NFL Week 2, 2018: 5 New overreactions, bigger and real
By Dan Salem
We revisit our overreactions from week 1 and add five more to the flaming pile of NFL news. These are bigger and legitimately real possibilities. Your NFL Week 2 overreactions.
Overreactions are intended to be just that; statements that could never be true. Yet we played true and false with five headlines from NFL Week 1, and many have become realities. First we revisit those seemingly bold statements. Then we add five more to the fire.
NFL Week 2 continued the crazy trend of god-like offensive performances and some downright surprising flops by entire teams. The overreactions are bigger and some are definitely real. How do you feel about these potentially outlandish declarations? Let us know in the comments below.
Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the NFL Week 2 in today’s NFL Sports Debate.
Todd Salem:
After the first week of the NFL season, we made a list of five overreactions to the events on the field. They were five unexpected things; five things unlikely to continue. Let’s check back one week later to see how over the top the reactions actually were.
“Hue Jackson is a better coach than Mike Tomlin.”
The Browns did not capture a win in New Orleans, but that probably wasn’t Jackson’s fault. Cleveland lost by three while receiving two missed field goals and two missed extra points from its kicker. Essentially, Jackson had the team in position to win this one. There were further blunders late in the game, but does that fall on Jackson not having his players prepared or simply failures on the players themselves?
Meanwhile, Mike Tomlin saw his defense get absolutely shredded by Pat Mahomes. Let’s call this overreaction still plausible.
“The Titans are going to compete for the first pick in the 2019 draft.”
This seemed like the most plausible overreaction last week. Yet Tennessee won on Sunday, so that doesn’t help this cause. Down multiple important starters, the Titans offense held its own against Houston. I still think it’s possible the Titans fall into and stay in a tailspin, especially if Marcus Mariota doesn’t return soon. This game was more of an indictment against the Texans.
“Jimmy Garoppolo is trash.”
Yeah, still kind of. The 49ers ran all over Detroit, while Jimmy G was just blah, facing heavy pressure all afternoon. Still plausible.
“Ryan Fitzpatrick is the favorite for MVP.”
The most over-the-top reaction from Week 1 is still very much in play after Week 2! Fitzmagic became the first player in league history to start a season with two consecutive 400+ yard and four-plus touchdown performances. And this came against the Eagles defense.
“Adrian Peterson is back.”
Okay, finally an overreaction that died after one week. Peterson garnered a full 50 percent of Washington’s carries, yet averaged a putrid 1.8 yards per tote. He actually wasn’t a zero in the passing game, but he will never be an anchor there with Chris Thompson around. Coach Jay Gruden says the team didn’t give Peterson any good looks. Or maybe the veteran is just washed.
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Dan Salem:
Here are five more NFL Week 2 overreactions for the pile, because lots of surprises hit us hard like a stomach punch. I’m not saying the first month of the NFL season means nothing, but we all know it doesn’t paint a real picture of how the playoffs will look. That being said, all of this happened.
1. The Philadelphia Eagles are average and could conceivably miss the playoffs.
The Eagles looked vulnerable against the unknown Buccaneers. Getting Carson Wentz back will help quell this talk for another week, but one of two things is true. Either Tampa Bay is very good, or Philadelphia is very average.
2. Rams versus Jaguars in the Super Bowl. The season is already over.
The Los Angeles defense seems unstoppable. Jacksonville just humiliated the former best team in the AFC, defeating the Patriots with an exclamation point. This is obviously premature, but of the playoff teams from last sesason, these two are certainly picking up right where they left off.
3. Eli Manning is washed up and won’t survive the year.
This may be an actual fact, because the Giants’ offensive line is bad and only getting worse. New York had this exact same problem last season, yet they appear to have failed at remotely dealing with it. Manning is not a mobile player, in case you didn’t know, compounding this issue to the Nth degree.
4. Jameis Winston is done.
Considering the magic of Ryan Fitzpatrick, which has yet to let up, is this an actual reality? Fitzpatrick did this exact thing to Geno Smith. He stole his job by playing so well that when Smith was healthy after getting injured in a locker room fight, no one wanted to give him back the quarterback duties of the New York Jets. Now Fitzpatrick is playing so well that Winston may have lost his job. Deja vu anyone?
5. Arizona and Buffalo might not win a game all year.
These two teams have looked so bad that we can almost hand them the top two picks in the draft right now. Arizona may rebound to win a few games, but they are easily the worst team in the NFC right now. The same can be said of Buffalo in the AFC. These teams are gifts to anyone having them on their schedule.