Strasser: NFL Week 2 Recap

2177
Odell Beckham Jr.

The second week of the NFL season was wild and full of action packed games.

One of the biggest storylines to emerge from Sunday were injuries to star veteran quarterbacks.

First it was Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger going down with an elbow injury that will require surgery and keep him out for the rest of the season.

Then later on in the day, Drew Brees, the 40-year-old quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, hit the hand of Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle, Aaron Donald, causing a hand injury. He will be out for six to eight weeks with significant ligament damage to his thumb.

As an NFL fan, it was disappointing to see both of these Hall-of-Famers go down on the same day.

In other news, the Philadelphia Eagles had a chance to move to 2-0 with a win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football. Unfortunately, the Eagles got hit with the injury bug early in this game with injuries to Desean Jackson, Alshon Jeffery, Carson Wentz (who returned later in the game), Corey Clement, and Tim Jernigan.

Even with this slew of injuries, the Eagles managed to convert on some 4th down prayers late in the game, and were leading with 3:13 left to play.

This lead barely lasted a minute before Julio Jones ripped a 54 yard touchdown off a screen pass from Matt Ryan. That score ended up being the difference as the Eagles lost a heartbreaker: 24-20 to the Falcons.

Another notable game this Sunday was New Orleans Saints vs. Los Angeles Rams.

This game received quite a bit of hype because of the history these two teams share.

Last year in the NFC Championship Game, the Saints and the Rams faced off in a game that was decided by possibly one of the worst missed referee calls of all time. After being eliminated from the playoffs last year, the Saints were looking for revenge in this game.

After Drew Brees got injured, backup Teddy Bridgewater only managed to complete 17 of his 30 passes for a mere 165 yards and no touchdowns.

Todd Gurley ran for one touchdown and the Rams handled the Saints easily with a final score of 27-9.

In one of the more interesting matchups of the week, two former Heisman-Trophy-winning quarterbacks faced off when the Ravens played the Arizona Cardinals in their home stadium in Baltimore.

Kyler Murray, fresh off of winning the Heisman last season and being the first overall pick in this year’s draft, was determined to put on a show after a solid second half in week one.

Lamar Jackson and the Ravens were fresh off a blowout win in Miami last week.

The game was competitive until the very end, but it was Lamar Jackson who prevailed in this game, throwing for 272 yards and two touchdowns while adding 120 more yards on the ground, becoming the first player in NFL history to achieve those kind of numbers in a regular season game.

The Ravens won 23-17 to move on to 2-0 in the season.

And finally, in the last game of the week, Odell Beckham Jr. made his return to Metlife Stadium to face the New York Jets, after being traded from the New York Giants to the Cleveland Browns this offseason.

With a lot of noise surrounding OBJ because of comments made by Jets defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, he was looking for a good performance on his old stomping grounds and he did exactly that.

He finished with six receptions for 161 yards and a touchdown including an incredible one handed grab near the same endzone as his famous catch in 2014. He even broke his own personal record with an 89 yard touchdown. The Browns easily took care of the Jets on Monday Night Football and won the game by a final score of 23-3.

This week of NFL action only left me wanting more, and with some of the games slated for next week, I don’t think I can wait much longer.

For comments/questions about this story, email sports@thewhitonline.com or tweet @TheWhitOnline.

Comment