Week Two Wrapup
by Ryan Woods
posted on September 20, 2004 3:19 pm

If you think that Week 2 is too early to put some teams in the Super Bowl and others out to pasture, then you haven't been paying attention to the NFL. Let's start at the cream of the crop:

Undefeated Teams:

• New England
• Seattle
• Atlanta
• NY Jets
• Jacksonville
• Detroit

Now, if you were to tell me at the beginning of the season that the Patriots and Seahawks would be undefeated at this point, I would have probably agreed. Both teams were a force last year, and are showing that they will be again this year.

The next two teams on the list are two “fence” teams. The Falcons and the Jets were both teams that had the possibility of being good this year, with quality at the QB position and a decent running game. Having said that, did ANYONE expect that Curtis Martin would be leading the NFL in rushing yards and be second in touchdowns at the end of week two?

As far as the Jaguars and Lions are concerned, I'm not sure anyone would have predicted their undefeated status. They are both winning with quality defensive efforts. Jacksonville has given up 16 points in two games, which is fantastic, but they can barely muster up enough offense to get the W. There was a lot of talk at the beginning of the season about how Byron Leftwich had matured and he could be a huge sleeper this year. I don't see it. A star QB doesn't suck for 57 minutes of the game only to hit one long pass that gets your kicker in position to win the game for you. As for the Lions, they've given up 16 points per game, which isn't bad, and they've scored 24 points a game. Even with Rogers out and Kevin Jones not doing much, they've still looked good. Maybe Harrington was not a bust draft choice after all.

Teams Without a Win:

• Buffalo
• Miami
• Houston
• Kansas City
• Arizona
• San Francisco
• Tampa Bay

These teams need to be looked at on a case by case basis.

The Bills have a new head coach. At least last year they came out and routed to Patriots for a week 1 win. This year they just look uninspired, and they have nothing to fall back on. Moulds looks okay and so does Travis Henry, but they can't seem to get it together enough to win a game. This could be a long year for the Bills.

Miami is a worse team than I could have expected. Without Ricky Williams, they have absolutely no offense. Randy McMichael is their leading receiver, but that's only because he's trying to make sure he can outrun the cops next time he beats his wife. AJ Feely is no better than Jay Fiedler at QB. That's kind of like a few years back when the Bills tried to replace Doug Flutie with Rob Johnson. Just because someone LOOKS like a prototype QB doesn't mean that he will perform. Flutie was better than Johnson, and Fiedler is better than Feeley.

There is no reason that the Texans should be 0-2. They've played good ball these first two games, but they haven't done it for 60 minutes. Domanick Davis has gotten his Tiki Barber impression down well…he's fumbled 4 times in two games. I'm not sure how long that will be tolerated before they go with Tony Hollings as their #1 back. This team will win their fair share of games this year if they can clean up some of the sloppy play.

Is there any bigger surprise on this list than the Chiefs? Teams have limited Holmes's touches and virtually shut out Gonzalez in two games leaving a glaring weakness. The Chiefs have never had receivers any better than the two clowns in Philly last year. If defenses continue to play the Chiefs the way that Denver and Carolina did, the Chiefs could be out of playoff contention by November.

There is no coach in the world that can come to a team ignoring the glaring weaknesses everywhere but receiver and hope to win. Denny Green basically snubbed his nose at all of the Cardinal fans by drafting ANOTHER receiver for this team. Add that to the fact that this kid is close to the family, and the whole situation stinks. They have defensive issues, running back issues, and quarterback issues. Yeah, I can completely understand drafting another receiver. Green will not last in the Arizona heat. I give him 2 years.

Did anybody NOT think that San Fran was going to be in this position at this point? They have Kevan Barlow and……………that's about it. You know, just because you HAD talent on your team for 25 years doesn't mean that the players automatically have it when they walk into the locker room. It's not like there is a magic potion that will turn Tim Rattay into Joe Montana…or Steve Young…or Jeff Garcia. Even on a crappy Browns team, you can tell that Garcia is light years better than Rattay.

And last but not least, my beloved Bucs. The Bucs have come full circle this year. They went from being a bad team with a great defense in the early Dungy years to being a perennial playoff team. Dungy gets fired. Gruden takes Dungy's team to the Super Bowl. The following year, the Oakland invasion starts. The team ends up 7-9. This year, Rich McKay, the builder of the late 90's Bucs team, is allowed to go to Atlanta, and they hire an ex-Raiders GM. They bring in a bunch more free agents, and what do we get from them in the first two games? A crappy team with a good defense. Thanks for all you've done for Tampa, Gruden. To top it all off, Gruden benches Brad Johnson in the second half for Chris Simms. My team is very similar to the actual state of Florida after the hurricanes. Is Florida still there? Yes. Does it look good? No. Are the Bucs still my team? Yes. Am I proud of it? No. I guess the Bucs should get used to seeing their name at the bottom of the division. They're going to be there for a while.