NFL Winners and Losers: Cowboys Crushed at Home by Saints, Here Comes the Panic

Someone must have told the Dallas Cowboys there was a playoff game on Sunday.

The Cowboys are usually good in the regular season and disappointing in the playoffs, so their absence in Week 2 against the New Orleans Saints was a shock. Dallas came in as favorites and gave up 35 points before halftime, tying a team record for most points allowed in a first half.

The Saints have looked pretty good on offense the past two weeks, although the first game was against the bumbling Carolina Panthers. After the Cowboys swept the Cleveland Browns last week, no one expected the Saints to be up and down the field. New Orleans had 310 yards in the first half. The Cowboys lacked a fight in the second half, and they barely fell away in a 44-19 loss.

One thing that didn’t seem to be a problem for the Cowboys in the opener but didn’t look good on Sunday was the loss of coordinator Dan Quinn this past offseason. Quinn did a great job coordinating the Cowboys’ defense before the Washington Commanders hired him as their head coach. The Cowboys gave up big plays everywhere, including a 70-yard deep pass from Derek Carr to Rashid Shaheed and a 57-yard touchdown catch to Alvin Kamara, one of three touchdowns he had in the first half. Kamara added a fourth touchdown in the second half. He likely could have scored one or two more if the Cowboys had given the Saints much reason to stay aggressive on offense deep into the second half. The Cowboys’ defense looked out of shape, which rarely happened under Quinn (at least until the postseason).

Despite all the concerns about the Cowboys in the offseason, they haven’t lost any big stars. They have lost depth, and that seemed to be a problem on Sunday. Everything went wrong, especially on defense.

It’s hard to know what to make of the Cowboys so far. They were fantastic in a dominant Week 1 win. Maybe Week 2 said more about the Saints. We’ll find out as the season progresses. But the anxiety that’s usually a big part of the Cowboys’ offseason after a bad playoff loss has been pushed back a few months into next week. You can’t be so blown away by New Orleans and not panic a little. Especially with a game against a good Baltimore Ravens team next week.

Here are the remaining winners and losers from Week 2 of the NFL season:

WINNERS

Brian Flores: Whether Flores will get another shot at being a head coach in the NFL is questionable. His tenure with the Miami Dolphins didn’t go as planned, his dealings with Tua Tagovailoa garnered a lot of negative headlines, and there’s a whole lawsuit that owners could file against the NFL.

But Flores can coach a defense.

The Minnesota Vikings are 2-0 after beating the San Francisco 49ers 23-17 on Sunday. Sam Darnold hit Justin Jefferson for a 97-yard pass, but the star of the win was undoubtedly Flores’ defense. The 49ers haven’t been slowed by many teams in recent seasons and looked great against the New York Jets in the opener.

Brock Purdy had 319 yards and Jordan Mason rushed for 100, but much of that came in catch-up mode. Through three quarters, the 49ers had seven points and were overwhelmed by the Vikings defense.

Green Bay lost in Week 1. Detroit lost in Week 2. The Chicago Bears didn’t play until Sunday night, so the Vikings spent a while in an improbable first place in the NFC North, thanks in large part to their defense.

Matt LaFleur: LaFleur, the coach of the Green Bay Packers, should now be getting some of the recognition he rarely received when Aaron Rodgers was his quarterback.

LaFleur took Malik Willis, who had failed to play quarterback in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans, and defeated the Indianapolis Colts 16-10 on Sunday. Willis was acquired in a trade for a seventh-round pick on Aug. 27, and reports said he was in overdrive preparing to start in place of the injured Love.

LaFleur was also running at full speed.

The Packers changed their offense on the fly. There was a dizzying array of moves and motions to make it easier to run the ball with a predictable offense. LaFleur didn’t ask Willis to do too much in the passing game, but he executed very well. The Packers had just 25 yards passing in the first half, but that didn’t matter much because they had 237 yards rushing. In one half. That’s not a typo. Josh Jacobs had 20 carries for 128 yards in the first half. The Packers didn’t do much in the second half, but held on for an ugly win. The Packers will win anyway, as long as Love is sidelined.

To reiterate: LaFleur lost his $55 million-a-year quarterback, acquired a quarterback who was traded for a seventh-round pick about three weeks ago, changed his offense to fit what Willis could do, and beat a Colts team that nearly made the playoffs last season and nearly beat a very good Houston Texans team last week. Life without Love won’t be easy, no matter how long the quarterback is out with a sprained MCL, but LaFleur will get the most out of his team that he can.

NFC South: The Atlanta Falcons didn’t look great in Week 1 and we’ll see how they play Monday night, meanwhile the Carolina Panthers… more on them in a moment. But it seems like there’s more excitement in the NFC South than just getting a team into the playoffs because the rules say so.

The Saints looked great in a 2-0 start, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers show no sign of giving up the division title either. The Buccaneers are 2-0 after a huge 20-16 win over the Detroit Lions. The Buccaneers started fast and kept it going for a long time, limiting the Lions to two turnovers on downs in the final minute. The Buccaneers’ defense made big plays, even without All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr., who was injured.

The Buccaneers are looking good so far this season, but they’re not the only ones in first place.

New York Jets: When the Jets fell behind to the Tennessee Titans early Sunday morning, the back-page headlines were likely already written.

The Jets were 0-1 and in danger of falling to 0-2. But they rallied after a sluggish first half and a 10-7 halftime lead to win 24-17. The defense got a stop deep in their own territory late in the game to secure the win. Rookie running back Braelon Allen came through with two touchdowns, including a go-ahead 20-yard touchdown run that put the Jets ahead for good in the fourth quarter.

The Jets are under a lot of pressure this season and it’s always tough to play in that market. A few days before they play on Thursday night, the Jets don’t have to hear a lot of criticism.

Antonio Pierce and the Raiders: There’s a lot to be said about the 0-2 Baltimore Ravens, who once again blew a fourth-quarter lead and lost at home. That’s for later this week.

For now, let’s give credit to the Las Vegas Raiders, who rallied from a 23-13 deficit in the fourth quarter to pull off a huge 26-23 upset of the Ravens. For the second week in a row, the most popular pick in Yahoo Survival Football went down.

The Raiders lost to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1, and Pierce’s poor decision to punt in Chargers territory in the fourth quarter was alarming. But this week, he helped lead Las Vegas to a blowout win over a Ravens team that should be one of the NFL’s best by the end of the season.

LOSERS

Carolina Panthers, again: There were plenty of winners on the Los Angeles Chargers’ side. Last year’s first-round pick, Quentin Johnston, scored two touchdowns, giving hope that the lights are finally on. JK Dobbins had another great day with the ball. The Chargers are 2-0 to start the season.

But should anything really count against the 2024 Panthers? Maybe the stats should count for half the points. The Panthers don’t even look like an NFL team two weeks into the season, a season after losing 15 of 17 games. They’ve been outscored 50-3 in the first half of their two games this season. They trailed 20-0 at home to the Chargers on Sunday and never got back into the game in the second half of a 26-3 loss.

We’re two games into the season and it doesn’t look any better than it did last season. Bryce Young looks just as bad as he did last season. It’s not a great time to be a Panthers fan. And there are still 15 games left to play.

Trevor Lawrence and the 0-2 Jaguars: At one point in the second half of Sunday’s game, Trevor Lawrence had 12 attempts for 16 yards. You know what they say, $55 million a year doesn’t get you what it used to.

Lawrence was outclassed by Deshaun Watson and the Jacksonville Jaguars went 0-2 this season, losing 18-13 at home to the Cleveland Browns. The Browns have a good defense, but the Jaguars should be able to produce a little more on offense. They appeared to take a lead in the fourth quarter, but a touchdown to Christian Kirk was negated by an illegal shift penalty. The Jaguars settled for a field goal, and after the Browns ran out of clock, Lawrence made a safety with his team down on a field goal in the final two minutes.

There’s still plenty of time this season, but Lawrence, a divisive player, will have to perform much better if the Jaguars are to climb out of this early hole.

Malik Nabers: The New York Giants rookie receiver is going to have a great career. He had a great day on Sunday. But the margin for error in the NFL is small and he had a big drop that helped the Washington Commanders secure a 21-18 victory.

The Giants lost kicker Graham Gano on the opening kickoff with a groin injury. He was placed on the injury report Saturday, and the Giants did not sign a kicker to the active roster. It was a terrible decision that cost the Giants dearly time and time again, including when they had to go fourth-and-4 from the Washington 22-yard line in the fourth quarter of a tied game instead of kicking a field goal.

The Giants appeared to have a first down on a sideline pass to Nabers. Nabers, who had 10 catches for 127 yards, dropped him. Washington took the next possession down and scored a field goal as time expired.

Nabers will be a great player, and Sunday’s loss was likely more on the Giants’ brass for gambling that Gano could play the entire game Sunday. But the drop is a tough move for him early in his rookie season.

New England Patriots, but not really: The Patriots aren’t bad.

Many people thought the Patriots would be terrible this season, but they haven’t. They beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 and had a late lead over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. The Seahawks tied the game late in regulation, the Patriots couldn’t mount a game-winning drive in overtime, and Seattle won 23-20 on a field goal in overtime.

The Patriots won’t feel great after a loss, of course, but they’re much better than expected. Jerod Mayo has done well in his first few games as coach. Jacoby Brissett has calmed down a lot of the talk about playing rookie Drake Maye at quarterback. New England may not make the playoffs, but they won’t be off to a flying start this season as expected.