Houston Texans at Carolina Panthers

After putting up 11 points in the 4^th quarter last week, Ryan Mallett showed a lot of promise in his ability to lead an offense, so how would Mallett do when he got the chance to start? Complete 27 of his 58 passes for 244 yards, but still had a chance to tie the game at the end despite his struggles. Credit to the Panthers defense for holding the run game to 61 yards, and to Cam Newton for being the entire Panthers offense for the day, throwing for 2 of the 3 Panther touchdowns, and rushing for the other after flipping into the endzone (and almost sticking the landing on top of it) in a 24-17 win. Bad news for the Panthers is the loss of All-Pro linebacker Luke Kuechly to a concussion.

San Francisco 49ers at Pittsburgh Steelers

After the 49ers huge win at home over the Vikings last week, and having every expert rewriting the narrative, saying the 49ers were back in contention. That new narrative was quickly rewritten after being blown out by the hosting Pittsburgh Steelers 43-18. DeAngelo Williams and Ben Roethlisberger each had 3 touchdowns on the day. Carlos Hyde, a week 1 hero, was held to 43 yards on only 13 carries. Antonio Brown went off for 195 yards and a touchdown on 9 catches, showing why he’s among the best receivers in the NFL. On a positive note for the 49ers, Colin Kaepernick threw for over 330 yards and 2 touchdowns, while adding another 51 yards on the ground. The narratives have been taken too far regarding the 49ers, they aren’t great, but they aren’t as bad as many experts claimed before the season. As for the Steelers, they showed why they should be considered a contender this season.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints

Who saw this one coming? A bad Tampa Bay team coming off a rough performance against the Tennessee Titans going against a Saints team looking for redemption after a loss to the Cardinals, oh and not to mention the Saints were at home for this one. Once again, the Saints seemed to struggle offensively and the defense wasn’t much better. Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston was making his second career start in the NFL (first one on the road), and while he only threw for 207 yards and a touchdown (ran for another), he also didn’t throw an interception. It was bad enough for New Orleans to lose their home opener 26-19 to the lowly Bucs, worse news for the home team is that Drew Brees suffered an apparent shoulder injury, and his week 3 status is now in jeopardy. If Brees is forced to miss time, this team could be well on its way to the #1 pick in the draft as opposed to #1 in the division. As for Tampa Bay, this was a very nice win for them, and a good confidence boost going forward.

Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings

After week 1, we were all wondering where Adrian Peterson had gone, and if father time had caught up to him already (even worse for fantasy players who had taken Peterson in the first round). Peterson proceeded to make sure none of us make that mistake again, after gaining a total of 195 yards against the Detroit Lions seemingly porous defense. As for Detroit, the offense was alarmingly quiet, despite 10 catches and a touchdown for Calvin Johnson, he only put up 83 yards. Matthew Stafford threw the ball 53 times, but only gained 286 yards through the air. Rookie sensation Ameer Abdullah only put up 9 yards on 6 carries in a 26-16 loss at the hands of the Vikings.

Arizona Cardinals at Chicago Bars

The good news for the Bears: Jay Cutler completed 88.9% of his passes in this game, the bad news, his one incompletion was an interception, the ugly news, Cutler has a hamstring injury, and might not be able to play for 2 weeks. Enter Jimmy Clausen (Yeah, remember him?) as he promptly lead the bears to a….. 48-23 loss at the hands of Larry Fitzgerald and the Cardinals. Fitzgerald looked like his old self: catching 8 passes for 112 yards and 3 touchdowns on the day, 3 of the 4 thrown by Carson Palmer. The Cardinals are a sneaky great team who could end up winning this division if Carson Palmer can stay healthy and the Seahawks continue to flounder (More on that later). The Bears, in the meantime, have a lot of work to do.

New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills

Going into this game, Bill Belichick had to be liking his chances going against a quarterback in Tyrod Taylor making his 2^nd career start, as Belichick normally devours young quarterbacks’ souls for lunch (that might not just be a metaphor either…). By the start of the 4^th quarter, it appeared that Belichick and Brady were well on their way to being 2-0 in a blowout. In 59 attempts for Brady, he threw for 466 yards in this game. The Bills responded to a 37-13 deficit by unleashing Taylor and their offense, scoring 19 of their 32 points in the 4^th quarter, closing the gap to 37-32, but a New England field goal with only a few minutes left gave Taylor the chance to be a hero, all he had to do was score a touchdown and convert a 2 point conversion to tie the game, but alas, Taylor was intercepted to end Buffalo’s final drive. The young QB did show a lot of potential and fight in this game, this Bills team could be here to stay if Taylor can continue to put up points: not many teams will score 40 on the Bills this year.

San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals

After last week showed the return of Keenan Allen for the Chargers, he only added 2 catches for 16 yards in this contest. This game belonged to Giovani Bernard, carrying the ball 20 times for 123 yards after Jeremy Hill was benched for fumbling the ball twice in this game, on only 10 carries. Andy Dalton threw 3 touchdowns to lead the Bengals over the visiting San Diego Chargers. A positive note for the Chargers: Melvin Gordon looked great, gaining 88 yards on only 16 carries while adding a catch for 10 yards. Steve Johnson also added a touchdown to go with his 5 catches for 45 yards in the 24-19 loss.

Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns

Marcus Mariota couldn’t continue his perfect passer rating from last week, though he did not throw an interception, he did unfortunately fumble 3 times, losing 2 of them in a game where he looked confused at times against the Cleveland defense. On the other side, Johnny Manziel only threw the ball 15 times (to Mariota’s 37) and completed 8 of them for 172 yards and 2 touchdowns, including 2 50+ yard strikes to Travis Benjamin in a 28-14 win over the visiting Titans. This was Johnny Manziel’s first career win, and he looked pretty good, aside from the 2 fumbles that his teammates were able to hop on. Despite the win, it appears that Josh McCown will be taking back the starting job from Manziel next week.

Atlanta Falcons at New York Giants

It was De ja vu for the New York Giants this week, as they held a double digit lead in the 4^th quarter, only to watch it fall in a loss, this time to the Atlanta Falcons. Odell Beckham looked much better this week, catching 7 balls for 146 yards and a touchdown (only 1 for 7 yards after halftime though). Unfortunately for the Giants, Julio Jones was the receiver that proved to be unstoppable, collecting 13 passes for 135 yards. Credit goes to the Giants for taking advantage of a Falcon defense that looked weak at points during the day to get out to the 20-10 lead, which could have been 27-10 if not for an Eli Manning fumble forced by Kroy Bierman. Matt Ryan and company would not be stopped from making the game 20-17, then 24-20 after forcing a 4^th down punt on a bizarre 3^rd and 7 that became 3^rd and 12 after a delay of game penalty, where the Giants would throw pass that was completed, but for only 5 yards. This Falcon team isn’t the same team from the last 2 years, they seem to be much tougher in crunch time, as the defense came up with a huge stop on the Giants final drive to seal the 24-20 win for Atlanta.

St. Louis Rams at Washington Redskins

After the Rams took care of business against the Seahawks, they appeared primed to take off as a contender in the NFC West, only to fall short to Kirk Cousins and the Washington Redskins 24-10. Foles, despite a great outing last week, only threw for 150 yards and the Rams leading rusher was Tavon Austin with 40 yards. The Redskins on the other hand had Kirk Cousins complete 23 of 27 passes for 203 yards, and rookie Matt Jones ran for 123 yards and 2 touchdowns on 19 carries. Jordan Reed led the charge in the Redskins passing attack with 6 catches for 82 yards. The Rams problems of yesteryear, defending the run and poor quarterback play, reared they’re ugly heads once again. As for the Redskins, with the Giants and Eagles at 0-2 and the Cowboys losing Tony Romo and Dez Bryant for long periods of time, they’ve got to feel like they have a chance in the NFC East.

Miami Dolphins at Jacksonville Jaguars

With all of the hype surrounding the Miami Dolphins this offseason, it seemed like they would be a true contender in the AFC East, and after a tough win over the Redskins, how would they follow up that performance? The Dolphins let Blake Bortles, QB of the Jaguars, lead his team to victory on a game winning field goal drive, starting with 1:48 left in the game. This was a day that belonged to the Jaguars, as Bortles had one of his best career games on the heels of Allen Robinson’s career day, in which he had 6 catches for 155 yards (of Bortles 273 yards) and 2 touchdowns. Miami kept it close, as the game was tied going into the 4^th quarter until that final drive. Ryan Tannehill had over 350 passing yards on 44 passing attempts, as the passing offense looked great, it was the run game that faltered, as Tannehill was also the leading rusher on the day with 17 yards. With this win, the Jags avoided their 4^th consecutive 0-2 start.

Baltimore Ravens at Oakland Raiders

One of the quarterbacks in this game completed 30 of their 46 passing attempts for 351 yards for 3 touchdowns, including the game winning touchdown, the other played for the Baltimore Ravens. Yes, Derek Carr shredded the Ravens defense throughout the day, dropping 37 points on a team known historically for their great defenses. Not to say Joe Flacco had a bad game by any means, as he had 384 yards of his own against the Raiders, and lead his team to 13 points in the 4^th quarter to take a 33-30 lead. Carr lead the Raiders on a 9 play, 80 yard drive that took 1:44 off the clock, as Carr hit Seth Roberts for a 12 yard touchdown with 26 seconds to play.

Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles

The curse of 370 seems to be on DeMarco Murray, as he carried the ball 13 times on Sunday against the Eagles hated rival, and Murray’s old team, the Dallas Cowboys. How many yards did Murray rack up against his old team? 2. 2 rushing yards on the day, he did however, add 53 yards through the air. Chip Kelly and his Eagles did not look good in any phase of this game on Sunday, even on defense after Tony Romo was injured, Philly couldn’t stop Dallas. The Eagles are in serious trouble, and Chip Kelly’s retooling of this team is under some serious questioning. Dallas has a few questions of their own to answer with the injuries mounting and an important game next week against the Atlanta Falcons. No Dez Bryant, no Tony Romo (broken collarbone), and possibly no Jason Witten, this team could be in a lot of trouble.

Seattle Seahawks at Green Bay Packers

In this rematch of last year’s NFC title game, these familiar foes engaged in an epic clash, where the Seahawks won the game in overtime, despite Russel Wilson’s 4 interceptions. There would be no such repeat here, as the Packers, hosting this time, won the game 27-17 on the arm of Aaron Rodgers and his 2 touchdowns, along with James Starks, adding 95 yards on the ground. The Packer defense was able to contain the beast known as Marshawn Lynch to only 41 yards rushing. Despite the off night from “Beast mode”, the Seahawks were still in this game until about Green Bay drove down the field for a field goal, taking about 5 minutes off the clock in the 4^th quarter, after Russel Wilson threw an interception at his own 38 yard line, which made the game a 2 possession game with only 2 minutes to play. Seattle did move the ball on their next drive, but a Fred Jackson fumble sealed the game for the Packers.

New York Jets at Indianapolis Colts

Surely Andrew Luck, the quarterback who led the league in touchdown passes last year, would rebound in a big way after his week 1 stumble at the hands of the Buffalo Bills, especially at home against the Jets, right? Wrong, as Luck and the Colts would give the ball away to the Jet defense 5 times, including 3 interceptions by Luck on a night where he looked lost, Frank Gore looked human, and Andre Johnson looked slow. It was the Jet passing offense that looked sharp. In that Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker combined for 15 catches for 198 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Jet running game was slow, but Ryan Fitzpatrick led the passing offense to do enough to win the game on the road for the Jets. One positive for the Colts was the play of Donte Moncrief, who had 7 catches for 122 yards and a touchdown. The Jets looked great in this win, if they keep it up, they could be looking at a winning season for the first time since 2010.