by an empty stadium tells you just about everything you need to know about this year’s Philadelphia Eagles. Whoever’s pressing play on the pumped in fan noises found the bo birds button after one of Wentz’ picks and let the quarterback know exactly what he thought of his performance. To be fair to Wentz and the offence, the defense isn’t exactly showing up big either. Sunday’s disaster saw them allow 449 yards of offense, 191 of those were on the ground. Goff paraded the LA offense at least 75 yards downfield on four of the team’s scoring drives. Yeah…the days of the Philly Special are long gone…
Dallas Cowboys 40- Atlanta Falcons 39
Keep an eye on Sportscenter in the next little bit as a “Top 10 Atlanta Falcons’ Blown Leads” is looking more and more likely, seeing as the team continues to provide us with content. Obviously the utter capitulation of Super Bowl LI would top that list, Sunday’s meltdown in Texas could be a strong second place challenger. After allowing Dallas to drive down the field to get within a score of the win, the Falcons’ special teams had a chance to secure the win by defending an onside kick. For reasons only they know, the Falcons just watched the ball land in front of them. Dallas, obviously, smothered the ball, got themselves into field goal range and veteran Zuerlein made no mistake in getting his team the win.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31- Carolina Panthers 17
Brady and Fournette appeared to have figured out how to turn the clocks back ever so slightly as they led their new squad to a convincing win. The same cannot be said for Gronk, whose reunion with Brady tour is not living up to any form of hype. On multiple occasions the monster of a tight end still used his size to break free of multiple defenders, but somehow just couldn’t hold onto the ball. On the Panthers side, it was a day of adding injury to insult as they lost feature back, and arguably the team’s best source of offence, Christian McCaffery, to a high ankle sprain. Reports say he’ll be out 4-6 weeks, but don’t be surprised if they take their time bringing him back depending on how far out of a playoff spot they fall between now and then.
San Francisco 49ers 31- New York Jets 13
The New York Jets should be embarrassed after Sunday’s performance, putting up a mere 13 points against what was by the end of the game, a team of backups, is not a good look on anyone, in particular their coach. Adam Gase needs to find a way to right the already sinking ship before this season turns into one of Cleveland Browns 0-16-esque woes. Granted, when the offence doesn’t reach the red zone until garbage time and your defence opens the game by giving up an 80-yard touchdown on the opening play, the problems are a lot deeper than coaching.
Pittsburgh Steelers 26- Denver Broncos 21
The Steel Curtain looks to be intact this season, even as it crashed down on Drew Locke’s shoulder. Denver’ starter went out early with a shoulder injury, but that only seemed to motivate the team to stay in the game. Pittsburgh looked to have the game on lock, but like flies on a horse, the Broncos just wouldn’t go away and refused to make life easy in the Steel City. Nevertheless, the Black and Gold persisted and saw the win out (helped out by Canadian receiver, Chase Claypool, so yeh! for Canadian content)
Tennessee Titans 33- Jacksonville Jaguars 30
The Titans took a very un-Titan route to beating the Jaguars in a high scoring affair: they didn’t entirely rely on Derrick Henry. Henry was actually almost a non-factor in the win, with Ryan Tannehill and Jonnu Smith being the stars of the show. Almost out of nowhere, the Titans’ starting pivot looked to be worth every cent of the mammoth deal they inked him to in the off-season. To Jacksonville’s credit, they certainly didn’t make it easy on Tennessee, and they most definitely made it fun to watch (unless your Minshew’s OC who had to watch him throw two interceptions).
Green Bay Packers 42- Detroit Lions 21
It looks as though this season will be the beginning of the end of the Detroit Lions as we have become familiar with. The fact of the matter is that this just is not a very good football team, from any angle; starting at quarterback. Stafford looked abysmal, throwing a crucial pick and taking an uncharacteristically bad sack. The score line was ugly, but the opponent was also the powerhouse Packers, who despite concerns of being thin on talent, have given nobody any reason to worry.
Buffalo Bills 31- Miami Dolphins 28
Nobody look yet but Josh Allen might be turning into one of the next elite quarterbacks. For the second straight week the Bills’ starter posted career highs, including 417 yards and 4 touchdowns. The game was a lot closer than what people may have expected after watching the two teams play last week, which is more of a testament to the steps Buffalo’s defence still has to take. But at 2-0, Bills Mafia can ignore the small gaps for now.
Indianapolis Colts 28- Minnesota Vikings 11
Kirk Cousins looked like he forgot which team he signed a $66 million extension with this off-season as he completed three passes to the Colts and 11 to his own team. Needless to say Twitter wasted no time in telling Kirk that they didn’t like that…
Arizona Cardinals 30- Washington 15
Sunday gave us a more familiar looking football team from Washington: relatively ineffective and kind of listless. Arizona on the other hand came out fiery and determined, though they may have been too fiery. Penalties nearly cost Arizona their season opener, as they were thrown nine flags, and they managed to get into even deeper discipline trouble this week with 11. The penalties were upstaged by Murray’s magical legs, however. The second year QB scrambled his way to two untouched touchdowns.
Baltimore Ravens 33- Houston Texans 16
It may be time for Houston to consider getting a real GM because whatever personnel plan Bill O’Brien has is terrible. The defense did their job (until the last 12 minutes on the run) and put the offence in a position to at least make it a close game, but Watson and his receivers just don’t look good. It really makes you wonder what kind of logic O’Brien used in justifying the Hopkins trade.
Kansas City Chiefs 23- LA Chargers 20
We had our first OT game of the year and it definitely was not the matchup we were expecting to need the extra frame. Add to that the fact that suddenly Justin Herbert was thrown into action against Patrick Mahomes, it really looked like this game could get painful for Chargers fans. Out of nowhere, Herbert looked to be in mid-season form and made a legitimate case to be the team’s starter sooner rather than later.
Seattle Seahawks 35- New England Patriots 30
How the turn tables…didn’t the Patriots learn that in this matchup you don’t run the ball from the 1 yard line with the game on the line? Wilson and Newton made the Sunday Night Football programmers look like geniuses as the two pivots treated viewers to an up and down battle that went all the way to the last second, with both teams trading moments of brilliance.
Don’t forget to check back every single week for a refresher and some sarcasm on everyone’s favourite league! What were your thoughts on this week’s action? Let us know down below
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