Making (some) sense of Week 2

The NFL is a wonderful thing. Just when you think you understand it the game flips things on its head. The Eagles and Seahawks were expected to challenge for a place in the postseason but so far this season they are winless. Both teams stand 0-2 and have been unable to run the ball. The

Indianapolis Colts retooled their team with several veteran players and so far their investment hasn't been returned. Fresh off the back of a four turnover week from Andrew Luck the Colts are also 0-2.

 

Some things stay the same though. The Patriots still appear to be the team to beat and can now add an efficient running back, in the shape of former Eagle Dion Lewis, to their passing attack. Lewis was out of the league last year and has given Bill Belichick his workhorse back. The Packers continue to get the job done too despite injuries to Jordy Nelson and Eddie Lacey. Aaron Rogers seems to be able to plug anyone in at receiver and make them productive.

 

Speaking of unforeseen events, the Jets are now 2-0, face the Eagles and look favourites to move to 3-0. Tyrod Taylor spent his first 4 years in the NFL as a quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens but, having signed with the Bills in the offseason Taylor proceeded to beat out last year's starter EJ Manuel and their other offseason acquisition, Matt Cassel. Taylor's playing some pretty good football and has been part of the reason why the Bills came to within 8 points of being 2-0 as they lost by two points to the Patriots. Taylor has been making points both with his arm and his legs but took far too many sacks (an amazing 8) on Sunday.

 

In last week's battle of the rookie quarterbacks Marcus Mariota looked like a sure fire Hall of Fame candidate whilst Jameis Winston reminded many of Raiders bust JaMarcus Russell! Mariota returned to earth with a bump this week as he was constantly harried by the Browns. Former first round pick Johnny Manziel showed promise as he hooked up with Travis Benjamin on two long touchdown passes but will return to the bench this week as Josh McCown returns from a concussion. Meanwhile the Buccaneers got into a shootout with the Saints that allowed Winston to exhibit the arm that made him a first round pick, lofting two fantastic touch passes into the endzone early on. 

 

Raiders fans could be forgiven for thinking 'here we go again' after last week's terrible performance but the Raiders woke up in spectacular fashion today as Derek Carr and Amari Cooper took over the game. The pair combined for 109 yards, as Carr rocketed his way to 351 yards passing. He gives the Raiders a legitimate weapon that they've been lacking since Tim Brown.

 

Jacksonville, London's team, had a much better second game of the season. Blake Bortles looks to be making the jump that many second year quarterbacks make. He finished the game with 273 yards and two scores on 33 attempts. Another second year player was the beneficiary of Bortles play; Allen Robinson caught passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns. Perhaps the biggest improvement from last year was in the offensive line as they were able to keep the Dolphin's aggressive defence away from Bortles.

 

Is it me or do there seem to be a lot more injuries already this year than there have been in the past?

 

Week 3

 

The Giants finally won a match after two fourth quarter losses. They destroyed the Redskins, but it wasn't so much that the Giants played well, rather that Eli Manning was more careful with the ball. It was somewhat unexpected and although the Redskins came back at the end their much talked about running game seemed to dry up as Eli, Odel Beckham and Reuben Randall took control.