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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
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Christian D'Andrea

The Cowboys’ Death Star, Lamar Jackson’s arm and the 6 best things about Week 2

Cowboys Baker Mayfield Bijan Robinson NFL Christian DAndrea Mike Evans Zach Wilson Cardinals Dak Prescott Garrett Wilson

Week 2 of the NFL season gave us joy and misery, comebacks and collapses, and other things beyond the 60 minutes of chaos that was the New York Giants vs. the Arizona Cardinals.

The Giants and Cardinals each put down the sticks and let the computer sim them out for a half at a time as New York engineered an epic comeback over one of the league’s worst teams to prove that, “hey, we’re not *that* hopeless.” The Chicago Bears went in the other direction, showcasing some early competence and then abandoning it while allowing Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to look like a world class passing offense.

But the point of this column isn’t to revel in failure; that’s what Week 2’s grossest quarterbacks feature is for. Instead we’re talking about all the best things that happened Sunday. Fortunately, there was plenty of that — sometimes right up front and sometimes in the silver linings of sadder games. So what stood out the most? Friends, I’m glad you asked.

1
The Cowboys, slowly blotting out the sun

Well, look:

That’s just one facet of what makes the Dallas Cowboys so dangerous. Parsons is nigh unblockable — particularly against a Jets offensive line whose porous state left Aaron Rodgers injured after four snaps — but this sack isn’t his alone.

Zach Wilson has nowhere to turn thanks to coverage downfield. His most likely option, a tailback screen, has been wiped out by defensive tackle Mazi Smith — a rookie who recognized the play and erased it from the option tree. He can’t go downfield because Trevon Diggs and Stephon Gilmore bring elite coverage and Da’Ron Bland looks like a long-armed problem as the team’s third corner. So Parsons gets the sack because he’s great and so is the rest of the defense.

That’s not all. Here’s a play where Garrett Wilson gets open against Diggs in the end zone and it does not matter. Why? Because Demarcus Lawrence is still very good at football.

That’s a unit that can sew chaos on every level. It’s also a defense that’s allowed 10 points in two games so far. Granted, that’s against Wilson and Daniel Jones (in a rainstorm), but the fact remains; this is a championship caliber group.

We saw signs the offense can approach those heights as well. The Cowboys faced the defense that harangued Josh Allen in Week 1 and held the Buffalo Bills to 16 points. Dak Prescott led an effort that hung 30 on New York while converting 50 percent of his third downs. Granted, that came with a relatively paltry 4.6 yards per play — the same number Buffalo hit a week before — but 70 percent of the team’s drives that weren’t cut short by the end of the first half or regulation ended in either a touchdown or, much more commonly, field goal.

Concerns persist. All but nine of Prescott’s 38 passes came within five yards of the line of scrimmage, leading to an underwhelming 6.7 yards per attempt despite completing nearly 82 percent of his passes. Tony Pollard averaged fewer than three yards per carry. Five of those seven scoring drives were limited to field goals.

But if this offense can merely be league average the Cowboys’ defense will make it a contender. Prescott, Pollard, CeeDee Lamb and a hopefully healthy Brandin Cooks can get them there — especially amongst a thin crop of NFC title hopefuls.

2
The Arizona Cardinals' perfect, stupid, beautiful tank

Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Arizona has little benefit to winning games this season. Sure, there’s pride, but an overmatched roster is unlikely to make a meaningful playoff push. With two potential top 10 draft picks looming in 2024 — their own and the Houston Texans (currently 0-2) — the most prosperous path forward was a step backward as part of a total rebuild.

That’s what 2023 looked like from the outset, but these Cardinals have thrown a wrench into those plans. They actually look good … for just about three quarters each week before completing their more meaningful objective of losing games.

We saw it in Week 1 when a 16-10 fourth quarter lead over the Washington Commanders dissolved into a 20-16 defeat. But that was child’s play compared to Week 2, where the Cardinals put on a master class in tanking and allowed Daniel Jones and a New York Giants team whose offensive line was mostly theoretical to erase a 28-7 third quarter deficit.

This was wonderful. Arizona’s final two possessions before a last-ditch Hail Mary were both three-and-outs that net a combined -2 yards. The defense gave up 89 yards in the first half while staking a 20-0 lead and 350 in the second half. The Cardinals gave up 3.3 yards per play before halftime and 10.9 yards per play after it. New York’s win probability chart was the abstract interpretation of a hammock of shame.

via ESPN

The Cardinals are losing, but they aren’t entirely bad. They’re collapsing, but they’re entertaining. They’re sinking to the bottom of the standings but remaining fantasy relevant (100-plus rushing yards for James Conner, six catches, 54 yards and a touchdown for Hollywood Brown). They are somehow producing a watchable product for their fans while guiding them through the worst part of their fandom.

That’s a wonderful tightrope to walk. The Arizona Cardinals might be tanking wizards.

3
Bijan Robinson, who lives in bullet time

Conventional wisdom warns against using a first round draft pick on a running back thanks to the abundance of quality runners in the NFL. Conventional wisdom does not apply to Bijan Robinson, whose every touch is a sin against the rule of physics.

One week after a 10-carry, 56-yard NFL debut Robinson proved his value as an NFL lead back with 124 yards on 19 carries. On a day where Tyler Allgeier’s 3.0 yards per carry average saddled him with -0.27 expected points added (EPA) per play, his rookie counterpart clocked in at 0.30 — making him twice as valuable to Atlanta’s comeback effort as quarterback Desmond Ridder (0.14 EPA/play).

Robinson is so good his head coach is comfortable running a toss sweep — a play that begins roughly five yards behind the line of scrimmage — on fourth-and-inches with the game in the balance.

Robison’s drive-sustaining cuts justify every bit of hype he brought to the NFL. Through two games he has 256 total yards from scrimmage, generated 11 first downs on 40 touches and scored one touchdown. If he can just keep this pace — not improve, but simply remain the same — he’ll break the franchise’s single-season yardage record, which William Andrews has held for the last 40 years.

That’s a small sample size and all, but Robinson isn’t picking up this yardage on a whim. He’s carving up defenses with lightning-quick cuts and the power to rumble forward after contact to leave his offense on schedule.

Things are not all good in Atlanta. Ridder’s throws still lack polish and he had two interceptions dropped by Packer defenders that could have changed the course of the game. Head coach Arthur Smith made the right play calls with the game on the line, but his decision to abandon his gameplan and throw the ball from the goal line cost his team points early.

Still, the Falcons course corrected and repeatedly smashed into the run defense weak spot that has haunted the Packers for years on end. Robinson was the focal point of that attack. As a result, a team that came into the fourth quarter trailing by 12 points moved to 2-0.

4
Baker Mayfield's climb back to respectability

Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

It was a certainty Mayfield would be better in 2023 than he was in 2022, only because it would be nearly impossible to be worse. The former No. 1 overall pick’s season split between the Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Rams featured one memorable comeback but mostly languished as an island in a sea of bad quarterbacking. He was, incredibly, worse than Zach Wilson.

Significantly worse, per advanced stats.

via RBSDM.com and the author.

Mayfield averaged -4.3 EPA per game in 2022. Through two games he’s at 7.7 and his Bucs are 2-0. That was highlighted in Week 2 by the mercurial quarterback’s first 300-plus yard passing performance in 23 months.

Mayfield dusted the Chicago Bears for 317 yards on 34 passes to prove he’s still viable as an NFL quarterback. His game plan Sunday wasn’t complicated. He sought out his 6-foot-5 future Hall of Famer at wideout and targeted Mike Evans repeatedly against a Bears secondary with little recourse.

As you can see, the passes themselves weren’t dots, but they were on target enough to bury the Bears. Evans finished his day with six catches on eight targets, 171 yards, a touchdown and a perfect passer rating when Mayfield dialed his number. And while the product on the field wasn’t as pretty as the stats paint, it was still encouraging.

Mayfield’s downfield passing creates hope this revival can remain. He threw nine passes that traveled at least 15 yards downfield and completed six of them for an uber-efficient 202 yards. Four of those completions were to Evans, which dulls the luster a bit, but this remains one of the clearest vital signs we’ve gotten from Mayfield in some time. Keep it up: the world could use more Progressive commercials that are actually funny instead of simply familiar.

5
Lamar Jackson, launching bombs and unlocking a new level in his video game

Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK

Let’s begin with the caveat this is a small sample size. The Baltimore Ravens have played two games. Lamar Jackson has only thrown 55 passes. This may just be an outlier.

But if it’s a trend, the AFC North is in trouble, because Jackson sure looks like he’s got his range back.

The former MVP has thrown 11 passes that have traveled at least 15 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. He’s completed seven of those for 174 yards, one touchdown, zero interceptions and a 137.5 passer rating. None may have been more impressive than Sunday’s thorough laser to rookie first round pick Zay Flowers.

That pass traveled 48 yards in the air and needed to be absolutely threaded in the space between cornerback and closing safety help. Jackson did it with ease.

That creates space for improvement, even for a former MVP. Jackson’s selling point has always been his scrambling ability but at his peak he was the league’s most efficient passer. In that 2019 MVP campaign he averaged nearly 12 yards per completion but only completed 34.7 percent of his throws over 20 yards downfield thanks in part to a lacking receiving corps whose top option, Marquise Brown, finished the year with 564 yards.

Through two games, he’s completed four of seven such attempts (57 percent). All four catches came from 2023 additions Flowers and Odell Beckham Jr.. The capacity for change is real, provided both the quarterback and his receiving corps can remain healthy.

Jackson is still running the ball, but at a more reasonable 46 yards per game than his off-the-rails stretch from 2019 to 2022. For a player who has missed 10 games the last two years, this is a benefit. A proper receiving corps has helped unlock the downfield passing game John Harbaugh knew was there all along. It’s early yet, but Jackson once again looks like a difference-making quarterback — only this time with a sustainable downfield passing game and receivers defenses can’t brush off with single coverage.

6
Brenden Schooler's running head start blocked kick

Hell yeah, this ruled.

Bill Belichick’s magic may be waning without Tom Brady, but every now and then he finds a way to bend the rules to his favor and create the small advantages that make him so easy to hate. This proves he’s still got that part down.

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