The NY Giants make a historic comeback in Week 2

Another week of NFL football is upon us. For all my concerns about the NFL, Week 2 came a little too quickly for my satisfaction. Scott Hanson’s first announcement of “seven hours of commercial free football” and his second appeared to be just a few days apart, rather than a full week.

It has been since the turn of the millennium Kansas City Chiefs And Buffalo Bills are considered two of the best teams capable of winning a Super Bowl championship. The Chiefs have hosted the last five AFC Championship games, and the Bills have replaced them New England Patriots at the top of the AFC East for the past three seasons.

Both teams were humble in the first week of the 2023 season. On opening night, the Chiefs welcomed their recent Super Bowl championship and ended this Thursday with humility Detroit Lions. The Bills were assigned to visit northern New Jersey to take on Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. Rodgers suffered a season-ending streak during the Jets’ first series. After the helium squeaked out of the Jets’ balloon, they still won the game with a punt return touchdown in overtime.

A tough Week 1 didn’t deter these two Super Bowl contenders, nor did another team that was beaten toe-to-toe in the season opener. The New York Giants were down 60-0 on the season at halftime Arizona Cardinals when their pride led them to victory.

Big Blue has its season under control

The Giants were rattled Dallas Cowboys in Week 1. Those rubber pellets on Daniel Jones’ face in the first quarter were evidence that someone was being bullied. Jones was hit 12 times behind the line of scrimmage during the Giants’ 40-0 home loss to their division rival.

At halftime in Glendale, Arizona, Week 2. The Giants were down 20-0 against a team that used Joshua Dobbs at quarterback. Dobbs scored 12-1.16 for 146 yards in the first half and also rushed for 41 yards and a TD.

The pride must have come to the Giants like magic at halftime because they needed three plays to score on their first drive of the second half. Much of Jones’ success over the past two seasons has come on bootleg plays, but against the Cardinals he made some big throws from the pocket to help his team win. He threw for 62 yards in the first half and contributed one yard on the running game. At the end of the game, he totaled 321 yards through the air, 59 yards on the ground and three total touchdowns.

When the Cardinals scored a touchdown with nine and a half minutes left in the third quarter, they went up, 28-7. The Giants scored on all five possessions in the second half – including four touchdowns – and won the game 31-28.

The Chiefs remind the Jags who the better team is

Unlike the AFC Championship Game on Sunday Patrick Mahomes did not deal with a high ankle sprain during the Chiefs’ rematch against USA Jacksonville Jaguars. Travis Kelce and Chris Jones returned to the lineup, and there was reason to believe that with their best players on the field, the Chiefs would mitigate the disappointment of their season-opening loss to the Jaguars.

Mahomes, of course, was outstanding. Kelce caught a huge touchdown pass early in the second half, and Jones was in the Jaguars’ backfield the entire game. Although the Chiefs led for most of the game, their 17-9 win wasn’t a thriller, nor was it likely to take up a significant percentage of screen time on RedZone. The Chiefs and Jaguars combined for three straight turnovers in the second quarter. The Jags didn’t score a TD the entire game.

This contest may not be remembered at the end of this season, but it showed that it should come as no surprise that the Chiefs are hosting an AFC Championship Game for the sixth straight year. Kadarius Toney completed five of seven passes after losing four in Week 1. The Chiefs committed two more turnovers and eight more penalties than the Jaguars and still held their home opponent to nine points.

Josh Allen held the ball the entire game

Defeat them Las Vegas Raiders should be treated with caution. Their starting quarterback is Jimmy Garoppolo.

TThat being said, home dominance was a healing boost for the Bills after they blew a potential 0-2 start with a loss to the Aaron Rodgers-less Jets. As disheartening as this blow was for Gang Green, the Raiders got hope as Josh Allen continued to turn the ball over. He threw three INTs and lost one of his two fumbles.

At home against the Raiders, Allen looked more like an MVP-candidate version of himself than the player who had the most turnovers in the NFL last season – 19. He didn’t commit a single turnover on Sunday – the first time since Week 14 NFL season 2022.

Allen threw just six incomplete passes all day en route to 271 yards and three touchdowns as the Bills defeated the Raiders. 38-10. He was great, but he still had some reckless moments. In the second quarter, he tried to get past a Raider defender well in front of the goal line. Luckily for him and the Bills, that defender was a former college teammate of Allen’s who was able to rest his old buddy at stops.

The only flaw in Allen’s game is self-control. A mistake that may well prevent the Bills from winning their first Super Bowl while he’s behind center. But for one Sunday, Allen was almost completely under control.