We are two weeks in to the 2023 NFL season and there has been plenty of action for punters to take in.
Scoring was up in a big way with only two games having less than 40 points scored and some wild finishes across the league.
We’ve got you covered with our Week 2 recap right here so check out our 5 Lessons Learned from the National Football League.
1 – Hold on to the ball
Minnesota fell to 0-2 in the opening game of Week 2 and frankly they have nobody to blame but themselves.
It’s hard to win a game in the NFL at the best of times, let alone when you’re giving up several turnovers to opponents every week.
Through two weeks the Vikings have given up possession seven times with Kirk Cousins the main culprit.
He has thrown just the one pick in the Tampa game but has lost three fumbles which included this one on the first possession of the second half with the game very much in the balance.
To make it worse for Minnesota, their defence has only forced one turnover this season and those extra possessions are going to take a toll as the year goes on.
Especially when the defence is already giving up over 200 yards rushing to the Eagles.
2 – Bad matchups make for fun finishes
Heading in to Week 2, nobody was looking forward to the game between the Giants and Cardinals or the Commanders trip to Denver, but they gave us a couple of the best contests of Week 2.
Let’s start in the desert where the Cardinals and Giants were both looking to bounce back from ugly defeats and to Arizona’s credit, they showed plenty of fight for the side most expect to be the worst in the league.
They came out firing and flew out to a 20-0 halftime lead thanks to plays like these.
The lead reached 28-7 midway through the third quarter but the Giants woke up and were able to mount an impressive comeback with Daniel Jones leading the way.
Despite some early struggles he bounced back with 321 passing yards, two touchdowns and another score on the ground to go with 59 rushing yards.
Graham Gano completed the comeback with 19 seconds to go and with that kick, created a little bit of franchise history.
Not too far away in Denver, there was more drama as the Broncos went in search of the first win of the Sean Payton era.
It was looking pretty good for Denver early on, racing out to a 21-3 lead but Washington fought back and took a 35-24 lead midway through the final quarter.
Denver managed the end of the game well enough to give Russell Wilson a chance to pull off some late game heroics, taking a field goal with 1:50 to play to reduce the deficit to eight, before the defence got them the ball back.
They got to halfway which was close enough for a Hail Mary heave to the end zone and via a couple of deflections, it found the hands of Brandon Johnson.
However the celebrations could not start just yet with Denver still needing a two point conversion to send the game into overtime…
But it’s the joy of NFL Red Zone where you can follow these mediocre (in theory) matchups when they turn into classic.
3 – Atlanta gets its comeback
For a franchise that has been a punchline for most of the last decade due to their inability to hold leads, you have to give Atlanta some credit for their come from behind win over what looks to be a half-decent Packers team.
Green Bay looked like they were on their way to a 2-0 record leading 24-12 in the fourth quarter back Atlanta fought back to give Younghoe Koo a chance to win the game.
Atlanta’s defence had to make one last stop and four incomplete passes from Jordan Love later, the Falcons held on for a hard fought win.
4 – Sean McVay knows what he’s up to
A few eyebrows were raised when the Rams coach opted for a late field goal with the Rams down by ten, but there were plenty of celebrations when it went in.
After sticking with the 49ers for three quarters, the visitors opened up the first two-score lead of the game with this Deebo Samuel run.
The teams then proceeded to trade field goals to give the 49ers a 30-20 lead with just under 3:00 on the clock.
LA got the ball and tried to punch it into the end zone to give themselves a chance but could only reach the 20 yard line with four seconds remaining.
Enter the special teams unit for a field goal attempt.
5 – Mac Jones might not have it
Monday’s action rounded out in New England with the Patriots looking to upset the Miami Dolphins track team.
Thanks to some big plays on defence and special teams ingenuity, the Patriots were able to keep Miami’s offence in check (at least compared to their Week 1 performance).
But after two decades of Tom Brady, the offence is now an achilles heel for the Patriots with the team unable to get anything going until that field goal block.
It was the second week in a row where New England dug themselves into a two-score hole through mistakes and poor execution, before mounting a fourth quarter rally to reduce the deficit.
The frustration was mounting for Bill Belichick as he was staring at his first 0-2 record since 2001.
Unlike in 2001 though, he did not have the best player in NFL history to help him out and it showed up late.
Jones came into the league in an unenviable position, with the memory of Brady’s late game heroics still at the forefront of most Patriots fans minds and he has been good in patches so far, just not good enough.
One way he can build his legacy is by recording a few fourth quarter comebacks, but despite a number of opportunities, he has just one successful game winning drive, which came early in his rookie season against a pretty bad Texans side.
It has been a story of millimetres for New England this season, losing in Week 1 when a sideline toe tap didn’t happen, and their fourth down attempt yesterday fell just short in pretty spectacular fashion.
What that means is that New England is off to its worst start to the season in two decades and the questions over the long term futures of Jones and Belichick are only going to get louder.