NFL Week 2 Recap: Where There's a Willis, There's a Way

It is not a good time for sports fans in Baltimore right now. The Orioles continue to slip behind the New York Yankees in the American League East, and while they are hanging to the #1 Wild Card position in the American League, they would rather have home field in a Division Series instead of the Wild Card Series. But don't worry, Baltimore. After all, there's still the Ravens, right?

Right?

The Ravens were looking to rebound from their immensely close Opening Night loss at Arrowhead, as they were playing at home for the first time this season. Their opponents were the Las Vegas Raiders, who were coming off losing to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1. It was low scoring at first, nothing but field goals. Speaking of, Justin Tucker missed another one. Two missed 50-yard FGs in as many weeks. That's usually a season for the GOAT of kickers. Even so, the Ravens were up 10 late...then the offense stopped, and the Raiders took over. 13 unanswered points the rest of the way from Las Vegas, and the Ravens last gasp drive fell flat.

The Raiders won, 26-23. The Ravens lost four games in 2023, though the fourth loss came in the final week, and they had locked up the top seed and benched Lamar Jackson and other starters, so they really lost three games of meaning. They have two losses already in 2024. The Ravens are in a peck of trouble. Since 2020, only two teams have reached the playoffs after starting 0-2. The Ravens are capable of being the third, but they need to strike fast. They will be in Jerry World next week, and they better win that, because 0-3 is the kiss of death.

Allow me to introduce this gentleman: Malik Antonio Willis. The Green Bay Packers traded for Willis shortly before the season started, because we needed a viable backup. We did not expect that Willis would be tested so soon. Jordan Love was sidelined, and the Packers' home opener ended up being Willis' first test. From what I saw, he passed, but he had a lot of help--as expected. That help came in the form of a rushing attack that absolutely exploded. Despite the running game being absolutely monstrous, Willis did throw his first career touchdown pass, and it also helped that the Packers defense intercepted Anthony Richardson three times. The Packers won, 16-10 for win #1 of 2024, and win #800 overall. As for Willis' former team, the Tennessee Titans, they lost at home to the New York Jets, 24-17, marking the first Jets win for a longtime former Packers QB: Aaron Rodgers.

Why is Brock Purdy suddenly allergic to beating the Minnesota Vikings? I was very excited because I expected the Vikings to be absolutely flattened, but I forgot that the San Francisco 49ers don't have a quarterback. They made Sam Darnold look good. Yikes. So the Vikings won, but the Detroit Lions didn't. Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers managed to hold down the Lions on the road, 20-16, in what was the Lions' second straight playoff rematch. The Bucs seem to mean business, but remember, it's very early in the season.

If milk was sold in cartons in this day and age, we can expect to see the Dallas Cowboys defense on the back of one. What the hell happened?! The New Orleans Saints, especially Alvin Kamara, made mincemeat out of the Cowboys in Jerry World! The Saints scored on their first six possessions! Dak Prescott threw for more yards than he did in Week 1, but he also threw two interceptions as well. The Saints won, 44-19, to improve to 2-0, and for Dallas, if you count the Wild Card loss last year, they've given up 92 points in their last two home games. And remember, the looming question surrounding this team centers on paying their star defender, Micah Parsons.

You know, Jaguars, maybe changing the name of your stadium to a namesake of your star QB isn't the way to go. The Jags' home opener at the renamed TrEver Bank Stadium was a disaster, as they lost, 18-13, to a Cleveland Browns team who was coming off being embarrassed at home. Elsewhere in the early window, the Seattle Seahawks defeated the New England Patriots, 23-20, in overtime to improve to 2-0, and the Los Angeles Chargers blasted the hapless Carolina Panthers, who have ended the Bryce Young experiment and will now go with Andy Dalton starting next week. Also, the Washington Commanders won, 21-18, over the New York Giants--thanks to Austin Seibert kicking seven field goals!

The late window only had three games. First off, the Arizona Cardinals utilized Marvin Harrison, Jr. in a blowout win over the Los Angeles Rams, and the Pittsburgh Steelers improved to 2-0 with a 13-6 win over the Denver Broncos. The main event in that cluster was the anticipated battle between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead, and we know the history there. It looked like it would repeat itself, but a pass interference call against Cincy allowed KC to win it with a last second field goal. Here's the thing. The refs handed KC that win. Here's the thing again: the PI call was correct. There were other calls that were wrong. The main one was Joe Burrow's fumble. Burrow was down before the ball was out, yet it was called a fumble that KC scored on. Even worse, head coach Zac Taylor didn't challenge it.

The refs ended up being the story quite a bit in the tail end of Sunday's action, from their shenanigans in KC to whatever the hell that was in Houston. They were handing out flags for everything. Well...almost everything. Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shahir delivered an outright punch to Bears running back Roschon Johnson, and I mean it was an absolute right hook! No penalty, though. A punch like that is grounds for ejection and later fine, but Al-Shahir got off scot-free. Holy cow. The game itself was close, and it ended with the Texans winning, 19-13, to improve to 2-0.

Monday Night Football saw the Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons face each other, and it's always interesting when the two teams face off. It was a game where we saw six lead changes, and two Tush Pushes, the second one giving the Eagles a 18-15 lead. With a chance to ice it away after the two minute warning, however, Jalen Hurts' pass to Saquon Barkley is dropped. Jake Elliott's field goal makes it 21-15, leaving the Falcons with the ball and no timeouts. No problem. Kirk Cousins throws a few long bombs during a drive that results in a go-ahead touchdown, leaving the Eagles with 34 seconds and two time outs to get to field goal range. They would not get there, as Hurts' last pass ends up intercepted.

The Falcons won, 22-21. Remember when Cousins couldn't buy a Monday Night win? He's won four of his last five MNF starts, and this is a big one. Regarding the overall picture, thanks to the Eagles' loss, the Washington Commanders are in first place, as their one win was a divisional one. Elsewhere, there are nine 2-0 teams in the league, and nine 0-2 teams as well. Of the 0-2 teams, three of them are in the AFC South! Yikes!

Week 3 will kick off with the New York Jets hosting the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football, and on Sunday Night Football, the aforementioned Atlanta Falcons will host the Kansas City Chiefs. We will see two Monday Night Football contests in Week 3; first off, the Jacksonville Jaguars will face the Buffalo Bills, and second, it's the first-place Washington Commanders against the Cincinnati Bengals.

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Check out my story about the Buffalo Bills-Miami Dolphins contest: