NFL thoughts: Sunday’s early/afternoon action

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Wow. The NFL never fails to disappoint. Week 2 was dramatic, enthralling and breathtaking as it always is.

Here are my thoughts from Sunday’s 1:00 and 4:00 EST time games.

– I really like what Buffalo’s offense has done so far in two games. They outplayed the Chicago defense last week and put up 29 points at home against the Dolphins. With the New York loss this afternoon in Green Bay, the Bills are standing alone atop the AFC East after two weeks.

– The Bengals look poised to make me regret bypassing them for a playoff berth this season. The Cincinnati defense in particular made life very tough for Matt Ryan and the Atlanta offense.

– The Saints are in trouble, but not as much as many are saying. Admittedly, their defense played terribly, but an 0-2 start isn’t the end of the world.

Atlanta looked terrible this week, Tampa Bay has lost to backups in consecutive weeks and the Panthers are the only team clicking on all cylinders right now. They’ll be fine.

– Brian Hoyer has played spectacularly in the first two weeks of the season. In those two games, his offense has scored 27 and 26 points respectively.

– I can’t even blame Eli Manning for a lot of what went wrong for the G-Men this week. Sure, he wasn’t great, but he made some quality throws that gave his team a chance.

His start wasn’t ideal, but he was one of the biggest reasons that the Giants came back in the second half.

– Regardless of when Robert Griffin III is cleared to play, it is in Washington’s best interests to play Kirk Cousins at quarterback.

Griffin has been abysmal this season, and Cousins promptly stepped in and scored 41 points. At this point, it isn’t about playing “your guys”. It’s about playing the guys that will win you games.

It’s apparent that that man is Cousins.

– Here’s how you beat the Seahawks: make them play a shootout

We all know how good the Seattle defense is, but Philip Rivers picked them apart for 30 points. It will be essential for Seattle to have home-field advantage in the playoffs because it’s evident that their dominant defense isn’t the same away from home.

The Chargers look really potent offensively. I picked them to win a wild card berth and their offense looks like it can match any counterpart.

– The Bucs have lost to back-ups in consecutive weeks. There’s nothing else to say.

– Green Bay won on Sunday, but they can’t spot a team 21 points in the first half.

They might slide past teams like the Jets, but you don’t want to hand great teams that kind of a lead to start a game.

[Photo Credit: AP/Denis Poroy]

 

 

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