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It was a rough Sunday for some of the NFL’s best teams in 2023.
The 49ers were stymied by the Vikings on the road. The Cowboys got destroyed by the Saints at home. The Ravens blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter against the Raiders. The Lions messed up in a home loss to the banged-up Buccaneers.
New season. Different challenges. Last year’s records don’t matter.
Even Patrick Mahomes and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs struggled. They barely escaped with a win over the Bengals when Harrison Butker kicked a last-second 51-yard field goal after a defensive pass interference on fourth-and-16 gave them a chance.
And, the Houston Texans needed a defensive stand in the final minute to hold off Caleb Williams and the Bears for a 19-13 victory in the last game of the day.
Las Vegas, Tampa Bay and New Orleans were the three biggest underdogs in Week 2, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
So much for point spreads.
Gardner Minshew rallied the Raiders (1-1) back from a 23-13 deficit at Baltimore, leading the offense on three scoring drives in the final 12 minutes of a 26-23 victory.
Reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson couldn’t do much to prevent the Ravens, who were 8 1/2-point favorites, from their first 0-2 start since 2015. Baltimore led the NFL with 13 wins last season and reached the AFC championship game before losing to the Chiefs. Now, the Ravens have to climb out of a huge hole.
Of the 32 teams that have started 0-2 since the NFL expanded to 14 playoff teams in 2020, only Cincinnati in 2022 and Houston in 2023 made the postseason. Just five of the 32 teams even finished with a winning record.
“We’re not going to be defined by everyone that’s saying we’re not any good, that we’re good (or) that the season is over after two games,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “That’s what’s going to be said, and we understand that, but they’re not here; they’re not inside. No one inside is going to say that. We know that we’re a good football team, and we’re going to go keep getting better and better and better and define the season by the way we play.”
The Cowboys (1-1) had won 16 straight regular-season games at home and were 6 1/2-point favorites over New Orleans, which demolished woeful Carolina in the season opener. But Derek Carr and the Saints ran over Dallas the same way Jordan Love and the Packers did in the same stadium in the playoffs last January.
Carr, Alvin Kamara and Rashid Shaheed were unstoppable in a 44-19 rout, scoring touchdowns on the first six drives. Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak outcoached Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer and New Orleans made a statement against Micah Parsons and Co.
“There is a lot of things in this offense the way Klint does things, the way he sets me up for success, puts me in position for success, it allows me to do a lot of things I enjoy doing as a quarterback,” Carr said. “It’s been a really cool marriage of that. And me and Klint are just getting to know each other. We’re only two games in, and so we are still learning each other.”
That’s bad news for the rest of the NFC South because the Saints have already scored 91 points in two games and there’s no telling what they can do once Carr is more comfortable with Kubiak’s offense.
The Buccaneers (2-0) were missing All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr., defensive tackle Calijah Kancey and tackle Luke Goedeke in a rematch of an NFC divisional playoff loss at Detroit (1-1). Backups stepped up and Baker Mayfield made big plays with his legs, overcoming a ferocious pass rush led by Aidan Hutchinson’s 4 1/2 sacks.
Lions coach Dan Campbell, whose aggressive coaching decisions backfired in a loss to San Francisco in the NFC title game, cost the team a shot at a field goal in the final seconds of the second quarter when he sent the field-goal unit onto the field while Jared Goff was spiking the ball at the Buccaneers 9. The 10-second runoff for having too many players on the field ended the half. Detroit ran its final play of the game from Tampa Bay’s 26 so a field goal would’ve made the difference.
“There’s no way to justify this,” Campbell said. “It’s a massive error on my part, no one else’s, and it was just between hurry-up field goal and clocking it. And it was 100% my fault.”
After opening the season with an easy win over Aaron Rodgers and the Jets on Monday night, San Francisco (1-1) never got going in Minnesota. Despite racking up 399 yards of offense, the reigning NFC champions couldn’t score enough in a 23-17 loss. Brock Purdy threw for 319 yards but had two turnovers.
The Los Angeles Rams, another playoff team last year, are 0-2 following a 41-10 loss in Arizona. Injuries have plagued the Rams over the first two weeks and they have to face the 49ers next week.
“The only positive thing is that this game is over now and we can move forward,” Rams coach Sean McVay said.
All the losing coaches can say the same.