NFL Week 2: Sorting out Monday Morning Overreactions

Warning! Warning! It's a Monday morning in Autumn! It's NFL overreaction day! Warning! Warning!

Much like the single, solitary snowflake eventually triggers a mighty and fearsome avalanche, overreactions tend to start slowly before picking up massive amounts of steam and rolling over everyone in their path.

The same holds true for overreactions over the course of the NFL campaign.

In the ultimate week-to-week league, each isolated series of games is treated like an entire season. Extremely broad judgments are passed down as the result of a few plays or decisions, with seemingly mild-mannered football fans morphing into a bloodthirsty mob hell bent on enacting change, and enacting it now, damn it!

Fire the coach! Bench the quarterback! So-and-so is a bum! Fold the franchise! This pizza sucks! This beer is warm! Relocate the team! I don't want to go to work tomorrow! 

And as the chill in the air grows stronger and the calendar turns to winter, the calls only intensify.

With nearly two weeks of the NFL season in the books, verdicts are starting to be rendered. Clubs that will eventually qualify for the postseason are being left for dead, and franchises that are currently on top of the mountain face a long and terrifying drop. 

But for the average Monday morning quarterback, logic and reason don't come into play. All that matters is the raw emotion, the feeling in the moment, the undeniable urge to lash out and fire everyone in sight like a vengeful combination of Donald Trump, Vince McMahon and Ari Gold.

In this column, we'll survey the sweeping generalizations made as a result of Week 2's action, and determine which are fair and which are are abject nonsense. 

It's time to sort out the Monday morning overreactions from NFL Week 2.

Bleacher Report's Matt Miller Says the Giants Are in Line for a Top-Five Draft Pick

Before you New York Giants fans start flooding the comments talking about how the 2007 iteration started 0-2 and won the Super Bowl, take a deep breath.

That isn't happening this year. No way, no how.

And why is that, you ask? Well, dear reader, the answer is simple: It's because the team's not any good.

It's because the quarterback, Eli Manning, acts as a double agent, tossing the pigskin to the other team as if he has financial escalators in his contract for obscene interceptions.

It's because the receivers, including erstwhile star Victor Cruz, couldn't catch a cold while standing naked in midtown Manhattan during a blizzard, so it's probably too much to ask for them to hold onto the football.

It's because they commit heinous turnovers and have a collective football IQ that likely rivals that of an especially dimwitted llama.

Consider the sequence that clinched Big Blue's Week 2 demise, a 25-14 downer at the hands of an Arizona Cardinals team starting its backup quarterback (Drew Stanton).

While holding a 14-13 lead, the Giants allowed a 71-yard punt return touchdown to Cardinals receiver Ted Ginn Jr. The Cardinals went for two and missed, leaving the score at 19-14.

Then, Giants kick returner Quintin Demps fumbled the ensuing kickoff, leading to an Arizona field goal. 22-14, Arizona.

The Giants got the ball back and started to mount a drive, only for running back Rashad Jennings to slip, fall and fumble—all without being touched—which is about as impressive an accomplishment as Baxter eating the entire wheel of cheese in Anchorman. The Cardinals parlayed the turnover into another field goal, effectively salting the game away. 25-14, Arizona.

Game. Set. Match.

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

Make no mistake about it: The Giants are truly dreadful. If Carson Palmer had started at quarterback for the Cardinals, they would have won by 20. No team that takes itself seriously as a playoff contender would lose a home game in such grotesque fashion to a backup signal-caller. 

At this point, the Giants are the worst team in the NFC and one of the very worst teams in the NFL. 

If anything, Bleacher Report's Matt Miller didn't react strongly enough in the above tweet.

Forget about a top-five selection. The Giants appear earmarked for the top three of next May's draft.

And that's no overreaction. 

Columnist for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans Says 0-2 Saints Face "Bleak" Road to Postseason

The New Orleans Saints were a chic Super Bowl pick by pigskin prognosticators across the country.

So, of course, they've started the season 0-2, losing both games in heartbreaking fashion.

The disappointing start led Larry Holder, columnist for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, to pen this about the team's early woes:

"

There's no other way to look at this. They lost two heartbreakers on the road against inferior teams in Atlanta and Cleveland. As we know, it's pretty bleak for an 0-2 team to make the postseason. The Saints are staring 0-2 in the face and haven't been able to shake their road woes. Climbing out of this will be a challenge. We'll see if the Saints are up for it.

"

Holder isn't wrong about New Orleans losing to inferior competition. Even the most diehard Falcons and Browns fans know in their heart of hearts that their squads aren't as good as the Saints.

But much like an obviously forged piece of artwork, the picture that Holder paints in the column is inherently flawed.

The Saints are still one of the finest teams in the league, and will absolutely qualify for the postseason. 

Everyone knows that the Saints are a different team on the road than they are in the friendly confines of the Superdome. The good news is that they have eight home games remaining on the schedule, and it'd be a stunner if they finished worse than 7-1 in the Bayou.

Plus, the upcoming schedule looks to be the tonic to cure their ails: home against Minnesota, at Dallas and home against Tampa Bay. The Saints should be 3-2 after five games, and well on their way toward January football.

There's no sugarcoating how brutal the first two weeks of the campaign have been for head coach Sean Payton's club. Losing on the road to division-rival Atlanta is one thing, but allowing Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer to complete a game-winning drive after starting at his own 4-yard line? No wonder Payton was so pissed at defensive coordinator Rob Ryan.

But the Saints are too talented to crash and burn. Drew Brees is too good playing the position of quarterback. Payton is too fine a coach. There's too much talent on defense.

In three weeks, when the Saints are above .500 and in the thick of the NFC playoff hunt, the early season ills will have been forgotten.

Such is the nature of the ultimate week-to-week league.

Oakland Raiders Blog Calls For Coach Dennis Allen's Head

With yet another hideous loss in the books—a 30-14 home defeat to the Houston Texans—Oakland Raiders coach Dennis Allen now owns a career record of 8-26 while patrolling the sidelines for the Silver and Black, including eight consecutive losses dating back to last season.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that's not good.

Consider this quote from Raiders safety Charles Woodson to CSNBayArea.com's Scott Bair:

"

We suck. That’s as blunt as I can put it. For whatever reason, defensively we just won’t stop people, especially early in games. Every drive, every first drive, teams are able to go and get points. Today, it happened all day. Offensively, we put the ball on the ground. We had opportunities and didn’t capitalize on it. Collectively, we look bad.

"

Yikes. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement for the head coach.

Bottom line: Allen is severely overmatched, and he's proven that over his two-plus seasons in the NFL. 

You want to talk about the lack of talent he inherited? Fine. It's a fair conversation. You want to lay some blame at the feet of hapless general manager Reggie McKenzie, whose pulse probably needs to be checked? That's within reason as well.

But Allen hasn't gotten the job done, period, end of story. For someone that came to the Raiders with a defensive background, he has never coaxed maximum effort out of the unit, and it's showed in on-field results.

Back-to-back 4-12 seasons aren't good enough in the National Football League. Great coaches are able to squeeze wins out of inferior teams. Allen hasn't accomplished that goal.

The Raiders' next four games are at New England (good luck with that) and then three straight home games against Miami, San Diego and Arizona. They'll be lucky to be 1-5 after that stretch, and will more likely be 0-6.

The only saving grace for Allen would be if rookie quarterback Derek Carr improves exponentially as the season wears on. If Carr can pull it together and lead the team to wins in November and December, Allen has an outside shot of staying.

But given the lack of talent on offense (there are SEC schools that would produce more fantasy football starters than the Raiders) and the pitfalls of the coaching staff, it's hard to imagine that coming to pass.

Saying that Allen should be fired isn't an overreaction; it just won't happen until the end of the year. But expect the calls to only intensify in volume as a proud and angry Raider Nation decides it can no longer suffer this doomed regime.

The San Diego Chargers Complete Three Passes Against Seattle Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman and Say He Was "Exposed"

Give the San Diego Chargers all the credit in the world for knocking off the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in Week 2.

It was a virtuoso performance by coach Mike McCoy's team. Like a boa constrictor, the Chargers squeezed the life out of the Seahawks, utilizing a ball-control offense to accrue over 42 minutes of possession.

But all the talk about the Chargers "exposing" Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, per U-T San Diego's Michael Gehlken (h/t ProFootballTalk.com)? That's a bunch of malarkey, and one of the great overreactions of the early season.

The Green Bay Packers erred when they failed to challenge Sherman once in the season's opening game, furthering the idea that he is the NFL's premier shutdown cornerback.

The Chargers didn't make that same mistake, as quarterback Philip Rivers fired a number of passes in Sherman's direction, completing three for 30 yards. Keenan Allen, San Diego's superb second-year pass catcher, badly beat Sherman on one pattern, leaving Sherman's legs twisted at the line of scrimmage.

And the Bolts took that as Sherman being "exposed."

Yeah. Right.

To paraphrase Ron Burgundy: Give it a rest, San Diego. Sherman is still one of (if not the) best cornerbacks in the league. He wasn't exposed. He's just not perfect. And you know what? No NFL player is. Everyone gets beaten once in a while. And it's not like Sherman was giving up long touchdown passes or making a fool of himself on the gridiron.

This is a colossal overreaction from the Chargers, and should only spur Sherman on to a bigger and better season.

Sports Illustrated Writer Says Packers Defensive Coordinator Dom Capers Won't Make It Through the Season

Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers might want to send a fruit basket to New York Jets offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.

Because if it weren't for Mornhinweg slamming the self-destruct button with the zeal of an overly caffeinated child, there's a good possibility that Capers would be wearing the goat horns today in Titletown.

And the calls for his dismissal would only escalate.

Once again, the Packers defense struggled mightily, allowing 21 first-half points to the New York Jets offense, which isn't exactly reminiscent of the 2007 Patriots. That performance came on the heels of a system-wide Week 1 breakdown in Seattle.

The Packers offense clearly isn't the issue. Even when quarterback Aaron Rodgers isn't at his best, he's still better than the vast majority of starting passers in the league, and Green Bay will be able to put up points against any team in the league, the Seahawks in Seattle notwithstanding.

So as the season wears on, the pressure will be on Capers to deliver a halfway competent defense. 

In a season where the Packers are expected to contend for the Super Bowl, coach Mike McCarthy won't be able to stomach more defensive shortcomings. If Capers' unit continues to struggle and hold the team back from realizing its goals, there's a definite chance that he's replaced before season's end.

Is it likely? No. Do Packers fans want it to happen? Yes.

The desire for Capers to lose his job isn't an overreaction. But thinking he will at this point in the season definitely is.