What a confusing start to the 2019 NFL season.
Week one started with a 10-3 Packers win over the Bears, a defensive showdown that was, quite frankly, pretty boring to watch. It continued later with a tie, between two of the worst teams in the league. And then a very surprising win for Oakland, who had released Antonio Brown just days before, and three 30 point blowouts.
But that was just week one.
The Thursday Night Football game of week two was another surprising loss for former MVP Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers, who were beaten by Chris Godwin and Peyton Barber of Tampa Bay. Cam Newton has started these first two weeks with a very disappointing QBR of 26.6, ranked 29th in the league. There’s quite a big deal about him taking the blame, but maybe he should. He’s only thrown for 572 yards in two games, with no touchdowns and one interception. But that’s neither here nor there.
So far this Monday morning there have been 13 games, most of them not coming to pass as predicted by most experts. The Cincinnati Bengals, who lost to Seattle in week one, were thought to maybe be underrated from the beginning of the season, but all those thoughts were cast away after a 41-17 killing by the San Francisco 49ers.
The Miami Dolphins are just tanking. They traded away the few good players they had left, and told a few others to feel free to look to go to another team. I’m not sure what they think the top draft pick of the 2020 draft will do, and based on previous picks, they will probably choose the wrong person. Anyways, they have started the 2019-2020 season in a miraculous way, with two games and two 40+ point blowouts. They have a point differential of -92, worst in the NFL.
One of the teams they lost too was the New England Patriots, who won by 30 points in week one and 43 in week two. This is a bit surprising, even though they won the Super Bowl last year, because the general consensus is that they lost their best offensive weapons, and their quarterback is 42 years old. The Patriots defense smothered the Dolphins offense, intercepting 4 passes and sacking the Dolphins quarterbacks 7 times in the 43 point drubbing. I could turn this whole piece into something just about the Patriots, but I’ll stop here.
Denver Broncos recap- Joe Flacco can’t figure out how to win. He went 4-5 last year and is so far 0-2 this year. The Bears amazing defense held the Broncos to 14 points in Chicago’s two point victory.
So far this year the Dallas Cowboys are performing as expected, and will probably be a playoff team. They have had stellar performances from Ezekiel Elliot and Dak Prescott. They had a surprise return from retired tight end Jason Witten, who has scored a touchdown in both of their games. The Redskins have been a bit of a surprise, however. They lost both of their games, but they haven’t been blowouts, which is what was predicted, as they have no proven quarterback at the moment, although Case Keenum has exceeded expectations so far.
The only two real upsets this week were the Lions over the Chargers and the Colts over the Titans. The Detroit Lions were thought to be one of the worst teams in the league, but they haven’t lost yet, their record is 1-0-1. Matthew Stafford has had a pretty decent start to the season, with 630 passing yards, 5 touchdowns and a 64.4 QBR.
Even though the Colts made the playoffs last year, their week two win over the Titans, who beat the Browns by 30 points in week one, was pretty surprising. Just recently, over the last preseason weekend, the Colts quarterback of the last few years, and one of the best players in the league, suddenly retired. That left the Colts with Jacoby Brissett, a good but somewhat unproven young quarterback.
Packers vs Vikings: Aaron Rodgers is back, Packers are now 2-0 with great wins over two divisional opponents. Vikings are somewhat underperforming offensively, especially with all their offensive weapons.
The Bills and Giants game, a game between two of the worst teams in the league, ended with a Bills 14 point win, and they are somehow 2-0. The only good thing from that game for the Giants was that Saquon Barkley ran for 107 yards and a touchdown and Eli Manning only threw 2 picks.
Lamar Jackson, Ravens quarterback, had another amazing outing in the Ravens 6 point win over the Cardinals, with 392 yards and 2 touchdowns. Rookie Kyler Murray (Cardinals) also had some good play, throwing for about 350 yards. A lot of people are linking Kyler Murray with Patrick Mahomes, based on their style of play and youth. But Mahomes certainly did better this week, with 443 yards and 4 touchdowns in the Chiefs 18 point victory over the Raiders.
The Jaguars of Jacksonville will go home feeling disappointed and probably confused about why they went for the win and not the tie. With 30 seconds left, the Jaguars scored a touchdown, but instead of kicking the PAT to tie, they went for a two point conversion to win. And they failed. Not a whole lot of good football here, just some great defense. Or maybe it was terrible offense, or both.
The last 2 Monday morning games involved injured quarterbacks. The Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisburger, was injured in the second quarter, and didn’t return. The Seahawks’ defense isn’t looking great, almost losing to Andy Dalton and a second year backup quarterback in Mason Rudolph. ‘Big Ben’ is questionable for next week.
The other injured quarterback was 40 year old Drew Brees, who hurt his thumb in the first quarter and also didn’t return, and won’t play in next week’s game against the Panthers. In the rematch NFC championship game, the Rams trounced the Saints, 27-9. Jared Goff threw for 283 yards and a touchdown and added a rushing touchdown mid-way through the fourth quarter.
The last Monday game (or Sunday night for US Eastern time) was Eagles at Falcons. It was a close game throughout, with the quarterbacks accounting for all touchdowns. Julio Jones had a standout performance, with 102 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns. It seemed as though Atlanta was going to pull away until late in the third quarter, when the Eagles scored to make it a five point game. They scored again with 3:13 left on the clock, and completed a two point conversion to make it 20-17. But 63 seconds later Matt Ryan connected with Julio Jones to complete a 54 yard touchdown, making it 23-17. Carsen Wentz (Eagles QB) couldn’t come up with any magic in the last drive, partly because Nelson Agholor dropped a pass on the run that could’ve been a go ahead touchdown. But the Falcons smothered the Eagles in the two minutes, causing a turnover on downs on the 9 yard line, completing the win. Both teams are now 1-1.
Lastly, the Tuesday morning game was nothing to write home about, besides a couple of outstanding plays. Odell Beckham had a sweet one handed catch on the three yard line, and a 89 yard touchdown reception. Le'veon Bell jumped over someone and Nick Chubb had a sweet 19 yard touchdown run. The Jets starting quarterback hurt his ankle after just 6 throws, and it might be broken. Overall the Browns needed to win to stay in the playoff conversation, and the Jets weren’t expected to do any better than they did.
The games this week were either close, or blowouts. Three starting quarterbacks went down, and will not return for a while. The Patriots kept up their dominance and the Dolphins kept up their patheticness. Week one overreactions seemed to be few, but we’ll have to keep our eye on the 49ers, Seahawks and Steelers to see. Week three starts off Friday morning with the Titans @ Jaguars, where Gardner Minshew will see if he can lead his team to their first win this season.
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