NFL Rewind: Week 2 (part 1)

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Falcons 28 Panthers 20

Falcons

Matt Ryan continues to play very well in his second season with the Falcons, as he totaled three touchdowns in their victory over the woeful Carolina Panthers. As during Week 1, Ryan found tight end Tony Gonzalez for seven catches, totaling 71 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t ignore last years main target Roddy White, who caught six passes for 53 yards and his own touchdown.

Michael Turner made his own noise, carrying the ball for 105 yards and a touchdown, though it took him a huge amount of carries (28) to do so and he also lost a fumble. The defense played well, forcing two fumbles, sacking Delhomme once and grabbing a key interception in the end zone to seal the game.

Panthers

For 99% of the game, Jake Delhomme did everything he needed to in order to make Panther fans forget his awful Week 1 performance. Unfortunately it still wasn’t enough and his interception in the end zone just reminded everyone of Week 1 Jake. Still, a massive improvement for Delhomme even though the team couldn’t get the job done. He looked to veteran Steve Smith (8 catches for 131 yards) often, and spread the ball around quite a bit to keep the Falcons from keying on any one player.

On the ground, the Panther continue to move the ball well, if not quite as good as they did in 2008. DeAngelo Williams (79 yards and 1 TD) got most of the work while second year man Jonathan Stewart (65 yards) looked just as good in his spot duty. Unfortunately both running backs coughed the ball up, although only Williams was lost. In the end, though the offense played much better than last year, it wasn’t enough to overcome the Falcons.

Vikings 27 Lions 13

Vikings

For a half it looked like the wheels had come off the Vikings bandwagon already and you had to worry for the safety of the tons of fans preparing to leap off of it. But the ship righted itself and again—largely on Adrian Peterson’s back and with some great defensive plays, the Vikes came out on top. While Brett Favre did find both rookie Percy Harvin and Visanthe Shiancoe for touchdowns, he still has timing issues and his botched hand-off to Adrian Peterson was largely his own fault.

Still, he found Bernard Berrian six times for 46 yards and Sidney Rice three times for 29 yards and even Peterson four times for 24 yards, adding to his 92 on the ground. The Vikings still go as Peterson goes, but slowly and surely Favre is becoming more of the weapon Minnesota was hoping for.

Lions

What can you say about the Lions that hasn’t been repeated many times? Rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford is still getting hit and hurried way too often. Stafford was sacked twice and picked off twice (by the same player no less) and still looks very much a rookie. But there are moments where he looks better – his accuracy to Calvin Johnson (5 catches for 51 yards and 1 TD) was much improved and though he threw less passes towards Johnson this week (7 down from 13) he made more out of them. He has also started using fellow rookie Brandon Pettigrew, hitting the tight end four times for 40 yards.

Running back Kevin Smith also struggled with the offensive line woes but gained 83 yards on 24 carries. In the end though, the Lions still had no defensive answer for Peterson or the rest of the Vikings offense, and the offense could not keep up.

Bengals 31 Packers 24

Bengals

The Bengals should have won last week against the Broncos, but couldn’t get their offense going and couldn’t make the big play defensively when they needed to. Today they did both, with big games by Carson Palmer (three touchdowns), Cedric Benson (141 yards) and Chad Ochocinco (91 yards and 1 TD).

Palmer is still struggling overall and really this was all about the defense being able to disrupt Packer QB Aaron Rodgers to the tune of five sacks and numerous hits. Defensive End Antwan Odom owned the Packer offensive line and notched all five sacks himself. Rookie Rey Maualuga continues to make a nice impact as well, getting a pair of forced fumbles in the game.

Packers

If you looked at the stats and not the score, you might think the Packers had won. QB Aaron Rodgers completed 21 passes for 261 yards and a touchdown, running back Ryan Grant had 46 yards and a touchdown and Donald Driver caught half a dozen balls for 99 yards and his own score. But looking closer, several things stood out. Greg Jennings had zero catches, disappeared for much of the game and dropped a ball.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?