Week 2 Recap

There was no shortage of exciting games in the NFL this past week, and as luck would have it, three of the four games I watched this weekend were very good games.

Of course I watched the Redskins hosting Arizona in the early game. The Cardinals had not won in Washington since Jake Plummer was their quarterback, and that streak barely remains after the Redskins pulled off a 22-21 victory. The most exciting part about watching this game, regardless of my feelings about either team, was that this marked the first time in recent memory that, down late in a game, the Redskins did not give up and actually put together two late drives to win a game.

Rex Grossman did not look phenomenal, but he continues to impress, and the Redskins’ running game was much improved over its week 1 showing against New York. Washington scored on a late 4th down pass to Santana Moss, and then failed to convert a two-point try. But the defense made a great stand and gave their offense the opportunity to get into field goal range, which they did, and Graham Gano hit a game winning 34-yarder inside of the two-minute warning.

Unfortunately, CBS was not airing the Ravens game on Sunday so I did not get to see any of that game first hand, but from fans I know I have gathered that Ray Rice had a pretty good game but the defense was pitiful and the offense could not get anything going in the second half against Tennessee, who ultimately won 26-13.

During the mid-afternoon session, I watched the Chargers and Patriots duke it out in Foxboro. The game was never really out of reach for San Diego, but three turnovers in or near the red zone proved to be too much of a setback to overcome. Meanwhile, the Patriots scored on all of their first half possessions. San Diego did not fall any further behind in the second half, and actually came to within one score twice during the final fifteen minutes of the game, but the Patriots came right back each time with scored of their own to keep it a two-possession game. The final score was 35-21.

There was no way I would miss the Sunday Night Game between my two NFC pre-season favorites, and the first game Michael Vick would be starting in Atlanta since he played for the Falcons. It ended up being even more exciting than I had hoped for. The game was very close in the first half, but in the 3rd quarter it appeared that the Eagles were going to run away with it. Unfortunately for Philadelphia, Vick went down with a concussion and though Mike Kafka did not play poorly, he was not nearly as effective against Atlanta’s defense as Vick was and Matt Ryan led the Falcons to a huge 4th quarter comeback to avoid starting 0-2.

Monday Night’s game was not nearly as exciting. In fact, it had the lowed Fan Rating of all the week 2 games according to NFL.com. The most interesting part of the game to me was, of course, the poor acting job by two Giants defenders when both suspiciously fell to the ground with what appeared to be cramps, at the exact same moment, while the Rams were attempting to keep some early offensive momentum by using their hurry-up offense. Unfortunately, that ‘highlight’ overshadowed a truly remarkable play made by Domenik Hixon late in the first half when he made an amazing juggling catch in the end zone. The final score was 28-16.

The game with the highest Fan Rating, according to NFL.com, was the Raiders/Bills game. Oakland led 21-3 at halftime, but Buffalo came out rolling in the second half. They had five offensive possessions in the half, and they scored touchdowns on all five, while giving up just two scores, both in the 4th quarter. The winning score came with 14 seconds left; it was a six-yard touchdown pass from Fitzpatrick to David Nelson. The play came on the heels of a very poorly thrown ball that was very nearly an interception in the end zone that would have effectively won the game for Oakland.

Overall for the week I was 11-5 for my predictions, bringing my season total to 21-11. Also, I would just like to point out that I was not too far off on my prediction for the Tampa Bay @ Minnesota game. I predicted a tie and the final score was 24-20 in favor of Tampa Bay. Now, recall that I said that the Buccaneers could win if Minnesota had another second half letdown, and that is exactly what happened. Minnesota led 17-0 at halftime and was outscored 24-3 in the second half. I did not count this as a ‘win’ for my predictions, but just wanted to point out that I was very close to it, not to pat myself on the back or anything. After all, I did incorrectly pick both games on National TV.

I will be back on Saturday with my predictions for week 3, which has some very intriguing matchups. The Redskins will look to stay at the top of the NFC East as they play in Dallas on Monday Night. The Giants and Eagles will both look to keep pace as they go at it in Philly during the early session on Sunday. The Bills will look to have a strong showing at home against the possibly unstoppable Patriots and the Packers and Bears play in Chicago in a rematch of last year’s NFC Championship.

Until then, thank you for reading!