A Super Bowl contender lost its quarterback and its top wide receiver. What happens next?
If you’re the Dallas Cowboys, you win your first two games and move on, but they must know they are possibly the most damaged 2-0 team in football.
Dez Bryant was out. Tony Romo broke his collarbone. And that was after the NFL’s offensive player of the year, DeMarco Murray, had left the team. But the Dallas Cowboys kept the Eagles out of the end zone until there was just 1:21 left in the game and won, 20-10, to move into a lead in the NFC East. And the team that’s the biggest threat to the Cowboys’ chances of repeating the division is 0-2.
Brandon Weeden went 7-for-7 in relief of Tony Romo. Weeden’s 42-yard touchdown pass to Terrance Williams in the fourth quarter put the game out of reach. His performance is a good sign for the Cowboys, who will be without Romo for up to 10 weeks.
“I’ve got to be ready,” Weeden said postgame. “Whether it’s a stubbed toe or an injury like that, you’ve got to be ready at all times. It’s a tough situation. I hate it for Tony. He works his tail off. He’s got a really good support team around him and he was obviously excited about what we had going here. It’s a tough situation to come into the game like that, but that’s my role on this team.”
Dallas dominated Sunday’s game against the rapidly fading Eagles, who looked like Super Bowl contenders in the preseason but have been flat when it actually matters. They forced Sam Bradford into two interceptions, one in the end zone; Bradford finished with an ESPN QBR rating of 5.3. If you don’t know much about that rating system, 5.3 is not very good.
Meanwhile, the Eagles’ ballyhooed rushing attack had just seven yards. DeMarco Murray, who led the NFL in rushing last season when with the Cowboys, rushed 13 times for two yards. Ryan Matthews had 0 yards. The Eagles’ leading rusher was Bradford!
With Bryant and Romo out, the Cowboys’ season is all about defense now – but it’s a defense that was ranked No19 for yards allowed in the NFL last season. Sunday’s victory is a good omen for fans, as Dallas shut down a supposedly high-powered offense, and – at a very early stage of the year – are third in yards allowed per game.
“We just like Eagle meat,” Jeremy Mincey told reporters. “That’s all it is. Nothing wrong with a little bird on the table, a Philly cheese bird.”
Quote of the week
But, uh, you know, we did a horseshit job and it’s my responsibility.
Buffalo coach Rex Ryan. Tom Brady threw for 466 yards and three touchdowns as New England beat Buffalo 40-32. This quote actually made the Patriots’ official website! The Bills’ official website censored the quote, but we all know what Rex actually said.
Stat of the week
7.6. That’s how many yards per carry Cam Newton had on Sunday. His 76 yards were the most on the Panthers; RB Jonathan Stewart had 62 yards. Newton somersaulted into the end zone in the third quarter to give Carolina the lead for good. The Panthers beat the Texans, 24-17, and improved to 2-0 this season. Houston, a team with playoff hopes in the AFC, fell to 0-2. And while JJ Watt picked up another sack, Jadeveon Clowney, the No1 overall pick in the 2014 draft, is still to record one in his injury affected career so far.
Fantasy player of the week
Carson Palmer. In a 48-23 win over Chicago, Palmer went 17-for-24 for 185 yards and four touchdowns. Besides the game where he was injured last season, Carson Palmer has thrown for two or more touchdowns in every game since December 2013. Fantasy owners who have Palmer didn’t spent a high draft pick on him this year; those people were smiling after his performance this week.
How the Patriots cheated this week
Last week, Mashable wrote that the Patriots were such cheaters that they’d psyched out the entire NFL. Even if New England did not cheat this week, apparently, they have been so good at in the past it gave them an unfair advantage this week. “If other teams think or expect the Patriots have an advantage from cheating, that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” JoAnn Dahlkoetter, a sports psychologist and author of the book Your Performing Edge, told the site. “If you assume your opponent already has an edge, that can put you at a disadvantage right from the beginning.”
Ugh, the Patriots. They cheat even when they don’t know they’re cheating.
Elsewhere around the league
- All hail the two-point conversion! The Steelers went for two after their first two touchdowns on Sunday, and managed to convert both times. After their third score, the Steelers kicked an extra point. Josh Scobee missed it. Fate rewards the risk takers.
- Speaking of that game, the 49ers were the only team in the league to not give up a touchdown in Week 1. In Week 2, they gave up six to Pittsburgh in a 43-18 blowout Steelers win. After a huge 168-yard day in Week 1, Carlos Hyde rushed for just 43 yards on 13 carries and left with a head injury.
- Jameis Winston got his first career win as a professional, going 14-for-21 for 207 yards and a touchdown. “I will never lose confidence,” he told reporters postgame. “Confidence is who I am.” (We can all call him “Confidence” from now on, apparently.) The Bucs’ win dropped the Saints to 0-2 this season.
- There was no heroic comeback this time, and now the defending NFC champions are in an 0-2 hole. Marshawn Lynch continues to struggle, too. Through two games, he has just 114 yards on 33 carries – just 3.5 yards per rush.
- Don’t sleep on the Bengals. Andy Dalton threw three touchdowns in the 24-19 win over the Chargers, and now Cincinnati has opened 2-0 for the second straight season. Giovani Bernard, thought to be the second fiddle in Cincinnati after the emergency of Jeremy Hill, rushed 20 times for 123 yards in the victory. The real key is whether Andy Dalton, always an up-and-down performer, can maintain his promising start if the Bengals make the post-season. Then again, when he’s throwing 31-yard passes of offensive tackles, anything can happen.
- Johnny Football mania! Manziel threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin on the Browns’ second play, and hit him for a 50-yard score with just under three minutes left on the game. To be fair, Manziel didn’t do much other than that: he went eight of 15 for 172 yards – so all but 55 yards came on those two passes. A man famous for his scrambling was also anonymous on the ground, and rushed for just three yards (although some may point to this as Manziel looking after the ball better). But the Browns beat the Titans, 28-14, so no matter.
Gif of the week
Cam Newton picked up his second win of the season, so he deserves a bit of pampering.
SO SOFT pic.twitter.com/4Ssn6pdD70
— SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) September 20, 2015
