NFL Week 2 Roundup

Football fans, week 2 is now in the history books. Could the drama and excitement of week 2 match-up to the craziness of week 1?

Not sure it was quite the same but it was definitely another entertaining and interesting week. How could it not when we were presented with Manning Bowl 3?

Or as I like to call it…

MANNING FACE VS MANNING FACE

In the previous 2 outings, older brother Peyton schooled younger brother Eli, winning both outings. Would Eli finally have a chance to best Peyton in the big leagues?

Eh…not so much. It was a rough and I mean ROUGH outing for Eli and the Giants. Peyton and the Broncos owned the field, both passing and rushing (oh, hello Knowshon Moreno. Where the hell have you been? Do the Broncos finally have a starting running back?).

The Giants are still struggling on the running back front and failed at getting anything started on the ground which lead to Eli making a lot of bad throws down the field and he paid for it dearly. The end result was a 41-23 thrashing with Eli throwing 4 interceptions. Eli holds the record for most interceptions in the league thus far and if he keeps this pace up...yikes.

Peyton, on the other hand, holds the record for most touchdown passes in the league thus far. So who is the better Manning?

Peyton is now 3-0 against younger brother Eli. I don't care if Eli has one more ring. Dan Marino has zero. All I know is, if I had to choose between the two, I know who I'd be picking.

This Manning Face.

Not this Manning Face.

The Manning Bowl wasn't the only game on this week of course, so let's get to...

Calisportsdiva's Top 10 Afterthoughts of the Week

10. Steven Jackson scores a touchdown against his former team in the Atlanta-St. Louis showdown only to immediately leave the game due to injury. And St. Louis fans everywhere just can't help but laugh. No offense to SJ39, but it is why the Rams opted to let him go and not re-sign him. The Falcons had the last laugh here though as they were able to hold on to a 31-24 win after Sam Bradford rallied the Rams to a comeback after being down 21-0. Really impressive to see this Rams team stay in the game and fight until the end.  Also, congrats to rookie Tavon Austin on scoring his first and second TD passes. Hoping to see more of those in the future from this guy. 

9. Tom Brady threw a TD pass but it was not to Julian Edelman, a popular waiver wire pick this week in fantasy as Brady really had no one to throw to except Edelman (except apparently some dude named Aaron Dobson who caught the one TD pass). The Patriots managed to pull off a win but it was ugly. To be fair, the Jets defense is the one thing they do have going for them. I still think it will be tough for the Pats as long as they continue with the lack of receiving core.

8. Plus the Pats may actually have some competition in their division. How about those Buffalo Bills? Say hello to the newest rookie quarterback star, EJ Manuel. With seconds left in the game, Manuel marched the Bills down the field and won the game with a TD pass to Stevie Johnson with 2 seconds left in the game. Wow. Sorry Carolina. 

Watch out for this kid.

7. Ladies and gentlemen, Green Bay has a RUNNING GAME! You jest? No seriously! The Packers posted their first 100+ rushing day in...ages. And it was all thanks to...James Starks.

Eddie Lacy left the game with a concussion - enter James Starks. I'm not sure if Green Bay finally found a running game or if Washington's defense was just that bad. On top of that stellar running game was a career high 480 yard 4 TD day for Aaron Rodgers. Fantasy owners rejoice!

For RGIII and the Redskins...it's looking rough. It's becoming more and more apparent that RGIII has not recovered from the knee injury and he is struggling because he can't move around like he's used due to the knee. The Skins do have the fortune of being in the NFC East (in which all teams lost this week) so I wouldn't count them out but it doesn't look great at this point.

6.

 

Do you know who this guy is? No, really, do you? You all remember Eddie Royal? Haven't really heard much of him since his days with the Broncos but everyone knows who he is now. In fact, he even joked about it on his twitter account:

I don't know where he's been hiding but he is clearly the new favorite target of Philip Rivers. Royal has 5 TD's so far this season. Last year? He had 5 TD's for the WHOLE season. Go crazy fantasy waiver wire fans, go crazy. 

Michael Vick looked sharp, throwing for over 400 yards. It was an offensive showdown, but San Diego surprisingly managed to get a win scoring a field goal in the last seconds of the game. I still don't know what to think of San Diego. As for Philly, they are still an interesting team to watch and I expect them to be in the playoff conversation because well, they are in the NFC East.

5. Kansas City is 2-0. Yep. Watch out Denver, you may have some real competition in your division. San Francisco may not have wanted Alex Smith, but KC is enjoying him just fine so far.  I am very interested in watching the upcoming KC-Philly game this Thursday. 

4. Luck ran out for Andrew Luck in the Colts home opener. You know, no one is really talking about Miami. Maybe they should. The Dolphins have a pretty solid pass rush. Tannehill threw for over 300 yards. I'm not saying Miami is playoff caliber here, but perhaps they have been a bit overlooked. 

3. How bad are the Steelers? That offensive line is abysmal. Nice win for the Bengals this week. I'm still not sure if I'm sold on Andy Dalton as a franchise quarterback. It seems like Cincy has the talent to have a lot more passing yards and TD's than they do. As for the Steelers, I didn't think they would be a playoff contender before the season started and I believe I was right.

2. Watch out for Da' Bears. 


1. Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson supposedly made a bet prior to the Seattle-San Francisco Sunday Night showdown that whoever loses the game would have to shave off one eyebrow. It wasn't much of a contest. Seattle annihilated San Francisco. I think it's safe to say that there's not a single team in the NFL that wants to play in Seattle. Best home field advantage stadium in the league. Though Seattle won, and won by a lot, it doesn't mean that the Niners are out of it by any stretch of the imagination. But the NFC West is going to be very interesting to watch.

So about that bet...did Kaep keep up his end of the bargain? Or did he pull an Aaron Rodgers?

See for yourself...

Eh, kinda lame guys. But I suppose it's better than completely chickening out, like Aaron Rodgers.

That's the wrap up for this week. Looking forward to week 3!

Oh and I haven't forgotten about baseball. I've been following my Cardinals down the stretch - believe me. I promise to post something once as the playoff picture starts to get a little clearer.

Thanks for reading!