Zimbabwe’s Andrew Mukuba<\/a> was the unlikely star of the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>‘ 20-17 win<\/a> over the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a>. For the second week in a row, a rookie has earned our African Player of the Week honors.<\/p>\n Mukuba’s teammates, Moro Ojomo<\/a> and John Metchie III<\/a> – each with ties to the continent – also had important roles to play in the Eagles’ victory.<\/p>\n The Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>‘ Emeka Egbuka<\/a> – who was our Player of the Week in Week 1<\/a> – was amongst the standouts again this time with a crucial touchdown in a 20-19 win over the Houston Texans<\/a>.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n Another standout wide receiver with roots in Nigeria was Rome Odunze<\/a>, who scored two touchdowns in the Chicago Bears<\/a>‘ 52-21 loss to the Detroit Lions<\/a>.<\/p>\n African Player of the Week: Andrew Mukuba (Philadelphia Eagles)<\/p>\n Andrew Mukuba – born in Harare, Zimbabwe, to a family of refugees from DR Congo – put in a tremendous performance for the Eagles as they edged the Kansas City Chiefs in a repeat of last season’s Super Bowl.<\/p>\n Mukuba’s most crucial contribution came early in the fourth quarter as he pounced on a costly mistake from Travis Kelce<\/a> to prevent a touchdown which would have put the Chiefs ahead.<\/p>\n Patrick Mahomes<\/a> had picked out Kelce with a superb pass, but the star tight-end pushed the ball up into the air rather than catching it at the first attempt, and Mukuba was there in a flash to snatch it out of the air and run it back past Kelce upfield and away from danger.<\/p>\n Mukuba finished the game with 6 tackles and 0.5 sacks in addition to the crucial interception off Kelce’s bobble which saw him quite literally snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.<\/p>\n The Chicago Bears had a dismal outing in their 52-21 defeat to the Detroit Lions. However, Odunze was the one bright spark as he continued his superb start to the season with two touchdowns. The first of those in particular is worth highlighting.<\/p>\n Odunze slipped through the Lions defensive line and caught Caleb Williams<\/a>‘ pass with just over 20 yards to go for the touchdown. From there, he still had to step inside D.J. Reed<\/a> – which he did effortlessly to finish the job.<\/p>\n His first touchdown came midway through the first quarter, and then he added another shortly before half-time. However, Odunze’s efforts could not make up for a poor defensive display from the Bears in Detroit.<\/p>\n Honorable Mentions<\/p>\n Elic Ayomanor<\/a> – who is of Nigerian and Liberian heritage – scored a touchdown for the Tennessee Titans<\/a> in their 33-19 loss to the LA Rams.<\/p>\n Chimere Dike<\/a>, another Titans player with Nigerian roots, was equally impressive, and had a punt return touchdown chalked off due to a penalty but still had a major role to play in the game.<\/p>\n Foyesade Oluokun<\/a> – another player with Nigerian ties – was influential once again for the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> with a sack. However, it came in a narrow 31-27 defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chuba Hubbard<\/a>, yet another player with links to Nigeria, also ended up in the losing team as the Carolina Panthers<\/a> were edged 27-22 by the Arizona Cardinals<\/a>. He nevertheless played his heart out with a touchdown, 39 receiving yards and 38 rushing yards.<\/p>\n Compatriot Nnamdi Madubuike<\/a> was on the winning side as the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> beat the Cleveland Browns<\/a> 41-17 and he, too, came away with a sack.<\/p>\n 0:25<\/p>\n Emeka Egbuka puts Bucs back up with 15-yard TD<\/p>\n Emeka Egbuka takes it in to the end zone to give the Buccaneers the lead over the Texans.<\/p>\n Emeka Egbuka scored a touchdown off a crucial catch that helped the Buccaneers clinch a 20-19 win over the Houston Texans in another superb week for him and Nigeria.<\/p>\n An honorable mention goes, too, to Jaxon Smith-Njigba<\/a>, who is of Sierra Leonean descent. His 103 yards gained off eight receptions were key to the Seattle Seahawks<\/a>‘ 31-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Africa-born Player Watch<\/p>\n Mukuba aside, there was another standout performance from Nigeria-born Moro Ojomo in the Eagles win. Ojomo’s fantastic performance with six pressures and two quarterback hits was capped by a sack on Mahomes.<\/p>\n Ruke Orhorhoro<\/a> – who was born in Lagos – picked up half a sack for the Atlanta Falcons<\/a> as they beat the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> 22-6.<\/p>\n There were several quality performances from Nigerian players in the NFL in Week 2 – showcasing their depth as an American football nation. However, the week belonged first and foremost to Mukuba, who represented Zimbabwe and DR Congo with pride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leonard Solms CloseJack of all sporting trades. Author of my 11-year-old self’s fantasy story about his road to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-149222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fly, Eagle! Fly! – Andrew Mukuba celebrates after securing a Travis Kelce fumble in NFL week 2.\u00a0Kevin Sabitus\/Getty ImagesAfrican Moment of the Week: Rome Odunze (Chicago Bears)<\/p>\n
play<\/p>\n