After trailing 60-0 after six quarters of their season and trailing by 21 points in the third quarter Sunday in Arizona, the Giants suddenly, improbably, have life.
The 49ers somehow won nine straight times against the Rams during the regular season.
And Sean Payton and the Broncos — after blowing a 21-3 lead to the Commanders and nearly tying it as time expired with a 50-yard Hail Mary from Russell Wilson to Brandon Johnson — are now 0-2.
Sunday’s NFL slate was marked by a series of furious results, none more improbable than the 21-point rally the Giants staged in the desert. A week after an embarrassing 40-0 loss to Dallas, New York played just as poorly in the first half against the Cardinals, managing just 76 yards of total offense en route to a 20-0 hole.
It looked bad. Really bad.
All told, the Giants opened the 2023 season with more than 90 minutes of scoreless football.
But at the end of the game, thanks to 24 unanswered points in the final two quarters, it was a 31-28 triumph, the biggest comeback win for the franchise in more than 70 years. Saquon Barkley scored two goals but left the game late with an injury, slamming his helmet on the bench in frustration. His status, along with that of the Colts’ Anthony Richardson (concussion) and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow (calf), will be among the injuries to monitor in the coming days.
In Detroit, the Seahawks won with a walk-off touchdown from Geno Smith to Tyler Lockett in overtime; in Atlanta, the Falcons outplayed the Packers down the stretch and won on a 25-yard field goal by Younghoe Koo with 57 seconds left; and in Nashville, the Titans sent the Chargers ahead 2-0 with Nick Folk’s game-winning 41 yards in overtime.
And Russell Wilson almost eclipsed them all when he hit Johnson with a 50-yard heave with no time on the clock. The touchdown cut the Commanders’ lead to 35-33; All Denver needed was a successful two-point conversion to force overtime. But Russell’s pass to Courtland Sutton failed after contact. Ron Rivera’s team is now surprisingly 2-0 and Sean Payton is winless in his first two games as Denver coach.
Here’s what we learned from week two’s afternoon table:
Dallas appears to be a contender
The Cowboys officially own the city of New York after defeating the Giants and Jets in consecutive weeks by a combined score of 70-10 to open the season. The engine behind their early success was Dan Quinn’s defense, a Super Bowl-caliber unit led by the early favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year. Micah Parsons has been good since he came into the league, but he’s never been this good.
So far, the All-Pro linebacker appears to be completely unblockable.
It was never close in Dallas on Sunday as Parsons and the Cowboys dominated the Jets 30-10. As Aaron Rodgers’ successor, Zach Wilson’s first start of 2023 was difficult: He completed just 12 passes on 27 attempts for 170 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. Dallas’ defense now has seven turnovers and nine sacks in two games.
The offense was sharp again on Sunday: Dak Prescott collected 255 pass yards on 31 completions and two touchdowns. CeeDee Lamb was great, with 11 catches for 143 yards.
The Cowboys will face tougher tests down the line — starting with the 49ers in Week 5, then the Eagles in Week 9 — but up to this point, Dallas has checked all the boxes. Mike McCarthy’s team looks like a serious threat heading into February.
Will Justin Fields ever look like The Man for the Bears?
Bears general manager Ryan Poles decided to roll the dice with Justin Fields last spring and traded the No. 1 pick to Carolina to bolster the supporting staff around his young passer. We’re only two weeks into the season, but the early results in Chicago aren’t promising – neither for the Bears nor for their franchise quarterback.
Chicago has outscored a total of 28 points in two season-opening losses to Green Bay and Tampa Bay. Fields threw three interceptions, two of them on Chicago’s last two drives on Sunday. The first cemented the loss when Fields was picked off by Bucs linebacker Shaq Barrett at his own 6-yard line.
But the problems continue: Fields has already been hit 16 times and sacked 10 times.
It’s still early, and Fields deserves a full season with the improved weapons around him (DJ Moore, acquired in the trade with Carolina, had six catches for 104 yards on Sunday, and Chase Claypool caught his first touchdown in Chicago), But most of the signs we’ve seen are eight quarters that point to another long season in the Windy City. Since last season, the Bears have lost 12 games in a row.
Next week it won’t be any easier. Chicago is in Kansas City next week to take on the reigning champions.
Get the right games for the Chiefs, Bills
It’s amazing what the return of two first-team All-Pros can do.
The Chiefs still didn’t look like the Chiefs on Sunday in Jacksonville, but the return of two of football’s best players after both missing Week 1 – tight end Travis Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones – made the difference. Jones appeared to be in top form midway through the season, racking up 1.5 sacks for the Kansas City defense, which limited one of the league’s most explosive offenses to just nine points.
While Kelce had just four catches on nine targets, one scored a nine-yard touchdown in the third quarter, enough to give the Chiefs the lead for good. (It also prompted the best call of the day, from CBS’s Ian Eagle, who noted that Kelce had found a “blank spot” in the end zone for the score, a reference to his rumored relationship with pop star Taylor Swift.)
In a rematch of a divisional playoff matchup from January – and possibly a playoff preview for next winter – the final result was a bit misleading. The Jags had at least three possible touchdowns if a receiver managed to keep both feet in the field during a contested catch. KC’s defense was solid, but in a close game where scoring was surprisingly difficult, that separated the two.
(Also, the Chiefs may have a problem at right tackle: Jawaan Taylor, who signed a four-year, $80 million contract in the offseason, had a terrible day and was sacked five times, including twice for false starts and twice for holding. Per (CBS, he is the most penalized player in a single game in 23 years. Taylor drew criticism after the Chiefs’ Week 1 loss for lining up too far from the offensive line.)
Meanwhile, in Buffalo, another Super Bowl contender was looking good again. Josh Allen shook off a dismal four-turnover performance in Week 1 — “I’m the reason we lost tonight,” he admitted after the overtime loss to the Jets — and returned to MVP form against the Raiders , completing his first 14 passes on his way to a 31-for-37 day for 274 yards and, most importantly, no turnovers.
So as far as Allen is concerned, everyone can calm down – at least for another week.
The Bills’ offense looked much better on Sunday, and not just because of Josh Allen (Gregory Fisher / USA Today)
Uh-oh in Denver
Speaking of reassurance, don’t expect much of that from Broncos fans. It’s not just that the final two-point conversion of the game wasn’t decided; It’s an 0-2 start for a franchise — and a quarterback — that’s ready to put the horrors of 2022 behind them. If Wilson was better this year, it wasn’t by much.
The Broncos had the lead early Sunday, leading the Commanders 21-3 early in the second quarter. But the game appeared to be overturned after Broncos safety Kareem Jackson was sent off after an illegal hit on Commanders tight end Logan Thomas. From then on, Washington QB Sam Howell benefited with 299 passing yards and two touchdowns. Wilson, on the other hand, cooled down significantly after his quick start and turned the ball over twice. He was also fired five times.
Things don’t get any easier for Payton’s team. Next up for Denver: They face the Dolphins once and the Chiefs twice in the next six games.
What’s wrong with the Bengals? And the chargers?
The most surprising 0-2 team so far might be the Bengals, who lost two AFC North games to start the season and now have to worry about the health of their franchise quarterback again. A week after the worst start of his professional career, Burrow was better on Sunday against the Ravens – 27 of 41 for 222 yards, two touchdowns and a pick – but it wasn’t enough in a 27-24 loss.
It’s not about who the Bengals have lost to so far – both the Browns and Ravens are expected to be in contention for playoff spots through the end of the season – but what they’ve looked like in the losses.
Simply put: Something is wrong in Cincinnati.
Burrow spent the final moments of the game with a handheld massager on his right calf, the same one he strained in training camp. He later admitted he had changed it and “it’s pretty painful right now.” Burrow’s status will be paramount to the Bengals’ future: The season is anything but lost – Cincinnati was 0-2 heading into last year there was a good run in the playoffs – but the offense didn’t look nearly right through two games. Burrow, for example, only had 35 yards in the first half. The Bengals were outscored 415-282 by the Ravens.
“This is exactly where we were last year,” coach Zac Taylor said. “If you stumble early on, you just have to learn from it.”
The Chargers, meanwhile, are also 0-2 after losing to the Titans in overtime. That makes two defeats at the beginning of the season by a total of five points – and that after LA failed in the playoff opener in January and squandered a 27-0 halftime lead in Jacksonville. Justin Herbert threw for 305 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday, but the offense was just 2 of 14 on third down.
So far, here are the winless teams two weeks into the season: the Bengals, Broncos, Vikings, Chargers, Bears, Cardinals and Texans. Three others playing in prime time would join them with a loss: the Patriots, Steelers and Panthers. My colleague Mike Sando will have much more on this group in his Pick Six column on Monday morning.
(Photo: Michael Owens/Getty Images)
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