32 things we learned from Week 2 of NFL season
From a rash of injuries to high-profile players to the two oldest coaches setting a record,
The Packers’ offense stayed hot, Tom Brady got his first win with the Bucs, and so many top players are falling to injuries.
The 32 things we learned from Week 2 of the 2020 NFL season:
1. Despite the tsunami of coverage (including from USA TODAY) you surely saw last year as the NFL celebrated its 100th season, the league didn’t actually turn 100 until Thursday – a full century after being founded in a Canton, Ohio, car dealership. Happy birthday, American Professional Football Association/ National Football League.
2. Sunday, though, didn’t offer much reason to celebrate – despite several riveting contests – with so many prominent players befallen by injuries. Giants RB Saquon Barkley suffered a seasonending ALC tear in Chicago. Secondyear Broncos QB Drew Lock will miss a few weeks after hurting his throwing shoulder while his top target, WR Courtland Sutton, is out for the season with a torn ACL. Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey will miss multiple weeks after suffering a high ankle sprain. That doesn’t even include the flurry of 49ers injuries, including to DE Nick Bosa and QB Jimmy Garoppolo.
3. Here’s how dire matters are if your favorite team is 0-2: Since the NFL adopted a 12-team playoff format in 1990, 88% of teams starting 0-2 missed the postseason ... while 62% of teams starting 2-0 advanced to the playoffs. Yet oddly, since the league realigned in 2002, nearly 61% of teams that emerged from the blocks 0-2 or 1-1 reached the Super Bowl tournament.
4. Brady > Belichick
5. Speaking of one TB12, Brady joined Drew Brees as the only players in league history to pass for 75,000 career yards.
6. Prayers to Patriots RB James White, who was inactive Sunday night after his father was killed in a car crash. White is one of the nicest (and most underrated) guys in the league. Just tragic that 2020 continues to deal such cruel blows.
7. Can you imagine the frenzy on sports debate shows, not to mention national and Metroplex radio waves, had the Cowboys started 0-2? It almost makes you wish they had ...
8. Let’s also “credit” the Falcons for another magnificent come-from-ahead defeat. Where’s the four-minute offense? Shouldn’t someone be coaching these special teamers to snuff that onside kick inside 10 yards? Why is ATL going for two up 26-7? How do you lose on a day you have a +3 turnover advantage and four separate leads of at least 15 points, the final one with five minutes to play?
9. Starting in 2018, the University of Alabama has had the most players on opening-day NFL rosters each year, including 53 this season. Ohio State came in second in 2020 with 48 players beginning the campaign on Week 1 rosters. If only the Jets and Giants could be relegated in favor of the Crimson Tide and Buckeyes.
10. Speaking of former Ohio State players, Bengals QB Joe Burrow continues to look like the real deal – despite these unfamiliar defeats (to him) – completing a single-game rookie record 37 passes in Thursday’s loss at Cleveland.
11. Sorry, LSU fans ... love you, too. The Bayou Bengals had 41 players on Week 1 rosters – good for third place if it makes you feel better.
12. Packers RB Aaron Jones had 236 yards from scrimmage and three TDs on
Sunday. QB Aaron Rodgers passed for 240 yards and two scores in a near-flawless performance. Tell me again why Green Bay needed a two-dimensional quarterback and one-dimensional running back in the first two rounds of the draft?
13. The Lions have lost 11 in a row.
14. The Panthers have lost 10 in a row.
15. The Bengals have lost 14 consecutive games decided by one score ... 10 since Zac Taylor became their coach last season.
16. Vikings QB Kirk Cousins posted a 15.9 passer rating, by far the worst of his career, after completing 11 of 26 for 113 yards and a trio of interceptions Sunday.
17. Bills Mafia is very – – protective of QB Josh Allen ... take my word for it. But let’s give Allen deserved credit for crafting a career day in Miami with 417 yards and four TDs through the air.
18. Rodrigo Blankenship and Rigoberto Sanchez – has there ever been a duo of specialists with better names than these Colts?
19. Shoutout to the Jaguars, who came close to a 2-0 start against AFC South foes. At least credit them for limiting Titans RB Derrick Henry (84 yards on 25 carries Sunday). He had torched them for 397 rushing yards and six TDs the previous two times he faced the Jags in Nashville.
20. Good week for Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, who turned 25 Thursday – yes that makes him exactly 75 years younger than the NFL – before leading a comeback against the Chargers Sunday. Mahomes is 9-0 in September starts and has never thrown an interception in a month when he has 28 TD strikes. He also improved to 13-1 all time against the
AFC West.
21. The best Jet on the field Sunday? How about 49ers RB Jerick “Jet” McKinnon, who lit up the Jets for 77 rushing yards and a TD (on just three carries) while adding another 71 yards on three kickoff returns. Most remarkably, McKinnon converted a 3rd-and-31 from San Francisco’s 11-yard line with a 55yard gallop.
22. Time to renew the Jared Goff vs. Carson Wentz debate, which doesn’t feel as if it’s been that much of a debate since they went first and second, respectively, atop the 2016 draft? Goff was clearly better Sunday when Wentz should have thrived given how effectively his line kept Aaron Donald in check.
23. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger tossed two TD passes in Sunday’s win over Denver, giving him sole ownership of eighth place all-time (368) after he broke a tie with 2004 draftmate Eli Manning. Rivers, also drafted in 2004, is sixth after connecting for No. 399.
24. Cardinals QB Kyler Murray might just follow up his 2019 offensive rookie of the year performance with an MVP effort in his sophomore campaign after leading Arizona to a rare 2-0 start.
25. The Ravens may not need reigning MVP Lamar Jackson to repeat his 2019 wizardry to win a Lombardi Trophy following the 2020 season. Jackson had just 54 of Baltimore’s 230 rushing yards in Sunday’s win at Houston, while the Ravens defense scored its seventh TD since the 2019 campaign (most in the league over that stretch). Chiefs at Ravens in Week 3 should be a gem.
26. Who has worse luck than Tyrod Taylor? The Chargers quarterback was scratched Sunday after suffering a pregame chest injury, allowing rookie firstrounder Justin Herbert to make his NFL debut. Taylor’s injury occurred two years to the day since he sustained a concussion while playing for the Browns, an injury that cost him his starting job after Baker Mayfield stepped into the breach. Given how Herbert showed out against Kansas City, Taylor may get relegated to backup duties yet again.
27. Not sure why Bears fans think Chicago should’ve drafted Mahomes in 2017. The Monsters are unbeatable with Mitch Trubisky ... after two games ... in 2020.
28. As Week 2 wrapped Monday, all 32 NFL teams have played one home and one road game, a first since the 1970 merger.
29. Speaking of Monday, the Raiders were to officially open Las Vegas’ glistening Allegiant Stadium – also called the “Death Star.” The venue was to become the 188th to host a game in league history.
30. Good time to be a Collinsworth, NBC’s father-and-son duo of Cris and Jac getting to work “Sunday Night Football” together in Seattle.
31. Good time to be a sexagenarian head coach, too. Pete Carroll, 69, and Bill Belichick, 68, became the oldest opposing coaches in NFL history while working “Sunday Night Football” together in Seattle.
32. And what a game the Seahawks and Patriots produced, Seattle’s narrow escape not enough to erase the nightmare that was Super Bowl XLIX but definitely sufficient to stoke hopes the ’Hawks can reach Super Bowl LV.