- Jake Browning saved the Bengals on Sunday, but Cincinnati could be in trouble if Joe Burrow is sidelined for long with a toe injury.
- The Lions rediscovered their mojo in major way by scoring 52 points against former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and the Bears.
- One week after a disastrous debut against the Colts, the Dolphins lost their composure in crunch time against the Patriots.
Two weeks of NFL games might not yield enough data to establish many firm trends. But with the regular-season cadence now in full swing, the hypotheticals of the offseason have now given way to realities that can’t soon be ignored.
Sunday’s slate featured plenty of games that helped dispel some pressing questions from the openers, with the likes of the Baltimore Ravens and Detroit Lions bouncing back in a big way. But other teams confirmed some of the emerging narratives around them – for better or worse.
With the Monday night twin bill of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Houston Texans and the Los Angeles Chargers at the Las Vegas Raiders still to go, here are the biggest winners and losers of Week 2 in the NFL:
NFL Week 2 winners
Brandon Aubrey
How many times does a kicker outshine a quarterback? While Dak Prescott did more than his part to propel the Dallas Cowboys to a 40-37 overtime win against the New York Giants, Aubrey was his team’s unquestioned hero. In a game that lacked any sense of uncertainty throughout a twisty fourth quarter, Aubrey’s 64-yard field goal to force extra time never seemed in doubt. By comparison, his 46-yard game-winner was a relative chip shot. With both, he became the first player in NFL history to convert a game-tying field goal with no time remaining in the fourth quarter and a game-winning field goal with no time remaining in overtime in the same game. And if he continues on this track, it’s likely that more historic achievements are on the way.
Jerry Jones
For a few moments Sunday, Jones was staring down the prospect of his team’s first 0-2 start since 2010 – and the very real possibility of being winless headed into the Week 4 matchup against the Green Bay Packers and Micah Parsons. Instead, the Cowboys can catch their breath with Brian Schottenheimer earning his first win. The owner even managed to command the spotlight once again with his postgame announcement that the team had signed defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.
Jake Browning
Losing a starting quarterback for more than a half would render many teams unable to compete, much less generate a comeback. No one will confuse Browning’s capabilities with that of Joe Burrow, but when the Cincinnati Bengals’ star quarterback was sidelined by a toe injury, the backup once again mustered just enough of a spark in his team’s time of need. The signal-caller stepped in and kept a team reliant on its aerial attack rolling by throwing for 241 yards and two touchdowns. Driven by what he said after the game was a ‘delusional’ approach, Browning completed nine of 10 passes on the game-winning 92-yard drive, which he punctuated by diving into the end zone. Other teams might be put off by the volatility in his game, as evidenced by his three interceptions on the day, but Browning has entrenched his place as one of the league’s better stopgap solutions. With Burrow needing toe surgery that will sideline him for at least three months according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, however, he’ll have to be more than that
Daniel Jones
It was easy to write off the Indianapolis Colts quarterback’s Week 1 outing as an aberration given the lack of resistance he faced in dicing up the Miami Dolphins. Dismissing his follow-up performance in a 29-28 win against the Denver Broncos will be decidedly more difficult. Jones confidently attacked a defense that ranked as last season’s third-stingiest in scoring, racking up 316 passing yards and leading Indianapolis to a record 10 consecutive scoring drives to open the season. The veteran still requires a good amount of support on several fronts, but he’s living up to what Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard envisioned for the offense.
Detroit Lions’ mojo
After the NFL’s highest-scoring offense in 2024 dropped a dud in the season opener, first-year Lions offensive coordinator John Morton implored outsiders not to panic. Sunday’s performance will go a lot further toward assuaging any fears than his words did. The 52-21 outburst against the Chicago Bears helped reinforce that Ben Johnson didn’t take all the magic of this attack with him when he left town. Between Jared Goff tossing five touchdowns and three players – Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs and Jameson Williams – topping 100 yards from scrimmage, the highest scoring output of the season so far felt like a needed return to form. And if it wasn’t clear that Dan Campbell’s crew still had plenty of confidence, Kerby Joseph celebrating an interception by re-enacting Johnson’s ‘stumble bum’ play call was a masterful jab against Detroit’s former play caller and a division rival.
San Francisco 49ers’ fill-ins
Just one week into a fresh slate, the 49ers were once again hounded by a familiar problem: injuries. San Francisco was without both quarterback Brock Purdy (shoulder, toe) and tight end George Kittle (hamstring) but still managed to squeeze out a 26-21 win over the New Orleans Saints thanks to its understudies. The long-awaited Mac Jones-Kyle Shanahan partnership proved fruitful, with the backup tossing three touchdowns in a clean and efficient outing. At tight end, Luke Farrell caught his first career touchdown pass, while unlikely Week 1 hero Jake Tonges added four catches for 31 yards. Meanwhile, in replacing Jake Moody, kicker Eddy Pineiro got off to a shaky start with his first-quarter missed extra point but settled in to make all four of his remaining kicks (two field goals, two XPs).
Parker Romo
If you didn’t have a kicker revenge subplot circled for ‘Sunday Night Football,’ you could be forgiven – especially because it didn’t become apparent until Saturday that the Atlanta Falcons would be benching Younghoe Koo for Romo. But after signing with the Falcons just last week, Romo gave his former team the boot by converting all five of his field goals – tied for the second most by any player in a team debut – and an extra point in a 22-6 win against the Minnesota Vikings. After spending time with six other teams in the last three years, Romo might have found a place he can stick around for a while.
NFL Week 2 losers
Kansas City Chiefs
Falling to the defending Super Bowl champions is hardly deflating in and of itself. But accompanying the 20-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was the unshakeable reality that these Chiefs don’t have nearly the same margin of error as past editions do. The offense’s slippage has been years in the making, but a unit that last year managed to claw its way to wins no longer can establish a firm grip, with Patrick Mahomes once again left to compensate for a lack of support across the board on offense. Mahomes rushed for a career-high 66 yards against a defense that flipped its Super Bowl script by repeatedly blitzing the quarterback, and he was essentially bottled up as a passer until he fired a 49-yard scoring strike to Tyquan Thornton with three minutes remaining. With Travis Kelce again forced into a featured playmaker role due to the absences of leading receivers Rashee Rice (suspension) and Xavier Worthy (shoulder injury), the tight end committed a costly miscue with a drop near the goal line that was intercepted and returned 41 yards by rookie safety Andrew Mukuba. Now 0-2 for the first time since 2014 – three years prior to Mahomes’ arrival – Kansas City can’t say with any certainty it can mount yet another surge come playoff time. And while getting Rice and Worthy back will boost a woefully undermanned receiving corps, there aren’t any quick fixes in sight for the short term.
Bengals’ hopes of running it back
As previously mentioned, few teams can truly weather a long-term injury to a star signal-caller. With Burrow set to be sidelined until at least mid-December, according to Schefter, the team could be staring down yet another lost season. But while the toe injury might just be the product of happenstance, it’s difficult to ignore that it came on a play that featured interior pressure, with Jaguars defensive lineman Arik Armstead walking back right guard Dalton Risner before bagging the sack. Persistent issues on the inside are just one of many problems that Cincinnati has shrugged off and tasked Burrow with overcoming. Now, Browning could be forced to navigate the shortcomings of both the offensive front and a shaky defense still trying to find its footing. Browning led Cincinnati to a 4-3 mark in 2023 when Burrow was lost for the second half of the season, but asking him to keep things running for months with this formula – even with elite playmakers in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins – might be leaning a bit too much into the delusional mindset the backup quarterback cited after Sunday’s game.
J.J. McCarthy’s encore
The Vikings quarterback’s debut went down as a masterclass in how a young quarterback can pull out of a tailspin, as McCarthy notched fourth-quarter touchdowns in a comeback win over the Bears. In a loss to the Falcons, however, the second-year signal-caller never managed to crack the defense’s code. With left tackle Christian Darrisaw still out, McCarthy took six sacks and committed three turnovers (two interceptions, one lost fumble). A run game that again struggled to pose much of a threat surely played into the troubles, with the team’s running backs accounting for just 53 yards on 14 carries. But McCarthy looked unsettled, whether it was repeatedly holding onto the ball for too long or airmailing his last interception. Resist any definitive conclusions for a player who already has proven to have such a wide range of possible outcomes on any given snap, but it seems clear that the Vikings will have to bake in at least a few more rocky outings from McCarthy this year.
Brian Daboll
Russell Wilson’s all-out aerial assault – he went 7-of-9 for 264 yards on passes of 20-plus yards, according to Next Gen Stats – showed what the offense is capable of in its highest form). But Wilson’s confounding heave deep in overtime not only robbed New York of an opportunity for a game-winning drive but also set Dallas up in prime position to get Aubrey into range for the deciding kick. In a back-and-forth contest that could have gone either way, it’s difficult not to dwell on the Giants’ self-imposed errors, which were highlighted by 14 penalties for 160 yards. With the Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers closing out Big Blue’s September schedule, scrutiny seems bound to rachet up even more in the coming weeks.
Sean Payton
Many coaches downplay the importance of the early season. Not Payton. ‘We need to start fast,’ the Broncos coach said before the start of the season, citing how the team had stumbled out of the gates in his first two years with the franchise. It’s now clear he won’t get his wish in Year 3. After Bo Nix floundered in the opener, it was the defense that was responsible for the most costly slip-ups against Indianapolis, with the linebackers struggling to bottle up Jonathan Taylor (25 carries, 165 yards) or handle their coverage assignments. Yet Denver was still in prime position to hold its lead until defensive end Eyioma Uwazurike’s leverage penalty on Spencer Shrader’s missed 60-yard field goal allowed for the winning attempt to come 15 yards closer in. With matchups against the Chargers, Bengals and Eagles looming, Denver could see its sluggish start worsen. Said Payton after the game: ‘We did a lot of things late in that game to keep us from winning. It will be painful to watch that film.’
Steelers’ defense
It’s possible that the excitement of Aaron Rodgers’ debut and a close Week 1 win drowned out any alarm regarding this unit. But there’s no ignoring the problem following a 31-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. The Steelers leaned on a handful of big plays, including two sacks and two interceptions, to offset the many liabilities of a group that ceded 6.2 yards per play. But the breaking point came late in the fourth, when Kenneth Walker III somehow took a third-and-goal toss from the Pittsburgh 19 all the way to the end zone, putting the game out of reach on a play seemingly designed to be a concession. Yes, there were plenty of other meaningful mistakes, including rookie Kaleb Johnson gift-wrapping a touchdown when he didn’t attempt to recover a kickoff that glanced off him as well as Rodgers throwing two interceptions and another pass that should have been picked. But the Steelers have now given up 30 points in as many games as they did all last year, and this group isn’t built to win this way.
Miami Dolphins’ composure
The Dolphins’ 33-27 loss to the New England Patriots didn’t approach the levels of dysfunction that defined the Week 1 drubbing by the Colts. Still, a team in turmoil short-circuited when it counted most. After Tua Tagovailoa threw his second interception of the day late in the fourth quarter, Miami was granted another chance and got the ball down to New England’s 26-yard line with a little more than a minute remaining. But the offense committed a false start and delay of game that doomed the rest of the drive, with Tua Tagovailoa taking a fourth-down sack to end any threat. Afterward, both Tagovailoa and coach Mike McDaniel bemoaned the communication and procedural problems. A dilapidated defense – largely the product of embattled general manager Chris Grier’s moves – might be more difficult to overcome in the long term, but the simple operational breakdown was a reminder of why so many in the organization are on the hot seat.
New York Jets’ revival
Maybe everyone was flying a bit too high on this new regime after one week. The 30-3 drumming at the hand of the Buffalo Bills might be more indicative of the turbulence that the rebooting franchise is sure to face. Most disappointing was the run defense, as New York couldn’t control the line of scrimmage and allowed 224 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. But Justin Fields also underwent a major regression with his decisiveness and precision, completing just three of 11 passes for 27 yards before being knocked out of the game with a concussion. For all of the team’s failures, however, Gang Green at least appears to be continuing to demand accountability, with coach Aaron Glenn saying after the loss, ‘Apparently, I didn’t have the guys ready to play. … It’s not OK to lose like that.’
Xavier Legette
No need to get into the myriad ways Legette has been a letdown for the Carolina Panthers since the team selected him with the No. 32 pick last April. On Sunday, the receiver hit a new nadir with one catch for -2 yards on eight targets. Unlike last year, Legette’s lack of production can’t be pinned on the passing attack’s larger problems, as Bryce Young bounced back from a shaky start and formed solid connections with rookie first-rounder Tetairoa McMillan (six catches, 100 yards) and veteran Hunter Renfrow (seven catches, 48 yards, two touchdowns), both newcomers to the offense. Legette’s usage might not take an immediate hit, but he risks losing relevance if he can’t foster a better connection with Young.
James Hudson
In Week 1, the Giants sorely missed standout left tackle Andrew Thomas, who has been sidelined by a foot injury. His absence was even more glaring at the start of Sunday’s game. Hudson, the replacement on Wilson’s blind side, was flagged for four penalties on the opening drive. New York settled for a field goal and quickly gave Hudson the hook, replacing him with fifth-round rookie Marcus Mbow. Swing tackles can’t be expected to be saviors, but some degree of is required for the role.
This post appeared first on USA TODAY
