Hopefully, this will get better with time. Maybe, what we're watching around much of the country these past two weeks is an aberration, a form of extended training camps if you will, given how little most key starters play in August anyway.
Maybe some of these offensive lines will gel and perhaps some of these quarterbacks will improve. But man, this just hasn't been pretty to watch, and forgive me for being something of a skeptic. Wouldn't surprise me in the least to see the battle for the first overall pick be a lot more hotly contested than many of these division titles, with 2017 already looking exceedingly bleak for a handful of teams and 2018 perhaps providing better fortunes.
Make no mistake, the race for those top draft picks -- and a handful of quarterback prospects -- is on, and as the weeks go by more teams might be added to the group of the hapless and hopeless. We've already seen one team fire its starting quarterback two quarters into the season (Houston) and another fire its offensive coordinator five days into the season (Cincinnati), and the rundown of coaches on the hot seat may be too long to list here.
This is not conducive to success, when a six-month offseason fails to provide sufficient stability to allow key personnel to keep their jobs two weeks into the season. This being a copycat league and all, brace yourself for more drastic decisions in the days ahead. And, even without those offensively-bereft Bengals and Texans on the field Sunday following their Thursday night debacle, well, the amount of suspect and suffering "offense" on display was staggering at times.
Here were the 1 p.m. scores at halftime: 6-0, 20-0, 6-3, 6-3, 14-3, 10-3, 14-7, 27-13. I'm sorry folks – only one team, at most, is moving the ball in virtually all those games. In the 4 p.m. window we were treated to another 6-6 in Seattle and a 10-3 opening half in Carson, Calif, where less than 28,000 Southern Californians managed to gather to watch. Good grief.
Consider the first-half stat lines of the following NFL quarterbacks:
| Quarterback | Team | 1H statline |
| Blake Bortles | JAC | 5/12, 41 yards, 1 INT |
| Jacoby Brissett | IND | 7/15, 73 yards |
| Kirk Cousins | WAS | 9/15, 81 yards |
| Jay Cutler | MIA | 13/17, 75 yards |
| Mike Glennon | CHI | 13/16, 116 yards, 2 INTs |
| Brian Hoyer | SF | 8/14, 47 yards, 1 INT |
| Case Keenum | MIN | 6/13, 53 yards |
| DeShone Kizer | CLE | 6/11, 81 yards, 1 INT* |
| Marcus Mariota | TEN | 9/18, 80 yards, 1 INT |
| Carson Palmer | ARI | 11/21, 162 yards, 1 INT |
| Tyrod Taylor | BUF | 5/7, 15 yards |
*Backup QB Kevin Hogan also tossed a first-half pick.
Total: 92 of 159 for 761 yards (4.79 yards per attempt!), 0 TD, 7 INT, 51.9 rating
I guess you can cut come slack to a few for being slow starters, and some of these guys are still very young, but that's some collective ineptitude right there. A good portion of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL could not muster a single touchdown in the first half of their games while combining for a total of seven interceptions. That is the equivalent of five-and-a-half games of NFL quarterbacking right there. That ain't easy to watch.
(Oh yeah, and Colin Kaepernick still can't get a workout with an NFL team much less a contract offer ... whatever).
But the race to the bottom is alive and well, and the odor of a lost season -- or one slipping away -- is getting a little too pungent for some. If this keeps up, look for more desperate moves from a bevvy of borderline-desperate teams. For many of these teams, winning will mean getting the highest pick possible, and frankly I don't blame them, especially the new regimes that inherited the bulk of some of these rosters.
Titans reclaim AFC South supremacy with force
It's hard to make a true statement in September, and it's harder still to do so when the Jaguars are your opponent, but kudos to the Titans for trying. They got up 30-3 with ease and showed no intentions of letting up. And Tennessee coach Mike Mularkey, who got fired after a single season as Jacksonville's head coach, seemed to be eating it up. Make no mistake, this stuff is personal sometimes, and Mularkey seemed out for blood to ruin the Jaguars' home opener.
They weren't just going to sit on the ball with a big lead, and after hearing so much hype for years about how great Jacksonville's defense is about to become -- especially after they unmasked a horrible Houston offensive line in Week 1 -- the Titans went about systematically punching the Jags defense in the face.
They rolled up 14 points in the fourth quarter of the blowout, and that 37-16 final score flatters the Jags. The road to the AFC South division title is going to go through Nashville.
Watch out for the Panthers defense
Carolina's defense looks like it is all the way back. The secondary has yet to be challenged yet, given the limitations of the passing games the Panthers have faced thus far (San Francisco and Buffalo), so I'm going to withhold some judgement there. But they are getting an intimidation factor back after they managed to bottle up Shady McCoy most of the day to a staggering degree (12 carries for nine yards; impressive to say the least).
Of course, the Panthers still can't protect Cam Newton, who was sacked six times in the first three quarters alone including consecutive hits that nearly knocked him out of the game.
Who do the Patriots throw to now?
I love the shapeshifting routine the Patriots pull off every week, but man are they going to be pushed now. They entered Sunday with three healthy receivers and were down to about one by the end of the game, and now Gronk could miss some time too with a groin injury. They can run their passing game through their running backs if need be, and the decision to load up on them looks even more sage now.
Josh McDaniels is as good as they come in the offensive coordinator ranks, and the Pats should savor this while they can, because McDaniels is going to have his pick of jobs come January.
Things get ugly in L.A.
The Los Angeles Rams hype train got slowed down some, too eh? So many ready to anoint Jared Goff after torching the Colts, but it was a different story this week. Goff looked the part of the rookie and held the ball too long and was our of sorts at times.
The attendance issues with both L.A. teams are very real, and they aren't going away. The more embarrassing this gets, the more people will be sweating at Park Avenue and around the league. Three years of Chargers football at Stubhub Center seems untenable to me.
Ravens' latest loss might be their biggest
As much as the Ravens defense has been impressive -- they've turned opposing quarterbacks over 10 times through eight quarters this season -- the loss of All-Pro guard Marshal Yanda for the season far outweighs the victory over Cleveland at home.
Yanda was the glue holding that line together, and he is as mean and effective as any run blocker in the NFL; Baltimore needs to have a top-10 run game to stay balanced and on schedule. They already lost the other starting guard (Alex Lewis) for the season, center has been a question mark and right tackle Ricky Wagner left for big money in free agency.
Yanda is a tone setter and he makes everyone around him better. His loss for the next 14 games can't be overstated, and no team has suffered more losses from injury, suspension and retirement than the Ravens.
More thoughts about Week 2
I can't watch Carson Palmer play and not think what Pat Mahomes would look like in that offense. Arizona dodged a bullet Sunday at Indy, but it could be a looong season there. ...
Kevin Hogan is a far superior quarterback to Kizer right now. I get why you play Kizer, but the only time Baltimore's defense had to fret at all Sunday was when Hogan was on the field and Kizer was battling a migraine. If Hogan plays the entire second half, that might be a different game. The Browns' run defense also got bullied far more than I expected. ...
Travis Kelce is the best tight end in the AFC. Gronk's health is too big a concern, and as much as Kelce does knucklehead stuff (another unnecessary personal foul Sunday), he is taking games over at critical junctures. ...
Just a reminder that Glennon got the Osweiler treatment -- $18.5 million fully guaranteed by next March. Stunned the Bears didn't go to top pick Mitch Trubisky in the second half of that dreadful beatdown in Tampa. Only a matter of time until they do.
