NFL Week 2 - What We Learned

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Oh what a wonderful weekend of football. Some teams put to bed a terrible loss with sweet, sweet revenge on the field. Others discovered they were quickly silencing the critics of their performance from a year ago and some teams well...it was business as usual for them both good and bad. Either way, Week 2 was valuable for football fans, because this is the week that gave us a better understanding of our favorite teams and what they're made of and of course, every team that pulls that off is telling a story and here are the top ones from Week 2 in the NFL.

1. Denver's defense is legit. If it wasn't for Aqib Talib's pick six and Brandon Marshall's fists of steel, would we really be talking about a Denver Broncos win over Kansas City? My gut says no. The sluggish offense, lack of a run game and leaky offensive line put Denver in a tough place, but that defense made all the difference. This is a D that everyone in the league is going to have to watch out for, they have a powerhouse pass rush, a deadly duo of cornerbacks, the list goes on and on. When Manning and the offense finally come together, this is going to be one scary team on the field. But in the here and now, it's all about Defense in Denver and that's something I haven't been able to say in a long time. 

2. There are some surprising teams that hold the record of 0-2. Indianapolis, Baltimore and Seattle are teams that are normally hyper competitive on the field and two weeks into the season they look just awful. Each one of them features a franchise quarterback that look like shells of their former selves and defenses that are struggling. It's actually quite amazing to see and honestly, as an outside observer, I'm not sure what the problem is. But, if I had to guess, the power struggle between Coach and GM is causing issues in Indy. A new OC and lack of leadership on the D is hurting Baltimore and I think Seattle is still reeling confidence wise from their Super Bowl loss. Either way, these teams need to turn it around quick, or we just discussed three teams that won't be in the playoffs this year. 

3. Is it bad that I'm getting a little bit of joy out of watching Chip Kelly's completely redesigned roster fail on the field? Because I am. Truth is, after watching Mike Shanahan grow into a bit of an ego freak in Denver when he obtained full GM control over the roster...I've not been a fan of coaches who play General Manager and that includes Chip. Few coaches really have the ability to discover talent like GM's and judging from the Eagles performance thus far this season, Coach Kelly is reaffirming my belief in this. I mean...the Eagles are scary bad on the field and talent wise and the only person to blame is Coach Kelly. Here's to hoping ownership either steps in quickly or at the end of the season to strip Chip of this unnecessary power and let him do what he does best, coach. 

4. Turns out Buffalo couldn't put their money where their mouth is because man...that was an embarrassing loss to New England on Sunday. Sure they managed to pull it close but most of the game they were on their heels in disgusting fashion. All the wonderful things that the Bills did against Indy were simply not there. The offense couldn't get going, the defense couldn't stop Brady and his powerhouse offense. It's unfortunate really because it's obvious Buffalo is a talented team and one has to wonder if the hype and the bravado took precedence over preparation. Hopefully they all learned a valuable lesson and will bounce back.

5. Allow me to type a sentence that I thought I never would. Johnny Manziel looked pretty damn good on the field Sunday. Yup, I wrote that out and it's actually a statement based in truth since Johnny Football actually played a quality game. He made some damn pretty throws, in fact it seems the deep ball is suddenly his specialty but aside from dropping bombs on the Titans, he made all the important throws you would expect from a quarterback and he truly commanded the offense and his team. My hats off to him and now the question becomes whether or not he will he remain the starter and as of press time, meetings have occurred to have that discussion. It's possible Johnny has finally gotten his act together and may be the QB the Browns have been waiting for...time will tell.

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