THE GRIDIRON

Nick De Cicco

The NFL regular season is underway and before the beginning of week three, we will take a deep dive into the best and worst aspects of the league’s proceedings on the field. We breakdown the most entertaining and disappointing performances from the first two weeks.

Currently, there are only five team in the NFL that have maintained a perfect 2-0 record thus far. This franchises include the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Eagles, and NY Giants.

I’m not surprised that the Buffalo Bills are near the top of the AFC east. In the first week, their defense showed up on the road against the defending Super Bowl Champions, LA Rams. The Bills defensive line shined bright with their new off-season acquisition, Von Miller.

The former Ram played an excellent game with 4 tackles and 2 sacks against his offensive counterpart, Matt Stafford. Miller looked incredible during this game and led Josh Allen’s Bills down the field. The Buffalo Bills started off the season with a 31-10 victory.

In the second game of the season, the Bills Mafia rallied behind their hometown team in a blowout matchup between the Tennessee Titans. QB Josh Allen and WR Stefon Diggs both played incredible games. Allen threw for 317 yards and four touchdowns. Diggs was clearly the primary target in this game because of his 3 touchdown receptions and 148 yards to go along with it. Josh was quick on his feet and dodged the Titans’ defense constantly.

The defense played their part in this blowout with a complete containment of QB Ryan Tannehill and RB Derrick Henry. Throughout the game, Tannehill looked lost and didn’t play very well. The most disappointing part of this game was Henry’s substandard performance. Derrick’s numbers before halftime were extremely lackluster with a running yards average of less than 2. The dominator of the Bills last season didn’t live up to his expectations in this one. The Tennessee RB finished the game with 13 carries and 25 yards.

The king of the Chiefs’ kingdom started another strong campaign with 2 different victories. Mahomes marched into Arizona with a passion and proved the doubters wrong with regards to the future without speedy wide receiver, Tyreek Hill.

Patrick played an incredible opening game and threw for 5 touchdowns along with 360 yards. His completion rate was 30/36 which accumulates to a 83.3% rating. Mahomes threw down the field to Kelce, Jojo, Valdes-Scantling, and Edwards-Helaire. The Kansas City played a decent game to limit the Cardinals offense of a newly extended, Kyler Murray, with three combined sacks. The Chiefs started off the season with a wild 44-21 victory over Arizona.

In week two, Mahomes’ Chiefs played a much tighter and thrilling performance against the Los Angeles Changers. Mahomes threw for 235 total yards and 2 touchdowns. The run game was much more established with this matchup and led to Edwards-Helaire raking up 74 yards with an average of 9.2 per carry.

The incredibly entertaining game was capped off by a 99-yard interception for a touchdown by the Chiefs’ seventh-round selection in the 2022 draft, rookie Jaylen Watson. Justin Herbert and the Chargers did give a valiant effort to win, but the Chiefs were too much.

The Miami Dolphins have a staked offense with the speed of Tyreek Hill and the steady progression of Tua Tagovailoa. This dynamic duo displayed phenomenal feats with an average game against the Patriots and a fantastic comeback win against the Baltimore Ravens.

The Patriots game wasn’t as impressive as the high scoring affair against Lamar Jackson’s offense. Two mammoths in the NFL’s offensive department put on a clinic as the clear matchup of the week. Lamar’s exceptional rushing ability was put to the test in this game.

He put up 119 yards on the ground for 1 rushing touchdown. Tua threw for 469 yards and 6 touchdowns in this one. Despite 2 interceptions, those are very good numbers for the growing youngster in this league.

The two most surprising teams on the undefeated list through week 2 are the Eagles and the Giants. These two teams finished poorly in the standings last season and failed to qualify for the playoffs. The biggest change to this organization is the excellent development of their young and hungry quarterbacks.

Jalen Hurts and newly-acquired Baker Mayfield have significantly improved their teams. Baker’s exit from Cleveland has done him wonders and changed his career projections for the better. Hurts has a better lineup in front of him and plays to his strengths. Both quarterbacks are future superstars in the NFL and will surely have great success in their careers!