NFL Week 2 Recap: A-Rod Agony, Wild Card Conclusions and more…

Here are three things we learned from the weekend’s action...

Week two is in the books, and if your favourite team hasn’t won yet, history shows that there’s only a one-in-eight chance of them making the playoffs.

That aside, happy Monday!

Here are three things we learned from the weekend’s action.

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A-Rod Agony

In terms of ability, Aaron Rodgers might be the best quarterback of all time. There is no greater endorsement of sport being all about a team than the situation the Green Bay Packers are facing at the minute.

Having to contend with the lightning quick get-off of Vic Beasley in Atlanta, Rodgers went into the game without either of his first-choice offensive tackles, Bryan Bulaga and David Bakhtiari. He would lose his go-to receiver in Jordy Nelson early on, before Randall Cobb went down with a shoulder injury.

There is no better quarterback in football than the Cal product at buying time both inside and outside the pocket – but when the offensive line collapses around him, there’s little he can do to nullify the pass rush. Unless the Packers get healthy, there’ll be no deep playoff run for them this year.

Cry Me A Rivers

The San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers (that’s still weird – it won’t stop being weird) are the worst team in football in one-score games. In their last eighteen games, fifteen of them have been decided by a single score. That’s unprecedented.

What’s even worse is their tendency to throw away those games: they’ve lost eleven of them. Rivers is one of those players on the periphery of the Hall of Fame, but his will damage his legacy.

Health may have been an issue before, but this year – they’re stacked.

They’ve got a fit Keenan Allen, a 1,000-yard receiver in Tyrell Williams, a speedster in Travis Benjamin, a Hall of Fame tight end, a superstar of a young TE in Hunter Henry, as well as a franchise left tackle in Russell Okung. It can only be their mentality.

They come out after every loss saying it won’t happen again – but low and behold – they’d probably be 2-0 this year if they executed field goals correctly. The franchise is getting what it deserves after leaving San Diego for a pipe dream with higher projected revenue.

Wild Card Conclusions

Both AFC Wild Card spots are coming from the AFC West. Three of the four teams in that division look like, at the minute, they could reach a Super Bowl. Trevor Siemian doesn’t look completely awful, and puts up enough points to allow his defence to seal games. Despite losing TJ Ward and Wade Phillips, the culture established in Colorado is sticking with them and that’s not easily forgotten.

The Chiefs whacked the Patriots on opening night before taking their home opener against Philadelphia yesterday.

Andy Reid is the second-best coach in football and he deserves credit for coaching a team without superstars and creating a well-oiled machine to churn out the wins, season after season.

The Raiders saw a lot of money for their potential Super Bowl exploits and they’ve looked decent. Breezing past a Titans team in Tennessee is no mean feat and they did it comfortably. Although laboured at times against the worst team in the NFL last night, they came through it thanks to an inspired performance from Michael Crabtree. This division has three teams going to the postseason.

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What do you think?