Fans love scoring, especially fantasy players. For the second week in a row, scoring was up over the corresponding week from last season.
With offenses spreading things out a bit more, we are seeing fewer 100-yard rushers and fewer 100-yard receivers. That said, the Cincinnati-Cleveland game alone provided some great individual performances.
For only the third time in history, two quarterbacks threw for five or more TDs in one game. While Derek Anderson and his five scoring passes ended up on the winning side, Carson Palmer's six TDs were the most in an NFL game since Peyton Manning threw as many in 2004. That's one short of the NFL record -- five players have tossed seven TDs in a game, but it hasn't been done since Joe Kapp pulled it off in 1969.
LT-LJ watch
Last week we speculated that players who saw little to no action in the preseason might need an extra week to shake off the rust. Well, LaDainian Tomlinson and Larry Johnson still look a little rusty. Tomlinson was held to 43 yards rushing Sunday night and has just 68 yards in two games. The previous two-game low for his career was 76 yards in October 2005. Johnson was held to 55 yards by the Bears and has 88 in two games. Last year, the combined efforts of these two backs produced an average of 225 rushing yards per game. For the season, they combined to score 45 rushing TDs. After two games in '07, they've combined to score once.
Favre-alous
Packers quarterback Brett Favre won his 149th game as a starting quarterback in Green Bay's win over the Giants, breaking the all-time record for wins that had been held by John Elway. Favre's first win as an NFL quarterback came on Sept. 20, 1992, after he replaced injured QB Don Majkowski. For the record, his first win as a college quarterback came on Sept. 19, 1987 -- almost 20 years to the day -- when he was called in for the injured starter at Southern Mississippi. Interestingly enough, Favre completed just 41 percent of his passes that first year as a college starter.
Houston's 30-30
People are starting to take notice of the Texans' defense after a 2-0 start, but don't lose sight of the offensive production. In the first 80 games of the franchise's history, the Texans had scored more than 30 points a total of three times. In the first two games of 2007, they've topped the 30-point mark twice -- and the 34 points they scored this weekend in Carolina is a team record. Counting the last two games of '06, Houston is on a four-game winning streak, which also is a franchise best.
Andersons' slow start
Cleveland quarterback Derek Anderson is an exceptional athlete. Not only was he named the high school player of the year in Oregon in both football and basketball, but he was a scratch golfer to boot. But he's still an inexperienced NFL quarterback, and lack of experience means you're going to see up-and-down performances. With five touchdowns against Cincinnati, fans might not recall the "down" part of it, but I would imagine there were plenty of fans at Cleveland Browns Stadium who were clamoring for rookie Brady Quinn when Anderson started the game 0-for-5. Fortunately for Anderson and the Browns, he completed 20 of his next 28 attempts, for 328 yards and the five scores.
By the way, it's the fifth time in team history that a Cleveland quarterback has thrown five TDs in a game. In two of the four previous occasions, the Browns went to the playoffs at the end of the season.
Houdini can't always escape
Down by two to the Colts, the Titans started their last possession of the game at their own 20 with 1:37 to go. Historically speaking, you'd say Tennessee quarterback Vince Young had the Colts right where he wanted them. A few plays later, Young had his team past midfield, facing a fourth-and-4 at the Colts' 47-yard line. But Young was sacked on the play, and it went down as one of the few times, dating to his college career, that Young hadn't generated a score to win a game down the stretch.
Harder to hold on
In my visits to training camps this summer, it seemed as if defenses were putting more emphasis on stripping the football. Not that they haven't always worked on this, but it seemed even more prevalent. So maybe it's not a coincidence that there were a total of 34 fumbles -- 14 resulting in turnovers -- in Sunday's games.
Jaguars better than Week 1 showed
After allowing a team-record 282 rushing yards in a Week 1 loss to Tennessee, Jacksonville's defense got back on track in a big way. The Jaguars recorded a team-record seven sacks vs. the Falcons and held Atlanta to fewer total yards of offense than the 282 rushing yards they had allowed a week ago. It's safe to say we saw the real Jags defense this week. That said, it also goes back to what we said after Week 1 about how the defense had been focusing more on the outside lanes to stop Vince Young. It didn't have to worry about that with Joey Harrington, thus the improved rushing defense.
Extra points
After two weeks, the state of Texas is a combined 4-0. New York state, meanwhile, is a combined 0-6 ... Buffalo hasn't won a regular-season game in Pittsburgh since 1975 ... Willis McGahee had a 2-yard TD reception in Baltimore's win over the Jets -- the first TD reception of his career ... John St. Clair might be the biggest player ever to catch a TD pass; the 6-foot-6, 330-pounder caught a 2-yard touchdown on a tackle-eligible play in Chicago's win over Kansas City ... Denver had theee sacks and three interceptions, all coming on third downs ... Miami allowed 37 points -- the most ever allowed by the Dolphins in a home opener ... Not only did Bears return ace Devin Hester have a 73-yard punt return for a score, but he also had a 95-yarder called back ... Denver coach Mike Shanahan won his 125th game with same team -- 10th overall in that category ... Since the realignment in 2002, 34 of the 60 playoff teams began the year 1-1 or 0-2. Going back one more year, the 2001 Patriots were 0-2 before going on to win the first of their three Super Bowls.
