2017-18 NFL (Week 2)

Games I watched (some of):
Browns 10-24 Ravens
The Browns went with rookie QB D'Shone Kizer throughout and, well, he looked like a rookie most of the day. The Ravens D-line pressed him hard up front and forced mistakes (3 interceptions) and controlled the game from beginning to end. That said, the Ravens still look sluggish, like a team looking to do just enough to feel good about themselves. They're still a head-scratcher of a squad, while the Browns are playing hard (and might be kinda good by the end of the year).

Vikings 9-26 Steelers
The Vikings left Sam Bradford at home and, let's be honest: road non-conference games against playoff teams early in the season are not when you bring your A-game (especially with Case Keenum under center). The Steelers had a consistent attack and looked pretty good. Not a bad loss for the Vikings, one of those weeks were you just take the L and move on.

Cowboys 17-42 Broncos
Damn, Broncos kinda put it on the Cowboys, didn't see that coming. I was impressed by Denver's offense, they passed and ran well, moved the ball consistently on a good defense. Denver's D stuffed Ezekial and never let Dak get comfortable but my gut is more that the Cowboys had a bad day then that the Broncos got some monster D (remember kids: teams don't bring their A+ effort in non-conference road games, stay vanilla, don't get hurt, try to steal a W if you can). I expected the Broncos to take a step back on both sides of the ball this year, I may have been premature in that expectation. The Cowboys are fine, this is not a bad loss.

Packers 23-34 Falcons
The Falcons look good at home, man. I watched them last week at Chicago and they kinda made the Bears look good, but indoors on the home turf, dang, they fly. The Packers rolled in missing both starting OT's, thought Rodgers made it work for the most part, but there were stretches (3Q particularly) where the Falcons pass rush gained momentum and kept the Packer attack off balance. Good win for the Falcons, disappointing but not a bad loss for the Packers. I thought the Falcons would fall off this year (and Panthers and Saint would jump ahead of them), I think I'm ready to re-think that. For at least 7 more home games, the Falcons offense is gonna pummel people, they already won at Chicago and they get to play the Bills and NYJ, the Falcons are gonna do just fine. I'm not worried about the Packers but they're gonna want home field in January, so they better pile up some W's.


Other results (surprising):
Dolphins 19-17 Chargers
Kinda thought Rivers would pull it out at home, too bad the new hero K couldn't bring home the game winner. The Dolphins eking out W's, good stuff, I'll be pretty shocked if they make the playoffs (feels like the AFC wild cards are coming from the West, right?).

Niners 9-12 Seahawks
Shouldn't the Seahawks be better than this at home against a horrible division foe? Oh yeah: the Seahawks do this every year, don't they? Win with smothering defense that hides the strangely inept offense for a coupla months til Wilson can finally pull it all together. Maybe they don't pull it together this year, but can't imagine the Niners, Cards or Rams challenging, right?

Redskins 27-20 Rams
I can't say this was a surprise--I had no idea what would happen! But the Skins beating anyone on the road seems kinda weird. The Skins are one of those teams that looks good when they're not going out of their way to look bad. The Rams got a good RB, a promising QB and a good pass rush, they can be pretty good right away, don't you think?


Other results (not terribly surprising):
Texans 13-9 Bengals
Well, one of these teams had to be not as bad as they looked in Week 1...guess it was the Texans. They've still got a good D, if they can get anything out of QB, they can still win the division. The Bengals just look terrible and I don't see how it gets better.

Bears 7-29 Bucs
Yeah, not hard to see this coming.

Pats 36-20 Saints
All the scoring was in the first half, kinda wonder what happened after halftime. Neither of these teams have enough defense at the moment to seem dominant but the Pats offense has enough veteran moxie to get it done on the road.

Eagles 20-27 Chiefs
Man, wish I'd gotten to watch this one. Two good teams getting better battling it out, this was the game of the week I reckon.

Titans 37-16 Jags
Titans did not impress last week against the Raiders but this seems like a team that knows what its doing. The Jags stink, don't let that Week 1 result in Houston fool ya.

Cards 16-13 (OT) Colts
Felt like the Colts would pull this out but two sloppy teams getting together favors the veterans, which in this case is definitely Arizona.

Bills 3-9 Panthers
The Panthers offense still hasn't found its groove and the Bills tough D coming to town was a good test for them (well, maybe not). This looks like a defensive sludge fest of a match.

Lions 24-10 Giants
The Lions are hardly world-beaters but they can score some points, whereas the Giants look...not good. The offense is not moving the ball and while the pass rush is still pretty good, the rest of the defense is not good enough. The Giants are looking like a draft pick chasing team, the Lions are gonna be good enough to kinda hang around but I don't think are a threat to make the playoffs.


Won (covered): Texans, Chiefs, Patriots, Steelers, Bucs, Titans, Ravens, Raiders, Dolphins, Broncos, Redskins, Falcons, Lions
Won (didn't cover): Cards, Panthers, Seahawks
Push: (none)
Lost (covered): Colts, Bills, Niners
Lost (didn't cover): Bengals, Eagles, Saints, Vikings, Bears, Jags, Browns, Jets, Chargers, Cowboys, Rams, Packers, Giants