The Week 2 That Was

COMEBACKS GALORE: Through Week 2, comebacks have been a theme around the NFL.

Seven times – Atlanta, Arizona, Chicago, Green Bay, Miami and Philadelphia (twice) – teams have overcome deficits of 10+ points to win through Week 2. The last time there were more than seven teams with comeback victories of 10+ points through Week 2 was 1987 (eight).

The seven teams that overcame deficits of 10+ points to win:

Three teams – Chicago, Green Bay and Philadelphia – won after trailing by 17+ points, the most through Week 2 since 1999.

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INTERCONFERENCE ACTION:  With the NFL’s late-season schedule packed with division games, the September slate features many exciting interconference matchups, including eight in Week 2.

With a 30-7 victory at Minnesota on Sunday, the New England Patriots now have a 40-9 (.816) record in interconference games, the best mark of any team in the regular-season since realignment in 2002.

The teams with the top five interconference records since 2002:

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BIRDS FLYING BACK: On Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals outscored the New York Giants 15-0 in the fourth quarter as the Cardinals improved to 2-0 with a 25-14 come-from-behind win. Arizona, which outscored San Diego 12-0 in the fourth quarter of the Cardinals’ 18-17 Week 1 comeback victory, is thefirst team since 1982 (Green Bay) to start 2-0 after trailing entering the fourth quarter in both games and not allowing a single fourth-quarter point.

The Philadelphia Eagles completed the NFL’s Week 2 slate on Monday Night Football by rallying for a 30-27 win after trailing the Colts 20-6 in the third quarter. On Kickoff Weekend, Philadelphia was down 17-0 to Jacksonville before scoring 34 second-half points to defeat the Jaguars 34-17. The Eagles are the first team in NFL history to win its first two games of a season despite facing a deficit of at least 14 points in the second half in each of those games.

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TEXANS TWO-STEP: The Houston Texans (2-0), who followed last week’s 17-6 win over Washington with a 30-14 victory at Oakland this week, became only the fifth team in NFL history to start 2-0 in at least five consecutive seasons:  Dallas Cowboys (1965-73), Los Angeles Rams (1966-70), Dallas Cowboys (1975-79), Chicago Bears (1984-91) and Miami Dolphins(1994-99).

Wide receiver Andre Johnson had six catches for 74 yards in Sunday’s win to bring his career total to 12,828 receiving yards, surpassing Irving Fryar (12,785) for 15th all-time in receiving yards.

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LAMBEAU LEAPING UP THE CHARTS: Green Bay quarterback AARON RODGERS passed for 346 yards and three touchdowns for a 109.8 passer rating last week in a 31-24 come-from-behind victory over the New York Jets.

Rodgers now has 24,732 career passing yards, moving past Pro Football Hall of Famer Bart Starr (24,718) for the second-most passing yards on the all-time franchise list. Rodgers trails only Brett Favre (61,655) for the most passing yards in Packers history.

Rodgers also posted his 3,000th career passing attempt, and now has 3,030 in his career. He is just the third player in franchise history to register 3,000 career passing attempts (Favre, 8,754; Starr, 3,149). At the time of his 3,000th career passing attempt, Rodgers had 53 career interceptions, the fewest of any NFL quarterback at the time of his 3,000th career attempt (Neil O’Donnell, 59).

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GATED COMMUNITY: San Diego tight end Antonio Gates had seven catches for 96 yards and three touchdowns in the Chargers’ 30-21 victory against Seattle. Gates, who now has 90 career touchdown catches, surpassed Larry Fitzgerald (87) and Pro Football Hall of Famers Andre Reed(87) and Don Maynard (88) to move into 11th place on the NFL’s all-time list and second amongst tight ends (Tony Gonzalez, 111).

The tight ends with the most touchdowns in NFL history:

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