Another week of NFL action is in the books and it was a memorable Week 2 despite some less than ideal matchups on paper leading into the week.
Kansas City won the battle of AFC West heavyweights to start off proceedings before a huge Monday of comebacks, touchdowns, injuries and more.
We’re recapping it all below in our regular Tuesday look back we call 5 Lessons Learned.
1 – Defences dominate early proceedings
Taking the under might not be the fun approach to NFL betting but it has been a profitable strategy through the opening two weeks of the season.
Week 1 saw 11 games go under the total points number while the second set of games finished with the under hitting on 6 occasions.
The average total throughout the season has been just under 46 points per game while scoring has slightly trailed at an average of 42.875 points per game.
It has not been helped by some struggling offences across the league, including the New England Patriots who have stumbled to a 1-1 record despite amassing a paltry 24 points over two games.
With a new offensive system, new assistant coaches and a second year quarterback all learning the ropes, it might be a while before we see a few more of these touchdown tweets per game.
Up next is a Ravens side that had a history of strong showings at Gillette Stadium during the Tom Brady era and this team is a long way off that level.
2 – It takes special talent to blow big leads
In perhaps the best news fans of the Atlanta Falcons will hear all week, other NFL teams found ways to blow big leads.
When Lamar Jackson broke free to put the Ravens up by 21 at the end of the third quarter, you could have been forgiven for thinking this game was done for.
But the Dolphins had other ideas with the Tua-Tyreek combination going off to bring the Dolphins back into the game in the blink of an eye.
Then with the Ravens honed in on Hill, Tua went for his other speed burner Jaylen Waddle to secure an insane Dolphins comeback.
Cleveland also thought they had taken care of business when Nick Chubb scored his third touchdown of the game to give the Browns a 14 point lead with two minutes left.
Next time just go down Nick, otherwise you open yourself up to this.
And this
And finally… this…
Blowing that sort of lead is one thing, doing it against the Jets is a whole new low for a franchise that has set that bar below sea level for most of last two decades.
You could have been forgiven for tuning out of the Raiders-Cardinals game when Vegas had a 20-point lead in the second half, but Kyler Murray got off the COD Beta and kick started another huge comeback.
There was some Murray magic on display in the desert.
And the Cardinals defence came up big at the end.
Just a wild day overall, and plenty of regret for those on the wrong end of those comebacks.
3 – Too early to panic… except in Indianapolis
Seven teams are without a win through two games and for six of them, it’s way too early to push the panic button.
For the Indianapolis Colts however, sitting at 0-1-1 after a pair of games against teams they were expected to be a lot better than, alarm bells should be ringing.
Especially after mustering a grand total of 0 points against the Jaguars.
The level of effort on the final Jags touchdown sums it up best.
It won’t get any easier for them either with Kansas City coming to town for their home opener at Lucas Oil Stadium next week.
Meanwhile in Jacksonville…
4 – Dallas can get by on defence
Dallas was already struggling on offence when Dak Prescott was lost for a month, and many were happily writing obituaries for the Cowboys season after their loss to Tampa.
After all, Cincinnati was coming to town in Week 2 and the Bengals weren’t going to drop two games in a row…
What was lost in the build up to the contest however was the fact Dallas’s defence had a strong night holding Tom Brady to 19 points and Micah Parsons might be a defensive player of the year candidate.
Scratch that, Micah Parsons is one of if not the leading defensive player of the year candidate and if you aren’t watching him on every Dallas defensive snap it’s your own fault.
He can carry Dallas through Prescott’s absence and at least keep them in the mix for a playoff berth when their star quarterback returns.
5 – Kyle Shanahan lucks out
First things first, it was an awful injury suffered by Trey Lance in his second game as the full time starter which is an awful outcome for the young signal caller.
But let’s consider just how fortunate 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is considering he still has a solid quarterback to turn to.
After all, he spent pretty much the entire offseason trying to trade Jimmy Garoppolo, excluding him from practice during training camp and basically telling him he was not wanted anymore.
But when nobody would pay the required compensation, the two parties worked out a revised deal to bring Garoppolo back to the Bay Area.
You wouldn’t know that Jimmy G had been excluded for most of the season so far, he looked very comfortable in his return to action.
Not to mention the added financial bonus for Garoppolo getting back into the lineup.
While things might not have gone to plan, the best thing for both the coaching staff and new quarterback will be to put their grievances with one another to the side, because this 49ers team is damn good, and suddenly got a lot more dangerous with the forced change at quarterback.