The 32 issues we found from Week 2 of the 2022 NFL season:
1. do not assume Tua Tagovailoa needs to strike deep down the sphere? All he did was throw 4 fourth-quarter touchdown passes – collectively with a forty eight- and 60-yarder to WR Tyreek Hill – Sunday afternoon in Baltimore, main the Miami Dolphins again from a 35-14 deficit to an unbelievable forty two-38 triumph.
2. Tagovailoa (469 yards) joined hall of Famers Bob Griese and Dan Marino as a consequence of the one Dolphins to throw six TDs in a recreation.
three. extra importantly, Tua and his group are off to a 2-zero start, one factor his extra celebrated 2020 first-spherical draftmates, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert, can’t declare.
4. it is usually not an excellent suggestion to try “taking receipts” from the mannequin ny media, however that is the route Jets coach Robert Saleh took final week inside the wake of his group’s uninspired Week 1 loss to Baltimore. seems simply like the NYJ coach will accumulate his share of rebates this week after his group shocked the Browns 31-30 in Cleveland, scoring a pair of TDs inside the final eighty two seconds to finish the comeback.
5. Saleh additionally started seeing the returns from his vaunted rookie class, first-spherical WR Garrett Wilson (eight catches, 102 yards, 2 TDs) and second-spherical RB Breece hall (60 complete yards, TD) each with huge afternoons.
6. Interim Jets QB1 Joe Flacco (307 yards passing, 4 TDs) improved to 18-three all-time in the direction of the Browns.
7. The Browns fell to zero-1 with that ridiculous new Keebler-wanting elf mannequin at midfield … however hopefully “Brownie” handed out some scrumptious postgame Fudge Stripes.
eight. additionally, no probability QB Jimmy Garoppolo is coming to that Cleveland locker room in 2022 now that San Francisco 49ers starter Trey Lance is misplaced for the season.
9. Lance will formally be credited with the win from Sunday’s 27-7 thrashing of the Seattle Seahawks. however what a private disaster for the No. three choose of the 2021 draft, who was carted off the sphere inside the most important quarter with an air strong on his fractured proper ankle – one which can require season-ending surgical procedure.
10. As for the “reliable,” at the least it is no small comfort figuring out Jimmy G has gotten this group at the least to this point as a consequence of the NFC title recreation in two of the previous three seasons. And given how comparatively skinny this 12 months’s NFC area seems, no purpose to imagine about the 49ers aren’t nonetheless super Bowl-caliber.
eleven. nonetheless, it is now the Niners who will abruptly enter the quarterback market. Going into Sunday, Garoppolo gave them the best backup situation inside the league. Now that is been turned on its head, the one completely different passer on the roster being rookie Brock Purdy, the “Mr. Irrelevant” as a consequence of the 262nd and final choose of the 2022 NFL draft.
12. Aaron Rodgers’ possession of the Chicago Bears continues, the Packers star bettering to 24-5 all time in the direction of inexperienced Bay’s archrival with Sunday night’s 27-10 win. Rodgers additionally threw his 450th profession TD cross, the fifth participant in NFL annals to discover the benchmark.
12a. Pack coach Matt LaFleur ought to get co-possession standing. he is now 7-zero in the direction of the Bears.
12b. The Packers are 104-ninety five-6 complete in the direction of Chicago, gaining further respiratory room inside the league’s longest-working rivalry.
thirteen. persevering with with the comeback theme, Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals might not hit sand from a dune buggy in Las Vegas, trailing the Raiders 20-zero deep into the third quarter. nonetheless the playing cards acquired here all of the method by means of which again for a 29-23 triumph due to Murray’s improvisational heroics and CB Byron Murphy Jr.’s fifty nine-yard TD off a Hunter Renfrow fumble in further time.
13a. nonetheless the play of the sport was Murray’s worthwhile scramble on a two-level conversion to reduce the finish in 23-15. Murray truly ran almost eighty five circuitous yards over almost 21 seconds … on an untimed down.
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14. The wins by Arizona and Miami marked the most important time in NFL historic previous that two teams overcame halftime deficits of at the least 20 factors on the identical day.
14a. There have already been 12 video games decided by three factors or fewer this season, primarily the most after two weeks of play in league historic previous.
15. inside the first recreation following the Russell Wilson period, the Seattle offense mustered two TDs. Sunday, it posted none (and all of 216 yards).
15a. in the meantime, Wilson was booed lustily for the second straight recreation – although Sunday’s serenade was method extra surprising from a Broncos fan base that had been excited by his arrival this offseason. Wilson was 14-of-31 for 219 yards with one TD and one INT whereas throwing to a receiving corps depleted of most of its notable gamers completely different than WR Courtland Sutton. however Denver pulled out a sixteen-9 win over the Houston Texans regardless of Wilson’s struggles, thirteen extra Broncos penalties, hapless pink-zone play … and the gang counting down the play clock as a consequence of that was apparently an extreme quantity of for rookie coach Nathaniel Hackett’s offense to protect monitor of.
sixteen. Was there ever any doubt Dallas Cowboys QB2 Cooper Rush would up his profession report to 2-zero by beating the Cincinnati Bengals in his first start completely different than shortly injured starter Dak Prescott? Was there? Paging my good good friend, pessimist Jarrett Bell 😉
16a. The Cowboys have been the one group inside the league that did not rating a TD in Week 1, however they hit pay dust twice in the direction of Cincinnati.
17. nonetheless, the story of this Dallas group Sunday – as usually is the case all season – was a protection that restricted the defending AFC champs to 17 factors (one TD) and 254 yards whereas sacking QB Joe Burrow six instances.
18. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers broke their seven-recreation common-season shedding streak to the mannequin new Orleans Saints, not that QB Tom Brady will take a lot solace. although the Bucs are 2-zero, the Brady-led offense has solely managed two complete TDs this season, and the GOAT spent almost as a lot time yelling at his teammates as he did on the Saints.
19. talking of which – although chatty former Saints DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson is now in Philadelphia – TB12 and Co. nonetheless acquired an earful from the Saints, the teams even exchanging blows as professional Bowlers Mike Evans (Tampa Bay) and Marshon Lattimore (New Orleans) have been ejected and probably dealing with further self-discipline.
20. Ravens QB Lamar Jackson was finally outdueled by Tagovailoa – he can largely thank his protection for that – however did make extra historic previous Sunday. Jackson turned the most important participant in league historic previous to run and cross for TDs of at the least seventy five yards inside the identical recreation. His 119 yards speeding additionally marked the eleventh time in his profession he reached the century mark, a report amongst quarterbacks.
21. Jared Goff and Carson Wentz have been the best two picks, respectively, of the 2016 NFL draft, although neither stays collectively with his unique group. Goff (256 yards passing, 4 TDs) acquired the right of Wentz and the Commanders, bettering to 2-1 in the direction of the particular person he additionally bested inside the draft six years in the past.
22. Goff had an superior deal of assist from a youthful man who’s rising as one in all many league’s extreme receivers. Amon-Ra St. Brown led Detroit with sixty eight yards speeding, which was the cherry on extreme of a 9-catch, 116-yard, two-TD day. It was St. Brown’s sixth consecutive recreation with at the least eight grabs and a TD, a feat by no means earlier than achieved in the course of the super Bowl period (since 1966).
23. Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson made early hay inside the defensive rookie of the 12 months race, dumping Wentz for three first-half sacks.
24. Did you truly assume the Patriots have been going to lose to the Steelers? Since invoice Belichick acquired here to New England, the Pats are thirteen-4 in the direction of Pittsburgh.
24a. Did you truly assume the Patriots have been going to lose to the Steelers? Since invoice Belichick acquired here to New England, the Pats have not started zero-2 since 2001 … which was earlier than Brady turned their starting QB.
25. laborious to elucidate the Jacksonville Jaguars’ current dominance of the AFC South rival Indianapolis Colts … and but Sunday marked the third time the Jags have shut out the Colts prior to now six seasons.
26. Indy has misplaced its final eight journeys to Jacksonville.
27. everytime you have been starting Rams WR Brandon Powell in your fantasy group, you have been already in problem. however everytime you probably did, you ate minus-26 speeding yards after he deliberately took a safety as l. a. desperately outlasted the Falcons, 31-27, a recreation the champs led 28-three (yep) inside the second half.
28. everytime you have been starting extremely touted Atlanta TE Kyle Pitts in your fantasy group … welp, he had two catches for 19 yards – precisely replicating his Week 1 manufacturing.
29. A physique slam (Chargers S Derwin James on Chiefs TE Travis Kelce), gutty efficiency (Herbert), script-flipping ninety nine-yard choose-six (Chiefs CB Jaylen Watson) and Patrick Mahomes’ fundamental brilliance? If Thursday night’s Chiefs-Chargers throwdown was indicative of how this 12 months’s AFC West brawls will play out … as Bart Scott would say, “can’t wait.”
30. That acknowledged, as a lot a devotee to analytics that Bolts coach Brandon Staley is, very restricted upside to exposing Herbert (fractured rib cartilage) to further harm – even when the second-12 months star’s toughness made the final rating nearer after he threaded two glorious throws, collectively with a 7-yard TD cross, on LA’s final drive.
31.Embattled Carolina Panthers coach Matt Rhule is off to an zero-2 start for the second time in three seasons. On the intense side, the Nebraska and Arizona State jobs are already open.
32. Ever the most important-class group, the Ravens did an beautiful job honoring the reminiscences of former gamers Tony Siragusa and Jaylon Ferguson. each males died in June. A helmet decal was worn to commemorate them, and a quantity of completely different of Siragusa’s teammates from Baltimore’s first championship membership (2000) emerged from the group’s tunnel in his No. ninety eight jersey.
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adjust to USA right this second sports activities’ Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis.
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