Things I Noticed: Week 2

It was a rough week for a lot of fantasy football owners, as several players drafted in the first round of most leagues were knocked out of the game early, including Michael Vick, Arian Foster and Jamaal Charles.  With stars like that going down already, maybe it's a good thing that we didn't move to an 18 game schedule.

Here are some other things I noticed this week:

• Tom Brady didn't have another historic yardage day, but he may have played an even better game this week.  He put up 423 yards against a team that led the league in total defense last season and just last week limited Donovan McNabb to a meager 39 passing yards.  TB12 is well on his way to another MVP season.
• The Patriots defense once again gave up a ton of yardage, but managed to capitalize on turnovers to hold off the Chargers.  Philip Rivers thew for a lot of yardage while attempting to play catch up all afternoon, but also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.
• The opportunistic Patriots defense helped the team to victory this week, but turnovers aren't something that can be counted on every week.  The Pats will need to tighten up their defense and force more punts to avoid every game turning into a shoot out.
• The scheme for the Pats defense was to take away Antonio Gates, which worked to perfection.  Gates was held without a catch, while only being targeted once.  The extra attention on the star TE meant less help on Vincent Jackson, who had a big game (172 yards, 2 TDs) to make up for the lack of production from Gates.
• The Pats Tight End attack continues to impress, as Hernandez and Gronkowski combined for 148 yards and 2 TDs.  Aarob Gronkandez may be the best TE in football.
• The shoot out between Oakland and Buffalo saw a wild finish with the teams combining for a total of 5 TDs in the 4th quarter.  The Bills scored with 14 seconds remaining to win it.
• The way things were going, I was a little surprised that Jason Campbell's hail mary throw to end the game wasn't successful.  Instead it was intercepted, but at least someone caught it!
• That's another impressive performance for Ryan Fitzpatrick.  If he keeps this up we might have to actually consider him a viable starting QB.  Let's see him do it against a good defense first. 
• The season couldn't be going any worse for the Chiefs, and it's not just because they lost another blow out this week.  The bigger loss for them is that Jamaal Charles blew out his ACL.  A week after losing their best defensive player (Eric Berry), the Chiefs have lost their best offensive player.  They also lost TE Tony Moeaki in the pre-season to the same injury.  Seriously, what do ACLs have against the Chiefs?
• Everyone's favorite sleeper team came up big again this week and are now 2-0 for the first time in... forever?  Certainly seems that way.  Matthew Stafford had another big day, throwing a pair of TDs to Calvin Johnson, while finding the endzone a couple more times for good measure.  They sent the hobbled Chiefs packing before Stafford could tear his own ACL.  With the way Chiefs players keep falling to the injury, it may be contagious, so it was imperative to get them out of Detroit before the injury prone Stafford suffered the same fate.  Close call, Lion's fans.
• The 48-3 shellacking was the largest margin of victory in Lion's history.
• After the Ravens looked dominant against the Steelers last week, they disappointed this week by falling to a Titans team that had looked awful in their previous game.  See how quickly things can turn around in the NFL? 
• A big part of the Ravens letdown was that they lost the turnover battle (3-1), after having a +7 turnover margin against the Steelers. 
• Chris Johnson got to see a lot more action this week (24 carries) but did little with it to impress anyone (53 yards).  Don't worry, he'll live up to that contract someday, he's just easing his way in.
• The Browns have never beaten Peyton Manning's Colts before, and well... they still haven't, because Manning isn't playing.  The Browns did get a win over the Colts though, so that's a start.
• We knew Kerry Collins wasn't the answer, so the offense was sure to suffer, but why has the defense been such a disappointment?  The Manning injury seems to be deflating the entire team.  Or they are tanking to get into the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, just in case Manning never recovers.  Is week 2 too early to tank?
• Those of you that were worried about LaGarett Blount can relax.  He still isn't getting a heavy workload (the Bucs played from behind most of the game), but he averaged 5.5 yards on the carries he did get and found the endzone twice, including the game winner with 31 seconds left in the game.
• Adrian Peterson did the heavy lifting for the Vikings, scoring two first quarter TDs.  Not a whole lot to like about this offense besides AP.
• The Saints bounced back from their tough loss to the Packers last week to put up a convincing victory against the Bears.  Drew Brees led the way with 3 TDs and doesn't appear to have missed a beat, despite losing his top receiver, Marques Colston, last week.
• You had to root for Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher this week, after he spent the past week dealing with the sudden loss of his mother.  Not many people would have the strength to pull themselves together in time to play just days later.
• The Blaine Gabbert era can officially begin in Jacksonville, after Luke McCown was pulled during a lopsided loss to the Jets.  No word yet on if the switch is permanent, but it will be tough to hand the job back to a guy coming off a 4 interception performance.  He has a 1.8 QB rating!  How is that even possible?
• Mark Sanchez didn't exactly light it up in this game either.  He made some good throws, but several bad ones as well.  The Jets took advantage of the good field position afforded to them by the numerous Jaguar turnovers to coast to victory.
• Nothing like an NFC West opponent to help get over a tough loss.  The Steelers took advantage by shutting out the Seahawks.
• Ben Roethlisberger took a hit to the leg that sent him limping to the locker room for an early halftime break.  He later returned and appeared to be ok.
• The Redskins kicked a late field goal to beat the Cardinals and improve to 2-0.  That's right, a team led by Red Grossman is undefeated.  It's still early, but the Redskins are already surpassing the expectations of most people. 
• The Cards looked like they had put the game away in the 4th quarter when Larry Fitzgerald burned the defense for a 73 yard TD, but their defense couldn't hold the lead.  Fitzgerald got his wish when he asked for a competent QB.  Too bad they had to give up their only good defensive back in order to get him.
• Cam Newton continues to impress in his rookie season.  After setting a rookie record for passing yards in a game last week, he followed it up with another 400+ yard performance.  You could overlook last week's break out as an aberration of racking up stats against a bad defense, but this time it came against the defending Super Bowl champion Packers.  He still hasn't managed a win, but he played well and managed to put a scare into the champs by taking an early lead and staying close throughout the game.
• Part of what cost the Panthers a chance at an upset was their inability to stop big plays.  Rodgers threw TD passes to Greg Jennings (49 yards) and Jordy Nelson (84 yards).
• Tony Romo is doing his best to change the opinion that he can't thrive in clutch situations.  He impressed his doubters this week by playing through injured ribs to lead a comeback victory.  His 77 yard throw set up the game winning FG in overtime.
• In fact, when Romo was temporarily forced out of the game with the rib injury, it was Jon Kitna's poor performance (2 Interceptions) that was partially to blame for the game getting to be as close as it was.  Maybe the Cowboys aren't better off without Romo after all.
• It was a much needed win for the Cowboys, but it turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory.  In addition to the broken ribs for Romo, Dez Bryant missed the game with a quad injury, Miles Austin tweaked a hamstring and Felix Jones injured his shoulder.  That's a lot of star power missing from an offense that has already been struggling with inconsistency.  They can't afford for all of them to be out.
• Should the 49ers start to worry about Frank Gore?  I thought it was a mistake to give a big contract to a 28 year old RB coming off a season ending injury, but didn't think the decline would be so sudden.  Through 2 weeks, he has 42 carries for 106 yards (2.5 per carry).  Hopefully it's just a slow start in a small sample size because without him playing like his usual self, this offense is in trouble.
• Kyle Orton led the Broncos to their first win of the season, but it won't stop Denver fans from clamouring for Tim Tebow.  The biggest cheers from the fans seemed to be when Tebow came on the field, and it wasn't even an appearance as the QB.  He never even touched the ball.  Poor Orton can't wait for the team's next away game.
• Rookies Andy Dalton and A.J. Green are quickly developing a good rapport together.  Green caught 10 passes for 134 yards and a TD, making the game look as easy as it was for them back in their college days.  Probably because the team they were facing has the talent equivalent to most college teams. A Bronco's defense, without Champ Bailey or Elvis Dumervil, isn't pretty.
• Arian Foster returned for the Texans... then left after aggravating his hamstring again.  He didn't do a lot to impress in his cameo appearance anyway, and Ben Tate certainly looks capable of carrying the load, as he went over the 100 yard mark again.  Even if Foster is healthy enough to play next week, expect Tate to stay involved.
• Chad Henne came crashing down to earth (12-30 for 170 yards).  Apparently he can only put up big numbers in games where the opposing QB is having a historic day.  In a typical game, he goes back to being terrible.
• Miami falls to 0-2, with both games coming at home.  They were 1-7 at home last season.  So much for home sweet home.
• For everyone that picked Michael Vick in the first round of their fantasy football drafts, get ready to hear a lot of I told you so's regarding the health risks tied to Vick.  A hard hit knocked him out with a concussion, but the good news is that the blood he was spitting up was the result from biting his tongue, not a sign of internal bleeding, which was originally feared. 
• With Vick out of the game, the Eagles struggled to move the ball and were unable to put up any points in the 4th quarter, which led to a Falcons comeback.  It's not that Mike Kafka played poorly, he actually filled in admirably.  He's just not like the other Mike.  The Eagles are a much easier team to defend when the defense doesn't have to account for a QB scrambling for a huge gain.
• Jeremy Maclin had a huge game (171 yards, 2 TDs), but dropped a seemingly routine pass on the biggest play of the game - a 4th and 4 deep in Atlanta territory.  The Eagles turned the ball over on downs, allowing the Falcons to run out almost all of the remaining time.
• Speaking of which, do the Falcons like living dangerously, or did they just not see what DeSean Jackson did to the Giants last year?  Why would they even consider kicking to him?  It didn't end up costing them this time, but the odds of Jackson taking the kick back for a game winning score are a lot better than the odds of a desperation hail mary toss from mid-field.  Just kick it out of bounds!
• It's not often that you see a QB throw 4 TDs in a game, yet fail to pass for more than 200 yards, but Matt Ryan did it.  Typical win for Matty Ice, leading the team to victory without putting up huge numbers.  It's why he'll always be a better real life QB than fantasy football QB.
• I thought Tony Gonzalez was supposed to be washed up by now.  He led the team in receptions, yards, and caught 2 TDs.  Maybe the veteran TE has something left in the tank after all.  Also, the Eagles really need to do a better job of covering TE's.  All those highly paid corners help shut down the opponent's receivers, but they don't have a good match up for a big target like Gonzalez.
• The Giants capitalized on some key turnovers and penalties to get themselves back on track against the quickly sinking Rams.  A Sam Bradford fumble that was returned for a TD was the turning point, which the Rams never recovered from. 
• The Rams had no trouble moving the ball against an injury depleted Giants defense, at least until they got into the red zone.  They had several drives stall once they got close to the endzone, resulting in several short field goals.  Meanwhile, the Giants didn't move the ball quite as successfully, but mistakes made by the Rams granted them opportunities that they were able to take advantage of.  Once they got into the red zone they came away with TDs instead of FGs, which proved to be the difference maker.
• Domenik Hixon had the catch of the night in the endzone.  The ball bounced off his chest, but he showed tremendous concentration to stick his hand out and tap the ball back into the air several times to keep it from hitting the ground, before finally bringing it in for the successful catch.
• The Washington Redskins, widely predicted to finish last in the NFC East, currently lead the division at 2-0.  Who would have guessed that?
• Only 4 teams in the AFC have started the season 2-0.  Three of those teams are in the AFC East (Pats, Jets, Bills).
• The 2-0 Lions have been world beaters so far, leading all teams in point differential (+52).