Following the chaotic Week 1, the world turned on their TVs this week to find another baffling and highly entertaining round of football matches. Week 2 began on a Thursday Night Football shootout between the Detroit Lions and the Josh Allen-led Buffalo Bills. Detroit, coming off a disappointing campaign last season and a Week 1 overtime win over the New Orleans Saints, hoped to make a statement this week. That did not happen.
Despite the final score showing 41-31 with a Buffalo win, the game never became truly competitive after Buffalo took a 21-0 lead early on in the second quarter. Detroit’s electric offense still showed out, with quarterback Jared Goff having a great 327 passing yards and no INTs statline along with over 100 yards for both wide receiver (WR) Amon-Ra St. Brown and running back (RB) Jahmyr Gibbs. However, the Bills defense was too strong, forcing four sacks on Goff whilst Allen put up an absurd performance of 250 passing yards, three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns. Outside of the stats, Allen and RB James Cook just kept pushing while the battered Lions defense could not get a stop, forcing themselves into an early hole that Detroit just could not dig itself out of.
The Sunday slate was wild. To get it out of the way, the tanking Miami Dolphins were smashed 13-35 by the San Francisco 49ers. The same fate befell the Arizona Cardinals who, despite their fun win last week against the Los Angeles Chargers, fell 7-31 against the Drew Lock-led Seattle Seahawks and three touchdowns from WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, including an 82-yard catch and run to the house in the first quarter.
Despite another mediocre showing from quarterback Drake Maye, the Patriots won a clean 20-3 over the Pittsburgh Steelers, largely due to an even worse performance from the oldest quarterback in the league, Aaron Rodgers, and Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson having an absurd nearly 40-yard touchdown run.
The biggest stories from this Sunday centered around new injuries, and some aftereffects from some of the more impactful from last season. In the Dallas Cowboys 37-20 win over the Washington Commanders—which saw quarterback Dak Prescott throw four touchdown passes and break the Cowboys all time leading record—Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels brutally snapped his elbow. This Commanders team was already off to a bad start with their Week 1 loss, and it looks even more downhill from here. Similar tragedy followed into the Bears’ 3-9 loss to the Carson Wentz led Minnesota Vikings. After the Vikings lost Kyler Murray Jr. to an injury last week, it was the Bears time to see their quarterback injured, with Caleb Williams suffering an off-contact hamstring injury that scared the entire windy city to its core. This is especially sad for the Bears, as Williams balled out in Week 1. Luckily, it appears that Williams miraculously avoided any serious injury despite his screaming in pain, and he may even play next week.
The Cleveland Browns won. Quarterback Deshaun Watson had a good game and led them to a 23-19 win over a struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers team. For ethical reasons, this should be his last season playing.
The rest of the Sunday slate was fun but nothing overly surprising. The Baltimore Ravens lost to an ascendant Saints team, largely due to an uncharacteristic Lamar Jackson interception. The Carolina Panthers blew the doors off in a 34-3 rout of the truly miserable Atlanta Falcons, who had to bench their 3rd-string quarterback Cooper Rush because of how bad he was. And, in a fun twist of events, the Las Vegas Raiders somehow moved to 2-0 after beating the disappointing Los Angeles Chargers 26-14. And despite over 350 passing yards from quarterback C.J. Stroud, the Houston Texans had 0 touchdowns and lost 6-20 to the Cincinnati Bengals, who are quietly moving into real talks as superbowl contenders.
Sunday Night Football was much-watch television. The Kansas City Chiefs—the once dynasty led by Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid that has lost its footing since losing the 2025 Super Bowl—faced off against the Indianapolis Colts, who have attempted to resuscitate their franchise around quarterback Daniel Jones. Mahomes suffered a torn ACL and LCL last season, and Jones suffered a torn Achilles himself. What we got was an overtime thriller where Mahomes, aging tight end (TE) Travis Kelce and newly acquired RB Kenneth Walker III went blow for blow with Daniel Jones and star young Colts RB Jonathan Taylor. However, despite the best efforts of the Colts, it just was not enough. WR Alec Pierce went down with an injury and Walker, reigning Super Bowl MVP, ran for an absurd 178 yards to complement Mahomes’s insane 382 passing yards. In overtime, the better play calling from the Chiefs won out and Kansas City won 33-30.
If you want to watch a man very quickly lose his will to live, watch whenever New York Giants Head Coach John Harbaugh appeared on camera in the first half of the Week 2 finale against the Los Angeles Rams. His expressions of true despair were not that surprising considering that, after an incredible start in Week 1, the Giants ended their first drive with star young quarterback Jaxson Dart clutching his knee and morally questionable replacement Jameis Winston having to step up. Winston threw zero touchdown passes and one interception as the Rams offense, despite lacking star WR Puka Nacua to a hip injury, steamrolled past New York. Rams quarterback and reigning league MVP Matthew Stafford had four passing touchdowns and over 300 passing yards whilst WR Davante Adams had nearly 200 receiving yards and two touchdowns. After a rocky Week 1, the Rams offense is finally back up to speed and their defense, though still down Myles Garrett, did get back Aaron Donald for this game. The Super Bowl favorites have a lot to prove but are going in the right direction.