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\u2019t, 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\u2019s the obvious stuff. You came here to sound smart. So let\u2019s go below the surface. Let\u2019s spin it forward, dive deeper, think outside the box and read between the lines. If I do my job, you\u2019ll be fluent in the NFL’s Week 2 action. Maybe you\u2019d 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\u2019s first two games \u2014 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\u2019re going to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They\u2019re going to be their own yin and yang. In other words, they are the song “Hot N Cold” by Katy Perry. I\u2019ll 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\u2019t likely to break scoring records, particularly not after the QB\u2019s hamstring injury. And Williams has much longer odds to join the MVP race if he\u2019s out for an extended period after this stinker of a performance. That doesn\u2019t mean this offense won\u2019t realize its immense potential. It\u2019s just that it won\u2019t 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\u2019re 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\u2019s no surprise that Raymond and D\u2019Andre Swift (27) have been the most reliable playmakers. They\u2019re also the team\u2019s oldest playmakers. Don\u2019t dismiss what we saw from the Bears in Week 1. It wasn\u2019t a fluke. When Williams gets healthy, we\u2019ll see more of that. We might even see some of that high-scoring with backup quarterback Tyson Bagent. But don\u2019t dismiss how out of sorts the Bears looked in Week 2. That wasn\u2019t fluky either. We\u2019ll 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\u2019ll rein in their variable performances. That seems to be what he does best. He\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s season-opener. He had 11 days to get his head right. And still, he had what I\u2019d call a mental lapse. Of course, tight end Hunter Henry, the target of the pass that became a pick, didn\u2019t agree. “Yeah, that’s on me, man. It\u2019s a crosser. I was taking it high across his face,” Henry told me after the game. “I was trying to turn. \u2026 I need to get my eyes back to [Maye], and that’s all.” Even if the execution is better, I don\u2019t like the decision. It was unnecessary. It was more of the same from last week. In consecutive weeks, Maye had the lead \u2014 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\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019ve done it before. They shouldn\u2019t have to do it again. But clearly, they do. Let\u2019s start with how the Lions\u2019 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\u2019s important to note Allen\u2019s accolades because it shows that he\u2019s not necessarily a quarterback who\u00a0can be stopped right now. But as the stats show, the Lions didn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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\u2019ve 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\u2019ve always known he\u2019s among the most physically talented players in NFL history. It\u2019s his mental game that has lapsed, with him \u2014 notably \u2014 failing to diagnose and\/or defeat blitzes from the likes of Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo in big moments, often in the playoffs. But Allen\u2019s mental game seems to be getting better. Sheppard couldn\u2019t trick, stump or deceive Allen. All that aggression backfired. On the other side of the ball, Detroit\u2019s offense has its own issues. For starters, QB Jared Goff\u2019s 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\u2019ve 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\u2019s not make excuses for an elite playmaker: Williams is struggling to haul in his targets. Something\u2019s off with him and Goff. Something\u2019s way,\u00a0way off with this Lions defense. The only consolation \u2014 after a game where there\u2019s this much to fix (and rethink) \u2014 is that they have a long week to take a look in the mirror. The film room won\u2019t 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 \u2014 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\u00a0the Jets. And there was the context that made it worse: LaFleur had lost the previous five games, extending back into the 2025 season. It\u2019s not just that he\u2019s lost so many games in a row. It\u2019s\u00a0how he\u2019s done it, with an underwhelming display of in-game management throughout the streak. Despite all that, he\u2019s not going anywhere. And it\u2019s not because the Packers somehow pulled out a win. It\u2019s because of money. LaFleur just signed a contract extension in the offseason, and he will get a very, very lengthy leash \u2014 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\u2019m not going to go as far as saying that the Packers shortened that window further by extending LaFleur, but his longstanding weaknesses haven\u2019t changed. Until they do, he\u2019s going to get in Love\u2019s path to a Super Bowl. It\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u2014 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\u2019re 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\u2019s all a bunch of numbers that say this: The Chiefs are fun to watch again. The Kansas City offense isn\u2019t laboring, like last year. There\u2019s a weight lifted off Mahomes\u2019 shoulders. The whole unit looks free to attack the field. That\u2019s because of Walker, who is forcing missed tackles at a faster clip than any other running back in the league. He\u2019s stacking up expected points added on the ground. And he\u2019s 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\u2019s playbook \u2014 and stealing personnel out of Mike Macdonald\u2019s backfield. It might be humbling for Reid to be the one who is copying other coaches. Usually, it\u2019s the other way around. But that doesn\u2019t mean Reid is washed up. To the contrary, he\u2019s keeping up with the times brilliantly. Walker is helping him do just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019t, 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}