NFL Winners and Losers: Cowboys crushed at home by Saints, and here comes the panic

Someone must have told the Dallas Cowboys that Sunday was a playoff game.

Usually the Cowboys are good in the regular season and disappointing in the playoffs. That’s why their Week 2 no-show against the New Orleans Saints was shocking. Dallas was favored and gave up 35 points before halftime, tying a team record for most points allowed in the first half.

The Saints have looked quite good on offense through two weeks, though the first game came against the inept Carolina Panthers. Nobody assumed, after the Cowboys blasted the Cleveland Browns last week, that the Saints would go up and down the field on them. New Orleans had 310 yards in the first half. The Cowboys didn’t have much fight in the second half as they faded away meekly in a 44-19 loss.

Something that didn’t seemed to be a problem for the Cowboys in the opener but didn’t look good on Sunday was losing defensive coordinator Dan Quinn this past offseason. Quinn did marvelous work in Dallas before the Washington Commanders hired him to be their head coach. The Cowboys gave up big plays everywhere, including a 70-yard deep pass from Derek Carr to Rashid Shaheed and a 57-yard touchdown catch to Alvin Kamara, one of the three touchdowns he had in the first half. Kamara added a fourth touchdown in the second half. He probably could have gotten one or two more if the Cowboys would have given the Saints much reason to stay aggressive on offense deep into the second half. The Cowboys’ defense looked out of sorts, which rarely happened under Quinn (at least until the postseason).

For all of the concern about the Cowboys over the offseason, they didn’t lose any big stars. They did lose depth, and that seemed to be an issue Sunday. Everything went wrong, especially on defense.

It’s hard to know what to make of the Cowboys so far. They were fantastic in a dominant Week 1 win. Maybe Week 2 said more about the Saints. We’ll find out as the season goes on. But the angst that is usually a big part of the Cowboys’ offseason after a bad playoff loss will get moved up a few months to this week. You can’t get blown out at home like that by New Orleans and not have panic. Especially with a game against an 0-2 Baltimore Ravens team coming up next weekend.

Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 2 of the NFL season:

WINNERS

Brian Flores: It remains to be seen if Flores will get another NFL head-coaching shot. His tenure with the Miami Dolphins didn’t go as planned, his handling of Tua Tagovailoa got a lot of negative headlines and there’s the whole racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL that team owners might hold against him.

But Flores can coach a defense.

The Minnesota Vikings are 2-0 after upsetting the San Francisco 49ers 23-17 on Sunday. Sam Darnold hit Justin Jefferson for a 97-yard pass but the star of the win was unquestionably Flores’ defense. The 49ers haven’t been slowed down by many teams the past few seasons and looked great against the New York Jets in the opener.

Brock Purdy had 319 yards and Jordan Mason rushed for 100, but a lot of that came in catch-up mode. For three quarters the 49ers had seven points and were swarmed by the Vikings’ defense.

Green Bay lost in Week 1. Detroit lost in Week 2. The Chicago Bears didn’t play until Sunday night, so the Vikings were in the unlikely spot of first place of the NFC North for a while, thanks in large part to their defense.

Matt LaFleur: LaFleur, the Green Bay Packers head coach, should be starting to get some of the credit he rarely got when Aaron Rodgers was his quarterback.

LaFleur took Malik Willis, who looked incapable of playing quarterback in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans, and beat the Indianapolis Colts 16-10 on Sunday. Willis was acquired in a trade for a seventh-round draft pick on Aug. 27, and reports said he was in overdrive preparing for the start in place of injured Love.

LaFleur was in overdrive too.

The Packers changed their offense on the fly. There were a dizzying array of motions and movement to make it easier to run the ball with a predictable offense. LaFleur didn’t ask Willis to do too much in the passing game but he executed it very well. The Packers had just 25 yards passing in the first half but it didn’t matter much because they had 237 yards rushing. In a half. That’s not a typo.

Josh Jacobs had 20 carries for 128 yards in the first half. The Packers didn’t do much in the second half but held on to an ugly win. The Packers will take wins however they can get them while Love is sidelined.

To reiterate: LaFleur lost his $55 million per year quarterback, took a QB who was traded about three weeks ago for a seventh-round pick, changed his offense to fit what Willis could do and beat a Colts team that almost made the playoffs last season and almost beat a very good Houston Texans team last week. Life without Love won’t be easy, however long the quarterback is out with a sprained MCL, but LaFleur will get everything out of his team that he can.

NFC South: The Atlanta Falcons didn’t look great in Week 1 and we’ll see how they play on Monday night, meanwhile the Carolina Panthers … more on them in a bit. But it looks like the NFC South might have more excitement than just getting a team in the playoffs because the rules dictate it.

The Saints have looked great in a 2-0 start, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers don’t look like they’re ready to relinquish the division title either. The Buccaneers are 2-0 after a huge 20-16 win at the Detroit Lions. The Buccaneers got off to a fast start and then held on late, holding the Lions to two turnovers on downs in the final minute. The Buccaneers’ defense made big plays even without All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr., who was out with an injury.

The Buccaneers look good so far this season. They aren’t alone in first place though.

New York Jets: When the Jets trailed the Tennessee Titans early on Sunday, the backpage headlines were probably already being written.

The Jets were in danger of falling to 0-2. But they rallied after a 10-7 halftime deficit to win 24-17. The defense got a stop deep in its own territory late in the game to seal the win. Rookie running back Braelon Allen came up big with two touchdowns, including a go-ahead 20-yard touchdown run that put the Jets ahead for good in the fourth quarter.

The Jets have a lot of pressure on them this season and it’s always tough to play in that market. For a few days before they play on Thursday night against the visiting New England Patriots, the Jets won’t have to listen to much criticism.

Antonio Pierce and the Raiders: There’s plenty to be said about the 0-2 Ravens, who blew another fourth-quarter lead and lost at home. That’s for later this week.

For now let’s credit the Las Vegas Raiders, who fought back from a 23-13 fourth-quarter deficit and had a huge 26-23 upset of the Ravens. For the second straight week, the most popular pick in Yahoo Survival Football went down.

The Raiders lost in Week 1 to the Los Angeles Chargers and Pierce’s poor decision to punt in Chargers territory in the fourth quarter was alarming. But this weekend, he helped guide Las Vegas to a massive win over a Ravens team that should be one of the NFL’s best by the time the season is over.

LOSERS

Carolina Panthers, again: There were plenty of winners from the Los Angeles Chargers side. Last year’s first-round draft pick Quentin Johnston scored a pair of touchdowns, providing hope that the light is finally turning on. J.K. Dobbins had another big day running the ball. The Chargers are 2-0 to start the season.

But really, should anything count against the 2024 Panthers? Maybe the stats should be given half credit. The Panthers don’t even look like an NFL team through two weeks, a season after losing 15 of 17 games. They have been outscored 50-3 in the first half of their two games this season. They were behind at home 20-0 to the Chargers on Sunday and never got back in the game in the second half of a 26-3 loss.

We’re two games into the season and it doesn’t look any better than last season. Bryce Young looks just as bad as he did last season too. It’s not a great time to be a Panthers fan. And there’s 15 games to go.

Trevor Lawrence and the 0-2 Jaguars: At one point in the second half of Sunday’s game, Trevor Lawrence had 12 attempts for 16 yards. You know what they say, $55 million a year doesn’t get you what it used to.

Lawrence was outplayed by Deshaun Watson and the Jacksonville Jaguars fell to 0-2 this season with a home 18-13 loss to the Cleveland Browns. The Browns have a good defense but the Jaguars should be able to produce a little more on offense. They appeared to take a lead in the fourth quarter but a touchdown to Christian Kirk was wiped out by an illegal shift penalty. The Jaguars settled for a field goal, and after the Browns chewed up a lot of clock, Lawrence took a safety in the final two minutes with his team trailing by a field goal.

There’s plenty of time to go this season but Lawrence, who has been a divisive player, is going to have to perform a lot better if the Jaguars are to dig out of this early hole.

Malik Nabers: The New York Giants rookie receiver will have a great career. He had a big day on Sunday. But the margins of error in the NFL are small, and he had a big drop that helped the Washington Commanders squeeze out a 21-18 win.

The Giants lost kicker Graham Gano on the opening kickoff with a groin injury. He was put on the injury report Saturday and the Giants did not sign a kicker to the active roster. That was a horrendous decision that cost the Giants, including when they had to go for it on fourth-and-4 from the Washington 22-yard line in the fourth quarter of a tie game instead of kicking a field goal.

The Giants seemed to have a first down on a sideline pass to Nabers. He had 10 catches for 127 yards, but dropped that big one. Washington took the next possession downfield and hit a field goal as time expired.

Nabers will be a great player, and Sunday’s loss was probably more on the Giants’ brass for gambling that Gano could play the whole game Sunday. But the drop is a rough play for him early in his rookie season.

New England Patriots, but not really: The Patriots aren’t bad.

A lot of people figured the Patriots would be horrible this season and they haven’t been that. They beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 and had a late lead on the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. The Seahawks tied it late in regulation, the Patriots couldn’t put together a game-winning drive in overtime and Seattle won 23-20 on an overtime field goal.

The Patriots won’t feel great after a loss, of course, but they’ve been much better than anticipated. Jerod Mayo has done well in his first couple games as head coach. Jacoby Brissett has calmed a lot of the talk about playing rookie Drake Maye at quarterback. New England might not make the playoffs but it won’t be the easy out that it was expected to be this season.