NFL 2014 - Week 2

My preseason pick of New Orleans looks like it might be a dud. I bought into the preseason hype of their defense being much improved without seeing it myself. So far this season New Orleans looks disappointing. San Francisco on the other hand looked even better than they did all last season. Their offense was moving the ball much better than they did all last season, and Kaepernick looked like he was ready for a break out year. Seattle looked dominant on both sides of the ball again. I'm really looking forward to seeing the 49ers and Hawks play again. Anyway week 2 is here!

Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Washington Redskins

First off I want to talk about the refs. The league needs to make a change in their mentality when it comes to the refs. They should be more concerned with getting the call right rather than trying to uphold all of their calls on the field. The bomb to Desean Jackson should have counted, but the refs, even after reviewing the play, made a bad call. This is going to be a theme going forward as it is every season, and will continue to be until the NFL does something to fix it. Please let the players decide the game and not the refs.

I am really impressed with the Redskins defense again. Henne is playing decent, but he still isn't able to do much with the Redskins defenders in his face every play. Orakpo and Jason Hatcher combine for a sack. Kerrigan gets another sack. Ammerson looks like he is developing into a very good cornerback in his second year. The one miscue so far is DeAngelo Hall biting on a double move, but the receiver dropped the ball. The two safeties just misplayed a ball that gave the Jags their first score. Henne to Mercedes Lewis for 63 yards. Rambo took a bad angle and was barely able to get a hand on the tight end. Kerrigan just got back to back sacks, and both plays the Redskins seemed to have 3 players in the Henne's face. Up front the Redskins defense has played great, but they have given up a few big plays. All of those big plays can be pinned on the safties. They are clearly the weak spot of the defense, but to exploit it you have to stop the pass rush which has been impressive the past two weeks. The Redskins defense finishes with 10 sacks total to tie their franchise record.

Injuries have taken out RGIII and Desean Jackson do not look good. RGIII looks like he rolled and may have broken his ankle. Jackson landed on his shoulder with a defender on top of him and looked like he was in a lot of pain. The way he was holding his arm it looked like it could be dislocated or possibly a broken collarbone.

The Redskins offense has looked impressive today. Alfred Morris already has 2 touchdowns in the first half. They can't stop him because RGIII and Cousins have both played well and stretched the field with multiple targets. A combination of the rookie Grant, Andre Roberts, and Aldrick Robinson have replaced Desean Jackson.

Cousins has looked impressive so far. He has gone through his progressions and found the open man more often than not. He made one bad throw while under pressure, but a defensive penalty nullified the play anyway. As impressive as the Redskins passing game has looked, Gruden is neglecting the running game. Also as soon as I type that he runs two straight runs to Morris. The previous several first down plays were all pass plays. You can see as a playcaller Gruden falls in love with the pass, but not to the level that Martz used to. Who can blame him with all the toys he has in the box? It seems like he wants to play with them all.

Surprises

Cleveland has jumped out on top against New Orleans. This should be an easy win for Drew Brees, but it's not turning out that way. Cleveland was up 16-3 with some good defensive play, but Brees hit Graham before halftime to make it 16-10. This looks like an entertaining game to watch with the score going back and forth. New Orleans just took the lead 24-23. Cleveland shocks New Orleans 26-24 with a last second field goal to win the game. Looking at the stat line it looks like the New Orleans receiving corps did very little in this game. Colston who is usually a reliable target had 0 catches. Was he injured? I don't see anything. Graham is still a beast and Brees found him often today, but not often enough.

Dallas knows what defense is? What? I picked up Jake Locker in one of my fantasy leagues because he played well last week, was playing against Dallas in a possible shootout, and Phillip Rivers is playing against Seattle. Whoopsie! Hopefully they'll be able to make some adjustments and Locker will play better in the second half. Locker looks like he has rebounded from his poor first half to have an average second half. This is a game where they would need Locker to play well to keep up with the Dallas offense, and it's just not happening.

Final Thoughts

New Orleans is going to shape up or they could be on the outside looking in with tears turning into ice on their face next to Tony Romo when playoffs time comes around. Cincinatti made Atlanta look like the average team I thought they would be this season, but New Orleans lost to them last week. It could be that Cincinatti is just that good. Carolina looks like they had a solid game against Detroit that started out as a defensive battle. If Newton can stay healthy they could be tough to beat. Their defense looks really good.