Week 2 NFL Takeaways: Bills get back on track, Burrow hobbles to another loss

You know the pressure’s high when the loudest chatter of the week is about the team that didn’t lose its MVP quarterback four snaps into the season.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration considering how monumentally Aaron Rodgers’ torn Achilles has already altered the 2023 NFL season. But it’s also a statement on just how troubling the Buffalo Bills’ — and, namely, Josh Allen’s — performance was in their season-opening loss to the Jets last Monday night.

Heading into Week 2, “bounce back” was a term thrown around a lot, and it wasn’t just about Buffalo. Several teams, including the Kansas City Chiefs, Cincinnati Bengals, Seattle Seahawks, New York Giants, and Pittsburgh Steelers entered the season with high expectations and fell flat out of the gates.

For the Bills, it was a familiar scene: Allen trying to make big plays, even when it meant putting the ball in dangerous places against one of the league’s best defences. When it works, it’s genius. But when it doesn’t? It’s disastrous. Last week’s trio of interceptions was certainly the latter, and it ratcheted up the tension heading into Sunday’s matchup against the Raiders.

And boy, did Allen make up for last week’s flaws. The Bills QB completed all but six of his 37 pass attempts, racking up 274 yards and three touchdowns and — most importantly — keeping the ball out of the Raiders’ hands.

Another win within the win? The Bills’ run defence, which allowed 172 rushing yards against the Jets six days ago, completely shut down Josh Jacobs and the Raiders’ run game to the tune of allowing just 55 ground yards team-wide and holding Jacobs to minus-two on the day.

While the Bills righted many wrongs on Sunday, not everyone who entered Week 2 in search of a bounce back got what they were looking for. Here’s a collection of some of our top takeaways from Sunday’s afternoon slate of games.

Burrow’s Bengals show signs of life, but open season 0-2 for second straight year

The Cincinnati Bengals fell flat in Week 1 and instead of correcting their ways against Baltimore they find themselves down 0-2 for the second straight season and staring down uncertainty about the state of Joe Burrow’s right calf following a 27-24 loss to the Ravens.

While Cincinnati’s second performance of the season was certainly more inspiring than its first — Burrow finally connected with Tee Higgins, who caught a pair of touchdowns — it took a while to get the offence going. Up until the second half, the Bengals’ only offence came from Charlie Jones’ 81-yard punt return score.

If anyone knows how to shake off a slow start, it’s Cincinnati — they lost their opening two games last year, too. But this one feels different considering the back-to-back losses both came within the division. The Bengals’ offence — and Burrow’s calf — will be in the spotlight next week when they face the L.A. Rams in prime time Monday night.

“I’m talking to America, here”

There was a lot to love about Sunday’s matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions — a sneaky-fun offensive battle over their last few meetings. We had late-game drives, forced overtime, a sudden-death touchdown, and even a little controversy over what may have been a missed holding call on Geno Smith’s game-winning TD pass to Tyler Lockett.

But after all this, it’s the referee who gets our shoutout from this game:

Richardson wows early, but concussion concerns take him out

First-round rookie quarterbacks Anthony Richardson and CJ Stroud met on the field Sunday for the first of what will hopefully be many divisional matchups between the two 2023 first-rounders. Unfortunately for Richardson, his outing was cut short after he entered concussion protocol late in the first quarter of Indianapolis’ eventual 31-20 win. Replay following his second rushing touchdown showed the back of his head hitting the ground hard upon being tackled in the end zone.

While Stroud put together an impressive stat line himself — 30 completions, 384 yards, two touchdown passes, including the first of his career — it was Richardson who impressed most in this matchup despite only being on the field for a handful of snaps. The Colts QB scored a pair of rushing touchdowns right out of the gate, propelling the Colts to an early 14-0 lead.

Richardson, selected by the Colts fourth overall in April, made a strong first impression last week when he registered both a rushing and passing touchdown in a losing effort to Jacksonville. That he followed it up with two rushing touchdowns within the first six minutes of his second act tells us even more about the dynamic athlete he is. Here’s hoping he’s back in good health and ready to run again next week against none other than Lamar Jackson. Talk about a fun QB battle.

Mayfield making football look fun in Tampa Bay

Last week’s Angry Runs champ brought that same kind of energy to the field Sunday against the Chicago Bears and honestly, it’s really fun to watch. Baker Mayfield, former Browns No. 1 overall pick who started last season with the Panthers and ended it with the Rams, is now on his fourth squad and off to a really hot start. For the first time in his career, he’s 2-0 to start the season.

Sunday against the Bears, Mayfield completed three-quarters of his passes for 317 yards and a touchdown toss to Mike Evans and kept the game clean without an INT. While it was the Bucs’ defence that ultimately locked up the win thanks to Shaq Barrett’s fourth quarter pick-six on Justin Fields, it’s Mayfield’s performance — and crafty passes like this — that made what could’ve been a really messy matchup a pretty fun watch.

Return of Kelce, Jones has Chiefs looking like Chiefs again

Suddenly, everything feels (mostly) right in the football world, doesn’t it? That’s because the Kansas City Chiefs, after missing two of their cornerstone players in Week 1, had Travis Kelce and Chris Jones back in the lineup and were looking like their old selves again.

Both the tight end and pass rusher made major impacts in their season debuts, with Kelce showing up wide open in the end zone for a third-quarter touchdown to seal the lead and Jones registering a sack and a half in what was a four-sack effort in KC’s 17-9 win.

Nacua makes history, but Rams fall short against rival 49ers

Losing to San Francisco is a familiar feeling for Sean McVay’s Rams — Sunday was their ninth straight loss against the dominant Bay Area squad — but there were a few small victories tucked into this 30-23 loss, thanks to an offence that’s been surprisingly strong so far.

We’re talking about Puka Nacua, of course. The 22-year-old fifth-round rookie receiver has been a revelation for the Rams (and for fantasy football managers everywhere) and on Sunday he wrote his name into the NFL history books:

Giants wake up just in time for an epic comeback

The Giants suffered their worst loss ever last Sunday night and one week later things were starting to look even worse. Down 20-0 at halftime in Arizona (!!!), the obituaries were starting to be penned for the team they used to call the New York Football Giants. They were playing some of the worst football we’d ever seen at this level, scoreless still after 90 minutes of play on the season.

And then they woke up.

What followed was a sensational comeback effort that puts Daniel Jones in franchise lore, erasing a 21-point deficit and posting 24 unanswered points to pull off the biggest come-from-behind win in team history.

However, it came at a cost: Saquon Barkley was seen limping off the field, and with a short week ahead of Thursday’s meeting with the 49ers, there’s little time to rest.

Parsons puts on a show in Dallas

Life after Aaron Rodgers really set in on Sunday, and it wasn’t pretty. Unless, of course, you aren’t a Jets fan. In that case, what Dallas’ defence did on the football field on Sunday was beautiful.

The Jets’ offence was only actually on the field for 17:45, but it likely felt a lot longer than that for Zach Wilson, who was sacked three times — including twice by game-breaker Micah Parsons — and gave up three interceptions amid the relentless waves of pressure brought on by Dallas’ defence. Parsons had himself a day, also registering four tackles and a forced fumble turnover.

Through two weeks, the Cowboys have now outscored opponents by a combined 70-10… and considering their next foes (*whispers*: it’s the Arizona Cardinals) we can all assume that lead is going to go up.

Russ cooks, but Broncos forget dessert

If you lasted until the end of the late afternoon window, you got to see something that’s been missing for a little while now: Russell Wilson, cooking up a comeback right down to the final buzzer. Down 35-27 with one play left, Wilson threw a hail mary that despite all odds bounced into the hands of Brandon Johnson, who secured it in the end zone for an absolutely electric touchdown score.

At that moment, you could almost feel Broncos nation heal from a season of traumatic losses… there was hope that Russell Wilson could still cook.

But then, needing to make good on the two-point conversion to tie things up and force overtime, Wilson couldn’t connect with Jerry Jeudy. And the despair set in again, Denver now down 0-2 after the 35-33 loss.

There are signs of progress in Denver, though. Under head coach Sean Payton, Wilson is looking more like his old self. Enough to go toe-to-toe with the Dolphins next Sunday? We’ll see.