NFL 2021: Week Two Gentlemen of Verona

Interesting Week 1 in the NFL. I always like the over-reactions (Just give Kyler Murray the MVP right now) and idiotic hot takes (the Bears lost because Justin Fields wasn’t their QB). It’s a long season folks. Let’s not waste all our stupidity after the first week.

Injuries are, as usual, the big news. WFT lose their starting QB Ryan Fitzpatrick. Raheem Mostert, Jerry Jeudy, Jason Verrett (Niners struck by the injury bug again), Jeff Okudah all starters going down. And more. It’s a rough game made even rougher by losing players.

I do love it that we’re one week into the season and already Urban Meyer is answering questions about returning to college football. Fuck him.

Week 2 will have at least a few games that show everything we thought we learned from week 1 is wrong. NFL is back. Here’s your games:

Thursday Sept. 16th, 7:20

New York Giants at (-3) Washington Football Team, 40.5

Sunday, Sept 12th

Early

New England Patriots (-5.5) at New York Jets, 42.5
Buffalo Bills (-3.5) at Miami Dolphins, 48.5
Houston Texans at (-12) Cleveland Browns, 48.5
Los Angeles Rams (-3.5) at Indianapolis Colts, 47.5
San Francisco 49ers (-3.5) at Philadelphia Eagles, 50
Cincinnati Bengals at (-2.5) Chicago Bears, 45
Las Vegas Raiders at (-5) Pittsburgh Steelers, 48
Denver Broncos (-6) at Jacksonville Jaguars, 45.5

Late afternoon

Atlanta Falcons at (-12) Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 52
Minnesota Vikings at (-4.5) Arizona Cardinals, 51
Dallas Cowboys at (-3) Los Angeles Chargers, 55.5
Tennessee Titans at (-5) Seattle Seahawks, 54

Sunday Night Football

Kansas City Chiefs (-3.5) at Baltimore Ravens, 54.5

Monday Night Football

Detroit Lions at (-11) Green Bay Packers, 48

One week in, and already I’m “who gives a shit”ing the Thursday night game. Partly because it’s on the NFL Network only (fuck them). Partly because of injuries (Fitzmagic and Saquon). Partly because of the teams (can both lose?). I just don’t care much. I will be interested in how Taylor Heinicke does (I love me some competent journeyman Qbs finally getting a shot), but that’s about it.

I think the Bills/Dolphins game will be the one to watch early Sunday. I was happy to see Josh Allen revert to his old ways last week, but it was just one game. And Miami’s defense is no slouch. Should be interesting to see how Allen does and if the Bills, whose lead RB averaged 6.5 ypc last week, decide not to throw the ball every damn play. The defensive matchup of Rams v. Colts and the “is Jalen Hurts for real?” Niners v. Eagles games are interesting too.

The Cowboys/Chargers game should be fascinating as both teams have legit shots at the title. And are the Titans really as bad as week 1 showed? Can they bounce back and make at least a respectful showing against the seahawks

The Sunday Night game is the Game of the Week. The Chiefs should be a much better team than to have to rely on the late game heroics of Mahomes, but they continue to win. The Ravens coughed the ball up last week in a loss to the Raiders, I expect them to stop that and rely on a solid running game, ball control offense to keep this game close. Should be a good watch.

I fully expect Kaaron Rodgers (I love that name for him) to throw for 500 yards and 6 tds as he tries to rebuild his reputation and stats against a not so great defense like the Lions. I doubt it will be a close game, but it should be fun to watch.

Thoughts? Prayers? What are you excited to see happen in week 2. Let’s hear from you.

My only question is will his exit be more like Petrino or Saban?

Not really. 16 regular season games. MLB has 10X that number of games-- THAT’s a long season. An NFL game 1 win or loss doesn’t mean crack open the champagne or throw in the towel, but a team can get in a hole quickly with a slow start.

Haha, speak for yourself! Yes, I fully expect the Lions D to helpfully put Rodgers and Co. right back on track and take away some of the sting of their embarrassing game one loss. The Lions are always good for that.

Did you leave out the Saints Panthers game?

I did.

Sunday Early

New Orleans Saints (-3.5) at Carolina Panthers (45)

A relatively low over/under for two 1-0 teams, one of which put up 38 itself last week. It should be a sneaky good game. I don’t think the Saints are as amazing as they looked last week, and I think the Panthers have a very good defense and are better than their showing against the lowly Jets. Good watch, but I expect a wake-up call to anyone who thinks Darnold is a long term solution at QB.

Detroit and Green Bay are playing on Monday night so one team in the NFC North won’t go 0 and 2.

nitpick - 17 regular season games now.

Not really a risk…

I thought the same thing. I might watch some of it for the LOLs but come on. This matchup is a joke. And it’s not like they didn’t know it would suck when they scheduled it; both teams have been awful for years and there was no indication that they were going to get better this year.

No but they could be 0-1-1. :smiley:

I’d be good with that.

And the Cowboys lose Demarcus Lawrence to a broken foot.

I am looking forward to the game tonight. WFT and Heinicke gave the Bucs and Brady quite a scare in the playoffs last season. Plus, WFT does have one of the best best defenses in the NFL. It’s a divisional matchup and they’ve done away with the gimmick uniforms for Thursday games.

Having normal uniforms at least makes it look a little less like a clown show, so I’ll give them props for that.

I still remember the “ketchup vs mustard” special a number of years ago, and as noted in the article it was the last game the Rams played in St. Louis.

I’m a lifelong WFT fan, and I shared your frustration, but weirdly Yahoo served up the option of watching this game on my phone using their app. I can only watch on the phone, and I can’t use Wi-Fi because it made me turn it off due to some sort of exclusivity, and yet here I am watching the game.

I should probably figure out how to stream my phone to my TV.

Yeah, against my better judgment, I’m watching using the NFL app (which likewise requires using data instead of wifi). I feel like I’m missing a lot watching on a phone, but I’ll chalk that up from being tired of shaking my fist at the kids on my lawn.

Taylor Heinicke looks competent, but seriously inconsistent. Kinda like Daniel Jones. Not a great look when your biggest play is a QB RPO where the defense completely blows it.

I did chuckle watching Humphries and McKissic falling down completely on their own on the same drive. Just when I think it’s a good game, something like that, or Jones missing 10 feet over Golladays head or the defense completely blowing their assignments or Heinicke missing a wide open WR will make me shake my head.

Still, not the horror show I was afraid of.

just seen this
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/giants-nick-gates-suffers-gruesome-leg-injury-during-tnf-game-vs-wft/ar-AAOwTy0?ocid=SK2DDHP

:face_with_raised_eyebrow: He’s 17/21. Everyone wishes their quarterback were that inconsistent.

what happened to the giants ? everyone makes them sound like the jets 2.0 …

You’re right. Let me rephrase.

Taylor Heinicke looks competent (on throws 1-10 yards from the line of scrimmage; throws that pretty much any starting QB should be able to make. On throws down the field however,) he seems seriously inconsistent.

Those 17 (now 20) completions have resulted in 178 yards.

Completely blown coverage by WFT results in a wide open Darrius Slayton. He drops it (in his defense, it was slightly overthrown). Then 2 false starts. Oofa.