NFL WEEK 2 REVIEW - Which Teams Are Rolling And Who Needs To Panic

All right. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Liam O'Keefe podcast. I'm your host Liam O'Keefe and NFL week Two already behind us. We're flying through the season. Some teams are looking good. Some teams are looking bad. Let's talk about them starting off with Minnesota at Philadelphia and The obvious story from this game is DeAndre Swift 28 carries 275 yards on the ground and a touchdown The one thing I have to say about this game is I want to know what the biggest like difference in rushing attempts is in a game between two different teams because Philadelphia had about 40 it looks like and I think the Vikings only had nine So that's got to be like one of the biggest like differences in league history, it has to be but truthfully despite the loss and dropping to 0-2 Minnesota doesn't look as bad as I thought they would or at least as bad as you would expect from an 0-2 team Kirk Cousins, he had a fumble but despite that he had one of the better games of his career 360 yards four touchdowns zero turn or not zero turnovers zero interceptions He did have that fumble which everyone on the Vikings was crumbling They had four total lost fumbles and they only lost by a score So even if you get one of those back, it could be an entirely different game Which is why I thought Minnesota looks pretty good despite coming away with the loss there in In terms of notes that I have after watching the Vikings their offense is just too one-dimensional They can't run the ball for anything. They let Dalvin cookwalk. He doesn't even look great on his own, but Alexander Madison He is not really the guy there who's coming and taking over eight carries for 28 yards isn't awful But if you watch him run you can see that he's just really not Built to be a guy who you can run all three downs. He's not a three down back So in light of that, I really think they should be giving the rookie Tyson Chandler a little bit more Game time because he only had one carry for no yards and then two catches on two targets So I think they should really try and see what they have there with him I know he's kind of a later round pick but that's where running backs come anywhere. They're a dime a dozen there you can get one in the top of the first or you can get one in the You know seventh round and they might perform about the same if you get the right one So that's why I think they should try and see what they have in tight tight Chandler because you already know what you have in Madison and it's not super Like game-changing stuff because we know the passing attack is going to be good. They have weapons all over the field They have Justin Jefferson Jordan Addison TJ Hawkins and KJ Osborne Just great options all around the board and Justin Jefferson went off for a hundred and sixty yards on 11 catches so he is Going to keep doing him. He's incredible and all the other offensive pass catchers seem really strong But they have no offensive line to run behind and no running backs to run So the Vikings are just kind of stuck in a state of throwing the ball and when defenses know that's coming They can easily game plan around it They can rush for drop everyone back into coverage and it makes it a lot harder on an offense on the Eagles side of the ball the story of the game was their rushing numbers, I think in total they had over 250 total yards on the ground between DeAndre Swift Boston Scott and Jalen Hurts And on top of that they still had a wide receiver go for over a hundred and thirty yards in Devante Smith This offense is rolling I am very impressed in what I'm seeing from Jalen Hurts and the Eagles as a whole They haven't really looked like they've taken a step back at all from Last year. I was worried after the Patriots game that Jalen Hurts was Maybe going to take a step back from the otherworldly tier He was on in 2022 But he looks like he got more of that mojo back today and obviously having that insane running game from DeAndre Swift helped him But he still looks pretty sharp So to wrap up my Thursday night football thoughts the Vikings offense Kirk Cousins he stepped up a little too late because now their defense is not as good as it was when he first got to Minnesota but now the offense is really good and rolling and their defense just can't handle a top offense in the league and the Eagles are a top offense in the league and their defense can hold it down if they can stay healthy because Darius Slay he's older and he's dealt some injuries dreams Bradbury and the Kobe Dean I think at least miss sizable parts of this game. So if that defense can stay healthy I still think the Eagles are a top team in the NFC Next let's talk about the Sunday slate of games we can start with what I think the most interesting matchup was in Ravens bangles and This was a tale of two very different teams. Both had shaky first weeks but The Ravens bounced back and I thought looked really good and Joe Burrow and the Bengals. I don't really think did Obviously the Bengals did not look as bad as they did week one we knew they weren't going to look as bad as they were week one Joe Burrow put up about 80 yards and They didn't score a single touchdown This week it looked a little better Teagan finally got involved and was a big difference maker Joe Burrow completed more passes and looked a little stronger but it wasn't enough and their offense still kind of looks clanky and I wonder now how bad this could really get for Cincinnati if Joe Burrow doesn't get healthy because you saw him nursing that calf on the sideline and if he's out for a week or two Worst case scenario and they have to wait even longer to get the offense looking more Comfortable and ready to go it could be a really rough time for the Bengals this year Starting out. Oh until in a really tough division in a really tough conference with playoff and Super Bowl expectations They might not be the team this year that we think they are and I don't want to make that a definitive statement yet obviously Joe Burrow started off oh and two last year and They came back and they looked like a great team, but things just seem worse for the Bengals this year than they did last year I just feel like I get the sense that their offense isn't as good as it was last year and I don't have the same hopeless optimism That I did even a week ago That this team is still going to be one of the top teams this year and that could be down to injury It can come down to play calling it can just come down to overall execution Sometimes you just don't have it and if they keep having too many of those games They might be an odd man out in the AFC playoff picture The Ravens on the other hand looked really nice They only won by three but one of those touchdowns for Cincinnati came off of a 80-yard like punt return So that's not stuff that's repeatable and it was in Cincinnati So Lamar went into Cincinnati and honestly made a fool of their defense. They were Terrified of everything Lamar could do he was throwing deep on them. He was moving around in the pocket They couldn't hold him down for a second. He was too shifty too elusive It really looked like a glimpse of the 2018 2019 Lamar Jackson that won an MVP One of my complaints last week about Baltimore and Lamar is that they didn't spread the ball around enough I think they only had five pass catchers and this week they changed it up they had so many more people get involved like Isaiah likely Devin Duvernay and Nelson Aguilar and Those aren't guys that are going to blow you away and not like make a crazy super cool plays but you know spreading the ball around making the defense have to stress about more guys on offense is better for a team and that's a strategy than just throwing it to say flowers ten times who looks Incredible. He is one of the early favorites for offensive rookie of the year. He looks shifty. He's fast one thing though He gets weird Jitters when a defender tries to come up on him after the catch instead of like going forward when there's free yards sometimes he'll just kind of like set his feet and do a little like hop step instead of just Trying to go north and south which is something you don't really want to see especially in like running backs And he's a wide receiver but it's the same thing after like yards after catch you just want to get as many yards as possible and then go down and That's not a super big complaint I have it's just something I noticed I think it's a little weird and I wonder if that's going to change it all or if that's just how he is as a player I Don't have too much else to say on this game except for the fact that Baltimore looks really good and Lamar's playing out of his mind right now So if they can keep that up, I think they can definitely win the AFC North and maybe make some noise in the playoffs But aside from that, I think I'd like to move on to another big-name matchup that didn't hold up to what it was advertised as and Chiefs Jaguars and Chiefs, you know, they looked pretty good, but this was not the high-scoring you know shootout that people thought it was going to be and Until like the third quarter Neither team looks too Explosive or like Didn't look too pretty to be honest watching the Jaguars was kind of a struggle when it wasn't Christian Kirk, you know He had 11 receptions for 110 yards and that was the only real highlight for the Jaguars offense I thought Trevor Lawrence looked rattled in the pocket Chris Jones came back to the Chiefs and it made a difference and because of that Trevor Lawrence was not on his a-game and Calvin Ridley a few big drops and Zay Jones was a complete no-show Which made me particularly upset because I started him in fantasy football over Drake London Who didn't have any catches last week? So this week I started Zay Jones instead on six targets not a single catch in back-to-back weeks I have not like I've had a receiver that hasn't gotten a single reception Which is just rough man, that is like I Was just praying for anything one of these to come down with a catch and he targeted him in the end zone a few times which would have been massive but Zay Jones has let me down and I probably won't be starting him again But to talk about the Chiefs Chris Jones looked really strong. That's one thing I think I saw a stat that he had a 40 like 9% win rate on snaps Which is insane and shows that he is one of those elite X Factor guys Kansas City was not winning in the trenches against Detroit like they were this week Chris Jones makes a huge difference there and that really helped the offense, you know Stay on track when it struggled a little bit throughout the first quarter to half I thought Mahomes was pressured and ride receivers looked a lot better. I have to admit they didn't blow me away but you know Kadarius Tony five catches on five targets. That's good Sky Moore came out had 70 yards in a touchdown had a huge play for 50 yards. I remember So the receivers looked a lot better and obviously getting Travis Kelsey back is massive he found his way into the end zone So Taylor Swift fans had something to cheer about which was funny But yeah overall Kansas City looked good, um You know not their best game even still if they got off to the slow start and still only put up 17 points But beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, which isn't a easy thing to do anymore. You know, the Jaguars are a respected team They're good now unlike the Jacksonville Jaguars of years past So solid win for the Chiefs and I think they can look better than this so I would think you know They're going to be fine. No one had their doubts about the Chiefs even after they lost to Detroit and their pass catchers looked as bad as they possibly could Speaking of Detroit they lost this week to Seattle in overtime, which is a game I didn't watch but looks like I probably should have it looks like a thriller But I still did my research and it's not not as cool as watching it live but overall takeaways is that Seattle turned it around this week for sure. This was not a fluky win Seattle pulled it together Their offense looked really nice their defense, you know, they let up 31 points The defense doesn't look great But if the offense can pull off tough wins like this that can keep them alive in the NFC playoff race Gino Smith had a bit of a better game today two touchdowns. No turnovers. Kenneth Walker had two scores as well and I'm impressed by Seattle. They don't have the best defense in the world Tariq Wollin has caught off to a slow start Devon Witherspoon made his NFL debut in this game and It wasn't super pretty it's hard to Start at corner as a rookie in the NFL unless you're Christian Gonzalez apparently, which is awesome and we'll get to that later, but it's hard to be a rookie corner and play a guy like a Monroe St. Brown or a offensive coordinator like Ben Johnson for Detroit, so They kept it close Detroit did but overall Seattle just had them in overtime Tyler Lockett got behind the defense easy score and Detroit This is a game you kind of Think you should win for them. This is a bit of a disappointing loss I imagine for Detroit fans and inside the Detroit locker room Seattle was a team that they had played last year and went into overtime to I remember but You really think that you're the more improved team you're the better team on paper in my opinion, I think the offense is A little better in favor of Seattle, but the defense is better. The coaching is better and With comparable offenses that should mean Detroit's the better team But you don't win all the games you're supposed to or else the Chiefs would be 17 and 0 every year. So You hope to see a bounce back for Detroit next week against Atlanta, which is a team I think they match out very favorably against but we'll talk about that next week. Um But truthfully those are my thoughts on that game I didn't get to too much out of it aside from that So I guess we can move on to Atlanta who played a different NFC North team and won Atlanta beat the Green Bay Packers, which is an impressive win for Atlanta in my opinion But Green Bay wasn't at their full strength, you know, David Bakhtiari was out Aaron Jones was out Christian Watson was out. Those are three huge guys for the offense and you can't Like win games when you're good players are out or you can but it's harder to I should say You can't fault the Atlanta Falcons though they played who they played and they won so At the end of the day, even though I looked bleak for them going into the third quarter I believe Green Bay was up pretty big on them going into the fourth. They still pulled it out and I Have the same notes on the Falcons. I did last week. It's a pretty good team all around Drake London decided to make some catches today on my bench, which you know happens but Bijan Robinson looked amazing 20 carries for 120 yards. He is the best running back in that draft class for a reason He was taken and the top 10 as a running back for a reason. He's special watching him run checking out his highlights is Amazing, but the one thing holding this team back from being super is Desmond Ritter He's you know, he's just got to grow. He's got to take more steps. He's a third round Like not a rookie he was drafted last year, but he played four games so this is kind of like his rookie year seeing what he really has and I Don't love it. Like they're petrified to test him with real offensive schemes everything is kind of run plays and easy designs and I worry that he might be the downfall of a team that actually looks like they could start winning games now Their defense is looking better than I thought it would Jesse Bates has made a real impact there and the secondary And I worry if the limited play of Desmond Ritter could really get them stuck, you know I don't know if Ritter is really the guy in Atlanta and I as of right now Think that Atlanta is going to look in a different direction for quarterback Maybe the draft maybe someone pops up in free agency But if I was Atlanta in this next upcoming draft a lot of good quarterbacks trade some of those future assets Get a guy who you think can be good and really start to burst open in that window window. It's a weak NFC South they already look like they have pretty good control of it and You have to push your chips into the table now. I wouldn't really for Desmond Ritter to see if he's your guy. I Don't want to talk about every game in The one o'clock slate there's only one more I really want to talk about because I don't want to waste time on bad games or games, I don't really mean anything for NFL discourse so Colts Congratulations, Anthony Richardson's your guy. He's so fun to watch but you got to hope he's okay with the concussion Texans you're gonna have to wait a few more years. You're a year away from being a year away You've got to get more weapons and surround Stroud with better guys and then the Bears stink bad Justin Fields can't throw They got weapons. He can't do anything with them and Tampa Bay has beat two bad teams I want to see them go up against a really good team a nice competitive one and see what really happens before I start to judge them so With the one o'clock window that leaves the Chargers and Titans, which is a game That it just kind of saddens me man Justin Herbert deserves to win these games. You can't be letting up 27 points To the Tennessee Titans that shouldn't be happening anymore in the year 2023 It's really hard Justin Herbert deserves to win these games. He played out of his mind again He made an insane play Keenan Allen looked really strong to Keenan Allen had a hundred and Something yards two touchdowns. He's kind of turning back the clock now. I think he might be in a bit of a resurging year after a few rough ones in a row But Tennessee won Ryan Tannehill had no turnovers Derek Henry had 25 carries, which is nice you have to get him involved if you want to win games and The pass catchers still are nothing special Trelon Burks had a nice 70 yards and he kind of diced up a little bit. But other than that there were not too many Factors DeAndre Hopkins didn't have too much to say and Outside of that they really have no one else. They're tight ends a conquo He's all right. I saw him drag Derwin James for a crazy game, though that was really cool to see and maybe they have something with him in a few years because this is his second year and it takes tight ends a little bit of time to develop but Truthfully, it's just sad to see Justin Herbert wasting his time on the Chargers man they have to get a better defense or at least a better defensive coordinator because They are just throwing games away and they go up against, Minnesota next week two teams who are oh and two if charge if the Chargers fall to oh and three or if the Vikings one of them is going to have to fall to oh and Three and then some big questions are going to have to be made. You know, what's the future in, Minnesota? or what's the coaching situation like I think in LA because Minnesota isn't going to fire their coach. They just brought him in last year and it worked amazing, but You've got a wonder for LA. What's the next step if they go? Oh and three and continue to suffer like this Next we have the four o'clock slate of games Which was Giants Cardinals 49ers Rams Jets Cowboys and commanders Broncos I think all of those games were pretty cool. I was at work and had to you know, check my phone intermediately to see what was going on and the most shocking one just from before I looked into it and did any research was Giants Cardinals the Cardinals were up 20 to 0 on the Giants at halftime and In my mind, I thought this is the fall of the Giants Brian Day will have one good year. Daniel Jones had one good year and It's not going to hold this year, but then to my surprise they marched back Down 20 points and win 31 to 28. That's got to be one of the biggest comebacks in Recent memory the only one I can think of that was more was Vikings Colts last year down 33 But coming down 20 being down 20 at half and overcoming that to win 31 28 is absolutely massive That shows the resilience of a team that got their teeth kicked in week 140 to 0 so it shows good resilience, you know, Ben not break attitude and That's all credit to Brian Day will and the coaching staff in New York for Arizona It's going to be the story of the season, you know Losses this was especially a hard one for them They've had a few heartbreaking losses in a row But you're not going to win too many games this year Arizona your defense isn't good Your offense isn't good and you have an unproven head coach Cardinals fans knew what they were getting into this year if Kyler Murray doesn't come back soon They're going to be the worst team in the league. Even if he does come back. I'm not sure how great they're going to be but This is the story of the season Arizona Just look up the draft date and put it in your calendar because that's all you can do at this point We had two games in the four o'clock slate with exciting comebacks The Broncos were up 21 to 3 at half on the Washington commanders But the commanders roared back and won 35 33 then they almost lost it again the Commanders had the lead after being down big at half, but then Russell Wilson Completed a 50-yard Hail Mary final play of the game and then they line up for two tie the game and send it into overtime and There's a questionable play. Some people thought this should have been pass interference on the DB Some people didn't when I looked at that play, I think it can go either way But what I really thought is that Denver? Yeah, you were up three scores you shouldn't have been in that position to start with you can't whine and complain that you didn't get that call after you just Blew a huge lead like that You know, does that make you feel better? If you win this game despite letting up all those points to the Washington commanders, I don't think so. I do have to say For the play that the Broncos have put up and how Russell Wilson has turned around a little bit He hasn't looked fantastic. He's not the old Russell Wilson He's never going to be the old Russell Wilson again, but he looks better than last year he's working in the structure and it's helping him out and I feel like this might be the best we get out of Russ and they're owing to but you know, they're a couple plays away from being two and O and This isn't me saying that the Broncos are going to go on some crazy tear and shock everybody I still think they're a solid lock to be six or seven wins. But this is just a Testament to Sean Payton and how much he can turn around a quarterback who looked really sorry at the end of last year for Washington I think this was a nice showing for Bryan Robinson jr Who didn't have a great first week? But also Sam Howell finally came out there and he was balling this week like he was normally Sam Howell might be something man. I Am kind of back and forth on him because he shows some good traits But every time I watch him, I'm like man This is kind of like Baker Mayfield a few years ago That's kind of my comp to him this shorter guy not super athletic who can run around and has a huge arm That's Baker Mayfield. And I guess Sam Howell and Baker Mayfield are both two and O this year. So who am I to judge but I I just go back and forth on Sam Howell and Have that he's really going to be how much of this is legitimate on him and how much of this is, you know Scheming play calling and just the weapons on his team being really good But Bryan Robinson looks strong. He had two touchdowns today, and I think he can be one of the more positive Players on that offense and a pretty serious skill position player for Washington for years to come now as A Patriots fan this brings a bit of a smile to my face Zach Wilson is back due to some unfortunate circumstances He's put back in the starting role for the Jets and he looks awful yet again he's making awful reads awful decision-making a vastly overrating his arm strength and The offense is stagnant again in New York and I couldn't be happier You know, I am a little disappointed Because you wanted to see a really good Aaron Rodgers offense, but now that that looks to be off the table the Cowboys destroyed the Jets and The Jets are back to their old ways of losing and while you do have to feel horrible for Jets fans It is a little funny That there they talked all this smack and they're back to Zach Wilson But on a bit of a more serious note, the Cowboys looked really really good They are one of the best teams in football this year. They cannot be stopped They've beat both New York teams on a combined score of 70 to 10 They're rolling right now And if you're in the NFC you've got to be scared of them because they can give their Eagles a run for their money in the NFC East and Potentially walk away at the top dogs in the division I don't want to say that this is their year and that it's finally their time like Cowboys fans have been saying since 1980s but Man, they look good. They haven't taken a step back from losing their offensive coordinator and They just handled a really really good Jets defense even though their offense kind of sabotaged them the Jets did The final four o'clock game that we had was 49ers Rams Which I don't have too many notes on except that The Rams it's just Stafford out there dealing man Puka Nakua is Thriving in this Rams offense. He's taken on the Cooper Cup role and even once Cooper Cup comes back I still think Nakua is going to have a serious role in this offense. He is a stud He is racking up catches like it's no one's business He broke the rookie reception record for most receptions in two games with 25 Man, he's just a machine get him on your fantasy team Well, you still can well you probably can't by now But you should have gotten him on your team when you could because he's going to be a monster this year Then you have the 49ers who are the ones who won this game, you know, but This just shows that you know, it shines a light on Brock Purdy. I thought watching this game that He is missing some pretty important throws and it doesn't matter because the team around him is so good that he doesn't have to be on the top of his game but it kind of worries you because If he misses any one of those big plays who knows how it could happen in the playoffs when things mean more everything's bigger But you don't have to worry about that right now. It's week two We can't be thinking about the playoffs already. The 49ers look like an absolute train. No one's going to stop them Not only are they my favorite team to win the NFC West and to win the NFC as a whole I really think this team can win the Super Bowl because they're do it's finally their time I think they would have had a shot at that last year if Brock Purdy didn't injure himself in the NFC Championship game So I think that they're due for the Super Bowl. They spent all this money. They've built this incredible team It's finally time to get it done in the postseason and I think they will Now it's time for Sunday night football Where my New England Patriots faced off against the division rival Miami Dolphins and to be honest You can just roll the tape on what I said last week for New England They're a better team than they were last year, but they dug themselves into too deep of a hole At the beginning of this game not by a turnover Well, I guess by one turnover, but they really dug themselves on defense They let Miami get too big of a lead at halftime. It was 17 to 3 But you know, they just didn't have enough time. They mounted a comeback a little bit and at one point they were only down Like a touchdown and they had the ball so they've had chances to win these games, but There's no one out there for Mac Jones to help him win And I think people have started realizing this over the last two weeks that there are just no Explosives at all on this New England offense Kendrick Bourne is a horrible deep ball tracker. They throw up at least two to three of them a game. He's had Every opportunity to complete at least one of them and he hasn't it's either he can't track the ball, right? He's not putting two hands up there. He's worried about being too styly and like style He's not aware But he wants to have like make the cooler catch when he should be worried about the fundamentals Devontae Parker and Juju Absolute no-shows. They're like nothing past the 10-yard line, which is why they brought Devontae Parker in What there's just no explosives on this offense right now. The offensive line doesn't look great The running backs are fine Ramon Dre looked good. He had a better night than week one, but the Miami Offense and defense just outplayed them in every facet of the game. They were more explosive on offense Miami was they were getting more pressure on defense their Corners were playing really strong and it left the Patriots out there to sink and they had a bit of a comeback Christian Gonzalez got his first career interception on a horrible Underthrow by Tua, you know Gonzalez ran like a quarter length of the field While the ball was still in the air and Tyreek Hill had to come back to it and came down with it Which was really cool to see and that's when you thought they had some life, but the Patriots offense can't do anything It's exactly the team everyone thought they were their defense is going to be great and their offense We just have to see if they can hang on and for right now, they can't they can't win these crunch time games, you know And this is a testament to how good Miami is. This isn't just an all-negative Patriots moment the Dolphins are a really good team and you've seen that over these last two weeks They've been able to create explosives their defense has been able to step up to what has played Very well the past two weeks. He looks like if he can stay healthy he's going to be really good and I think that they can make some serious noise in the AFC because Josh Allen and the Bills the first Bills Dolphins game whenever that is I'm going to tune in because that is going to show a lot about how the AFC East and the AFC as a whole is Going to shake out seeing how those two teams compete this year. But those are all my serious notes for Sunday Slate of games and I don't have too many big things on Monday I watched both of those games and I first of all the double Monday night football was weird but I didn't hate it if we could just get two better games going because Carolina and the Saints was horrible to watch and if you like watching good offenses The Browns Steelers game was not good to watch either Brown Steelers is entertaining because of the defenses that kept them in the game there were multiple defensive touchdowns from the Steelers a bunch of turnovers defenses were flying in Pittsburgh and Was it in Pittsburgh or Cleveland, I'm not sure but they were flying in that game and the offenses looked really bad but the Carolina and Saints game was just a Sad sight to see there was no real flow on the offense from Carolina until I turned the game off because When I stopped watching Carolina could only you know muster up field goal attempts and they ended up scoring a touchdown and making it close in the end, but New Orleans is the better team and even then they're still not super great Derek Carr does not have much time to throw in that pocket and That really hinders their ceiling as a team and also makes them kind of One-dimensional like the Vikings with no run game and a great pass game but the Saints are 2-0 Vikings are 0-2, so then maybe that comes down to who they've played but You know I see a lot of similarities between the Saints and the Vikings if you really look at it to mediocre quarterbacks great weapons no offensive line or run game and Either really old or really young defenses because Most of the members of New Orleans defense are pretty old and they have a lot of key Vikings on defense world But they have a few young guys. They're trying this process a little weirdly with Minnesota's weird and young like old and young mix But that's all I really have for this week. If you listened all the way through. Thank you so much for Listening to me supporting me helping me out make sure to share this with your friends, you know You can talk sports with them. You can talk about me, you know Tell them about how great I am and how I get every prediction, right? But thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next week