What. A. Sunday. Ten of the 12 afternoon games were within one score in the fourth quarter, and it felt like it.

Inside: How teams, players and units are trending after almost all of Week 2.

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Week 2 Risers

Let’s start with three game-altering performances from kickers (who might be helped by juiced footballs — more on that here).

In Dallas, Brandon Aubrey cemented his status as the league’s best kicker in the Cowboys’ 40-37 thriller over the Giants. Aubrey forced overtime with the third-longest field goal in NFL history (a 64-yarder), before ending the game with a walk-off hit from 46. Aubrey remains the only kicker this century with a 90 percent hit rate from 50-plus.

Spencer Shrader? A former undrafted free agent who won his roster spot in training camp, the 26-year-old Colts kicker went from unknown to hero in Week 2. He hit all five of his attempts, including the game-winning 45-yarder (after his 60-yard miss was negated by a leverage penalty). Shrader is 14-of-14 in his six-game career.

Parker Romo? After single-handedly outscoring the Vikings, 15-6 in a 22-6 game, the Falcons kicker was introduced to his teammate by NBC’s Melissa Stark. It’s understandable that Romo — signed off the street to replace Younghoe Koo as Atlanta’s kicker just last week — didn’t know Leonard Floyd’s name.

Here’s how the non-kickers are trending:

📈 2-0 Colts. After an impressive 29-28 comeback win over the favored Broncos, Indianapolis is 2-0 for the first time since 2009 — the year of their last Super Bowl appearance. This start has somehow been better, as the Colts became the first team in the Super Bowl era to not punt in either of their first two games in a season.

📈 Cam Ward. The 0-2 Titans have plenty of holes, as their 33-19 loss to the Rams proved, but Ward and fourth-round pick Elic Ayomanor look promising. Ward made mistakes, but flashed behind an offensive line that struggled to contain the Rams’ pass rushers, while Ayomanor (56 yards and a touchdown) did his best David Tyree impression on this catch:

📈 Browns’ defense. The scoreboard showed a 41-17 win for Baltimore, but don’t be fooled: Cleveland’s defense was sharp. The Browns held Derrick Henry to 24 yards on the ground, and the Ravens offense had just one drive longer than 24 yards until the fourth quarter. At least 21 of Baltimore’s points were the result of Cleveland’s offensive miscues, which led to short fields and defensive touchdowns.

Speaking of the Browns’ offense, rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel played one series, driving Cleveland 65 yards for a touchdown against Ravens backups. I beg them to not blame Joe Flacco for their 0-2 record.

📈 Lions’ offense. Hanging 52 points on the Bears answered any outstanding questions about new offensive coordinator John Morton, as Jared Goff threw for 334 yards, five touchdowns and a near-perfect 156.0 passer rating. The Lions won by 31, embarrassing Ben Johnson’s Bears in his return to Ford Field.

📈 1-1 Falcons. Strong run game? Check: Bijan Robinson took 22 carries for 143 yards. A pass rush? Finally. Atlanta seems to have found the pieces to build a playoff contender, adding a kicker, defensive coordinator and young defensive stars. The Falcons, a Week 1 missed field goal from a 2-0 bid, need to utilize more play action to help the rocket-armed Michael Penix Jr. against the Panthers next week.

🤷‍♂️ 2-0 Cardinals. It’s difficult to celebrate their 27-22 win over those Panthers, since Arizona was ahead 27-3 nearly halfway through the third quarter. “We got to finish games,” Murray said. “It didn’t bite us in the ass today. It didn’t bite us in the ass last week. But you keep playing around, you get bit.” That bite could come from the 2-0 49ers, whom Arizona visits next week.

👍 Mac Jones. The 27-year-old overcame early nerves to win 26-21 over the Saints, for whom Spencer Rattler is now 0-8 as a starter. Jones wasn’t perfect, but finished with an impressive 279 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions in his first start for San Francisco.

Meanwhile, the Bengals’ first 2-0 start since 2018 was overshadowed by a devastating injury, which Dianna covers to kick off our fallers.

What Dianna’s Hearing: Burrow’s injury timeline

This morning, we learned more about Joe Burrow’s severe turf toe injury, and the news wasn’t good. Burrow will undergo surgery on the toe, according to league sources, with the recovery time expected to be a minimum of three months.

Backup Jake Browning went 4-3 as the team’s starter in 2023. With the best-case scenario for Burrow being a return in mid-December, the Bengals must now recalibrate their offense around the 29-year-old Browning’s strengths, and hope their injured star could be back for a playoff push.

Behind Browning on the depth chart is … no one (at least on the active roster). Journeyman Brett Rypien, currently on Cincinnati’s practice squad, would be next up, but the Bengals are expected to bring in someone else and have plenty of options.

What is turf toe? Saad Yousuf wrote a helpful explainer on the injury. Back to Jacob.

Week 2 Fallers

📉 Steelers’ run game, again. Attacking Pittsburgh’s run defense is easier when running away from T.J. Watt. Seattle’s Kenneth Walker took advantage of that during the Seahawks’ 31-17 win over the Steelers, averaging 8.1 yards per carry. Their offense also struggles with the run: Pittsburgh ranks 30th in rush yards, which won’t be helped by a matchup against the Patriots’ top-three run defense next week. Those are just two of the many issues plaguing this team.

📉 Chiefs’ run game. Patrick Mahomes has 123 yards rushing on 13 carries. His running backs? A paltry 94 yards on 28 carries. Oof. Often forced to run due to 0-2 Kansas City’s inability to protect him, Mahomes can only do so much without his top receivers, Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice. Travis Kelce’s drop-turned-interception didn’t help things, either.

📉 1-1 Vikings. It’s easy to pin the blame solely on J.J. McCarthy, who followed Week 1’s miraculous fourth-quarter comeback with the worst offensive performance of Kevin O’Connell’s tenure in Minnesota. McCarthy took six sacks, completed just 52.4 percent of his passes and threw two interceptions.

But as beat reporter Alec Lewis wrote, notable absences haven’t helped the 22-year-old quarterback adjust to life in the NFL. Receiver Jordan Addison is suspended until Week 4, star left tackle Christian Darrisaw has missed the first two weeks and center Ryan Kelly exited in the first half yesterday. “He’s just learning on the fly right now,” O’Connell said of McCarthy.

📉 0-2 Dolphins. Miami’s 33-27 loss to the Patriots saw their defense allow Drake Maye’s best game as a pro. Despite Tua Tagovailoa’s vast improvement, which came against a New England team missing star cornerback Christian Gonzalez, the Dolphins’ Week 3 matchup in Buffalo makes a turnaround unlikely.

📉 Fantasy QBs in Bills-Jets. I happened to start both Justin Fields and Josh Allen in my Superflex league, and both let me down. Allen failed to throw a passing touchdown, while Fields went 3-of-11 for 27 yards before leaving the game early to be evaluated for a concussion. The Bills leaned on their run game in a 30-10 win at MetLife Stadium.

Extra Points

🎙 Immediate reactions. “The Athletic Football Show” unpacked the thrilling Cowboys-Giants game, breaking down how Russell Wilson was cooking … until that interception. Watch their full Week 2 episode here.

👀 Pick Six. Mike Sando explains why everything is not OK in Kansas City amid the Chiefs’ 0-2 start. “More than ever during the Mahomes era, it’s easy to picture another team repping the AFC in the Super Bowl.”

📓 What we learned. Zak Keefer shared his takeaways after a chaotic Week 2.

🎤 Postgame, Shedeur Sanders avoided questions about the report that he informed Baltimore he didn’t want to be drafted to play behind Lamar Jackson.

▶️ Last week’s most-clicked: Mike Sando’s look at how the Eagles spend money unlike any other team.

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(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)