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The NFL Wrap: Cowboys comeback, 49ers injury nightmare and Justin Herbert's surprise debut

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Getty Images

Week two in the NFL saw the Baltimore Ravens pull off a statement win over the Houston Texans, while Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers once again looked better than they have in years.

The Chicago Bears are also (somehow) among the teams riding high at 2-0, but it looks like being a long season for the likes of the Jets, Panthers and Dolphins.

Here are the headlines...

The Cowboys, the kick and the Falcons freeze

The Dallas Cowboys produced one of the most memorable comebacks since the Falcons’ were last on the wrong end of one, as Atlanta’s unrivalled capacity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory resurfaced in week two.

Trailing 20-0 at half-time and then 39-24 with less than five minutes on the clock, Dak Prescott somehow found time to bring Dallas back from the dead, with the help of the leg of Greg Zuerlein, who scored a game-winning 46-yard field goal.

All of that was only possible, however, because of an unlikely onside kick and one of the great sporting brain-freezes.

The Cowboys attempted the low percentage play when trailing by two points inside the final two minutes, needing to get the ball back straight from the kick-off to have any chance of completing the turnaround.

In a gesture that surely deserves either some kind of spirit of the game award or, more likely, a few heads banging together, the Falcons bizarrely opted against exercising their right to recover the ball whenever they liked, instead making a contest of it by watching as it trickled towards the 45-yard-line, where the Cowboys became eligible to enter the fray, prompting an almighty playground scramble.

Dallas came up with it, Dak and The Leg delivered, and America’s team poached their first W of the year.

Afterwards, Falcons head coach Dan Quinn insisted his players do know the rules, which, if anything, makes their ineptitude even weirder.

Injuries galore

A year ago, the NFL came under fire when operators couldn’t get a medical cart to work in a game between the Ravens and the Steelers and Pittsburgh’s Mason Rudolph had to be walked off the field minutes after being knocked spark out.

Good to see that the problem seems to have been resolved, because yesterday carts across the nation were given an extensive workout on one of the most brutal matchdays in recent memory.

Among the big names to go down were Broncos quarterback Drew Lock, Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey and Giants star Saquon Barkley, who will be out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

New York Giants star Saquon Barkley's season has been ended by a week two ACL tear (Getty Images)
New York Giants star Saquon Barkley's season has been ended by a week two ACL tear (Getty Images)

No one was as badly affected as the San Francisco 49ers, though. Last year’s Super Bowl runners-up lost four starters to injury, including quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, running back Raheem Mostert and last year’s defensive rookie of the year Nick Bosa, whose season is over.

It wasn’t enough to stop them beating the woeful New York Jets (whose concession of a 55-yard run on third-and-31 competes with the Falcons for hapless play of the week), but in an NFC West that looks the most competitive division in football, they could be made to pay – so far the four teams in that grouping are 7-1, the only loss being the 49ers’ against division rivals Arizona.

Wilson and Newton: The Inbetweeners

So much of the talk coming into the new season was about the wave of young, twenty-something quarterbacks properly asserting their dominance over the Brady/Brees generation, but on Sunday two 31-year-olds who perfectly dissect the two put on a clinic.

Russell Wilson, many people’s early idea of the MVP, added five more touchdown passes (each to a different receiver) to the four he threw last week, including a 54-yard bomb to DK Metcalf and one to David Moore that, according to the NFL’s number-crunching boffins, had about as much chance of being completed as Adam Gase has of keeping the Jets job until the end of the season.

Wilson’s brilliance saw the Seahawks to a 35-30 win over the Patriots, but there was plenty to like about New England (a sentence I never thought I’d say) in defeat, not least the performance of Cam Newton.

The big quarterback scored two more rushing touchdowns but also threw for 397 yards - the most he has racked up since his second-ever game in the league back in 2011.

Bill Belichick needs his passing offense in that kind of groove this season if he is to both protect an injury-plagued quarterback and stop his team from becoming too predictable – accusations of the latter were already flying around after Newton was stopped just short of the goal line in the final moments of the game.

(Since it’ll be impossible to talk about one without the other this season, it’s worth mentioning that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looked improved on week one as Tom Brady got his first career win not in a Patriots jersey, against Carolina).

Herbert debut will give Chargers QB headache

Newton may have a come up just short of his 16th career fourth-quarter comeback, but Patrick Mahomes is fast making improbable turnarounds one of his umpteen trademarks.

The Super Bowl MVP is, ridiculously, now 6-0 in games where the Kansas City Chiefs have trailed by double-digit points in the last two years.

The LA Chargers were on the receiving end this week, failing to follow the Rams in starting life in the SoFi spaceship with a win, as they went down in overtime after Harrison Butker nervelessly nailed 50+-yard field goals three times in a row before one was finally allowed to stand as the game winner.

Better news for the Chargers was the emergence of rookie quarterback Justin Herbert, who was handed a surprise start ("[Coach] just came up and told me five or ten seconds before kick-off," the former Oregon man said of how he learnt of his debut) after Tyrod Taylor struggled with a chest complaint pre-game and impressed, with 311 yards and both rushing and passing touchdowns.

The Chargers say Taylor is still their man for now, but we’ve all seen this movie before.