NFLBy Kevin McGuire on

Another week of NFL football is just about in the books, and the league had some good, bad, and ugly once again to share with us this weekend.

The good? The Falcons, Patriots, and another week of theatrical touchdown celebrations. The bad? The Browns, six teams scoring in single digits and eight more failing to score 20 points, and the Browns. Wait, did I say the Browns twice? Sorry. I meant the 49ers.

It’s 2017 and the Atlanta Falcons still look like the NFC’s best team

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At least for the first three-quarters of a game.

In a story that is as old as the Georgia Dome itself, the Atlanta Falcons looked like championship contenders for three quarters of play before the Green Bay Packers started to put the pressure on in the fourth quarter. For the Packers, there was too much damage done earlier in the game to be able to mount a successful comeback in the NFL opener for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the Falcons held on for a 34-23 victory to go 2-0.

And let’s give a pat on the back to the producers working Sunday Night Football‘s broadcast for NBC for the quick thinking to play that classic NBA on NBC theme heading to the commercial break following Devonta Freeman’s first touchdown of the night.

Although the Packers’ rally in the fourth quarter fell short, we did witness some history in the process when Rodgers completed his 300th career touchdown pass.

Broncos smother the Cowboys and hold Elliot to career-worst 8 yards

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There will be very little for the Dallas Cowboys to be happy about this week. Ezekiel Elliott was held to a mere eight yards on nine carries and Dak Prescott was picked off twice, with one being returned 103 yards by Aqib Talib for a score in the fourth quarter to lock the 42-17 up.

Making things worse for the Cowboys was having Trevor Siemian throw four touchdowns against the Dallas defense. Denver got two sacks out of Von Miller too as the Broncos defense smothered the Cowboys all game long.

The Cowboys did get banged up in the game by losing a couple guys in the first half (Chidobe Awuzie to hamstring and Nolan Carroll to concussion), and there was a weather delay of over an hour in the first quarter to disrupt any momentum from the start, but the Broncos had to come back from that stoppage too.

All right, so the Patriots are still probably going to win a bunch of games

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Remember a week ago when the New England Patriots were coming off a loss that made some people think the Tom Brady run had run its course, or some other nonsense like that?

Week 2 was a gentle reminder that Brady will be the one who knocks in a 36-20 victory on the road against the New Orleans Saints. Brady lit up the Saints defense by completing 30 of his 39 attempts for 447 yards and three touchdowns. The man is ruthless.

So it looks like the Patriots may still be good. But what about the Saints? OK, losing to the Patriots isn’t a terrible thing but the defense is a hot mess and the running game drama is not going away after Adrian Peterson and Mark Ingram each got eight carries and Ingram (52 rushing yards) nearly doubled the yardage of Peterson.

This is two straight losses to open the season by double-digit margins. The Saints could be in for a long season.

And now, without delay of game, here is the rest of the NFL Blitz.

NFL Blitz

Other NFL goodies from Sunday.

Ravens 24, Browns 10: What a day for me to leave the Baltimore Ravens defense on my fantasy bench. I know, I know, nobody cares about my fantasy team, but the Ravens notched five turnovers in a defensive show of power against the hapless Cleveland Browns. The victory came at the cost of losing guard Marshal Yanda for the year with a left ankle fracture.

Browns rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer was given a rude welcome to the league by the Ravens, who knocked him out of the game with a migraine headache after a rough outing. Kevin Hogan fared no better than Kizer as the Ravens defense was locked in for a second straight week. Browns left tackle Joe Thomas celebrated his 10,000th consecutive snap in style after returning home.

That many snaps in a row for the Browns is deserving of a good quality drink. And even LeBron James and J.J. Watt offered praise.

Panthers 9, Bills 3: They say a win is a win, and the ugly wins count just as much as the blowouts. That’s good news for the Carolina Panthers, who managed to win a game by six points in which they only scored nine. This one was for the defenses, with the Bills sacking Cam Newton six times. The Bills had just 176 yards of offense and 10 first downs in the game, and a late pass from Tyrod Taylor to rookie receiver Zay Jones fell incomplete on a fourth and long with just seconds to spare.

So far, the Panthers have not allowed a touchdown this season. It won’t get easier for the Bills next week with the Broncos on deck.

Panthers tight end Greg Olsen broke his foot and will miss “a lot of games.”

Also, Cam Newton postgame attire watch for Week 2…

Cardinals 16, Colts 13: The Colts were once again without Andrew Luck, so newly-acquired Jacoby Brissett got the start. It looked like it might work for a while, but Carson Palmer and the Cardinals put together a rally in the fourth quarter to force overtime, and Tyran Mathieu picked off a pass to lead to a Cardinals victorywitht a field goal. When does Luck come back again?

Next week’s game between the Colts and Browns will certainly be… a game that will be played.

Titans 37, Jaguars 16: If you thought the Jaguars turned a corner with their season-opening win at Houston last week, guess again. The Titans used their advantage on the ground to put the Jags away in their home opener, and they didn’t even need a big day from Marcus Mariota to do it.

In fact, it wasn’t a particularly sharp day for the franchise quarterback, but it was effective enough as the Jaguars looked like the Jaguars and not the team that showed up in Week 1. The Titans saw Derrick Henry carry the load for 92 yards and a score, while DeMarco Murray spent much of the second half on the sideline.

Chiefs 27, Eagles 20: Good teams take advantage of lucky bounces. The Eagles are not there yet. Here is your video proof. Good teams find a way to score points off a lucky bounce like this, whether by getting to the end zone or getting three points just before halftime.

The Eagles missed the field goal with just two ticks on the clock left, thus sending them to halftime down 6-3 in Kansas City. While the Eagles played well defensively, they could not keep the big plays from the Chiefs down for long enough. In the end, Andy Reid notched another win against one of his former assistants, this time adding Doug Pederson to the list. Travis Kelce also got the last laugh against his brother, Jason.

The Chiefs looks strong. The Eagles have already ditched handing the ball to LeGarrette Blount.

Washington 27, Rams 20: Washington saw a 20-10 lead go to waste in the second half, but Kirk Cousins delivered a game-winning touchdown drive a week after having the exact opposite result in the home opener. An 11-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Grant with under two minutes to play allowed Washington to return home from the west coast with a win to break even through the first two weeks, but starting running back Rob Kelley left the game with a rib injury.

I will say, this fake punt by the Rams was pretty fun.

Seahawks 12, 49ers 9: We are seeing a good handful of low-scoring games in the first two weeks of the season. Are the defenses really just that good, or are the offenses in a league-wide struggle? At least Russell Wilson can still make stuff happen.

What will surely grab some attention is Michael Bennett’s method of celebrating after a sack in the second quarter. For the record, I have zero problems with it.

Also, Eddie Lacy was a late scratch from the game, with no reports of any injury leading up to the game. Weird, right? The Seahawks have been accused of working their way around injury reports before, so something like this does raise some suspicion.

Raiders 45, Jets 20: The Raiders are good. The Jets are not. That is all.

Steelers 26, Vikings 9: The Steelers were looking to win their first home game since the passing of longtime president and chairman Dan Rooney, and they did so against a Vikings team playing without Sam Bradford. The Vikings had no choice but to roll the dice with Case Keenum, and that was just fine with Pittsburgh.

It wasn’t pretty for the Steelers, with just three third-down conversions on 13 tries, but the defense held Minnesota to just 237 yards and nine points. Le’Veon Bell rushed 27 times for 87 yards without a score. Rookie running back JuJu Smith-Schuster caught a shovel pass for a touchdown though.

Bucs 29, Bears 7: We have to be rapidly approaching the beginning of the Mitch Trubisky era in Chicago after this one. Mike Glennon was picked off twice and don’t let the 301 passing yards fool you too much.

This was the first game of the year for Jameis Winston and the Bucs, of course, after having their season opener postponed due to Hurricane Irma. And at times, it looked like the Bucs were playing their first game off an altered routine the past week and a half, which was understandable. But a win at home is a good way for the Bucs to get the season started even if it got started a week late.

Dolphins 19, Chargers 17: Here’s really all you need to know about the first Chargers home game in Los Angeles, other than the fans are still trolling the team owner. They set off fireworks after their kicker missed a potential game-winning field goal as time expired.

As for the NFL in Los Angeles, it appears the kings of town are still the Trojans of USC.

I feel obligated to point out USC drew a crowd of 61,125 for their season opener against Western Michigan and 77,614 for their Week 2 matchup against Stanford. So, yeah. Fight On!

Those who did show up to watch the Chargers however, were treated to some history by Antonio Gates.

All your rowdy friends are here on Monday night

The New York Giants look to rebound from their season-opening loss to Dallas when they host the Detroit Lions tonight for Monday Night Football. Matthew Stafford had a four-touchdown game against Arizona last week. He is 3-4 in seven career Monday games and 1-2 in three career games against the Giants.

Check back next Monday for another edition of the NFL Blitz.

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.

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