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Where did all the scoring go? After a record-breaking opening week for offenses, defenses hit back in Week 2. The league scoring average dropped by about eight points per game, and only three games on Sunday saw both teams score at least 20. Despite the lack of scoring, Week 2 still delivered plenty of drama and memorable plays, including the Eagles’ last-second touchdown to beat the Titans, the return of the Chiefs’ downfield passing game, and Ja’Marr Chase’s jaw-dropping catch in Houston. As always, we’ll dive into the strategies, the matchups, and everything else that created Sunday’s most memorable moments – along with what those moments mean for the future. The Eagles are masters of drama. A week after the defense prevented overtime with a two-point stand, Hurts stepped into the hero role with a game-winning touchdown pass in the final seconds. That was a bit of redemption for Hurts, who played well despite throwing two costly interceptions that kept the Titans in the game. But the first pick – which cost the Eagles at least three points and set up Tennessee’s first touchdown – may have provided Hurts with the intel he needed for the game-winning play. Philadelphia lined up in the same formation on both plays: a bunch set to the right with Hurts lined up in the gun. On both plays, the Titans put seven defenders on the line of scrimmage in an all-out blitz look. Here’s the pre-snap look on the first-quarter interception: And here’s the pre-snap picture before Hurts’s game-winning throw: Tennessee played the same coverage on both plays. The secondary is technically in man-to-man coverage across the board but can switch assignments if needed. The corners also have inside help from two defenders dropping off the line of scrimmage to pick up quick in-breaking routes. On the interception, Titans safety Amani Hooker sees the help is taking care of his man, so he falls off his original man to undercut Hurts’s throw. Hurts and first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion banked that information for later in the game. Fast-forward to the end of the fourth, and the Eagles bust out that same formation, only this time, wide receiver DeVonta Smith motions into the bunch. The aim was to cross Tennessee’s wires by forcing some last-second communication on who’s covering who. And that’s exactly what happened with two defenders picking up Smith’s quick out-breaker. Smith slips, but it doesn’t matter with Darius Cooper running wide open in the back of the end zone. Hurts quickly adjusted and found the open man. Ball game. The takeaway: It’s still early, and the Eagles offense has been overly reliant on explosive plays and late-down magic, but I like what I’m seeing from this Hurts-Mannion partnership through two games. Hurts is making throws we haven’t really seen from him before, and Mannion has shown a knack for calling the right play at the right time. The game-winner against the Titans shows the young play-caller isn’t just going through the motions. He’s reacting to what he sees from the defense and coming up with counters on the fly. If Mannion can just get the run game going – which looks like a big ‘if’ after two bad weeks for the ground game – this offense will take off. The deep ball is back in Kansas City! At least it was for one night. If you squinted, you might have thought you were watching a game from the early days of the Mahomes era, back when the Chiefs quarterback used to chuck the ball downfield with regularity. These days, it’s rare for Mahomes to hit one deep pass in a game, but in Sunday night’s overtime win over the Colts, he hit two. Wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, who was doing his best impression of Tyreek Hill against Indy, caught both. Thornton’s second big catch may have saved the day for Kansas City. With the Chiefs facing third-and-12 on their first overtime possession, they dialed up the most famous play call in franchise history to move the chains: Wasp. Any Chiefs fan will instantly recognize that design from the biggest play of Mahomes’s first Super Bowl win over the 49ers back in 2020. Kansas City runs it out of a trips formation, with the middle receiver running the “Wasp” route. That receiver starts as if he’s running a deep over route across the field, then breaks back toward the sideline. It’s really designed as a counter against defenses sitting on those deep crossers the Chiefs were known for when Hill was on the team. Obviously, Hill is no longer around, but the play was just as effective with Thornton burning the Colts secondary on a deep crosser earlier in the game. On the Wasp play in overtime, the Chiefs line up in the same formation. At first, it looks like they’re running the same play, with three in-breaking routes working across the field, right before Thornton breaks off the route, leaving Colts safety Kapena Gushiken a few steps behind. The takeaway: We’ll have to see the Chiefs do it again before we can say the deep passing game is officially back, but Kenneth Walker III’s presence has changed the math for opponents, who can no longer sit back in deep zone coverages against this offense. Mahomes hitting one deep ball would have been a good sign on its own. That he also hit the counter play for another big gain is the most significant sign of life this deep passing game has produced in years. Whether Thornton can sustain the downfield attack on his own is a fair question, but it’s nice to know Mahomes can still hit those big plays when given the opportunity. Typically, I focus on plays in high-leverage situations, but I’m making an exception for this Chase touchdown reception that opened the scoring in Cincinnati’s impressive win in Houston. First off, holy crap. I shouldn’t be surprised by anything Chase does on a football field anymore, but that play left my jaw on the floor. He’s mid-stumble with the ball in the air, regains his balance, and somehow contorts his body to find the ball while keeping two feet in bounds – all in one seamless motion. It’s an inexplicably athletic play. Even Chase couldn’t describe what he had just pulled off. “I literally don’t even know what I did,” Chase said after the game. Chase’s effort defies description, but even the decision to throw that ball is difficult to explain. Here’s a still of the moment when Joe Burrow decides to throw it up to his star receiver. You’ll see Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. in perfect position to defend the go-ball. He has about four yards of cushion over the top of Chase, and he’s forcing the Bengals receiver toward the sideline, reducing the window for the throw. Most quarterbacks would see an All-Pro corner playing over the top of their guy and move on to the next read. Burrow just sees that No. 1 on the back of the jersey and says, Screw it, Ja’Marr’s got me. More often than not, that strategy works out. While the play didn’t come in a high-leverage spot, it did end up being the game-winning play for the Bengals, with the Texans managing just six points. The takeaway: If it wasn’t clear before the season, it is now: Chase is the best receiver in the sport. Some worthy competitors for his throne remain. Justin Jefferson is still amazing despite an untenable quarterback situation. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is one of the smoothest route runners in league history and just dropped three touchdowns on the Cardinals. But Chase breaks the rules of football. It doesn’t matter if the defense throws an extra body at him or if a star cornerback has leverage on him. Chase makes his quarterback right even when he’s kind of wrong. 1. Sometimes you just have to call it as you see it, and Tom Brady was right: this was an “absolute piss missile” from Dak Prescott to CeeDee Lamb. No defensive call is perfect, but the Commanders aren’t far off here. The Cowboys are running one of their staple pass concepts. Some call it “Middle Read,” others call it “989,” but it’s the same design either way. The two outside receivers run go routes, and the slot receiver reads the safety shell and either splits the safeties against two-deep coverage or runs a crossing route against single-high. Washington is playing with two deep safeties, with a linebacker running with that middle route, so the only way for Prescott to beat the coverage is to hit a hole shot along the sideline. And you’re not hitting a hole shot against Cover 2 without throwing an … Prescott’s touchdown that made him the all-time leader in franchise history also came on the same “Middle Read” concept. Washington’s coverage made things a bit easier the second time around, and no piss missiles were necessary. 2. Bears-Vikings turned out to be a soggy dud, but let’s give Brian Flores his, um, flores for the work he did against Ben Johnson’s offense. The Vikings defensive coordinator won the first-down battle, which had a domino effect on Chicago’s passing game. The Bears found themselves in several unfavorable situations, which allowed Flores to load the line of scrimmage with potential blitzers and dare Caleb Williams to figure out who was coming and who was dropping into coverage. The second-quarter interception came in one of those situations. With the Bears facing third-and-12, Flores sent a six-man pressure with five Vikings defenders dropping into coverage. That’s all they needed to glove up Chicago’s play call. It’s as if Flores was in the huddle when Williams called the play. Linebacker Blake Cashman drops right into the throwing window to Kalif Raymond. He passes Raymond’s route off to another linebacker who had just passed his initial man off to the deep safety. Meanwhile, the rush flushes Williams out of the pocket but doesn’t let him turn the corner to scramble and forces the risky throw. It’s a perfect snapshot of team defense. 3. Before Jets head coach Aaron Glenn’s woeful clock management cost his team the game in overtime, offensive coordinator Frank Reich made a tactical blunder that got the Packers back in it. New York faced a fourth-and-1 with 1:20 left. Glenn made the right call to go for it, but Reich left many Jets fans miffed – a feeling they’re undoubtedly familiar with – by lining up Geno Smith in the shotgun and calling a run straight up the gut. Fans wanted to see the Jets go under center and pound the rock. And the numbers back up that strategy in fourth-and-short situations. Over the last five years, lining up under center on fourth-and-1 has produced a 70% success rate for offenses, while shotgun formations have a success rate of just 59%, per Next Gen Stats. That’s a healthy gap. And while we’re on the subject, lining up a tight end off the ball and asking him to cut off an edge rusher, as the Jets did with Jeremy Ruckert, is bad process and deserved punishment. Lukas Van Ness, who was unblockable all day, easily beat Ruckert inside to make the fourth-down stop and give the Packers life. The Jets defense held the Packers and forced overtime, but that failed fourth-down conversion cost New York a chance to win it in regulation and gave Glenn a chance to blow the game with a few odd decisions.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Week 2 of the NFL season did not provide as many offensive fireworks as the opening week, but a pair of NFC stars stood out among the rest. Bryce Young and Jaxon Smith-Njigba each led their teams to victory by accounting for three touchdowns in Week 2. On the latest episode of FOX Sports’ “Gronk & Jules,” Edelman chose the Carolina Panthers quarterback and Gronkowski picked the Seattle Seahawks receiver as their Employees of the Week. Julian Edelman’s Employee Of The Week Young completed 23 of 36 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns, including two to Darren Waller, in a 34-3 win over the Atlanta Falcons. “I think Bryce Young had an unbelievable game,” Edelman said. “Doesn’t make too many self-inflicting mistakes. He’ll take what the defense gives him. He hits the big opportunity when they give him the big opportunity. He’s been really fun to watch, and he’s coming into his own.” The performance followed a Week 1 game in which Young threw for 361 yards in a 59-37 loss to the Chicago Bears. “They’ve scored a lot of points these last two weeks,” Edelman said. “He’s been getting better every week. For 5’10 at quarterback, it’s crazy.” Gronkowski pointed to Young’s benching back in 2024 as the turning point. Head coach Dave Canales sat Young in favor of Andy Dalton after Carolina’s 0-2 start to the 2024 season. “The benching was totally accurate,” Gronkowski said. “It was necessary, and everyone thought there was no argument to the benching.” Gronkowski said Dalton’s play as the starter “kind of lit a spark,” and he joked that Young took the fiery hair off Dalton and the heat that came with it. “Bryce Young has been the quarterback that the Carolina Panthers have wanted Bryce Young to be since that benching,” Gronkowski said. “He gets better every year.” Rob Gronkowski’s Employee Of The Week Smith-Njigba caught nine passes for 155 yards and a career-high three touchdowns in a 31-7 win over the Arizona Cardinals. It was the first time in his career that he scored three touchdowns in one game. Drew Lock started at quarterback in place of Sam Darnold, who was out with a gluteus injury, and threw all three touchdown passes to Smith-Njigba, including an 82-yard catch on Seattle’s first passing attempt of the game. “I’m going to go with JSN,” Gronkowski said. “He had nine catches, 155 yards. He had three touchdowns, which is a career best for him. He proved once again why he was offensive player of the year and that it wasn’t a mistake. The voters got it right. There’s no doubt about it.” Gronkowski said Seattle would not be 2-0 without Smith-Njigba, pointing to the receiver’s touchdown in the Week 1 game against New England as a play that could have changed the outcome. The win over Arizona was Seattle’s 12th in a row, including the postseason. Edelman focused on how Smith-Njigba gets separation from defenders. “He’s just a really smooth route runner, and he outruns people,” Edelman said. “This guy just outruns people, and he’s smooth with it. He doesn’t move his body when he cuts.” Gronkowski went on to explain how defenders cannot tell when Smith-Njigba is going to break. “You think that’s his out route, and then boom, he just breaks up again,” Gronkowski said. “He’s one of the hardest players to defend in all of football. He’s just really special.” Both players are in action again in Week 3. Young and the Panthers visit the Cleveland Browns. Smith-Njigba and the Seahawks play at the Washington Commanders.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

This is it. With one week remaining in the regular season, the National League playoff field looks nearly complete. The Brewers, Dodgers and Braves have already clinched their respective divisions, while the Cubs, Padres and Phillies are jockeying for wild-card seeding while hoping to hold off the Diamondbacks, who haven’t been eliminated yet but are four games back of the final wild-card spot. In the American League, meanwhile, much is yet to be determined. The Rays, Yankees and Red Sox are the only teams who have already clinched a spot in the playoffs. Tampa Bay can clinch the AL East as early as Tuesday. The other AL division races are much tighter. In the West, the Rangers lead the Astros by one game for the division lead. The Guardians also lead the White Sox by one game in the Central. As we wait to see how it all shakes out, our final regular season power rankings below include every team’s biggest surprise of the year. (Note: Only teams within five games of a playoff spot entering the final week of the season were included in our rankings.) Do they belong on this list? No. This is the most disappointing team in baseball. Technically, however, they’ve yet to be eliminated from the playoff race. They’re five games back in the AL West, though, so it won’t be long before this debacle ends. Cal Raleigh going from MVP contender last year to a below league-average hitter with the worst batting average in the sport was the biggest surprise (a terrific final month won’t change that), but it’s worth pointing out that the entire offensive operation was a disaster, and a talented rotation didn’t do nearly enough to make up for the lineup’s spiral. The biggest surprise is that Adley Rutschman is no longer on the team. But in terms of on-field production, Gunnar Henderson — who combined for 20.2 bWAR his last three seasons — being a league-average hitter in his age-25 season is the most shocking part of this discouraging season in Baltimore, especially coming off his standout World Baseball Classic. Things are starting to crumble in Toronto. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. left Sunday’s game with back stiffness. Dylan Cease is getting an MRI on his shoulder. The Blue Jays dropped both of their series last week while fighting for a playoff spot. Not good. Guerrero finally went deep at the Rogers Centre, but he is currently sitting on nine home runs for the season in what has been the worst year of his career. He entered Sunday with the 12th-lowest slugging percentage among all qualified MLB hitters, which is almost incomprehensible. But it’s not just a lack of power hurting the reigning AL champs on offense. As a team, the Blue Jays went from having the highest on-base percentage in MLB last year to the fifth-lowest this year. If I told you the Astros’ pitching fWAR leader this year was someone who pitched in Japan last season, you might assume it’s Tatsuya Imai, the guy who signed for three years and $54 million before the season. But if you’ve watched any Houston baseball this year, you know that’s not true. Instead, it’s a player who signed a minor-league contract before the season. Peter Lambert, who pitched for NPB’s Yakult Swallows last year, has thrown more innings than any Astros starter this season and provided a semblance of stability to a rotation that desperately needed it. The AL West-leading Rangers had one All-Star this year. Corey Seager? Nope. Jacob deGrom? Surprisingly, no. Wyatt Langford? Try again. It was Jacob Latz, who has 30 saves this year and has emerged as a key piece of an otherwise uninspiring Texas bullpen. Latz has the same WHIP as Jacob Misiorowski (0.81) and the same batting average against as Mason Miller (.144). Things have started to spiral in September, but the big surprise is that the White Sox — after losing more than 100 games each of the last three seasons — are in this position at all to contend for a division title. No one expected things to flip so quickly. Specifically, an offense that ranks sixth in MLB in home runs has been a major stunner (even taking into account the recent downturn). Nolan Arenado’s go-ahead grand slam Sunday helped keep the Diamondbacks’ hopes alive, as slim as they may be. FanGraphs currently gives them a 5.9% chance to make the playoffs. The biggest surprise is not their offense but their pitching staff, which was expected to be among the worst in the sport but instead ranks 12th in MLB in ERA. Specifically, rebound seasons from starters Eduardo Rodriguez (2.89 ERA) and Michael Soroka (3.45) stand out. It’s not nearly the same as last year’s extraordinary division comeback, but the Guardians are doing the Guardians thing. On Aug. 16, they were six games back in the AL Central. Now, they have a one-game lead entering the season’s final week. The good surprise? Parker Messick has the third-lowest ERA among all qualified AL starters and is a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate who will likely also receive Cy Young votes. The bad surprise? The Guardians are doing all this despite Jose Ramirez being a below league-average hitter for the first time in more than a decade. (Worth noting: He has looked a lot better lately.) It was a bad week on the field for the Red Sox, who dropped series in Texas and Tampa Bay, but they also punched their ticket to the postseason. So, considering where they were early this year after firing their manager, there’s plenty of reason to celebrate. It’s not a surprise that the Red Sox have a good rotation; it is a surprise that the best pitcher of the bunch might already be rookie Payton Tolle, who leads all qualified Boston starters in strikeouts, fWAR, WHIP and expected ERA. Late last year, Zack Wheeler had a blood clot removed in his shoulder and then a rib removed during thoracic outlet decompression surgery. The procedures ended his 2025 season and threatened to derail the end of his sensational career. Instead, at 36 years old, he hasn’t missed a beat. Wheeler has bounced back to again be one of the best arms in baseball — all the more important now, with Jesus Luzardo’s shoulder giving the standout left-hander trouble at a bad time. What if I told you Shohei Ohtani had a .953 OPS as a hitter and a 1.79 ERA as a pitcher in the first half…and two months later wasn’t the MVP favorite? Pete Crow-Armstrong was obviously an immense talent already, but what he’s doing this year — and the way he has improved his plate discipline and selectiveness while only getting more powerful at the plate — is extraordinary. He’s producing one of the greatest seasons in Cubs history. What a late-season run. The Padres have won 14 of 16 games to not only put themselves in prime position to make the postseason but also to potentially host a wild-card series if they can outplay the Cubs and Phillies over the season’s final week. Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill are heating up, but neither has been the team’s best hitter this year (min. 300 plate appearances). In a career year, that honor belongs to Ty France, who leads the Padres in every slash-line category (.301/.366/.519). Entering this year, Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, Hunter Brown, Jacob deGrom and Max Fried were among the top contenders for the American League Cy Young Award. And none of them will win it. Cam Schlittler was coming off an encouraging rookie season, but his swift development into the unquestioned ace of the Yankees’ staff has been the biggest surprise. Now, he’s the runaway favorite to earn MLB’s top pitching honor — and might even receive MVP votes. The second-lowest ERA among qualified starters since the trade deadline belongs to the Braves’ Tyler Mahle, who is making Atlanta’s seemingly quiet deadline look a lot more impactful in retrospect. Mahle has a 1.28 in eight starts since the deadline and has gone at least six innings in seven of those outings. He doesn’t have the strikeout stuff you’d desire from a postseason standout, but right now he looks like the best option to start a Game 2 after Atlanta ace Chris Sale. The big surprise on the pitching staff this year was All-Star Justin Wrobleski, and the fact that he’ll be pitching out of the bullpen come October (barring a starting pitching catastrophe) is a reminder of the Dodgers’ embarrassment of riches on the staff. The big surprise on the offense is that both of the Dodgers’ corner outfielders — Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández — were below league-average hitters for most of the year. That’s no longer the case, though, as both are playing their best baseball at the right time. The Rays’ offense has the highest batting average in MLB, their starting rotation ranks third in ERA, and they’re trending toward winning their first division title in five years. Any of those facts would constitute a surprise for a team that was projected to finish with a losing record this year. But the biggest surprise of all might be 31-year-old closer Bryan Baker, who had a 4.06 ERA last year and is now an All-Star closer with the most saves in the sport. They’ve already set a franchise record with 98 wins as they barrel toward their first ever 100-win season. That’s probably the team’s biggest surprise considering, yet again, they were overlooked and underestimated entering the year. Both the offense (hi, Jake Bauers) and the pitching staff have their fair share of surprises, but Jacob Misiorowski going from intriguing rookie to the best pitcher in baseball in just one season might stand out more than anything.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

The lead up to Week 3 was all about Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford after leaving Ole Miss for LSU before the College Football Playoff last season. And then, the Rebels outlasted the Tigers in an emotional 32-24 win that was essentially a massive sigh of relief for the state of Mississippi. Kiffin said after the game that he was grateful for his time coaching Ole Miss because his feelings for the place were not just about football. Now that this SEC game — one of the most highly and hotly anticipated matchups of this regular season — is over, we can maybe all move on from the dramatic Kiffin headlines. We’ll see. There was more than just LSU and Ole Miss in Week 3, though we still have more to discuss. With that, here are our superlatives from another fun weekend of college football: Before we move on, we have to briefly talk about the game of the week, which obviously was Kiffin’s Ole Miss homecoming. The Rebels jumped out to a 24-7 lead at halftime behind quarterback Trinidad Chambliss’ sharpness and accuracy. His counterpart, LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt, took awhile to settle in. Things got spicy in the third quarter when the Tigers put together two touchdown drives and tied things up 24-24 early in the fourth. Chambliss then proceeded to lead his offense on a 13-play drive that he finished with a 14-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion to pull ahead. The Ole Miss defense then shut things down with a goal line stand, which ended in Jaylon Braxton intercepting Leavitt on the Tigers’ final play of the game to clinch the 32-24 victory. “Hotty f****** Toddy!” Chambliss said on the broadcast after the game. It has to be Vanderbilt’s fumble recovery in the end zone to pull off a shocking 35-31 win over NC State. The Wolfpack faced fourth down on its own five-yard line while leading, 31-28, with six seconds left. Quarterback CJ Bailey tried to run out the clock and take a safety, but he fumbled, and the Commodores recovered to win the game. Vandy fans didn’t rush the field in excitement, but they would have had a good reason to do so. The broadcast put up a wild statistic after the game, which was that teams who had the ball and the lead in the final 10 seconds of a game were 1,046-1 over the last 20 seasons before Vandy’s stunner. It must feel good to be Pete Golding right now. All the chatter leading into the Ole Miss-LSU game was about Kiffin’s return, how Leavitt was “doubtful” according to LSU’s mid-week injury report, and that the Tigers’ defense was dominant. Golding may have benefited most from Kiffin’s departure last year, as he was ultimately named the successor. Golding took the Rebels to the CFP, winning the first round and a quarterfinal game vs. Georgia before losing to Miami in the semifinal. Those results gave the program a confidence boost entering this season, where they are currently sitting with a 3-0 record. Getting past the Tigers was important for team confidence, but Golding didn’t overhype the game with his players and reminded them afterward that they have more work to do. “Is it sweet? Absolutely,” Golding told reporters. “But we’ve got to come back to work. It wasn’t our Super Bowl, and we didn’t make it out to be our Super Bowl.” Jeremiah Smith made history Saturday in Ohio State’s 59-3 win over Kent State, becoming the program’s all-time leader in career receiving yards. After catching five passes for 85 yards, the star wide receiver now has 2,959 career receiving yards, surpassing Michael Jenkins’ previous record of 2,898. Smith, a junior, is a Heisman Trophy candidate and widely projected to be a top-5 pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. He had 1,315 receiving yards as a true freshman and then 1,234 as a sophomore last season. Through three games this year, he has 312 yards and three touchdowns while averaging 157.5 yards per game. The Buckeyes are 2-1 with Big Ten play beginning next week vs. Illinois. Kentucky shocked then-No. 9 Texas A&M, 31-21, in College Station. It was a massive win for first-year Wildcats coach Will Stein in his first-ever SEC road game. A week ago, the Wildcats were embarrassed in a 45-17 loss to Alabama. They led the Crimson Tide 17-13 at halftime before being outscored 32-0 in the second half. This week, Kentucky’s defense – led by former Texas A&M defensive coordinator Jay Bateman – was especially lethal, limiting Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed to 26-of-49 passing for 236 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. “Hats off to Kentucky, they came in here and beat our ass,” Aggies head coach Mike Elko said after the game. “No good enough from us on any level — coaching, playing, performing, physicality, anything. On me, I own it. It’s my program, I’m in charge of it. We have to get it fixed. “… There’s no positives. Not an ounce of a positive anywhere.” In this new era of a nine-game SEC schedule, no team has an easy path to the CFP. And things get tougher for Texas A&M, who has to travel to No. 10 LSU next week. There are a lot of intriguing matchups coming in Week 4. No. 1 Texas travels to No. 15 Tennessee, while No. 24 Oklahoma goes to No. 2 Georgia. It’s important for both the Longhorns and Sooners to get those road wins with the Red River Shootout looming in two weeks (both teams have a bye the week before their annual rivalry showdown). But perhaps the biggest storyline entering next week is a Big Ten meeting between No. 12 USC and No. 21 Oregon. The Ducks have been confusing to start the season. They were a popular pick to win the national championship with quarterback Dante Moore a frontrunner to win the Heisman Trophy. Then they nearly lost their season opener to Boise State and were stunningly upset by Oklahoma State in Stillwater in Week 2. This past week, they tried to make some sort of statement by trouncing Portland State, 84-0. The Trojans, meanwhile, are 4-0, but raised questions in their 42-35 win over Rutgers on Saturday. USC was a three-touchdown favorite, and although Lincoln Riley’s team never trailed, it let the Scarlet Knights hang around. There is no telling what will happen when the Trojans host the Ducks in Week 4.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

It’s tough to definitively say we know who will be contending for the Lombardi Trophy this season, but it’s hard to ignore what some teams have done so far this season. The San Francisco 49ers have blown out both teams they’ve played, while the defending-champion Seattle Seahawks went on the road and beat an upstart Cardinals team in Week 2. Also, the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals have put the AFC on notice that they might be back as contenders. But how do they stack up against each other? Here’s my top-10 rankings following Week 2’s Sunday slate and ahead of Monday night’s Giants vs. Rams matchup. The Rams are too talented to leave off this list after one game. That said, though, a loss to the Giants on Monday night would mean they will not be here next week. The Giants were extremely impressive in Week 1, dominating the Cowboys at home to kick off a new era under head coach John Harbaugh. A trip across the country to play one of the most talented rosters in the NFL will be a good litmus test for them. Do not sleep on the Silver and Black after head coach Klint Kubiak quickly changed the culture in Las Vegas. The offensive guru has transformed the Raiders into a disciplined unit that pays attention to detail and avoids the self-inflicted miscues (turnovers, penalties and missed assignments) that lead to losses. Although the wins have not been perfect, the Raiders’ 2-0 start suggests the team is headed in the right direction. Joe Burrow & Co. are quietly re-emerging as a force in the AFC with a couple of W’s to start the season. Although the offense was expected to sizzle with wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase terrorizing opponents, the defense has held its own with defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence dominating the line of scrimmage. With a more balanced roster producing impressive results, the Bengals are back in business as a playoff contender. After taking a year off as a title contender, the Chiefs are officially back in contention with quarterback Patrick Mahomes leading the way. The NFL’s QB1 of the 2020s remains as clutch as ever, delivering big plays in key moments as a playmaking wizard. Running back Kenneth Walker III adds a dynamic element as a runner-receiver with home-run potential. With another stellar performance on Sunday night, Walker became the first player in 40 years to record at least 175 yards from scrimmage in each of his team’s first two games. After registering a couple of gritty wins, the Eagles are well-positioned to make another title run. Jalen Hurts closed out Philadelphia’s Week 2 victory over Tennessee with a “dime” to silence the haters questioning his skills as a title-winning quarterback with a Super Bowl MVP in the trophy case. The 49ers showed no signs of jet lag from their Week 1 trip to Australia, issuing a beatdown on the Dolphins that was not as close as the 35-13 score indicated. The Brock Purdy-led offense is clicking on all cylinders, with running back Christian McCaffrey continuing to dazzle as the ultimate offensive weapon out of the backfield. On the other side of the ball, the defense looks like a juggernaut under new coordinator Raheem Morris, setting the “Bang Bang” gang up to make a deep postseason run. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores put on a clinic, holding a high-powered Chicago Bears offense to three points with a barrage of pressures that disrupted QB Caleb Williams’ timing and suffocated the running game. With a defense that has surrendered just six points over the past six quarters, the Vikings have been able to climb to the top of the NFC North with their starting quarterback on the sidelines. Josh Allen has the Bills’ offense humming with his weekly heroics. The 2024 league MVP could earn some more hardware at season’s end if he continues to put up five-touchdown days while leading the Bills to more primetime wins. The defending champs are primed for a back-to-back title run after jumping out to a 2-0 record with a pair of impressive performances. With Drew Lock thriving as a super-sub in place of Sam Darnold, the Seahawks’ offense hasn’t skipped a beat without its QB1.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

The Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers flirted with catastrophic losses before pulling out wins at the last minute. But the Tampa Bay Buccaneers couldn’t, losing at home to the awful Cleveland Browns. Like the Bucs, the Los Angeles Chargers dropped to 0-2 as well. But in the Chargers’ case, I actually believe in their opponent: the Las Vegas Raiders. Coach Klint Kubiak has that unit looking much better than it should. The Raiders might even be playoff-worthy. But that’s the obvious stuff. You came here to sound smart. So let’s go below the surface. Let’s spin it forward, dive deeper, think outside the box and read between the lines. If I do my job, you’ll be fluent in the NFL’s Week 2 action. Maybe you’d think that, after two weeks, we know nothing about the Chicago Bears. They scored 59 points on the way to a win over the Panthers in Week 1. They scored three points in a loss to the Vikings in Week 2. The 56-point differential is the third-largest in a team’s first two games — ever. Yes, the conditions were sloppy in the Chicago rain. But this is who the Bears are. They are going to boom and bust from week to week. They’re going to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They’re going to be their own yin and yang. In other words, they are the song “Hot N Cold” by Katy Perry. I’ll admit that I took the bait after the first week, thinking that they could score more points than anyone in NFL history. I thought Caleb Williams could insert himself into the MVP debate. We can see fairly clearly now that the Bears aren’t likely to break scoring records, particularly not after the QB’s hamstring injury. And Williams has much longer odds to join the MVP race if he’s out for an extended period after this stinker of a performance. That doesn’t mean this offense won’t realize its immense potential. It’s just that it won’t do it every single week. Think about how young the Bears are. Williams is 24, receiver Luther Burden is 22, tight end Colston Loveland is 22, receiver Rome Odunze is 24 and running back Kyle Monangai is 24. They’re all basically young enough to still be in college. (Although I might be young enough for college, according to all these new NCAA rules.) The offense has some properly grizzled veterans like receiver Kalif Raymond (32), guard Joe Thuney (33) and center Garrett Bradbury (31). And the defense is actually composed largely of veterans. But on offense, it’s no surprise that Raymond and D’Andre Swift (27) have been the most reliable playmakers. They’re also the team’s oldest playmakers. Don’t dismiss what we saw from the Bears in Week 1. It wasn’t a fluke. When Williams gets healthy, we’ll see more of that. We might even see some of that high-scoring with backup quarterback Tyson Bagent. But don’t dismiss how out of sorts the Bears looked in Week 2. That wasn’t fluky either. We’ll see more of that, even when Williams returns to the lineup. Now, all of this unpredictability is sure to make coach Ben Johnson miserable. He expects everything to be perfect. And his youngsters are going to make a lot of mistakes. But maybe as the season goes on, he’ll rein in their variable performances. That seems to be what he does best. He’s already working wonders on Williams. It took nine weeks for Drake Maye to throw four interceptions in 2025. It took him seven quarters in 2026. We knew the New England Patriots quarterback was going to regress in 2026. Maye was brilliant last year, but the playoffs gave us a taste of how he might look against elite defenses. We also knew that when receiver A.J. Brown went down with a high ankle sprain, Maye’s regression was likely to get worse. But he is playing more like he did when he was a rookie in 2024 rather than as the MVP runner-up he was in 2025. This season, Maye has struggled inordinately with situational awareness. He’s playing with too much arm arrogance. You can see that clearly in his interception in the third quarter against the Steelers in Week 2. It was a completely unnecessary risk. “You have got to know that that is not always the time to take a shot on first down,” Maye said when I asked during a press conference. He said that after last week’s loss to the Seahawks, about how he needed to play with more patience after throwing three interceptions in the league’s season-opener. He had 11 days to get his head right. And still, he had what I’d call a mental lapse. Of course, tight end Hunter Henry, the target of the pass that became a pick, didn’t agree. “Yeah, that’s on me, man. It’s a crosser. I was taking it high across his face,” Henry told me after the game. “I was trying to turn. … I need to get my eyes back to [Maye], and that’s all.” Even if the execution is better, I don’t like the decision. It was unnecessary. It was more of the same from last week. In consecutive weeks, Maye had the lead — and an elite defense showing signs of complete control. He had a ground game that was doing enough (and in Week 2, more than enough). And still, Maye forced interceptions. He unnecessarily threw the ball into dangerous situations when he didn’t have to. Against the Seahawks, he threw three in a row to, essentially, lose the game for the Patriots. In New England’s 20-3 win over the Steelers, he threw one in the third quarter. It’s a Benjamin-Button-style reverse maturation for Maye. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and coach Mike Vrabel need to figure out how get back their MVP candidate. Reign him in. They’ve done it before. They shouldn’t have to do it again. But clearly, they do. Let’s start with how the Lions’ defense tried (and failed) to stop Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who has been historically dominant to start the season, logging nine total touchdowns in the first two weeks. He is just the second player to do that in the Super Bowl era, following Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (2013, 2018). It’s important to note Allen’s accolades because it shows that he’s not necessarily a quarterback who can be stopped right now. But as the stats show, the Lions didn’t even slow him down in their 41-31 loss on Thursday. “That quarterback can make things difficult,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said after the game. “[But] we didn’t make life easy on ourselves.” The Lions dialed up one of the most aggressive blitzing game plans that Allen has ever seen. And Allen made that plan look stupid. Detroit blitzed Allen on 55.3% of his dropbacks, the third-highest blitz rate he has faced in a game in the past five seasons, and the highest rate by the Lions under defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, per Next Gen Stats. Yet Allen completed 20 of his 31 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns. Facing the blitz, this was an outlier game for Allen. Sending the blitz, this was an outlier for Sheppard. So what happened? Against the blitz, Allen was 12-of-17 for 137 yards and two touchdowns, while adding two scramble runs for 10 yards and a touchdown. “We’ve got to clean up a lot of things defensively right now, particularly on the back end,” Campbell said, revealing that the Lions had a series of coverage breakdowns that allowed big plays. Allen saw the blitzes clearly. He saw the coverages clearly. (And the busts.) We’ve always known he’s among the most physically talented players in NFL history. It’s his mental game that has lapsed, with him — notably — failing to diagnose and/or defeat blitzes from the likes of Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo in big moments, often in the playoffs. But Allen’s mental game seems to be getting better. Sheppard couldn’t trick, stump or deceive Allen. All that aggression backfired. On the other side of the ball, Detroit’s offense has its own issues. For starters, QB Jared Goff’s connection with receiver Jameson Williams has me slightly concerned. In his fifth season with the Lions, Williams has been unable to make big plays when they’ve needed him. In the first two weeks, Goff has 533 passing yards and six touchdowns, but Williams has just six catches for 78 yards and no touchdowns. He has snagged just six of his 13 targets (46%). At this time last year, Williams had 131 yards and a touchdown. Last season, he caught 64% of his targets. Williams is a boom-and-bust player, but it feels notable that while the offense has erupted through two games, the WR2 has not. Tight end Sam LaPorta is back, and star running back Jahmyr Gibbs seems to be contributing even more in the passing game. But let’s not make excuses for an elite playmaker: Williams is struggling to haul in his targets. Something’s off with him and Goff. Something’s way, way off with this Lions defense. The only consolation — after a game where there’s this much to fix (and rethink) — is that they have a long week to take a look in the mirror. The film room won’t be a happy place this week. But honest criticism should pay dividends for a team this talented. Green Bay’s 20-17 overtime win over the Jets was brutal to watch — for Packers fans. At times during the game, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one wondering whether coach Matt LaFleur might end up on the hot seat. The offense was sluggish. Jordan Love looked stumped on what to do without help from his offensive line or run game. Against the Jets. And there was the context that made it worse: LaFleur had lost the previous five games, extending back into the 2025 season. It’s not just that he’s lost so many games in a row. It’s how he’s done it, with an underwhelming display of in-game management throughout the streak. Despite all that, he’s not going anywhere. And it’s not because the Packers somehow pulled out a win. It’s because of money. LaFleur just signed a contract extension in the offseason, and he will get a very, very lengthy leash — probably extending safely into 2027 in just about every scenario. The Packers and LaFleur are a package deal for the foreseeable future. It might be frustrating for Packers fans to hear, because Love is already 27 years old. Because he sat for so many years, his window is naturally shorter. I’m not going to go as far as saying that the Packers shortened that window further by extending LaFleur, but his longstanding weaknesses haven’t changed. Until they do, he’s going to get in Love’s path to a Super Bowl. It’s hard to put too much faith in LaFleur. For the foreseeable future, however, Green Bay has no choice. Kenneth Walker is first in the NFL in rush yards over expected (125) and expected points added as a runner (13.5), per Next Gen Stats. In back to back weeks, he has set career highs in forced missed tackles, with 14 in Week 1 and 15 in Week 2. You can’t always get what you want. But the Chiefs have. It seemed like they were getting what they needed when they inked Walker to a three-year, $43 million free-agent deal this offseason. He would bring hope to the run game — often contributing the explosive plays the offense sorely lacked. But he has done more than that. He has become the central cog in the offensive rebuild, bringing fresh life to the unit that looked stale. Everyone looks better, from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to tight end Travis Kelce to coach Andy Reid. The Chiefs are third in the league in points per game at 32. They’re eighth in explosive play rate (15.2%) and seventh in success rate (49.0%). They may not be the best offense in the NFL (yet). That’s all a bunch of numbers that say this: The Chiefs are fun to watch again. The Kansas City offense isn’t laboring, like last year. There’s a weight lifted off Mahomes’ shoulders. The whole unit looks free to attack the field. That’s because of Walker, who is forcing missed tackles at a faster clip than any other running back in the league. He’s stacking up expected points added on the ground. And he’s helping the Chiefs close out games (sometimes early) with massive plays. Last week, it was his 60-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-1 that psychologically seemed to crush the Broncos. And this week against the Colts, he helped clinch the game-winning field goal, with a third-and-1 reception that got the Chiefs down into chip-shot range. The Chiefs have forced a new, under-center offensive identity that has Reid stealing out of Sean McVay’s playbook — and stealing personnel out of Mike Macdonald’s backfield. It might be humbling for Reid to be the one who is copying other coaches. Usually, it’s the other way around. But that doesn’t mean Reid is washed up. To the contrary, he’s keeping up with the times brilliantly. Walker is helping him do just that.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

If Week 1 is a liar, Week 2 provided some truth serum for NFL teams — and some probably didn’t like the results. The Green Bay Packers ended a six-game losing streak, but needed overtime to defeat the New York Jets. The defending champion Seattle Seahawks still cruised with starting quarterback Sam Darnold, upping their franchise-best and league-leading winning streak to 12 games by making quick work of the Arizona Cardinals. But the major storylines this week were the injuries to the top two picks from the 2024 draft class. Caleb Williams (hamstring) and Jayden Daniels (elbow) suffered injuries severe enough that they needed to be carted off the field in their respective teams’ losses. How the Washington Commanders and Chicago Bears move forward without their franchise quarterbacks for an extended period might define the rest of the 2026 NFL season. Now, let’s overreact to Sunday’s Week 2 action. After a disappointing road loss against the New York Giants in Week 1, Dallas rebounded at home with a convincing victory over Washington. Dak Prescott and the Cowboys’ offense finally looked as good as advertised. Prescott threw for 279 yards and four scores. His favorite target was CeeDee Lamb, who finished with 153 receiving yards and two touchdowns. And after looking disjointed against the Giants, the Dallas defense led by new defensive coordinator Christian Parker held Washington’s offense to 207 passing yards and two touchdowns. So, are the Cowboys really back? Conclusion: Overreaction Washington lost standout quarterback Jayden Daniels and had to finish the game with Marcus Mariota, making the Commanders less dangerous on offense. And even with that in consideration, the Commanders still finished with 182 yards on the ground, which followed a 165-yard ground performance from the Giants in Week 1. While the Cowboys improved to 1-1, we need to see more from them defensively against Lamar Jackson and the high-flying Baltimore Ravens in Week 3 to truly consider them a playoff contender. Considered a Super Bowl contender and facing another beatable team at home, the Bolts once again looked like they hadn’t practiced in another humbling loss, this one to the Las Vegas Raiders by an identical 26-14. Second-year running back Omarion Hampton ran for 94 yards but fumbled twice, losing one. The Chargers had a whopping six fumbles in the game. The pairing of Justin Herbert and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel has yet to produce the results many expected entering the season. Herbert finished Sunday’s game with 192 passing yards, a touchdown pass and two interceptions. He was sacked three times, posting a 59.5 passer rating. And defensively, the Chargers appear to be missing departed defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. “We’re going to have to fight our way out of this,” Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh said. Conclusion: Not an overreaction Over the next six games, the Chargers face five playoff teams from last season and the Kansas City Chiefs. Extend that stretch to nine games, and that slate includes the Ravens and New England Patriots. That arduous trek starts with road games at Buffalo and at Seattle. Harbaugh is one of the best coaches in the league, leading the Chargers to back-to-back 11-6 seasons in his first two years in Los Angeles. But his coaching acumen will be tested over the next month. The Kansas City Chiefs have put last year’s 6-11 season in the rearview mirror, as they’re one of four teams in the AFC with a 2-0 record following their overtime win over the Indianapolis Colts. The others include the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals and the Las Vegas Raiders. The Chiefs have done it by playing complementary football, too. In the win over the Colts, Patrick Mahomes threw for 382 yards and three touchdowns as he and tight end Travis Kelce rekindled the connection that made them the AFC’s king for years. Running back Kenneth Walker III had his second straight 100-yard rushing performance and Kansas City’s defense got enough stops to seal the victory after a strong outing in a win against the Denver Broncos last week. Conclusion: Overreaction Josh Allen has been the best player in the NFL and the Bills have been the best team through two weeks of the NFL season. The Bills are second in the AFC in scoring and defeated teams with more pedigree, getting a win against the Houston Texans on the road in Week 1 before taking down the Detroit Lions on Thursday. The Chiefs and Bills meet on Thanksgiving Day in Week 12, so we’ll get a more accurate barometer on where these two teams stand later this year. But, for now, the Bills pass the eye test as the more complete team. With a double-digit victory over one of the best defenses in the league in the Houston Texans, the Cincinnati Bengals have started the year 2-0 for a second straight season. That’s not insignificant, considering the Bengals have traditionally started out slowly under head coach Zac Taylor. With Joe Burrow, J’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, the Bengals always had an offense that could lead them to a deep playoff run. But with offseason additions in defensive tackles Dexter Lawrence and Jonahan Allen, plus edge rusher Boye Mafe and safety Bryan Cook in free agency, the Bengals are stout defensively. That was apparent on Sunday, when they allowed just six points as Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud threw the ball 55 times. Conclusion: Not an overreaction Through two games, the Bengals have allowed 33 total points after giving up 29 points a game last season. However, if you account for the pick-six Burrow threw in their win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week, the Bengals’ defense has allowed just 13 points per game. Burrow said before the season started that this is the year for the Bengals to make the Super Bowl happen. Maybe he spoke it into existence. In Seattle’s comeback victory over the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl rematch, Smith-Njigba made the game-changing play: a short pass from Drew Lock that he turned into a 45-yard touchdown. Smith-Njigba finished with 122 receiving yards in Week 1, and he was back this week on the road against the Arizona Cardinals, scoring on an 82-yard catch-and-run on a deep ball from Lock for the first touchdown of the game. That catch was the longest of his career and served as the start of a strong day for the star wide receiver. Smith-Njigba finished with nine receptions for 155 yards and three scores, putting the Seahawks tied atop the NFC West at 2-0 with the San Francisco 49ers. Conclusion: Not an overreaction On a day where Ja’Marr Chase shined with two touchdowns (including a highlight toe-tapping grab), Smith-Njigba outdid him. He had over twice as many yards as the Bengals’ star and one more touchdown — and he’s doing it with a backup quarterback. The Seahawks do not have a definitive timeline for Same Darnold’s return from a glute injury, but with Smith-Njigba putting Seattle’s offense on his back, Seattle can take a cautious approach to his return. The reigning Offensive Player of the Year, Smith-Njigba leads the NFL in receiving yards (277) and is tied for the league lead in receiving touchdowns (4). Yes, Sunday’s Vikings-Bears game was played in a steady downpour at Soldier Field. Still, the Vikings and defensive coordinator Brian Flroes made one of the best offenses in the league, led by Caleb Williams, look pedestrian, holding them to three points after Chicago rang up 59 points against the Carolina Panthers. Minnesota made Williams uncomfortable most of the game and bottled up Chicago’s potent running game led by D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai, holding that duo to 92 rushing yards combined on 3.5 yards per carry. Conclusion: Not an overreaction The Vikings are the only team at 2-0 in the NFC North division. Even with backup Carson Wentz starting in place of Kyler Murray at quarterback, the Vikings dominated so much defensively that Wentz didn’t have to take any risks on offense. Flores once again proved he’s the best coordinator in the league and deserving of an opportunity to serve as a head coach again.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

The NFL season doesn’t end after Week 2, but if your favorite team is off to an 0-2 start, it might feel like it’s over. Historically speaking, you have a reason to feel that way, too. In the last 10 years, only 12 of the 84 teams that have lost their first two games have gone on to make the postseason that year (14.3%). That percentage was better last year, when three of the 10 teams that started the year 0-2 reached the playoffs. However, recent history says it’s likely that just one of the eight teams that are winless through Sunday’s games will end up in the playoff field. There are a few surprises in that group of eight teams as well. The Los Angeles Chargers were upset for the second straight weekend on Sunday, falling to the Las Vegas Raiders. Teams that were expected to make the postseason, like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans, are also out to 0-2 starts, complicating their paths to the playoffs. And this all before the potential inclusion of the Los Angeles Rams, who could join this list if they lose to the New York Giants on Monday night. So, which 0-2 teams need to start panicking and getting their season on track? We put those eight teams on the panic meter. Not just 0-2, but 0-2 with losses to the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders by identical 26-14 scores? That’s two teams that picked in the top three of this past year’s draft and had minimal expectations entering this season. The Kansas City Chiefs look like they’re back. The Denver Broncos bounced back from a rough opener. And the Raiders are surprisingly 2-0, firmly placing the Chargers in last place in the AFC West. The last time the Chargers opened 0-2 and made the playoffs was 2008. This was a team with a ton of offseason buzz, having added Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator, but the more significant coordinator change might be losing Jesse Minter to the Baltimore Ravens. And the Chargers’ schedule doesn’t get any easier anytime soon. Their next two games? At the Bills and at the Seahawks, where they’ll do really well to avoid being 0-4 when they host the Broncos in Week 5. Then, they play at the Chiefs and have games against the Los Angeles Rams, Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens following their Week 7 bye.PANIC LEVEL: High A close loss against the Cincinnati Bengals to open the year was discouraging, but not nearly the way losing at home as an eight-point favorite to the Cleveland Browns was Sunday. Baker Mayfield lost three fumbles in the opener, then had an interception early Sunday, and the offense has struggled to get top receivers Emeka Egbuka and Chris Godwin involved. Todd Bowles’ MO as head coach has been great starts, then a midseason swoon. But can they get out of this one quickly with matchups against the Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys in a span of 12 days starting Sunday? Many fans wanted Bowles out after last season, so he started the year on thin ice.PANIC LEVEL: High Yes, losing to the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys to open the year 0-2 in the NFC East isn’t good. But what’s worse was seeing Jayden Daniels clearly dislocate his elbow on Sunday, making the road ahead a lot tougher for Washington. The Commanders went 2-6 with Marcus Mariota starting last year, and there’s more of the same ahead, so it’s a question of whether head coach Dan Quinn can survive another year of noncompetitive games with the asterisk of a quarterback injury. If there was a chance of them getting back to the heyday of 2024, that seems very unlikely with Daniels injured and a big hole to dig out of if/when he’s back healthy.PANIC LEVEL: High This can’t be shocking, given that the Falcons have played without their top two quarterbacks. But a 34-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers was particularly damning. Cooper Rush had three turnovers before getting benched for undrafted rookie Jack Strand, who went on to throw a pick-six on his first career pass. Can the Falcons get Michael Penix Jr. back this week? Perhaps, but they’re at Green Bay in prime time on Thursday night, so that doesn’t solve all the problems. They’re also without their top two edge rushers, so creating pressure is a challenge. They can’t be minus-5 in turnover margin as they were in Sunday’s loss.PANIC LEVEL: HIGH Houston opened 0-3 last year and still somehow went 12-5, so if it’s possible to be good at this kind of unnecessary comeback, the Texans certainly are. Losing to the Buffalo Bills on a touchdown with two minutes left is one thing, but getting held to six points by the (checks notes) Bengals defense is a bit more concerning. C.J. Stroud had 55 passes in Sunday’s loss, and having an elite defense isn’t as great when the offense is struggling to move the ball with any consistency. They face the Indianapolis Colts in Week 3, and Indy gave up 41 points to Baltimore in Week 1 and 33 points to Kansas City (27 before overtime) in Week 2, so that could be a get-right game.PANIC LEVEL: MEDIUM Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs was really close to being a road win at Arrowhead, and the Colts are in a division where three teams are 0-2. So, there’s ample time to make up for a disappointing first two games. Injuries to cornerbacks Sauce Gardner and Charvarius “Mooney” Ward could be problematic, and facing another 0-2 team in the Texans in Week 3 will raise the panic level for one of those teams. But a win against the Texans could serve a quick turning point for the Colts. Their three opponents after that are the Commanders, Pittsburgh Steelers and Titans. So, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if we looked at the AFC South standings in a month and saw the Colts sitting at 3-3 or 4-2. Everything’s still in play for them, and the Jacksonville Jaguars’ loss on Sunday certainly helps things, too. PANIC LEVEL: Medium The Titans were so close to knocking off the Eagles, losing on a touchdown with nine seconds left. So yes, they’re 0-2, but they’re probably closer to 1-1 than most Tennessee fans would expect to be. Losing 23-10 to the New York Jets doesn’t sting as much when they took the Packers to overtime. Get rookie wide receiver Carnell Tate more involved in the pass game, get more takeaways from the defense and head coach Robert Saleh’s first season can be a step in the right direction. The next two games are on the road, facing the Giants and Ravens. But if you took the Eagles to the wire, there’s nothing to say you don’t have a chance in the next two as well.PANIC LEVEL: Medium What were you really expecting? If they lost to the Raiders, they weren’t going to beat the San Francisco 49ers, lingering jet lag or not. This is a long year for Miami and head coach Jeff Hafley, and wins will be hard to come by. The Chiefs come to town in Week 3, and it shouldn’t look much different from this week. Focus on making progress, finding what you can build around, including the high draft pick likely ahead with their record. Can Malik Willis show enough to convince the Dolphins they should take Jeremiah Smith and not another quarterback?PANIC LEVEL: Low​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

Week 2 might not have featured the same scoring fireworks as Week 1, but it still delivered plenty of historic performances. Dak Prescott etched his name into the Dallas Cowboys record books, while Christian McCaffrey joined another exclusive list. Ja’Marr Chase and Jaxon Smith-Njigba continued to establish themselves among the NFL’s most dominant receivers. But not every milestone was worth celebrating. One rookie quarterback joined an unfortunate group with his first career pass, while the Bears followed their Week 1 explosion with a historic scoring drop-off. From record-breaking performances to some very unfortunate history, Week 2 had a little bit of everything. Here are the numbers that put it all into perspective: This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

The Kansas City Chiefs did it again. Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs on two field-goal drives in overtime, which were good enough to get to 2-0 with a win over the Indianapolis Colts. It improves the Chiefs’ recent streak of overtime wins. Here are my takeaways from Sunday night: It’s hard to find many situational stats where Kansas City doesn’t look good, but they’re a really good team once a game gets to overtime. When they pulled out an overtime win over the Colts on Sunday night, it was their sixth win in their last six overtime games. Their last overtime loss was to the Bengals in the 2021 AFC Championship Game. Even with that, they’re now 9-1 in overtime games since the start of the 2019 season. Of course, a big part of that is Mahomes – in overtime entering Sunday’s game, his career overtime numbers were 30-for-41 for 377 yards, completing 73% of his passes for a 109.5 passer rating. He’s actually only thrown one touchdown pass, but he consistently leads his team to victory. Converting a third-and-12 as he did with a pass to Tyquan Thornton was another case of Mahomes delivering when the Chiefs need him most. It’s almost like last season, when the Chiefs missed the playoffs and Mahomes looked mortal, was a palate cleanser to allow fans to enjoy the three-time Super Bowl champion being extremely good again. Sunday night was Mahomes getting back to his old self – three touchdowns and no interceptions, with one score each to tight end Travis Kelce and wide receivers Xavier Worthy and Jalen Royals. It’s the 30th time in Mahomes’ career he’s had at least three touchdown passes and zero interceptions. He actually had four such games last year, and he registered two-thirds of his touchdown passes for the season in those games. The dynastic aspect of the Chiefs going to five Super Bowls in seven years and winning three of them put Mahomes at a level of consistently great that has fans almost rooting against him as a default. We might not be able to seriously sell them as underdogs for very long, but it’s reset things enough that fans can enjoy Mahomes in a way they couldn’t for a while. Wide receiver Alec Pierce was carted off with an ankle injury. The Colts just don’t have the receiver depth to keep up without Pierce, with Josh Downs helping out but little else from the position Sunday night. Keenan Allen had no catches on his first four targets. Then, both starting corners were sidelined: ex-Chiefs star Mooney Ward and Sauce Gardner. It’s hard to build enough depth to handle multiple injuries at a position like corner in one game. Give the Colts credit for keeping this game close, though. They kept it close with the Chiefs despite playing cornerback Kapena Gushiken, an undrafted rookie from Ole Miss who the Colts claimed off waivers from the Eagles less than three weeks ago. Having that kind of player ready to play for exactly this kind of scenario. 3 ½. What’s Next? The real setup in the Chiefs’ upcoming schedule is them facing the Seahawks and Broncos – both of last year’s Super Bowl teams – on the road in back-to-back games in Weeks 6-7. Before they get there, Kansas City should have three very winnable games – at the Dolphins, at the Raiders and at home against the 0-2 Chargers. Kansas City could have a lot of momentum built up by the time they take on the defending Super Bowl teams two weeks in a row. The Colts, meanwhile, have a pair of 0-2 teams on deck with a home game against the Texans and a trip to face the Commanders in Week 4, with quarterback Jayden Daniels’ status up in the air after suffering an elbow injury on Sunday.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports