Buffalo Bills 38 – Oakland Raiders 35
A matchup of two of the league’s potential surprise teams might be the best game of the early shift. To recap: The Raiders outmuscle the Bills to a 21-3 lead. Game appears lost when Buffalo elects to kick on a 4th and 1 from the Oakland 7. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Stevie Johnson storm back to take a 24-21 fourth-quarter lead. The lead pinballs from team to team after that. Five lead changes in the second half. 35 fourth-quarter points. A Buffalo DB rips a hail mary pass away from two Raiders receivers to seal the win. Just a tremendous, tremendous game.
Subplot: Unknown tight end Scott Chandler scored his third touchdown catch of the season to put the Bills up 31-28.
Tampa Bay Bucs 24 – Minnesota Vikings 20
More cardiac action by Josh Freeman makes me trash my first draft of a game recap. The Bucs score 24 second-half points — 14 in the game’s last seven minutes — to steal a win from Minnesota, a game they had no business winning. After abandoning the run for stretches of time, young coach Raheem Morris rediscovered his balance and fed both LeGarrette Blount and Josh Freeman equally. Both players contributed fourth quarter scores with Blount getting the game-winner.
Subplot: Donovan McNabb tripled his season’s passing yards in this game. He still is roughly 250 yards behind Tom Brady on the leaderboard.
Pittsburgh Steelers 24 – Seattle Seahawks 0
There were two — count ’em, two — moments of drama in this game. (1) Seattle executed a perfect goal line stand on the Steelers’ first drive, stopping both Roethlisberger and Mendenhall at the one foot line. The Seahawks’ run defense with a healthy Raheem Brock isn’t half bad. (2) Ben Roethlisberger had his knee rolled by Brock on a pass rush, and left the game for a few plays. Other than that, this was a good old fashioned steam-roller job by Pittsburgh at home.
Subplot: Mendenhall has only one touchdown on four red zone opportunities. One was stuffed, another was vultured by Isaac Redman on a nifty 25-yard run.
New Orleans Saints 30 – Chicago Bears 13
Everyone and their grandmother knew the Saints were going to blitz the hell out of Jay Cutler and hope for the best. When that happens, Cutler becomes a power thrower, losing all his touch on the ball. The Bears’ crew of hard-handed receivers just didn’t make enough plays to bail him out, even when the ball was on the money.
Subplot: Drew Brees showed a lot of respect for Chicago’s cover two scheme, keeping his passes strictly underneath. That is, until speedster Devery Henderson flat out beat it. His 79-yard touchdown over both Bears safeties was the highlight of the game.
Green Bay Packers 30 – Carolina Panthers 23
Cam Newton’s charmed NFL life lasted five quarters. With 150 yards passing and 13 points scored for his offense in the first quarter of this one, the Panthers rookie looked almost unstoppable. The Packers’ secondary looked awful vulnerable without #1 corner Tramon Williams. But the Packers schemed and executed their way to a gritty comeback win, intercepting Newton three times along the way.
Subplot: Jordy Nelson and Greg Jennings scored on two very different long TDs. Jennings came free on a 50-yard bomb, while Nelson turned a short pass into an electric 79-yarder. So many weapons in Green Bay.
New York Jets 32 – Jacksonville Jaguars 3
Mark Sanchez made his share of cover-your-eyes awful throws in this game, as he does in every game. But the Jaguars simply had no answer for the good throws Sanchez was able to make. We may be much closer to the start of the Blaine Gabbert era in Jacksonville as Luke McCown had an awful day, completing nearly as many passes to Jets (4) as to his own players (6). A strong day running by Maurice Jones-Drew went down the drain.
Subplot: Shonn Greene kept faint fantasy hope alive with a touchdown run in garbage time. Savvy fantasy owners will use this score as trade bait.
Detroit Lions 48 – Kansas City Chiefs 3
After losing Jamaal Charles, Kansas City was never in this game. They may be setting course for Andrew Luck, if they can afford to dump the execrable Matt Cassel. Cassel threw two interceptions in 18 passes, and now has three on the season. Charles’ primary backup, Dexter McCluster, lost a fumble and could not find any room in the passing game.
Subplot: So far, Matt Stafford is proving all of the fantasy pundits right — when healthy, he’s a top-five quarterback. Maybe top-three at this rate. But can you depend on him to carry you through sixteen or seventeen grueling fantasy matchups? Like the Lions, you need a good handcuff.
Tennessee Titans 26 – Baltimore Ravens 13
If week 1 was Baltimore’s Super Bowl, this game is their hangover. It’s also the reason why few people trust them as a true Super Bowl contender. Matt Hasselbeck is proving that he has a little juice left, as long as you’re willing to block for him. Hasselbeck completed 26 of 36 for 303 yards and converted multiple third downs, keeping the old legs of the Ravens’ defense on the field. Meanwhile, Joe Flacco less than half of his throws with 2 picks.
Subplot: Chris Johnson was a non-factor for a second week in a row, but that was to be expected against Baltimore. Buy low from whatever panicky fantasy owner you can.
Washington Redskins 22 – Arizona Cardinals 21
Are we remiss in mentioning the winner of this game as another legit “2-0 surprise team?” Probably, yes. Rex Grossman tossed a couple of ugly picks, but brought out his hammer and nearly hit the 300-yard bell again. Meanwhile, Kevin Kolb didn’t do a lot in the passing game, but was willing to stand in and take a mightly shot while delivering a perfect strike to Larry Fitzgerald in stride for a monstrous 70+ yard touchdown.
Subplot: In a matchup of former teammates, both Tim Hightower and Beanie Wells looked like legit feature backs. Both came close to 100 yard days, and Wells had a score.
Cleveland Browns 27 – Baltimore Colts 19
Cleveland might just have learned how to win a game. This one was as punchless as a Kindergarden slap-fight until the Browns put on their big-boy pants and started to muscle away. In classic Pat Shurmur fashion, no Browns receiver had more than five catches or more than 50 yards, but Peyton Hillis went into beast-mode again and scored the deciding points.
Subplot: A garbage-time touchdown pass by Dallas Clark was the only reason he was able to outperform his unheralded counterpart Evan Moore, who had one grab for a TD on the day.
