Week 2 in the NFL wraps up with a pair of games on Monday Night Football on TSN.
Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers open on the road against the Houston Texans followed by the Las Vegas Raiders taking on the Los Angeles Chargers in a battle for the AFC West lead.
The Texans offence was slow to get rolling in their 14-9 loss in the opener a week ago, as C.J. Stroud threw for only 188 yards against a stout Los Angeles Rams defence.
Stroud, the 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL, was unable to lead the Texans offence to a touchdown drive.
Mayfield and the Bucs won 23-20 on the road in their opener against the Atlanta Falcons, highlighted by a dramatic game-winning touchdown pass to rookie Emeka Egbuka with just over a minute remaining in the game.
The Chargers won in impressive fashion in Brazil against the Kansas City Chiefs in their opener, with Justin Herbert showcasing strong command of the offence to open his sixth season in the NFL. He threw for three touchdowns and over 300 yards in the 27-21 victory.
The Raiders knocked off the New England Patriots 20-13 on the road to open their season with a victory, as new quarterback Geno Smith racked up 362 yards through the air.
Texans look to right the ship in home opener vs. Buccaneers
The Texans have won the AFC South division title in two consecutive seasons, but with the Indianapolis Colts sitting at 2-0 already, Houston will need a win against the Buccaneers to avoid digging a deep hole to start the campaign.
Stroud knows the team can and will be better if they’re to avoid digging themselves into that hole at home on Monday.
“We didn’t deserve to win [against the Rams] because we didn’t do the right things,” Stroud said earlier this week. “When you come out in the NFL lollygagging and going through the motions, that kind of happens. I think we’ll be all right, but I think it’s a good wakeup call for us.”
Houston amassed just 265 yards of offence - a mark they failed to surpass just five times last year (they went 1-4 in those games).
On the other side, the Buccaneers and head coach Todd Bowles are cognizant of the fact that despite picking up a win in Week 1, the team needs improvement in a lot of areas. The Buccaneers surrendered 60 yards on penalties, and kicker Chase McLaughlin coughed up four points on missed kicks.
“Those guys didn’t blink whether it was penalties, a bad play or anything else,” Bowles said Monday. “This is the first time they’ve played that many plays in a ballgame with a limited preseason, so I knew there was going to be some fatigue in the second half. But mentally, they didn’t fall off. They believed in each other and that was the biggest take out of the game.”
The Buccaneers have a chance to take a firm lead in the division early with a win, as the other three teams in the NFC South are a combined 1-5 out of the gate - and Tampa Bay already owns a tiebreaker advantage over the Falcons due to their win a week ago.
Chargers, Raiders can build off season-opening wins in Week 2 clash
The Chargers established a run-heavy offence in their first year under Jim Harbaugh last season, and that - combined with a defence that ranked first in the league in points allowed - allowed the Chargers to earn a playoff berth.
Those that were expecting more of the same in year two were surprised against the Chiefs, when Herbert led the charge and Los Angeles finished with 304 yards of passing offence - a mark that would’ve been their third highest in a single game last year.
“Justin was phenomenal in every way,” Harbaugh said after the game.
But a repeat performance may prove difficult for Herbert against a new-look Raiders defence, now led by new head coach Pete Carroll.
Carroll was the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks for over a decade, and oversaw the “Legion of Boom” unit that dominated the league through the 2010s and helped Seattle thump the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII.
The groundwork already exists to suggest the Raiders’ defence is improved this year, holding the Patriots to 13 points and forcing six punts in the opener.
“Everybody is talking about how the defenxe is going to be a weakness of our team,” safety Isaiah Pola-Mao said. “It’s great to come out and have that kind of game from our defense. We’ve got to build off of that.”
One important factor in this showdown of division rivals - the long-standing rivalry between Harbaugh and Carroll.
Both veterans of decades of football coaching, the two have been on opposing sides of famous rivalries - including Carroll’s USC against Harbaugh’s Stanford in college football during the 2000s and the Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers in the 2010s - through their years.
“I remember Jim ... I have no fond memories,” Carroll told reporters on Thursday.
